BUHERA South MP Joseph Chinotimba yesterday caused a storm during the post-budget seminar by the Parliament of Zimbabwe at a Harare hotel when he demanded that one of the presenters should acknowledge that Zimbabwe was under sanctions.
BY VENERANDA LANGA SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
Chinotimba also shocked MPs after he was given the nod to say the opening prayer when he raised issues of wife-bashing, saying this was a bad practice that would cause dogs to laugh at human beings.
During the Question and Answer Session after the director of the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe Godfrey Kanyenze had finished his presentation on unpacking the 2014 national budget, Chinotimba wanted him to say sanctions were real and to force MDC-T MPs whom he alleged did not acknowledge their existence to offer solutions on how sanctions could be revoked.
“I hope these presenters are not politicians and on sanctions, Kanyenze should openly tell all MPs that they are killing this country and if he is not a politician — he should offer an explanation on sanctions and how we can defeat them,” Chinotimba charged.
To the dismay of Chinotimba, Kanyenze maintained people should not be in the habit of making excuses for all economic failures on sanctions.
“When you look at negative things it is a matter of attitude and 99% of failures are because people are in the habit of making excuses. If you suffer from this disease, you will blame all your circumstances on sanctions.
“Success stories are of people who overcome odds and we should look at ways to revive the economy rather than wait until our adversaries release us,” Kanyenze said.
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An agitated Chinotimba asked the question for the second time after tea-break in a more aggressive manner resulting in MPs interjecting until Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma intervened.
“I think we need to refocus on the purpose of this meeting which is to help MPs to correctly interpret the technical perspectives of how the budget can be made to grow,” Zvoma said.
“Let us not dwell on sanctions because we do not need experts to tell us whether or not there are sanctions. Let us deal with economic issues and not raise emotions from presenters because their job is to explain technical issues only.”
Chinotimba then stormed out of the meeting and did not return for the afternoon session.
