ZANU PF legislators yesterday slammed corrupt ministers for appointing friends and relatives to key positions at most parastatals and State-owned institutions thereby contributing to the current chaos.
BY VENERANDA LANGA SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
The issue was raised in both the Senate and House of Assembly with legislators calling for a probe into the obscene salaries earned by parastatal bosses. Manicaland senator Monica Mutsvangwa (Zanu PF) made the remarks in the Senate yesterday while debating a report of the 34th Plenary Assembly of the SADC Parliamentary Forum recently held in Arusha Tanzania.
Mutsvangwa said there was need to take all legislators to workshops to capacitate them to play a watchdog role over the Executive so as to unearth corruption, especially at State enterprises and parastatals.
“Legislators should be capacitated to play an oversight role over ministers because they are implementers of government policies, but we see now that a lot of these parastatals are being led by people who are not up to scratch,” Mutsvangwa said.
“It is important for MPs to go to workshops so that they know how these parastatals should be run and the oversight role they should play because we see a tendency to appoint friends and relatives to sit on boards – and that is the reality which is done at the expense of professionals.”
In the National Assembly, another Zanu PF legislator Edgar Chidavaenzi (Mazowe North) said the issue of corruption at State enterprises should be thoroughly investigated.
He said the behaviour of some CEOs at these institutions was tarnishing the image of Zanu PF.
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“Government needs to thoroughly investigate the operations of parastatals and government-supported institutions because these people have been engaging in corrupt activities on their own yet at the same time they tarnish the image of the party. We cannot have a situation whereby a CEO earns more than what 350 legislators put together earn. It is criminal sabotage to the economy,” Chidavaenzi said.
Another Zanu PF MP in the National Assembly William Mutomba (Buhera North) took a dig at some of his party policies.
“Sanctions remain a challenge, but the Smith regime managed to bust those sanctions. Unfortunately, what is happening in Zimbabwe now is that we talk too much about sanctions, but we are failing to come up with methods to bust them. We can actually move out of sanctions than to invest on talking and talking,” Mutomba said.
On indigenisation, he said government was taking “a schoolboy approach” instead of devising means of attracting investors into the country.
“Indigenisation should be introduced at secondary schools so that it becomes part of the curriculum. We should encourage people to come and invest in the country, but we are taking a schoolboy approach when in fact there is a lot that needs to be done,” he said.
Mutomba blasted ministers for not implementing recommendations by parliamentary committees.
