Buhera South MP Joseph Chinotimba yesterday made sensational claims in the National Assembly that opposition MPs were spreading social media messages tarnishing him that he was “appointed minister of goats” during Monday’s Cabinet reshuffle.
by VENERANDA LANGA
Chinotimba raised the issue as a point of order where he asked deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Mabel Chinomona, to look into the issue.
“Madam Speaker, we (MPs) usually send messages to each other on social media about committee issues, but I am now dismayed by messages doing the rounds that I was appointed minister of goats, and it is being spread by MDC-T legislators,” Chinotimba said.
“Can you please take action Madam Speaker?”
But Chinomona refused to take action, saying it had nothing to do with Parliament.
“We cannot discuss that one because it has nothing to do with Parliament. You can report the issue at other forums,” she said.
In an unrelated incident, Chegutu West MP Webster Shamu was made to remove a Zanu PF flag pin which he was wearing on his jacket.
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MDC-T legislators Godfrey Sithole (Chitungwiza North) and deputy chief whip Dorcas Sibanda raised the issue, saying it was un-Parliamentary for Shamu to come clad in political party regalia.
Meanwhile, newly-appointed Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development minister Nyasha Chikwinya attracted applause from MPs for clinching a ministerial post.
Chinotimba kissed her on the cheek, while congratulating her and other Zanu PF MPs took turns to shake her hands.
The Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Former Political Detainees and Restrictees, Christopher Mutsvangwa, congratulated Chikwinya, while also paying tribute to the late author and war veteran Freedom Nyamubaya who passed on on Sunday.
“If ever there was a remarkable woman combatant, it was Nyamubaya. She stood out during the war in Mozambique and at the battlefront, and she lived to see our independence. She was a poet who wrote about the vagaries of female combatants during the war.”
Mutsvangwa said a few days ago, Nyamubaya told him that she was travelling to Switzerland to raise funds to facilitate smooth elections for warvets leadership.
He then issued a ministerial statement on the welfare of war veterans.
Mutsvangwa said in the past two weeks, Treasury had released $4 million when $19 million was needed for the welfare of war veterans.
He said the ministry was struggling to pay fees for their children.
MDC-T deputy president Thokozani Khupe suggested Mutsvangwa should ensure individuals with multiple farms were made to donate some of their farms to war veterans since the country could not support them financially.
Glen View North MP Fani Munengami (MDC-T) said Mutsvangwa should ensure that there was no discrimination of warvets who supported opposition political parties as some of them were now denied hero status.
