The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs is next week set to embark on a fact-finding mission on the state of country’s embassies amid indications that most diplomatic missions are in a sorry state due to poor funding and lack of resources.
BY XOLISANI NCUBE
Problems at foreign mission were huge such that the parliamentary team has received oral evidence from government on how diplomats across the world were wallowing in poverty with some failing to pay rent while many were feeding on chicken feet.
Chairperson of committee Kindness Paradza said they would visit the country’s embassies in Botswana and Ethiopia and assess how the missions were operating as well as “see first-hand operational challenges faced by our men and women who are manning the country’s 34 diplomatic missions”.
“The 10-member committee will conduct a physical tour with a view to appreciate, while on location, the operational framework at these foreign missions,” he said.
So bad is the situation in foreign missions such that some diplomats were surviving on “chicken feet” due to continued non-payment of their salaries.
Last month, the committee heard that Zimbabwe was still not paying rent at most of its 34 embassies around the globe with more than $40 million needed to settle debts.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Acting secretary for Foreign Affairs David Hamadziripi told the committee that “all rented premises are in arrears, with a number of missions in receipt of eviction notices”.
The committee, according to Paradza, will also visit the Africa Union and Sadc offices in Ethiopia and Botswana, so that they could appreciate how these two institutions operate as well as engage other development partners as the team seeks to lure more foreign investment into the country.
“It’s no longer business as usual for our diplomats. They now have to change their style of doing things, instead deploy their various diplomatic skills in identifying specific economic interests to be pursued wherever they are for the benefit of our motherland as we seek to grow the national cake for socio-economic transformation,” Paradza said.
He said the committee was aware of a plethora of challenges, among them non-payment of salaries to diplomats with government now owing them more than $12 million in salaries.
The committee is set to be greeted by a demand by the Africa Union that Zimbabwe pays its annual subscription of $2 million by the end of December as it is the outgoing chair of the continental body.
Government admits it is struggling for money as tax revenues have been hit by the 80% plus unemployment rate and the closure of hundreds of companies.
