‘Late CDF disbursement advantage to sitting MPs’

By The Standard | Mar. 21, 2018 | 3 Min read

OPPOSITION political parties yesterday accused sitting legislators of using the recently-disbursed $50 000 under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for campaign purposes, thus making the playing field uneven ahead of the general elections set for July this year.

BY SILAS NKALA

A number of legislators received CDF allocations last month, amid concerns that opposition political parties not represented in Parliament stand to lose out, as sitting MPs will lure voters with the public funds.

National People’s Party vice-president Samuel Sipepa Nkomo blasted Treasury for disbursing the CDF just before elections.

“Just three months before this year’s elections the legislators have been given CDF, which are public funds meant to develop constituencies,” he said.

“I have been speaking to some MPs who told me that they have since received the funds. How can the incumbent legislators be given CDF during an election year? Why were they not given the money last year or before? This puts them at an unfair advantage to the parties not represented in Parliament because they use those funds to campaign.” But, People’s Democratic Party Bulawayo organiser Bekithemba Nyathi said such fears were unfounded.

“I don’t think it will have an impact really. The funds are for community development and election is about what parties are selling as their manifesto. So for me it’s unfounded fear,” he said.

Zapu spokesperson Iphithule Maphosa, who is the party’s aspiring candidate for Bulawayo Central said: “The economic factor comes into play, when sitting MPs have unfair advantage from State coffers which they abuse into campaigning instead of constituency development. This helps them muscle out the other aspirants who have no access to State funds in the form of CDF.”

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“We, however, are alive to the clandestine relationship between the two parties currently with parliamentary representation. It’s not only about CDF, but also midnight meetings they hold with Zimbabwe Electoral Commission on the segregative basis of having sitting MPs. These are other reasons why we feel the coming election is already unfair.”

Maphosa said the CDF must be disbursed at the beginning of Parliament terms.

Shalom Project Trust director Anglistone Sibanda said the concept of giving MPs money was wrong from the onset.

“MPs’ role is to represent their constituencies, legislate and play oversight over the Executive. The concept of CDF is not part of their constitutional mandate, but a populist system that seeks to empower the incumbents and it has had cases of corruption and lack of accountability in the past,” he said.

“The role of developing constituencies is for local authorities and non-governmental organisations.”

Bulawayo East MDC-T MP Thabitha Khumalo confirmed having received the money last year in November.

“I am one of the first MPs to get that money, yes. We are governed by the CDF Constitutional processes in which we submit project proposals which go through processes before the money is deposited into bank accounts and if the project proposals submitted are contrary to what Parliament want they may be turned down,” she said.

“For example, I had submitted that I want to assist Killarny residents with water and have bought them Jojo Tanks.” Khumalo said she has used the money to rehabilitate boreholes.

She said the committee that oversees CDF projects in her constituency consists of members from opposition parties and residents.

“You cannot splash the money at a bar, so there is not advantage to talk about,” she said.

Deputy Clerk of Parliament, Hellen Dingane was said to be out of office when contacted for comment.

Sources from Parliament revealed that some MPs have since received the funds, while some are in the process of accessing them.

Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi said he was in Kigali, Rwanda at the summit and would respond to questions later.