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SENATE HANSARD 18 DECEMBER 2024 VOL 34 NO 20

PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE

Wednesday, 18^th December, 2024

The Senate met at Half-past Two o’clock p.m.

PRAYERS

(THE HON. PRESIDENT OF SENATE in the Chair)

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE HON. PRESIDENT OF SENATE

NON-ADVERSE REPORT RECEIVED FROM THE PARLIAMENTARY LEGAL COMMITTEE

THE HON. PRESIDENT OF SENATE: I have to inform the House that I have received a Non-Adverse Report from the Parliamentary Legal Committee (PLC) on Statutory Instrument Number 174 of 2024. 

MOTION

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR HARARE METROPOLITAN (HON. SEN. TAWENGWA): I move that Orders of the Day, Numbers 1 and 2 be stood over until the rest of the Orders of the Day on the Order Paper have been disposed of.

Motion put and agreed to.

MOTION

REPORT OF THE DELEGATION TO THE SECOND ORDINARY 2024 SESSION OF THE SENATE OF THE REPUBLIC OF COTE D’LVOIRE AND THE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF AFRICAN SENATES

HON. SEN. ZINDI: I move the motion standing in my name that this House takes note of the Report of the Delegation to the Second Ordinary 2024 Session of the Senate of the Republic of Cote D’lvoire and the International Symposium of African Senates held from 10^th – 11^th September 2024, in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’lvoire. 

HON. SEN. S. NDEBELE:  I second.

HON. SEN. ZINDI:

1.0  INTRODUCTION

1.1 A delegation from the Senate attended the 2^nd Ordinary 2024 Session of the Senate of the Republic of Cote d’lvoire and the International Symposium of African Senates, held from 10-11 September 2024 in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’lvoire. This was at the invitation of the President of the Senate in that country. The two functions were attended by a number of countries, the majority of them coming from the Francophone states. 

 2.0 COMPOSITION OF THE DELEGATION   

2.1 The Deputy President of the Senate, Hon. Lt. Gen. (Rtd) M. R.

Nyambuya led the Zimbabwean delegation, which included Hon. Senator I. Zindi and Hon. Sen. S. Ndebele. The Deputy President and Hon. Senators were accompanied by the staff of Parliament, Mr. F. Chidavaenzi, Mrs. M. Kwangware, Mr. O. Muchenu and Mr. C. Ratsakatika. 

         2.2 The delegation was met on arrival at Abidjan's Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport by two Senators from the Cote d’lvoire Parliament, among them Senator Marie-Irene Richmond Ahoua. Also, at hand to receive the delegation was the Ambassador of Zimbabwe to Ghana, His Excellency Mr. Kufa Chinoza and an official from the Embassy, Mr. A. Nyahada who were with the delegation until its departure from Cote d’lvoire. Ambassador Chinoza’s duties cover Ghana, Cote d’lvoire Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Liberia. 

         2.3. Soon after completing the airport formalities, the delegation was accompanied to Yamoussoukro, some two hours and thirty minutes’ drive from Abidjan.  Early that evening, the delegation attended a welcome dinner hosted by the President of the Senate of Cote d’lvoire, H. E. Mrs. Kandia Camara. 

3. Opening Ceremony for the 2^nd Ordinary Session 2024 of the Senate and the Symposium of African Senates.

         The Official Opening of the 2^nd Ordinary Session 2024 of the Senate of Cote d’Ivoire and the Symposium of African Senates was held on 10 October 2024 at the Felix Houphouet- Boigny Foundation for Peace Research.  In attendance were Presidents of Senates or their representatives from Algeria, Burundi, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Namibia, Madagascar, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Niger and Liberia.  The President of the Senate in France was the only delegate from the Senate outside of the African Continent.

         Whilst the opening was the ceremonial beginning of the Senate sittings in Cote d’Ivoire, the Symposium of African States brought together Presidents and Vice- Presidents of the Senate from different countries and specialists in parliamentary institutions.  The theme of the symposium was, ‘The Idea of the Senate and senatorial experiences in Africa” The main aim of the symposium was to provide African Senates with a framework for exchanging and reflecting on their experiences in the organisation and operations of senatorial institutions through the setting up of the Association of African Senates.

         The specific objectives of this symposium were:

• To understand and promote understanding of senatorial models and their relevance.
• To assess the impact of Senates on democratic institutions
• To decipher the challenges and opportunities facing African Senates and
• To pool the expertise and skills of the Presidents of African Senates. The expected result at the end of the symposium was the creation of an Association of African Senates.

4. Welcome remarks

The President of the Senate, H. E. Mrs. Camara gave the welcome remarks at the double ceremony which was also attended by the Vice President and Speaker of the National Assembly of Cote d’Ivoire.  She expressed her honour in hosting Senators from across the African continent who, in the next two days were expected to take stock of the good practices and experiences of Senates in contributing to peace and development in their respective countries and collectively in the region.  She referred to Cote d’Ivoire as a haven for peace and development and invited political leaders to be accountable by putting the interests of the people first.

         The leaders of delegations from Namibia, Madagascar, Gabon, Congo and France made some remarks.  Common among the remarks were brief histories of the Senate in their respective countries.  They also expressed their support to the idea of establishing an Association of African Senates which would become a forum for sharing ideas, this strengthening ties and contributing to a shared vision of the continent.  The President of the French Senate expressed his country’s interest in supporting the African Association of Senates to achieve objective

5. Opening Remarks

         In his opening remarks, the Vice President of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire welcomed the delegates to his country and commended the good relations between Senators. He expressed the President of Cote d’Ivoire’s congratulations to the Senates for their commitment to establishing an Association which would help to address common challenges faced in the different countries. The Vice President pointed out to the need to improve public policies and to promote peace and security for sustainable development.

6. Idea of the Senate and Senatorial experiences in Africa and Europe

         The Symposium of Senates in Africa commenced in earnest with two presentations on the idea and senatorial experience in Africa and Europe. The presentation on the topic ‘‘Idea of the Senate and senatorial experience in Europe’’ was moderated by Mr. Gerard Larcher, President of the French Senate whilst the presentation on the ‘Idea of the Senate and senatorial experiences in Africa’ was delivered by Mr. Ngolo Pierrre, President of the Senate of Congo.

         The two presentations noted that bicameralism was important and urged that the Senate, generally referred to as the Upper House, stabilises the institution of Parliament by having Senators who unite people as opposed to dividing them. Senates were regarded as preserving peace and promoting national cohesion. They were regarded as the spokespersons of local communities and could diffuse tensions and come to the defense of citizens. A plea was made for Senators to engage in specific actions to win the people’s hearts.

         The inaugural session was followed by Panels where presentations were made before participants engaged in discussions. The first Panel’s sub-theme was, ‘Functions and Functioning of Senates in Africa’ Senators of Gabon, Burundi, Algeria, Cameroon, and Madagascar shared their experiences of the Senates in their respective countries. The presentation reflected varied periods of existence of the Senates also varied from country to country with Gabon having 67 members, Algeria 132, and Burundi 35.

         Zimbabwe was not accorded time to make an oral presentation. Instead, a copy of the Deputy President of Senate’s presentation was submitted. The presentation gave a summary of the background of the creation of a Senate under the Lancaster House Agreement in 1980 with its compromise for 20% of the seats being reserved for the whites. The presentation highlighted the discontinuation of the Senate from 1989 outlining the reasons behind the decision such as the belief that….

         An Hon. Member having passed the Chair and the Hon. Member speaking.

THE HON. PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Order, order Hon. Senator! Can you come back? You are not supposed to pass through the debating Senator and the Chair.

HON. SEN. ZINDI:  The initial transitional goals had been achieved with the expiry of the agreed timeline in the Lancaster House Agreement. The presentation also discussed the resuscitation of the Senate in 2005 up to the existing state of the Senate with a member of eighty (80).

         Some of the experiences of the Senate shared in the presentation were the mature approach to the business of the Senate, sessions without disruptions or disorder as well as major recommendations to Bills as The recommendations for Independent Commissions to allocate their own specific votes the Budget as opposed to being treated like departments under certain Ministries.

The second panel’s sub-theme was, “The Idea of the Senate: A history of Senatorial Experiences from Antiquity to the Present.” One presentation looked back at the idea of the Senate in the republican experience of ancient Rome. Another presentation focussed on the idea of the Senate in the pre-colonial Africa. The case of the Mandingo. The third presentation on the Senatorial Institution in Africa: The case of Cote d’ivoire.

The third panel was on the sub-theme, “Senatorial Institution in Africa: The case of Cote d’ivoire and the Nigeria. The two countries made their presentations. Another presentation was on Senate and democracy in French-speaking black Africa and the third presentation was on Institutions, People and Eras.

The fourth panel, whose theme was “Prospects and Future of Senates in Africa” had two presentations made on the Senate and Governance in Africa between relevance and impertinence of the eye of Cain and the Gabonese Senate at the time of transition. Some of the issues in the presentations shed light of the transitional mechanisms in Gabon which have a timeline such as the Senate which is expected to reinforce democracy by instituting transparency and decentralisation. Key programmes were to be instituted to ensure that the transition reformed institutions and laws and also combating corruption.

Presidents’ Closed Meetings

         During the course of the two days, leaders of delegations had closed meetings where they debated issues on the formation of the Association of African Senates. Ultimately, a draft communique was prepared and presented at the closing ceremony of the symposium. For Zimbabwe and some other Senates, the signing of the communique presented a challenge of a financial nature through annual subscriptions that would need to be paid. As such, the delegation did not have the express authority to commit Parliament of Zimbabwe in particular and Zimbabwe in general.

         Closing Ceremony

         During the closing ceremony, a general report on the proceedings during the two days was presented. The presentation of the Report was followed by a motion of thanks by the delegations to Mrs. Kandia Camara, President of the Senate of Cote d’ivoire. The Senate’s motion of thanks to His Excellency Monsoieu Alassane Oattara, President of the Republic of Cote d’ivoire also delivered. The final communique was then presented and a copy is attached to this Report as an Annexture. The President of the Senate of the Republic of Cote d’ivoire gave the closing remarks by thanking all the delegations for their participation.

         The communique advised that an Association of African Senates had been established. It stated that Mrs. Kandia Kamissoko Camara, President of the Senate of the Republic of Cote d’ivoire, had been appointed as President of the Association for one year. The Association’s secretariat would be based in Cote d’ivoire. The President of the Association of African Senates, was responsible for proposing the date of the next Annual Conference.

         Delegation’s Recommendations

         The idea of an Association of African Senates is a noble and progressive proposition. In fact, it was mooted and discussed more than ten years ago. The original proposal was that this institution should not require further fiscal requirements by way of subscriptions from national governments. Rather, it should that, whichever country is holding the current Presidency, would provide the secretariat. There should be no need to establish a permanent secretariat which would require huge expenses by way of rentals, salaries and other expenses.

         The new proposals as submitted by nations, which were in Yamoussoukro, runs contrary to the above understanding. In view of this new development, it is recommended that Zimbabwe does not rush to sign up the new development. It is recommended that we reserve our position until further assessments.

         Conclusion:

         The delegation expresses its appreciation for the opportunity to represent the Senate at the forum in Code d’ivoir. Inasmuch as the delegation learnt practices in other Senates, it had the opportunity to share our Senate’s experiences and successes. The protocol services and technical advice provided by the country’s Ambassador to Ghana and his member of staff were invaluable resulting in the delegation’s comfortable stay in Yamoussoukro.

Taking the stand one after the other, the Presidents of the African Upper Houses, praising the quality of the welcome extended to them by the Ivorian Senate, unanimously expressed their support for the project to create a federating body bringing together the continent’s Upper Houses.

Thus, during the closed session held in the afternoon of Thursday 10 October 2024, the Presidents and Representatives of the Presidents of African Upper Houses, after deliberating on the draft statutes submitted to them, agreed on the following:

• The Association of African Senates is hereby created;
• The headquarters of the Association of African Senates is established in Yamoussoukro, in the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire;
• The draft statutes are adopted, subject to the comments of the participants being taken into account, in particular with regard to the method of financing the activities of the Association, the designation of the General Secretariat responsible for the administrative management of the Association and the reference to the location of the registered office of the Association in Yamoussoukro;
• Kandia Kamissoko Camara, President of the Senate of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, is appointed President of the Association for one year, in accordance with its Articles of Association;
• Kandia Kamissoko Camara, President of the Association of African Senate, is responsible for proposing the date and venue of the next Annual Conference.

The Presidents and Representatives of President of African Upper Houses welcome the excellent contribution on the debates of Mr. Gerard Larcher, President of the French Senate, guest of honor at the Symposium, and his willingness to promote fruitful co-operation between the Association of European Senates and the Association of African Senates.

The Presidents and Representatives of the Presidents of African Upper Houses express their deep gratitude to President Alassane Ouattara, President of the Republic of Cote d’ Ivoire, for his support in the organisation of the Symposium of African Senates.

Annexure

         FINAL COMMUNIQUE ON THE SYMPOSIUM OF AFRICAN SENATES 11 October 2024.

         At the invitation of Her Excellency Mrs. Kandia Kamissoko Camara, President of the Senate of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, the undersigned Presidents and Representatives of Presidents of African Upper Houses took part in the Symposium of African Senates on the theme: “The idea of the Senate and senatorial experience in Africa”, on 10 and 11 October 2024, at the Felix HPUPHOUET-BOIGNY Foundation of Peace Research in Yamaoussoukro.

         This symposium was placed under the High Patronage of His Excellency Mr. Alassane OUATTARA, President of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire.

         In her speech at the opening ceremony of the 2024 second ordinary session of the Senate and the Symposium of African Senates, the President of the Senate of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire expressed her deep gratitude to all the Presidents and Representatives of Presidents of African Upper Houses for favorably responding to her invitation.

Madam President of the Senate of Cote d’Ivoire indicated that the organisation of this symposium and the project to create the Association of African Senates, which this symposium should lead to, respond to the need to promote regular and in-depth exchanges between the Upper Houses of the continent in order to draw mutual inspiration from their good practices and thus promote models of parliamentary institutions adapted to African values and realities.

The Presidents and Representatives of Presidents of African Upper Houses welcomed the excellent contribution to the debates of Mr. Gerard Larcher, President of the French Senate, guest of honour at the symposium and his willingness to promote fruitful co-operation between the Association of European Senates and the Association of African Senates.

The Presidents and Representatives of the Presidents of African Upper Houses expressed their deep gratitude to President Alassane Ouattara, President of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, for his support in the organisation of the symposium of African Senates.

HON. SEN. PHULU: As we take note of this report of the delegation of the Ordinary 24^th Session of the Senate of Cote d’ Ivoire along with the International Symposium of African Senates, one is reminded that our model itself is one which had its ups and downs. We have not always had a Senate in our history. We have had a Senate, gotten rid of it, brought it back and there has been so much discussion. Even now we find our Senate struggling to find its place, particularly right now during this season when there is a budget, you find that our committees are struggling to find relevance on how to contribute to this momentous period when we are planning for next year in terms of our budget.

We do not have Portfolio Committees but we have Thematic Committees. What does this mean and what role can they play when the National Assembly plays its oversight role during this time? Our Constitution really gives almost the entire role of Budget to the National Assembly. This is a learning curve. I wonder how they do it in Cote d’ Ivoire. So when we take these visits, it is an opportunity to learn from other African countries, how they handle various aspects and what role can be given to the Senate so that they can have a greater stamp in terms of being an upper echelon that is more rational, has more time to consider issues, is more distanced over issues and can really offer another dimension. Does our system manage to take advantage of this position that we have as a Senate? I think from this report that has been given, one can see there is serious discussion and serious intentions to learn from others in Africa.

We must also consider that the second leg or the other leg of this report is the symposium of African Senate.  Africa is also discussing how our Senates are relevant and we can learn from each other’s experiences. In Botswana, they call it Kgotla, which weighs how the wisdom of the elders is filtered into the processes. We must remember that we also inherited our concept of a Parliament to enhance our concept of a Senate from the British. Should we continue with the old age traditions of the British to the letter, obviously not because we are Africans. Being African, where can we find best practices? Where can we find lessons of what not to do, and this is what I learnt from this kind of report. When the report comes back written as eloquently and presented as it is, it offers us an opportunity as Senators to reflect.

I myself like to make jokes and interjections, perhaps if you send me there next time Madam President of the Senate, you might find that when I come back, I am not so irritating.  We would like to thank the presentation by Hon. Sen. Zindi and Hon. Sen. Ndebele for introducing us and provoking our minds to think. This report will not comprehensively teach us everything we need to know but it will provoke our minds to think more deeply about these issues and think of the direction which our reforms can go in order to enhance the role of our Senators.

HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI: Thank you Madam President of the Senate, Hon. Zindi and the team and the Vice President of the Senate who took opportunity to go far wide in an effort to try and see if we can cross-breed ideas around Senates in Africa. Before I get into the real matter, I would like to go back to history. In 1884 at the Berlin Conference, the division of Africa into fragrance became a reality. Obviously, it was followed by the scramble for Africa leading to micronisation and fragmentation of Africa into what it is today.

Africa is the huge continent awash with resources but the powers that be burn clearly so that in micronisation and dividing Africa, they were weakening Africa. So, my pleasure lies in the effort that we spent now to try and reunite Africa, to try and deal with the issues of Pan-Africanism, try and promote unity in Africa, to try and promote development in Africa and to make sure that we will build a critical mass that can influence world economic dynamics.

 I wish to thank the team for finding the time. There is an itcchy point that describes the esteem with which this Senate is held in this country. A whole Vice President of this Senate goes out there but incapacitated, cannot append a signature on a matter that could be important, hence to refer back to somebody else. I am sure that it would have been proper that the delegation should have carried with it a mandate to go and do everything possible to promote African unity, alas it did not happen and it is a description of how the esteem of this House is handled and viewed in this country.  That although it appears to be an Upper House as they were saying, it is nowhere close to being an Upper House, it is something else.

         Secondly, Madam President, one of the recommendations coming from our team is that we should not sign to agree to issues of establishing an association of Senators on account of issues of cost.  In my opinion, African unity will never happen on a silver platter, it will attract costs and so the costs should not let us throw away the baby because the water has become dirty. 

         In my opinion, this Senate and this nation should do everything possible to make sure that we join forces with others in pursuing the ideal of African unity.  I thank you.

         HON. SEN. ZINDI: I move that the debate do now adjourn.

         HON. SEN. NDEBELE: I second.

         Motion put and agreed to.

Debate to resume: Thursday, 19^th December, 2024.

MOTION

REPORT OF THE THEMATIC COMMITTEE ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS ON THE STATE OF DRUG AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE

         HON. SEN. CHIEF. SIANSALI: I move the motion standing in my name that this House considers and adopts the Report of the Thematic Committee on Sustainable Development Goals on the state of drug and substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation centres.

         HON. SEN. MLOTSHWA: I second.

         HON. SEN. CHIEF SIANSALI: Thank you Madam President for allowing me to table the report of the Thematic Committee on Sustainable Development Goals on the state of drug and substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation centres in the country.

         Madam President, your Thematic Committee undertook this mission across the entire country on selected institutions.  By way of introduction Madam President, drug and substance abuse is a serious issue affecting the youth in Zimbabwe, with far-reaching implications for an individual and the economy as a whole. The prevalence of drug abuse among young people has led to increased health problems, decreased productivity and rising crime rates, ultimately hindering national development.

Economically, the consequences include higher healthcare costs, loss of productivity and increased burden on social services. In the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 3 which focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages, addressing drug and substance abuse is critical. Zimbabwe has made strides in achieving SDG 3 through various health initiatives, including the implementation of the Zimbabwe National Drug Master Plan. This aims to combat drug and substance abuse through measures such as supply reduction, demand reduction and harm reduction.

Rehabilitation centres play a crucial role in harm reduction by providing necessary support and treatment facilities for individuals struggling with addiction. Recognising the importance of these centres, the Joint Parliamentary Committees on SDGs and Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training held oral evidence sessions with the National Committee on Drug and Substance Abuse and the Ministry of Health and Child Care. These sessions were aimed at assessing the effectiveness of rehabilitation centres in addressing substance abuse issues.

Resultantly, the Joint Committees conducted verification visits to select centres which include Ngomahuru Psychiatric Hospital, Engutsheni Central Hospital, Gweru Hospital and Chipadze Rehabilitation Centre. Additionally, proposed rehabilitation centres such as Mzilikazi Circumcision Centre, Gwanda Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital were also visited. Evaluation of the centres were aimed at assessing their operations and ensuring they meet the required standards for harm reduction, while also addressing their concerns on the matter. This initiative underscored the government's commitment to enhancing the well-being of its citizens and achieving the objectives outlined in SDG 3, particularly those related to health and well-being.

OBJECTIVES OF THE VERIFICATION VISIT

• To assess the state of rehabilitation centres;
• To appreciate the challenges being faced at the rehabilitation centres; and
• To proffer recommendations.

METHODOLOGY

This Report is informed by oral and written submissions from the Secretary for Health and Child Care. Evidence compelled the Joint Committees to conduct verification visits to Ngomahuru Psychiatric Hospital, Engutsheni Central Hospital, Gweru Provincial Hospital, Chipadze Rehabilitation Centre and additionally, the proposed rehabilitation centres which are Mzilikazi Male Circumcision Centre, Gwanda Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital. The Committee interacted with the Hospital Management and mental health personnel.

         COMMITTEE FINDINGS

The Committee was informed that there is no consolidated policy on drug and substance abuse in the country. However, there are some pieces of legislation relating to drugs as follows; the Dangerous Drugs Act (Chapter 15:02) administered by the Zimbabwe Republic Police, the Liquor Licensing Act administered by the Liquor Licensing Board, Medicines Control and Allied Act (Chapter 15:12) administered by the Medicine Control Authority of Zimbabwe, Treatment and Rehabilitation Guidelines for alcohol and substance use in Zimbabwe, administered by the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the Zimbabwe National Drug Master Plan 2020-2025 also administered by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

The Ministry officials indicated that they offer treatment and rehabilitation services at the following facilities; Parirenyatwa Annex Psychiatric Hospital, Sally Mugabe Psychiatric Hospital, Engutsheni Psychiatric Hospital, Chipadze Detoxification and Rehabilitation Centre, Ngomahuru Mission, Gweru Provincial Hospital, Marondera Hospital and the rest of the Provincial, Districts and Clinics offer mainly outpatients services. Furthermore, it was indicated that 36 former COVID-19 centres were identified for conversion into stand-alone drug rehabilitation centres.

The Committee was informed that the following treatment and rehabilitation services and interventions are being offered at the aforementioned referral centres, outpatient treatment services, short-term in-patients, recovery management, pharmacological interventions, psychological interventions, occupational therapy and support groups.

The Committee was further informed that the National Committee on Drug and Substance Abuse was tasked with the coordination of drug and substance abuse programming where there are seven pillars under the National Committee as follows;

• supply reduction,
• demand reduction,
• harm, treatment and rehabilitation,
• community reintegration and psychosocial support,
• media and communication,
• legal and policy and
• resource mobilisation and economic empowerment.

Findings at Visited Areas

The Committee observed that each hospital visited possesses a unique set-up and distinct needs, underscoring the lack of uniformity and the requirement for each institution to address different aspects of care. It was also noted that, except Chipadze which is an annex of Bindura Hospital, dedicated exclusively to substance and drug abuse rehabilitation and regarded as an ideal model for a rehabilitation centre, the centres visited are primarily mental health institutions.

The proposed centres, while deemed suitable for establishing rehabilitation facilities, require significant renovations, particularly the one in Gwanda. Below are photographs of the proposed rehabilitation centre in Gwanda, illustrating the need for roofing, renovations and enhanced security features.

Phograph 1

                                                 Photograph 2

 

The identified facility at St. Luke's Hospital in Lupane still requires resources for its completion, while the male circumcision centre in Mzilikazi, Bulawayo, needs minimal resources to be converted into a rehabilitation centre. The Committee also noted the prevalence of substance abuse, identifying commonly abused substances such as alcohol, cannabis, crystal meth and cough mixtures, njengu, tototo, and various mixtures of alcohol. This underscores the urgent need for specialised rehabilitation facilities in both rural and urban areas across every province.

Quality of Care and Treatment

Overally, the quality of treatment and care provided is commendable as demonstrated by institutions such as Engutsheni Central Hospital, Gweru Hospital and Chipadze Rehabilitation Centre. Additionally, a section of Ngomahuru Hospital has been converted into a private ward specifically for drug rehabilitation, further exemplifying the standards of care. These examples highlight the commitment to delivering effective treatment and support for individuals in need of rehabilitation services.

Infrastructure and Facilities

Gwanda and St. Luke's hospitals currently lack the capacity to accommodate individuals requiring substance and drug abuse rehabilitation and psychiatric patients are referred to Ingutsheni Central Hospital. All the hospitals visited do not have adequate infrastructure and facilities and they are overwhelmed by the number of admissions, which exceed their carrying capacity.  Ngomahuru Hospital, though dilapidated and seemingly marginalised, holds significant potential due to its extensive land and is Zimbabwe's second-largest psychiatric facility after Ingutsheni Hospital, with the highest capacity compared to Ingutsheni. The photograph below depicts the deteriorated condition of the infrastructure at Ngomahuru Hospital.

Unfortunately, some patients remain in the hospitals permanently such as at Ngomahuru and Ingutsheni Central Hospital, further straining resources. Families often abandon their relatives, increasing admissions and forcing the hospitals to make do with limited resources. For instance, as of June 24, 2024, Ingutsheni had 565 patients, with a capacity of 708.

Staffing, Staff Qualifications and Training

All of the hospitals are facing staffing shortages due to a Government freeze on hiring. Despite this, the staff are qualified and participate in ongoing training. Ingutsheni Central Hospital stands out by offering specialised mental health programmes for its nurses and staff. In contrast, at Ngomahuru Hospital, the staff displayed a negative attitude which seems to stem from a lack of resources, poor facilities and infrastructure as well as poor remuneration packages.

Rehabilitation Programmes and Therapies

Chipadze Rehabilitation Centre, Ingutsheni Central Hospital and Gweru Hospital have well-structured programmes and schedules for their rehabilitation activities which Ngomahuru Hospital lacks. Ingutsheni Central Hospital provides round-the-clock services for admitted patients and offers outpatient services from Tuesday to Friday. They are also planning to further streamline their activities by designating specific days for substance abuse treatment.

Compliance with Health, Safety and Ethical Standards

All of the hospitals visited adhere to established health, safety, and ethical standards. In addition, they demonstrate a high level of respect for patient confidentiality and autonomy. For instance, even when there is a success story regarding a patient’s recovery, the hospitals strictly honour the individual's preference for privacy and do not disclose any details without explicit consent. This commitment underscores their dedication to maintaining the highest ethical standards in patient care.

Effectiveness and Outcomes

The rehabilitation centres have demonstrated their effectiveness, with several success stories emerging from Chipadze and Ingutsheni hospitals. This success indicates that enhanced resources could further improve their results. Many patients have been successfully reintegrated into society although most are hesitant to share their experiences due to fear of stigmatisation.

OBSERVATIONS

1. The Committee observed that Matabeleland North and South Provinces do not have drug and rehabilitation centres.
2. The quality of care and treatment is compromised due to a shortage of psychotherapeutic drugs. For instance, at the general section of Ngomahuru Hospital, the institution is not providing medications to patients leading to the situation where the section of the hospital functions more as a detention centre for individuals who struggle to co-exist with others in society. Unfortunately, after 4 to 8 weeks of inadequate treatment, these individuals are released back into the community. Moreover, the shortage of medications puts workers at risk, as some patients may become violent and without the necessary drugs, staff are unable to manage these situations effectively.
3. Despite Ingutsheni Hospital receiving medicines from Egypt, it still faces shortages of critical medications like Chlorpromazine and Diazepam as well as essential anti-craving and aversive drugs necessary for effective rehabilitation.
4. The Committee observed that some of the institutions earmarked for conversion into rehabilitation centres such as St. Luke's and Mzilikazi Male Circumcision Centres have not yet received any communication in that regard.
5. There is a general shortage of trained professionals, including counsellors, psychiatrists and social workers with expertise in addiction treatment, which limits the quality and scope of services provided. Staffing levels are insufficient, with the ideal ratio of one nurse per four patients not being met. For example, Gwanda Provincial Hospital is struggling with a deficit of mental health personnel, currently employing only 33 out of the recommended 70 workers. Additionally, institutions like Chipadze lack social workers, an essential role in the recovery process for patients.
6. Uniforms for patients, especially in psychiatric sections are often unavailable or in poor condition, with many being torn. There is a persistent shortage of bedding and laundry facilities often malfunction leading to the deterioration of linen.
7. There is a severe shortage of beds, forcing some patients to sleep on the floor or in makeshift arrangements.
8. Hospitals such as St. Luke's and Ngomahuru face difficulties accessing adequate funds due to unclear hospital statuses. Ngomahuru, for instance, typically receives only 30% of its proposed budget as it viewed as a district hospital, which is insufficient to cover even two months of operations. This limited funding often only allows for the purchase of mealie-meal for two months.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare should implement strategies to motivate nurses, particularly those serving in rural areas through the provision of monetary and non-monetary incentives as a way to motivate and retain the nurses by March 2025.

• The Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion must avail resources for the renovation of the proposed structure in Gwanda and for the completion of the centre at St. Luke's Hospital by April 2025.
• The Ministry of Health and Child Care should ensure all formal communication and directives are expeditiously conveyed to all the facilities earmarked for conversion into rehabilitation centres by February 2025.
• The Ministry of Health and Child Care must engage student attaches who are currently not attached to these institutions. Their involvement can provide valuable assistance and enhance the operational capacity of rehabilitation centres by April 2025.
• The Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training should assist in assigning meaningful tasks to individuals in halfway homes by promoting initiatives linking rehabilitation centres with vocational and technical schools to offer skills training. Additionally, providing certifications upon completion of rehabilitation will prevent idleness and support long-term self-sufficiency for individuals. It is vital to keep them engaged, equip them with skills and allow them to contribute positively to the economy by August 2025.
• The Ministry of Health and Child Care must review and consolidate the existing legislation with a view to including the more recent drugs and those with unknown compositions by June 2025. I thank you.

         +HON. SEN. MLOTSHWA:  Thank you Mr. President.  It is important as a seconder of the motion that I contribute a word or two.  All the Senators who went on this visit were hurt by the state we saw the hospitals in, especially when we got to Ngomahuru Hospital.  We saw children that abuse drugs placed together with those who were mentally challenged.  There was no food and it was really painful.  The day we got there in our vehicles, which were new and shiny, the staff really looked forward to us leaving something for them.  Unfortunately we did not leave anything.  They were hurt that we were driving beautiful cars yet we could not leave anything for them.  I am talking like a parent with children who can also abuse drugs. Chipadze and Gweru hospitals were in a better state.  Gwanda is a provincial hospital for Matabeleland South.  There is no rehabilitation centre for drug abusers and there is no building.  The staff was not even prepared for the visit.  In Matabeleland South, those are places that are close to border towns meaning that, they should have a rehabilitation centre in Matabeleland South.  Currently, they have to go to Gwanda.  This means that the province of Matabeleland South is not getting enough help. I also come from Matabeleland South representing them as their Senator.  The parents are suffering having to look after those children who abuse this illicit alcohol called njengu in their homes because they cannot get help anywhere.  If I come from Bulilima and I am told to go to Gwanda that will be very far and it will be better to go to Bulawayo.  So if one is coming to Gwanda South from Namana, Gwanda South will be nearer but for the whole of Matabeleland South to go to Gwanda, I do not think it is feasible.  Even in Matabeleland North, we were told that St. Lukes is the one that caters for all the children who are taking njengu.  St. Lukes had not been told that their COVID Centre was going to be turned into a rehabilitation centre. So it means children in those two big provinces cannot get help in those hospitals. It means that all the children from Matabeleland South and North need to go to Mpilo hospital.  If you are from Binga or Tsholotsho, then it means that your child has to go to Ingutsheni Hospital and not Mpilo.  That is a very bad situation. 

As legislators, we have to look into this.  We have to find out why there are not rehabilitation centres there.  If there is a problem with drugs or njengu and others, we are told that these children are now taking pampers, Mazoe and Cerevita as drugs. Is it because of the education that they have acquired because they have no jobs but we cannot help our children.  It is upon us as parents and this 2025 Budget, does it speak to the rehabilitation centres for our children or as a nation, do we have rehabilitation centres because the Chairperson of our Committee has already stated that we went to different provinces and he has also mentioned that there are no rehabilitation centres but children were being taken to mental health institutions.  How can we assist them?  Is that the whole model for all the children? 

There is another place where we went and we were told that there are good places, they were getting enough food and counselling but for the whole country.  When we get to the end of this motion, we all should have contributed to this because as a parent, I cannot say that my child cannot do this and that because even a priest cannot bear a child who is a priest. As a nation, we have to accept that we have a bit of a problem and we need help.  We cannot just brush it aside because this is a problem which is there.  As a country, we need to influence the budget that Mzilikazi, St. Lukes, Gwanda Hospitals – I mean moving from all district hospitals where children can get assistance. 

As legislators from our areas, we should try and find out who is giving our children those drugs and why are those people not being arrested because they are killing the nation.  We are looking at those children – they are our future leaders.  If you go wherever you go and these children see you, they say hello Senator, can you buy me a bottle of this and that.  Let us help these children.  We are the parents of those children.  Let us try and help them because our children are dying.  Thank you for the time you have given me Mr. President.  I hope the Senate is also going to make a contribution to this motion. 

**HON. SEN. MOHADI: Thank you President of the Senate for awarding me the opportunity to add my voice on the report to the House today by Hon. Senator Chief Siansali and the Thematic Committee on SDGs.  The report that touches on drug and substance abuse – this is a topic that has been discussed in this House daily.  These drugs are destroying the future of our youth.  I was appealing that at the end of this debate, can we reach a consensus and find an everlasting solution to resolve this issue once and for all?  If you take a closer look to our future in five years’ time, if there are no measures or solutions brought forward to address the issue of drug abuse to be stopped, we will have all the youths being consumed by drug abuse, it is important that we find a solution to assist our children and grand children to stay away or eliminate any means of being in contact with the drugs. 

We are kindly asking that if it is possible, we may assist our youth by incarcerating those who deal with drugs especially the suppliers and make sure that the sentence they get is punitive and act as a deterrent measure for those who might want to deal with drugs.  Looking at the same report, the major issue that they were talking about their mission was to find out how rehabilitation centres are managed.  These rehabilitation centres accommodate drug and substance abusers who want to be rehabilitated.  The report mentioned that our rehabilitation centres need to be equipped and also that they are very few.  There are a few provinces that have these rehabilitation centres.  Of interest, he mentioned Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North that they have no rehabs.  These provinces are big in size and their position in the country shows that we have a serious challenge of acute shortage of rehabilitation centres.  It is also impossible for the youth that need to be rehabilitated to move from Matabeleland South to Bulawayo Province to get the services.  Since he mentioned that what we have in Gwanda is only a hospital of which this hospital does not have enough and trained staff to offer rehab services, there is also insufficient medication that is needed for these services.  He mentioned that there is no laundry and bedding facilities.  This is a clear indication that the staff’s working day is exposed to serious health conditions because they do not have enough equipment.  He added that there is even shortage of food.  This shows that as a country we are in trouble.  We need to put our heads in one place and make sure that we construct more rehab centres.  The report also emphasizes the need for the budget to include the construction of rehab centres. 

On the issue of liquor licences here in Zimbabwe, it is clearly spelt in black and white that no one below the age of 18 years is supposed to be found in places that sell alcohol but however the implementation part of it is lacking.  You find that children below the age of 18 spend most of their time relaxing in these places.  There is need also to train these business people who own liquor places on the need to obey such statutes because this is done as an effort to protect the future of our youths.

As I conclude, I kindly ask that the people that sell illegal alcohol like njengu and their factories should be shut down.  If you inquire, they say they have licences to produce alcohol.  There is need for the law and law enforcement agencies to investigate on these issues.  As we are talking, some of these youths are even failing to attend school and are even herding the cows.  If he goes to the business centre, he would come back when feeling hungry after a number of days without getting any food.  I was asking that all of us here in this House, may we make sure that we assist these children.  It should not be for the Thematic Committee on SDGs only but everyone in this House should be motivated and be moved by such instances because we are facing a serious challenges which need to be addressed and this should be expedited.  I thank you and have a blessed day.

HON. SEN. GWATURE: Thank you Mr. President.  I want to thank Hon. Senator Chief. Siansali for bringing in a very important report in this august House when he was presenting the report.  He showed that he had traveled to different health institutions in our country including Chipadze in Bindura as one of the areas he mentioned. Mr. President, a country is something which we can define the same as a family.  If we are talking about a family homestead, we are talking about the occupants or the members of that family.

         The same applies to our country as Zimbabwe. In the past, if you mentioned that you are coming from Zimbabwe, you could take pride but right now, our country is no longer respected because of the drugs and substance abuse that is happening. The drugs and substances which are taken in this country have eroded the pride of this country.  If you mention that you are coming from Zimbabwe, they say it is no longer the Zimbabwe they used to know.  In the past, Zimbabwe used to have children and parents who were respectable and who lived in peace and harmony.

Nowadays, young men and women are now engaging in drug and substance abuse.  Some of the drinks which they are taking-it is very painful.  Yes, we can blame them but we as a country should help them.  I saw it fit that the chiefs must be given power because they know the areas where they are coming from and they have village heads.  They must go and sit with the village heads and come up with solutions to eradicate the issue of drug and substance abuse.  The chiefs are the ones who are taking major control of most of the homesteads in the rural areas.  May we return the power to the chiefs so that they can continue to protect the integrity of our country.  I am happy that the one who presented the report in this House is a chief.  The chiefs are going to cascade this word to the village heads and to every household because they have managed to travel throughout the country.  It is very pertinent to go and share with other chiefs so that they can share with their village heads in order to control the epidemic of drugs and substance abuse and have a better country.

         On the issue of rehabilitation centres, in the past we used to have those rehabilitation centres for persons who were mentally disturbed. Currently, rehabilitation centres are now being filled by children who are taking drugs and in substance abuse. Some of the parents are taking dagga and illicit beer.  I am saying the rehabilitation centres are no longer in proper shape compared to the past.  They no longer have proper control compared to the past.  In the past, rehabilitation centres were filled with people who were mentally disturbed.

Back then, when someone was mentally disturbed, we could not understand if it was the will of God or something, we had control but right now the issue of drug and substance abuse is rampant. You might hear that people are fleeing away from rehabilitation centres. Hence, I am proposing that if it is possible, as august Members, we must go and help in the areas where we come from and do campaigns against drug and substance abuse so that the residents of our areas know the disadvantages of drug and substance abuse. That will also be pertinent to desist from drug and substance abuse because it tarnishes the image of the country from other nations. Right now, we do not understand that since Zimbabwe was one of the countries with the most educated people learning to produce drugs. We must be able to come up with a solution to end that. Right now, some people are saying they are mixing some of the things.     

An Hon. Member having passed the Chair and the Hon. Member speaking.

         THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Order Hon. Member! You cannot pass between the Hon. Member speaking and the Chair.

*HON. SEN. ZINDI: Thank you Hon. President. I also want to add my voice on the motion which was raised by Hon. Senator Chief Siansali on the issue of drug and substance abuse. If I look at this issue, I am not happy because I want to understand very well the way the law enforcement agents are working. I know they work very well when there is an issue of abuse of law because they investigate to the root cause. When it comes to drug and substance abuse, I really do not understand properly. Are our law enforcement agents failing or there is something which happens behind the scenes that the issue of substance abuse is not being investigated properly?

I have already alluded that the law enforcement agents in our country are the best in terms of investigating and bringing culprits to book. When it comes to drug and substance abuse, it means the drugs continue to flood the country. I am now sitting down because I can see that you are speaking to someone.

The Hon. Deputy President of Senate having been talking to an Hon. Member while Hon. Sen. Zindi was on the floor

THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Hon. Zindi, you can go ahead, I have got two ears so the other one could hear what you were saying.

HON. SEN. ZINDI: Thank you Mr. President because being listened to when you speak gives you pride. I am being troubled that our law enforcement agents do their work including investigating, especially where there is an issue which needs to be investigated and they catch the culprit. When it comes to drug and substance abuse, why is it that the drugs and substances which are being abused by people continue to flood the country?

We hear that there is a list of those who are transporting and selling drugs and it ends there, but where the issue really ends in terms of making sure that the culprits face the full wrath of law, we do not know. We see the issue of drug and substance abuse continuing and drugs being sold in different areas. The other challenge is that the age groups that are taking drugs are those who are at their prime, going to work, the child bearing ages, increasing the population and doing their education

Those who have knowledge in terms of health say if you are taking drugs, it is difficult to have sex and you would no longer have children. This is all because people who take drugs are not sexually active. My question is, what is the future of the country and what are we expecting as a country? The age group which is abusing drugs is the same age group that we expect to make the country move forward. How are we going to move the country forward?

Some Hon. Members who spoke before me already alluded to the point that young parents are taking it as a game to take drugs. Some are taking drugs saying they do not have jobs and they do not have anything to do and they end up abusing drugs. Another thing which disturbs is that those who do not have money to buy drugs like cocaine, crystal meth, those are drugs which are being sold as well as other types of drugs, we hear that they take light bulbs at universities in their hostels. They take that stuff in that globe and abuse it. Staff at the universities no longer replace the lights because they are being abused by the students. Pampers which we use for children are being taken and used to produce drugs.  We also here that they are taking soot from exhaust pipes. I do not understand the carbon monoxide from the exhaust is being taken to make drugs. You end up asking yourself what the future of these people will be.

This is the same age which I am saying is the age which is supposed to take our country to the next level. I am saying if we are discussing the issue of drug and substance abuse, we must look at the issue focussing on making sure that we come up with the solution to make our country move forward. We understand there are no jobs, but we must come up with a solution. We also hear in the report that the nurses or those who are expected to help children in different rehabilitation centres are few.

We hear that as a country, we are in a crisis of brain drain and most nurses are now relocating. The reports are that the health workers are saying they are not being paid well. They are not well remunerated and they have spent most of the years studying, hence they are relocating to other countries. This really affects the fight against drug and substance abuse because we no longer have enough health personnel to help the drug addicts in our rehabilitation centres. This really affects the process of eradication of drug and substance abuse because we no longer have enough personnel. We also have those who are coming in the country to work in different areas in terms of investment. We have our friends from China who are now filling the mountains and mining gold, lime, lithium et cetera. They are mining different types of minerals but our own children are just seated and spend most of their time drunk, doing nothing. Our own wealth as a country is being taken to other countries and to places like Beijing or Guangzhou. We, as Zimbabweans, do not have anything. Our children are just lying in streets doing nothing whilst they are drunk. It is something which is troubling me as an individual. Until when should we continue to experience something like this?

         Right now, in this House, we are the only ones who are sober, we are not drunk. Those who are out there in the bush and mountains are busy mining yet here in Parliament we are debating. Are we going to have time to go and mine whilst we have kids who are at their prime in terms of mining, coming up with business ideas so that our wealth continues to be in Zimbabwe? Are we not going to be recolonised again when every resource is taken away right under our nose? I am just asking and posing these questions. I do not know how we are going to end this menace.

         Let me move forward Mr. President to the main issue which is, we need to put our heads together and come up with ideas. All the leadership of this country starting with the Upper House, National Assembly and everyone who has got anything to do with the leadership of the country, to come up with a solution on prevention of drug and substance abuse so that we can protect our future as Zimbabweans. We can protect the future of our country. We can protect resources of our country so that we leave the inheritance where our parents have gone to war and left the legacy and resources for us, so that we can have total emancipation and not total drunkenness. That is my main issue.

         Let us work together and improve our economy. Let us work together to make sure that the health personnel and any other worker  be well remunerated so that they do not relocate to other countries and attend to our Zimbabweans and victims of drug and substance abuse so that tomorrow we can give it as a testimony and say we managed to pass a phase of drug and substance abuse. Even us as Members of Parliament, we can be well remunerated as we manage to work together to protect our economy and make sure that the resources continue to work and benefit Zimbabweans. As Zimbabweans we need to get the resources for the benefit of our own and not letting our resources being taken by other countries, leaving our children with nothing whilst the future is being eroded or taken away by other countries.

         Right now, most of the youth whether male or female are involved in drug and substance abuse. With these few words I want to thank you Mr. President.

         +HON. SEN. FANUEL: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to add my voice onto this motion regarding SDGs. This Thematic Committee is involved in health and education issues so that it can assist in every aspect because we have witnessed so many things in this country. We have visited so many places in this country like Mpilo Hospital and Chipadze. What we witnessed is so painful. I am saying so because the health budget should be increased. We visited St. Luke’s Hospital where we saw nurses who were coming from Bulawayo. We visited Mpilo Hospital and saw people who were being assisted with clothes and other basic necessities. Most of these people had taken drugs and some of them had gone insane.

         Most of the nurses that we saw had no accommodation.  How are they going to manage to treat the patients? We saw patients who were roaming around the whole place. We asked what was happening and they said that these people were just roaming around everywhere. The nurses said they sometimes take care of the patients but these patients were getting drugs from other people.  Mr. President, I would like to urge Government to increase the budget of the Ministry of Health in order to take care of people like this.

         We had an exchange with women who were grieving because they were the ones who were taking care of these children. That is why I am saying that Government should increase more funding to the Ministry of Health.

         +HON. SEN. RICHARD NDLOVU: I want to thank Hon. Senator Siansali for bringing this motion to this august House on what is happening in this country and in different locations on people who are taking illicit drugs like njengu. It is very painful. I can foresee most of these children who are taking drugs not making it in life. I want to commend the mover of the motion because the motion tries to take a deeper look into the issue of dangerous drugs.

         I visited some of the places in Bulawayo at Ingutsheni and what I witnessed there is so painful and disheartening Mr. President. I wonder if the Head of the State could also visit that place and see what is transpiring at that place. 

         We once had this disease, HIV and AIDS, which took so many people out of their lives and people were infecting each other with this incurable disease. An AIDS levy was introduced so that people could be treated and medication secured.

Mr. President, we have so many educated people in Zimbabwe and what is only needed is that educated people should find a solution so that the victims of drug and substance abuse do not indulge in illicit drugs because we should not point fingers at each other.  If any person passes on, somebody would have killed that person and even if that person died by accident, there will be that person who would have caused that.

What I am saying Mr. President, is that there should be a levy on what is happening and some places that will be rehabilitation centres so that those people can go for rehabilitation and they may be taught at vocational centres things like carpentry and building. After rehabilitation, they may be assisted to do something after that. After six months, that person will have become sober.

 Some time ago, I met some other guy who was just sitting under the scorching heat and was not feeling any heat at all. Many of his friends left him like that as if they were not seeing him and drinking beer. Tomorrow, people will not understand what would have killed that person.

Mr. President, I was requesting the fact that some institutions should be built like Jairos Jiri so that needy people can be taught what to do or should be trained so that after coming out from rehabilitation, they have something to do. We should help those victims of drug and substance abuse who we feel pity for.

 It has been said that there is a hospital in Matabeleland in Gwanda and there is no straight passage that passes from Bulawayo to Gwanda. We will be navigating up to the hospital. How much would you be having if we navigate such roads, Mr. President? I wish that the Government could charge a levy so that we control this disease. Those people are not sick, but they are intoxicated and they are inebriated. If those people go under therapy, they will be fine after that and they will know that they have a future after rehabilitation. That person will know what to use if you give them that money. If you lend that person a dollar, they will know how to use the help given after rehabilitation. That is my view, Mr. President.

My plea is, let us come up with a solution that will assist the government. We should come up with a solution and that is, I had brought forth that the President should charge a levy so that we construct some institutions that will assist some of those people affected by drugs.  The doctors must do some research on how to treat those patients.

         +HON. SEN. KABONDO: I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this motion. It was brought by Hon. Senator Chief Siansali. Mr. President, I rise with a grieving heart as a parent.  The person who will be selling is also a person who has done something wrong. We have built some rehabilitation centres but what is more important in my view is that we should find a better place, a solution to solve this situation.  We would have built these rehabilitation centres and there would be so many people in so many centres but we would not have solved anything.  I hope that we can solve this situation. How should we end this bad habit?

 Mr. President, I noticed that most of these kids are always on social media most of the time and on social media, there is so much music in the music industry. There are remarkably interesting songs, incredibly beautiful songs, the lyrics. These children are young, they are still growing up but they are being taken away with this music and that is when they end up being intoxicated, taking drugs because of these songs.  Music greatly influences our children. I do not know Mr. President, how we should solve this situation but we should take note that if these children enjoy music, these songs should have some morale and good teachings. I thank you.

*HON. SEN. NDEBELE:  Mr. President, I would like to thank the Committee on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) led by Hon. Sen. Chief Siansali for the consultation process in the areas that we are talking about and what we saw as the causes. 

As people who care for the sick Mr. President, indeed it is painful, especially for us as women as we represent women who are in our constituencies because they are the ones who sent us here.  Everything that we talk about, we come back to women and children.  Our children are partaking in drugs and this is affecting their mental health and in children's homes there are no proper lights where they sleep.  The people who assist them and the living conditions are not adequate, all these issues affect women. 

When young children start partaking in drugs, women are the ones who notice and because most of the time men will be away at work.  Sometimes they wake up in the morning and come back late and do not notice, they face these challenges throughout the day.  Eventually when drugs start messing up the young children's heads, it is the woman who notices.  Sometimes you will find a child refusing to eat food and the mother ends up approaching the father and informing the father that the child is not eating properly.  

Wherever they spend their days, you will find that men do not spend much time but women do and face these challenges.  Women bear the brunt and I believe that this should be corrected, especially when as a woman you say that our son or daughter is not okay.  You will find that women are blamed.  The men start blaming the women and this results in Gender-Based Violence because when a child falls sick, it is the mother who takes up the responsibility.  When they are admitted to rehabilitation centres, it is the mother who takes up responsibility as well.  You might be surprised that whilst looking after that child, you would find your husband with a new wife, a pregnant wife probably and they do not care that much.  This is because the challenge that we are talking about is a challenge which mostly affects women.

Where the children are rehabilitated, a few men go to visit such places to ascertain the condition of their children.  As a mother, you discover that sometimes you are forced to compromise because you would say that this is my child.  I gave birth to this child whether they are putting on pampers or whatever condition they are in, as a mother, you take up that responsibility.

In our culture, sometimes we believe that there are some mistakes that are done culturally which affect our children's minds.  These are superstitions that are there where people believe that it is probably witchcraft.  I want to say that it is important to engage our children and allow them to participate in vocational skills training or to participate in income generating projects using their hands.  If possible, our scientists who are using pampers as drugs should find a tablet which would enable our children to abstain from drugs or which would be used in rehabilitating our children.

When young children fall pregnant, there are indications that it is now desirable that they have a legal abortion to protect them.  As a mother, I believe that there should be medication for those who are addicted to alcohol and drugs so that it detoxifies the system.  There is no condition which has no remedy because if pampers can be used to manufacture drugs, then it means that there is an antidote to that.   My desire Mr. President, is that we need to find a way of protecting our children.  Their heads are messed up and it is our responsibility.

There are times when you find that as parents who contribute, if there was a television Mr. President where you could look at what we contain, what is found in our hearts and in our minds and our thoughts, you will be shocked that only a few people will be found to be innocent of partaking in such issues or in motivating the young to participate in drugs and alcohol.  It is important that these things cascade downwards from us as parents. Instead of bringing that change from below, it should be the other way around because when that cancer is spread into society, it becomes difficult to contain it.  Looking at all provinces, it is important that we find a way of ascertaining and looking at what is happening so that we are able to address this.  

Mr. President, I want to come back to the challenges that are faced by women.  It is quite painful and this has been alluded to by another Hon. Member that we are going to be extinct. There is no generation which would have another opportunity because of these challenges.  Mr. President, there is something that I did and you may think that I was mean but on hearing what is being discussed, I am proud that I did what I did.  A few weeks ago, I went to my rural area and I heard of a testimony at my place from someone who takes njengu.  When he is intoxicated he says this rapture is caused by rituals that were done.  He said he was mentally challenged because there is something that he said he did.  This pained me a lot.  I was called by my grandchildren who ran away and went next door.  They called me and said they were beaten up because they were accused of knowing where the rapture was coming from.  I called the nearest police station and told them to go and pick up the young man and his colleagues.  I asked whether they had transport and they said they did not have.  I asked whether there was a Honda Fit nearby and they said yes.  I borrowed money and sent it via ecocash so they could go and pick up the guys.  They went and caught the young men who exposed the illicit drug racket.  He told the police the names of those who were selling mbanje.  They were all rounded up, arrested and taken to the cells.  When they were searched, they could not find the mbanje.    After a few days they were supposed to go to court and I said I did not have money for court.  I was told that they were not at fault and they did not commit any offence.  Moreover, they did not have money to pay fines though some of them were married. So, I had to look for money to bail them out but it helped me because last week when we were seated just spending time with my family, one said let us take an illicit brew, the young man refused because he said if the police comes around, they would target me.  My point is that our traditional leaders - the chiefs, headmen and other community leaders have a role to play.  What I did can be replicated.  This is a testimony that I did in my family.  I refused illicit drugs in my family so they also have a role to assist the police because when people discuss as community leaders, they will stand aside and the issues will be dealt with in the traditional courts.  Our young people will be forgiven, maybe after paying a goat or so. 

         I want to say that as a woman, this is a touching topic but I am happy that we are discussing these issues.  They affect us as women and when children die, you will find that women will be there 24/7 while men will intervene here and there.  Women will mourn and show care and do everything.  We request support from the law and especially from our traditional leaders.  I want to request that next week we may be facing bigger challenges during the festive week.  People in my area think that I talk too much but I will go and pay a fine once again after getting them arrested.  I thank you.

         HON. SEN. CHIEF SANSIALI:  I move that the debate do now adjourn.

         HON. SEN. MLOTSHWA:  I second.

         Motion put and agreed to.

         Debate to resume:  Thursday 19^th December 2024.

MOTION

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE

THE MINISTER OF WOMEN AFFAIRS, COMMUNITY, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT (HON. SEN. M. MUTSVANGWA):  Thank you Mr. President.  I move that the Senate reverts to Order of the Day Number 2.

Motion put and agreed to.

MOTION

REPORT OF THE ZIMBABWE GENDER COMMISSION FOR THE PERIOD 2023

THE MINISTER OF WOMEN AFFAIRS, COMMUNITY, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT (HON. SEN. M. MUTSVANGWA):  Mr. President, I will be giving a report of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission for the period 2023 and this is in line with our Constitution which states that every Commission must submit a report to Parliament through the responsible Minister.

• As a way of introduction, Zimbabwe Gender Commission is one of the independent commissions which was established in terms of Section 245 of the Constitution and was operationalised through the Zimbabwe Gender Commission Act Chapter 10:31. The Commission discharges its mandate in the spirit of the objectives provided in Section 233 of our Constitution which are:
• To support and entrench human rights and democracy.
• To protect the sovereignty and interests of the people.
• To promote constitutionalism
• To promote transparency and accountability in public institutions.
• To ensure observance of democratic values and principles by the State and all institutions and agencies of Government and all Government controlled entities and to
• Ensure that injustices are remedied.

         The mandate of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission has an overall obligation to promote, protect and advance gender equality and equity in all spheres to ensure the enjoyment of fundamental rights as enshrined in various instruments the State has subscribed to Section 246 of the Constitution specifically mandates the Commission to:

Monitor issues concerning gender equality and to ensure gender equality as provided for in the Constitution.

Investigate possible violations of rights relating to gender equality.

Receive and consider complaints from the public and to take such action in regard to the complaints as it considers appropriate.

Conduct research into issues related to gender and social justice and to recommend changes to laws and practices which lead to discrimination based on gender.

Advise public and private institutions on steps to be taken to ensure gender equality.

Recommend affirmative action programmes to achieve gender equality.

Recommend prosecution for criminal violations of rights relating to gender.

Secure appropriate redress where rights relating to gender have been violated.

Do everything necessary to promote gender equality.

In terms of Section 323 of the Constitution, every Commission must submit to Parliament through the responsible Minister, an annual report describing its operations and activities.  On that note, the Commission has fulfilled its statutory obligation of submitting reports covering previous years since 2016.  Meanwhile, it has finalised its 2024 annual report which is now ready for submission to Parliament for its consideration.

During the period under review, a number of significant milestones were achieved through the implementation of the Commission’s mandate.  Among these were:

Public Education and Information

Awareness raising on the importance of mitigating sexual harassment in public spaces continued  throughout 2023.  To enhance this work, some of the following outputs were realised:

A training manual for workplace policy development and programme implementation was established and distributed among stakeholders; to enable them to implement what the Commission had taught on sexual harassment in institutions.

A national enquiry on child marriages, sexual exploitation and abuse of young girls in Zimbabwe report was published. The report was published in line with the Commission’s commitment to generating evidence-based research data for enabling appreciation of the situation analysis and informing policy and advocacy interventions.

Sexual harassment awareness sessions in the media sector.  These were propelled by media reports on the prevalence of cases in media institutions.  In addition, the Commission proffered technical support to the sector by assisting the Zimbabwe Media Commission in developing its sexual harassment policy.

Nation wide community dialogues on promoting gender equality were held in six provinces namely Bulawayo, Manicaland, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Matabeleland North and South.  The dialogues focused on child marriage and sexual exploitation, GBV and articulating the Commission’s mandate.  Participants in the dialogues were the local traditional leadership, community members, slum settlers, informal traders including vendors and cross boarder traders, GBV survivors and commercial sex workers.  The dialogues continue to be the avenue for addressing systemic barriers to the promotion of gender equality.

Exhibitions remained a strategic visibility instrument for the Commission, where engagement was with various people from across the country.  Distribution of IEC materials contributed to spreading information on the Commission’s role in hard to reach areas, through the agency of visitors to the exhibitions.  The Commission participated at Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), Zimbabwe Agricultural Show (ZAS), Midlands Provincial Show and Victoria Falls Show. 

Commemorative events and calendar days remained the space within which the Commission successfully conducted its monitoring mandate by applauding milestones achieved at national level in terms of promoting gender equality while also calling to action stakeholders to uphold constitutional provisions within their different spaces.  Issuance of press statements on calendar days such as the International Women’s Day, Day of the African Child, International Day of Rural Women and 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence were some of the ways in which the Commission increased stakeholder engagement for action and accountability.

Mitigating GBV across various sectors and communities remained on the Commission’s radar.  Several activities including road shows in partnership with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small to Medium Scale Enterprises and Development (MoWASMED) engagement with Parliament and various commemorative events during the 16 days of Activism Against GBV.

Research and Programming

The Commission was able to monitor compliance with gender equality and equity provisions outlined in the Constitution, in addition monitoring the extent to which the country was upholding regional and international normative frameworks on gender equality which Zimbabwe is party to.  Some of the milestones realised include:

Multi-party gender conference on women’s political participation.  This was held in partnership with MoWASMED with the aim of engaging political parties in February 2023 ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections.  The purpose was to deliberate on the status of gender equality in political parties and strategies for increasing the participation of women in the 2023 harmonised elections.  All political parties participating in the elections, parliamentarians from Zimbabwe and Malawi, national human rights institutions, Government agencies, traditional and religious leaders and development partners participated in the dialogue whose key outcome was the development of the Women’s Charter containing women’s realisation of their aspirations to occupy political office.  Some of the demands include:

Alignment of laws and electoral systems to the Constitution; Political parties financing and post-election support; peaceful participation; accountability and ending impunity and equal access to media by both women and men, particularly advancing media portrayal of women leaders and aspiring women leaders in a positive manner;

Training of women candidates in preparation for the 2023 harmonised election was successfully done for candidates in Mashonaland and Matabeleland equipping the candidates with skills for effective participation, as part of driving the gender agenda.  This was part of the women arise in politics initiative which sought to address challenges faced by women as they aspire for political office. The Commission noted that limited capacity in political leadership and limited access to information on political processes, lack of political networks, lack of campaign resources, lack of motivation were some of the hindering factors to women's occupancy to political office.

         The training empowered women and candidates from diverse political parties with the requisite skills and knowledge to navigate the political terrain while in the process, building their confidence. Areas covered by the training were key electoral processes such as the nomination and polling processes, campaigning resource mobilisation, voter contact and engagement, communication and personal branding, grooming and etiquette, among other subjects. This is what the Commission did and they continue to do this.

The 2023 Gender Observatory was set up also to monitor gender equality issues throughout the 2023 election period. The 2023 Gender Observatory comprised a broad membership drawn from the National Human Rights Institutions, Government ministries, Civil Society organisations, the Security Sector and Development Partners showing a collaborative commitment to achieving equitable gender-responsive electoral processes in Zimbabwe. Seventeen Members of the Gender Observatory were appointed and sensitised on their terms of reference and Code of Conduct during their tenure in office which comprises the entire 2023 election cycle. 

         Members undertook monitoring of the election focusing on the gender aspects of processes such as the biometric voter registration, nomination code, pre-election environment, polling and polling stations. Some of the issues of concern were the lack of concern for women's practical gender needs such as late voting hours and cyber bullying was another issue which was noticed. The Commission which is the Gender Commission assessed maternity waiting homes to ascertain the experience of pregnant women, focusing on their needs during their stay at the maternity waiting homes in response to safeguarding concerns on the safety of expecting mothers from sexual and gender-based violence.

A total of twenty-four health institutions were assessed across six provinces namely Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West, Manicaland North, Matabeleland and Matabeleland South. The need to revamp these to make them user-friendly was noted across all provinces, beginning with ensuring infrastructural advancement to enable access to bases such as water and resources of energy.

         Mr. President, the National Gender Forum was held by the Gender Commission in Bindura, Mashonaland Central Province. This was done under the theme ‘Gender, Politics and Decision Making: Taking stock of 2023 harmonised election and mapping way forward to 2028.” Participants of the National Gender Forum were drawn from political parties, Government ministries, Civil Society Organisations, Members of Parliament, Councillors and Community members, reaching a total of 278 participants comprising 90 men and 188 women.

         The National Gender Forum provided the platform to reflect on the outcome of the 2023 harmonised elections from a gender perspective. Reflections were also made on some of the factors that contribute to the gender gap in political representation, which includes lack of financial resources, prohibitive nomination fees, gender norms that prohibit women from participating and electoral architecture that is not conducive for women's participation as well as sex sexism and misogyny.

         Compliance with public appointments on board and other leadership positions in Government was also monitored by the Gender Commission during the period under review. It was noted that most public institutions were not compliant with constitutional provisions for ensuring gender parity.

The Commission issued advisory notes to those institutions.  Looking at the Gender Statistical Report - 2022 to 2023, the Gender Commission produced its first Gender Statistical Report on the Zimbabwe Gender Commission Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. The report provided a comprehensive assessment of gender indicators drawn from data collected across various thematic areas, which include politics and governance, education and training, media and health.  The Gender Statistical Report was produced as part of the Commission’s ongoing efforts to monitor compliance with the gender equality provision in our Constitution and also international norms and standards on gender.

         Gender and Human Rights Training:

         The Zimbabwe Gender Commission, in partnership with the Rural Warrensburg Institute, conducted gender and human rights training for the Commission’s technical staff. The training covered international human rights frameworks.  International and regional frameworks on the Human Rights of Women and Gender Equality State Party Reporting for Regional and International Human Rights Frameworks, rights of children and other vulnerable groups.  It also looked at sexual and reproductive health rights, gender equality and devolution among many others.  Participants obtained practical skills and expert recommendations to ensure the Commission’s programmes better reflect the application of human rights principles.

         There was also a gender analysis of the 2024 National Budget proposal, and it noted limited public consultations which could have contributed to the limited gender lens in social sector allocations as well as the gender implication of increases in certain goods and services such as passport and tollgate fees.

Gender Commission also participated at the status of Women 68 in New York in 2023 and they hosted a side event during that time alongside fellow National Gender Commissions from Africa, the Kenya National Gender Equality Commission and the South African Commission for Gender Equality where together as they hosted that side event at the CSW.

         The side event was held under the theme “Unfolding the Role of Constitutional Gender Commissions in promoting accountability towards gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.” This was in line with the agreed Conclusions of CSW 62 and General Assembly Resolution 72/181 which emphasised the need for Governments and Commissions on the Status of Women in particular, to recognise the role played by the National Human Rights Institutions in advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women to strengthen the capacity of such institutions including through continued participation and contributions to deliberations at relevant UN mechanisms and process.

         Engagements made during the joint side event revealed that the three commissions share a lot of stark resemblances as far as their mandates and challenges are concerned.  Challenges surrounding systemic underfunding of the Gender Commission limited independence and challenges in enforcing the Commission’s recommendations were common across the three Commissions.

         Learning visits for the Gender Commission

The Commission undertook a learning visit to Kenya to gain a deeper understanding on monitoring elections from a gender perspective from Kenyan National Gender and Equality Commission. The second visit was to Sweden, which was supported by Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian law under the Zimbabwe Human Rights Capacity Development Programme. The visit brought together Zimbabwe Gender Commission, Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services to learn from similar organisations.

Legal and Investigations

The department undertook its role of providing legal support, receiving and handling gender-related complaints, operating in accordance with constitutional and statutory mandates. A total of 51 cases ranging from assault and domestic violence to gender discrimination and sexual harassment were handled. Key investigations such as the Lobels and Pick n Pay incidents revealed systematic issues within companies including lack of sexual harassment policies and compromised reporting structures. Other highlights include:

• Investigative research on gender issues was conducted at border posts, uncovering challenges faced by women traders, including economic, administrative and infrastructural barriers as well as instances of sexual exploitation and violence.
• Mobile Legal One Stop Centres: Six centres were established across three provinces, providing legal aid and psychosocial support to marginalised communities, resulting in strengthened multi sectoral referrals and increases in awareness of legal rights.
• Legal Assistance: The unit assisted 1170 clients through mobile clinics, addressing a range of issues from domestic violence, land disputes and also offered free legal advice at public forums.
• Establishment of a call centre and a case management system improved complaints handling and data management processes.

Challenges encountered during the period included need for stronger penalties for Gender-Based Violence cases, insufficient funds hindering research and follow-ups and lack of ICT resources. There is also complainant reluctance and delays due to a centralised system.

Public Relations Unit

The establishment of a fully-fledged unit contribute extensively to the visibility of the Commission’s work and in celebrating milestones both internally and with external stakeholders. The Commission’s presence in both mainstream and social media spaces was noted through increased stakeholder engagement. Use of all platforms such as LinkedIn, You Tube, Instagram, Face-Book and X (former Twitter) in addition to the website, increased the Commission’s visibility online while the unit facilitates interviews with traditional media, particularly in relation to events, participation at exhibitions and responding to general socio-economic and political issues.

Finance and Administration

         The Commission’s establishment was reviewed upwards from forty-nine (49) posts to two hundred and twelve (212) posts. In the year 2023, Treasury concurred with the filling of 78. The number of staff continue to increase due to ongoing recruitment and seventy-six posts were filled. As of December 31, there was a staff complement of one hundred and eighteen (118), comprised of 67 females and 51 makes with percentages of 56% and 44% respectively. The remaining posts to be filled in the first quarter of 2024 are one Librarian, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.

Adoption and implementation Of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).

         The Commission produced and submitted to Treasury an implementation strategy that spells out how the organisation will go about its business in terms of IPSAS implementation. The IPSAS Project Committee was also appointed to spearhead the implementation process. The Commission is one of the institutions expected to produce transitional IPSAS based accrual of financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2023 together with the traditional cash based financial statements. Full migration to IPSAS is set for December 31, 2025.

         Regional Office Space

         In pursuant of Cabinet approval on devolution and decentralisation, the Gender Commission already decentralised to five provinces. Having finalised the recruitment of staff for regional offices, the offices were operationalised with officers, equipment and furniture to make them fully functional. Masvingo Regional staff have since moved into the identified office space. The office in Mashonaland West was secured but has yet to be occupied. Office spaces had to be secured for the Midlands Regional, Manicaland and Bulawayo.

         Procurement

         The Annual Procurement Plan for 2023 was submitted to PRAZ as per sections 22 and 23 of the PPDPA Act. Subsequently, the procurement licence was duly granted by the Authority to the Commission to conduct procurement. All mandatory procurement returns for the year 2023 were not sent to the Authority as per the regulation and duly acknowledged. Seven contracts for asset acquisition valued at USD3 166 452.70 were concluded during the period under review. These contracts comprised the following equipment. Isuzu vehicles, minibuses (30 seats), institutional buildings, laptops and desktops, mobile phones, furniture and printers.

Information Technology

         The Commission ensured keeping abreast with technology advancement by procuring mobile gadgets, desktops and printers for ease of work. Technical expertise for development of a case management system and establishment of a call centre installed during the election period was done internally, with support from development partners and remains operational to date.

Monitoring and Evaluation

         The Commission appreciates the role of the unit in assessing progress, effectiveness, impact and utility of interventions and activities being implemented. During 2023, M and E successfully conducted client and employee satisfaction surveys and noted the needs of stakeholders to enable full realisation of the ZGC mandate.

Challenges

         In addition to delays in disbursements and limited resources for programme implementation, other challenges noted in 2023 included legislation gaps to address  gender inequalities effectively; limited understanding and awareness of gender issues, including sexual harassment and Gender-Based Violence in workplaces and institutions; and limited resources and capacity for comprehensive response to gender-based violence.

         Recommendation

         Based on its findings and experiences in 2023, the ZGC put forward several recommendations to stakeholders. These include urgent action to enact laws and policies promoting gender equality, strengthen monitoring mechanisms to ensure compliance, allocate adequate resources to support gender equality initiatives, invest in capacity building for stakeholders, and foster collaboration and partnerships. Specific recommendations to Parliament are mostly on law reform, inclusive of amendment of the ZGC Act to provide for stiffer and deterrent penalties of the SGBV cases, domesticating the SADC Model Law on child marriages, alignment of the Electoral Act to constitutional provisions on gender equality, amendment of three Political Parties Finance Act to provide a framework that encourages participation of women in politics through rewarding parties that provide financial support to female candidates and enactment of the Gender Equality Act to operationalise gender equality provisions in the Constitution among others.

         Despite challenges, the ZGC remains steadfast in its commitment to promoting gender equality and eliminating gender-based discrimination in Zimbabwe, aiming to create a more equitable and inclusive society where women and men enjoy equal rights and opportunities.  

         *HON. SEN. NDEBELE: Thank you Mr. President for the report which was presented by the Minister of Women’s Affairs and everything that was done by the Commission in 2023 and what is anticipated to happen in the near future. This reflects that there is a representation of women and the issue of gender mainstreaming is quite important because it is an instrument in the development of the country where women are given power like men, equal opportunities in jobs, politics, different positions and sectors of the economy. The issue of empowering women through different laws and commemorations that were done, we see and hear them. We appreciate the good work that is happening. We believe that such policies should be supported by Parliament. We need to support all these programmes because they are empowering us as a nation. Even women who were left behind, I believe that they are being empowered through different programmes.

         There are a lot of programmes where women are being taught throughout the country and I believe indeed this is happening. We have not yet attained what we really want but I want to urge Government to support women financially so that women will be able to represent themselves. Women are the ones who face a lot of challenges.

         Going to the Ministry of Health and Child Care, a lot of issues affect women and in schools, this is also obtaining. You would find that women bear the brunt and we do not want them to be violated sexually when they are applying for jobs where they are told that fall in love with me first. As women, we refuse this kind of offers. Women have their rights and they would rather stay than being abused so that they are given jobs.

I believe that in Zimbabwe, we are better in terms of protecting the rights of women, which means the Ministry of Women’s Affairs is quite busy educating women about their rights and responsibilities. Even politically, the political will to support women to stand is there. At one point, I went to Ivory Coast where there was a Senate Symposium. Most of the people presented their reports and if we had been given the opportunity to present, it was going to reflect that we had a number of women. In other countries you find that there are only three female Senators. As a gender advocate here, I wanted to inform them that in Zimbabwe, we are ahead as we value women and gender balance. How will women know of their rights if three women are in a Senate with 60 men? I noted that many countries are behind in that regard. I appreciate that in Zimbabwe, we have a responsible Ministry which teaches women about their rights and we appreciate that.

As women, we have a request to Government that when votes are being allocated in the National Budget, as women we desire that different ministries should also consider us. Even when medication is being disbursed, whether it is tablets that are being given, they should be given to women because they are the nurses in every home. You would find that a husband may bring many tablets and the wife is the one who is responsible for caring for the husband. The request is that women should be empowered.

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs should be properly funded so that awareness campaigns are carried out throughout the nation to make women aware of the different rights. I thank you.

*HON. SEN. SHIRI: Thank you Mr. President for giving me the opportunity to contribute. I want to start by thanking Hon. Minister Mutsvangwa for bringing this comprehensive report which is quite important to us. Her report was compiled by the Gender Commission which has a responsibility of looking at different genders, the allocation of opportunities to both women and men, boys and girls and even the disabled. I believe that the report from the presentation is quite important looking at the issues to do with equal opportunities.

As a developing nation, women are left behind in terms of education, leadership roles, economic or financial empowerment the Gender Commission has quite pertinent events where they target different provinces, even Mashonaland Central and other provinces. The Commission is going to the people, engaging people and raising awareness about rights and equal rights, whether it is a man or a woman.

         Then I want to look at the issue that women are people who have multiple roles. They care for the family, they provide for the family and look after the sick and the disabled, so sometimes they miss a lot of opportunities because of their various responsibilities. For example, a woman who is taking care of a disabled child, the child might not be able to take care of himself or herself, the mother would then take up the full responsibility of caring. The woman might not be able to empower herself academically or in any other way. She might not be able to participate in mining and other activities because of that domestic responsibility.

 So, what should we do as a nation to promote women and to support them? These are the issues that are being highlighted by the Gender Commission that allocating equal opportunities to women is quite important because when a woman has a similar job to a man, then they must have an equal salary but when we look at economic issues, we look at equity.  The distribution of wealth should consider such things that women are naturally not empowered. Some did not get the opportunity to go to school, some might not be employed.

 So the Gender Commission and as Members of Parliament, the Minister of Women's Affairs should be allocated a lot of money and the Gender Commission should be funded because they have a big responsibility.

Since women are 52% of the total population, they are the majority, they have the decision of how the economy is built. They are labourers, they do all the work and they participate greatly in voting, but they are not influential, they do not have influential positions because they are the people who bear children and contribute to the manpower of different departments. They even contribute to the army.

The Gender Commission should come up with programmes that empower women from where they are to a different position so that women's voices are heard and they will be given the opportunity.  I appreciate that our Hon. Minister is capable and she has demonstrated that when women are given the opportunity, they can stand up and shine and they can bring a glow to the nation. As women, we stand for different things, we even stand for national aspirations.

Women should be given equal opportunities so that they are found in leadership positions. Men indeed should not see a woman as a threat. That is why we believe in our traditional leaders because they do not lead alone, but they also give women a role to play.  In the past, women did not participate in marriage and lobola rights, but because our traditional leaders are custodians of culture who understand the value of women, have empowered women to partake in marriage ceremonies. Even when I am disabled like I am, I have a role to develop my nation.

So, we need to think of how we can empower women so that their confidence is restored and they will be able to stand and speak with confidence without any fear, understanding the law. The Gender Commission is therefore encouraged to come up with tailor-made programmes which would train women in ICT skills.

There are issues to do with artificial intelligence. Women should be found to be actively involved in such. Are they being taught about artificial intelligence? Our budget is programme-based. Are there programmes where, when we look at these programmes, specific about the training of women in ICT, agriculture, and in different sectors? This is meant to create opportunities for women because we have a lot of intelligent women who can do any role and can take up any job that is being done even by men.

Issues of rights are quite important, Mr. President. I have an issue which is quite concerning, which I want to give as an example. A certain woman who was in the military and was disabled, now she is blind, she lost her sight, yesterday she was not allowed to board a bus because she did not have an assistant. And the crew said that they could not take her up because she did not have an assistant. However, issues of inclusivity speak to the training of bus crews in such issues.

The laws are very clear, the country has good laws that clearly say that everyone is important and leaving no one behind as a mantra should be practical, it must not be a talk show.  We need to value every one of us. Those who watch social media would see that those who are living with disabilities commented about the issue.

The Constitution is quite clear about discriminating and the Gender Commission should investigate such issues because people are being abused because of their dispositions, whether they are living with disabilities or they are women, they are found to be abused.

 I want to thank the Hon Minister for the report that you presented, that looking at the laws, we need to look at the existing laws, the new laws and the old laws looking at gender issues with a perception of ascertaining whether there is gender balance. We need to look at things like smart agriculture, how smart agriculture is bettering women, solar panels and solar systems being given to women and women being empowered through training in different fields like agriculture. So I appreciate that we notice that there are quite a few women in mining. In Mutoko, women were given a place to occupy, a decent place where they would be able to engage in different jobs.  Your ministry Hon. Minister is quite commendable. You gave an award to people living with disabilities. You gave them a loan and this loan empowered them.  It empowered 10 women in Midlands Province and they achieved quite amazing things. Their families are surviving because of that loan and they repaid it.  You also acknowledged them and having looked at them and having empowered them, this proves that when a woman is supported, she can excel. 

The Gender Commission should continue supporting everyone and enhancing the quality of different people's lives. So, we need capacity building as women, even men who are gender champions. Men indeed, including our Hon. Chief who is here and a gender advocate, is educating the nation about gender issues, which are not just women issues, but gender issues and developmental issues.

Everyone is born of a woman. The issue of discriminating against women should be an issue of the past. Women should also be honoured, even by traditional courts and even in different platforms.  Hon. Minister, your ministry is quite rich. It has a lot of people and 15% of our population is made up of people who are living with disabilities and are not employed. They are disabled people who face different challenges.  So, please consider them in different programmes. Give them opportunities so that they have equal access to opportunities.

Gender issues are quite pertinent.  There are toilets which are meant for women and men. There are clothes which are meant for women and men. But at the end of the day, you would find that the tombs are the same.  We are all people. There are no cemeteries for women or men only, together we need to be given opportunities.

We need to be empowered and to build and develop our nation. With these few words, I want to say, Hon. President, I am really glad that the report which was presented by the Hon. Minister of Women's Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development was quite comprehensive. Women are repaying their loans and we desire to see them being promoted, enhanced and empowered so that they build their communities and their households. I thank you.

*THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF SENATE (HON. SEN. KAMBIZI):  Thank you for those voluminous words Hon. Senator.

*HON. SEN. BVUMO:  Thank you very much, Hon. President, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the report which was presented by the Hon. Minister of Women's Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development.  I want to commend the report which was compiled professionally which reflects the order that we see in women.  It was quite comprehensive and it was clear and concise from the start to the end. Going through it, it was easy for me to read the report and this has made it easy for me to contribute as a result of that report.

The first thing that prompted me to contribute to the report is that I want to honour women. The issue of honouring women is quite important.  We are people who were brought up in different rural settings and have lived, some of us before independence, after Independence and beyond when women did not have the opportunities that they have now to promote or to be in a more conducive environment. As I am speaking, I see an image of a mother who is battered, who has been beaten up by her husband, but she wakes up early in the morning.  She cooks for the same husband who beats her up.  She prepares porridge for him so that he goes to the field.

The husband eats his porridge and the wife has not eaten. He will go to the field to till the land and the woman will come back and prepare food for this man at around 11 or 12 noon.  Then the woman  will come back to prepare for their lunch. This woman also goes to prepare the meal and later on, around 4 p.m, the woman goes with the husband to the field to cultivate and around 1800hrs, the family will be doing different chores. They can even go to the shops but the woman would continue cooking for the family and when it is time for the family to go to sleep, maybe the husband would want to discuss with his wife.

This might take quite some time, but the picture that I am portraying is the picture of a strong and resilient woman who perseveres. This is why I decided to share these words. There is an issue which was raised, the issue of observations that were done last year.  Firstly, the issue of harassment of women in different communities. I believe that our society has not accepted and embraced the different rights of our women, especially women with the dressing which resonates with the weather.

When you go to Copacabana bus terminus and you hear people whistling, it means that there is a woman who is being abused.  Unless it is a man who has stolen, but many times it is because of the abuse of women that will be happening.  I appreciate the role that is being played by the Gender Commission in looking at the rights of women.

I also noted the issue of child marriages, an issue which should be discussed and debated continually because our young girls are being forced into early marriages.  We have many incidences that are coming from the Apostolic sects where you find that young girls are married off whilst they are still young.  Sometimes you find that a child will be found to be pregnant and they fail to deliver properly because that child is still young. When these things come out, they are not addressed as quickly as other issues. There is a speaker who spoke earlier about issues that happened in the past, talking about the good work that is being done by our police.  I appreciate the good job but there are issues which we feel there is not much energy that is put by our police, for example the abuse of the girl child and women.   I want to encourage the embracing of awareness campaigns so that women will be protected by the different instruments that include our culture because naturally men are people who are patriarchal in nature, do not change much and are vested in cultural practices or in history.  It is difficult for men to believe in rights and some believe it is their right to beat up children and women and they also believe that men should have many women but these are issues that need to be interrogated.  I also want to talk about the issue of women, the parliamentarians’ 50/50, quota system and PR issues which are always discussed.  What really interests me is the issue of the unity of women, regardless of their political orientation.  This is an issue which can unite the nation because when we look at our political history from long back, it has been an issue of squabbling but the women took the initiative of uniting.  We have seen this happening in different fora and when women are together they talk and do a lot of things.  Sometimes they have differences when men interfere.  At one point I met with the Hon Minister during different programmes like the HeforShe Programme and she is capable of leading women through public awareness campaigns, through teaching women and through empowering women, which is quite instrumental and has motivated women to unite and support different programmes.  We can say a lot of things but this subject is quite rich.  It is a very deep subject which we can spend a lot of time talking about. 

At one point we had a discussion where a chief stood up saying that women should be encouraged and empowered in different communities.  We do not have many female chiefs but we have a lot of local village heads who are women, which means that women are involved in major decision making in communities.   I appreciate the report which was presented by the Minister.  I believe there were a lot of discussions that were done whilst women were moving around collecting and gathering data from different people and I am glad that we are blessed as a nation. I do not know whether it is because of our Constitution which is all encompassing that we are quite rich in the Senate because of the different cultural representation that we have in the House.  We have a lot of chiefs in the House and to be called a chief is very important.  At one point I thought because of politics I was naughty but by merely meeting a chief, I just feel humbled and I appreciate the Constitution for making provision for having the chief’s quota in Parliament. Chiefs played a very important role in public consultations and these issues are to do with discrimination of women and gender empowerment. 

I believe that in the near future, women will be found and we know culturally that these issues might appear as if they are taboo but because of the dynamism that we find in culture, I believe that at one point we would find women being chiefs and administering traditional courts because women are naturally peace-makers.  This is what prompted me to stand up as someone who was brought up by a woman who grew up seeing the challenges that are faced by women.  So, I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity.

HON. SEN. MATIBIRI:  Thank you Mr. President for affording me this opportunity to add my voice.  I will be brief in this very important subject occasioned by the tabling of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission Report in terms of Section 323 of the Constitution of this country.  I know the Hon. Minister who tabled this report is not about fulfilling a constitutional obligation but about her commitment to issues of gender equality in this country.  Just as has been said, I have had an opportunity to interface with her at different fora where her commitment has been noticeable and beyond reproach and we take note and appreciate that.  Allow me Mr. President, to extract some pointers from yet another report that was tabled in Parliament in 2019, to assist me in driving the few points that I want to put before this House.  The 2019 report noted that the obtaining situation in respect of gender equality in Zimbabwe still leaves a lot to be talked about.  The report noted that gender insensitive socio-cultural economic and political practices continue to thrive in Zimbabwean society which has remained male dominated or patriarchal.  In most cases, the society turns a blind eye to women and girls suffering under gender oppression. Even though the challenges are many, the real commitment to real meaningful gender equality largely remains insufficient. Allow me to draw your attention to the event which took place on the 20^th November when we gathered here to commemorate the commencement of our observance of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based violence.  The President of the Senate in her remarks said that a lot still needs to be done.  Progress has been slow. 

These are the challenges and these exist despite the fact that Section 3 of the Zimbabwean Constitution clearly provides that Zimbabwe is founded on the values of gender equality.  Not only that, Zimbabwe is a signatory to the African Union Commission on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) or Maputo Protocol.  We put our signature to that.

We have also further committed ourselves to the National Strategic Goals, in particular which streamline gender equality as key towards the realisation of national strategic goals.  We are part of the UN family where we have further committed ourselves to promoting gender equality at all levels.  Why am I bringing these things?  I am bringing these things because the Hon. Minister who has tabled this report – they have all agreed that progress has been slow and a lot needs to be done.  This is 44 years into independence.  Why should we be talking about gender equality?

As you walk into this august House the Senate, it is a beautiful place.  One is reminded of how this society is founded on equality.  We pass through the statue of Ambuya Nehanda and sekuru Kaguvi standing side by side.  They waged a war to liberate this country.  This Senate we sit in, there are men and women who committed their lives to fighting the war of liberation side by side to achieve this very society that we have today - [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] -  It was not men or women in front.  It was men and women side by side.  They executed the liberation struggle to take us to where we are today.  Were we fighting to achieve a society in which we could be unequal to each other?  These are serious questions that we must ask ourselves.  By accepting, practicing or by not taking gender equality seriously, what are we saying about women?  Are we not saying they are second class citizens and is that true? 

This debate challenges the other side of the gender debate by men.  We must asks ourselves this difficult question – this debate is so close to my heart because I was brought up by a woman - [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] -  I lost my father when I was in grade 4 and today I am in this Senate – she is there in Murewa rural.  She managed to send me to school up until I went to university to be able to come and stand before you to day – and she is a woman - [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] - 

Mr. President, I want this Senate to take this debate beyond these walls and in particular the male Senators to take a position; the call to action so that we do not only have this beautiful thing written in our Constitution.  We appended our signature to CEDAWS, we are part of the UN family and we are part of the African Commission and so on – these beautiful phrases that we say; leaving no one behind; building a middle-income society by 2030 when women are behind, when they constitute 52%. Then we only realise their importance when it comes to politics.  I think it is not fair. 

4000 girls are dropping out of school yearly on account of what is called period poverty.  Globally, over 150 000 000 suffer violence and this is happening.  This is the reality.  I want us to be able to say beyond these debates, what are we doing at an individual level and as we gather in various spaces?  As I conclude my submission, my thinking is that schools are agents of change. These stereotypes about gender equality are being perpetuated because we have not intervened at the level of our education.  Let us kill this at an early age.  I seek to see schools adopting gender sensitive programmes at an early age so that our young boys begin to appreciate that we are equal - [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]-  Let us also not forget that resources are key to the elimination of gender inequality.  I will sound what has been submitted already that let us make sure the Budget that is going to come before this House is gender sensitive and it realises that we need to take our women to where we are – at the same level with men.  That commitment, the same report is going to be tabled here, we are going to see milestones and a society that is itching towards equality.  This debate must be relevant.  We must be focusing on other things – the quality is non-negotiable.  I thank you Mr. President. 

HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: Thank you Mr. President. I want to congratulate our Hon. Minister for bringing that report and indeed the report is comprehensive. The Zimbabwe Gender Commission did a good job.  I want to say that everything that we do in this country is done according to the Constitution.  The Commission followed our Constitution. The other thing that pleases me is that the Gender Commission is quite clear that gender is about both men and women.  Other men are being beaten in their homes and sometimes they are discriminated against.  I appreciate the fact that the Gender Commission is playing a crucial role in raising awareness of those gender issues which touch on both men and women.

Regarding the issue of gender mainstreaming and gender balance, there is a speaker who spoke about inequalities, we must not forget our culture.  In the past, when I wanted to take an identity card as old as I am, I was supposed to be led by a young child or a boy because I am a woman.  It takes time to erase those beliefs. It is important to talk about these issues.  The issue of raising awareness is quite important.  The role of chiefs in educating the nation is quite pertinent because it speaks to the role of culture in raising awareness. The roles of both women and men and the issues of equality in terms of resources are issues that are deeply rooted in our minds.  We need to continuously disseminate this kind of information.

Lastly, I want to ask our Hon. Minister who spoke about the different things that are being done by the Gender Commission, I want to know whether the microfinance Women’s Bank is being capacitated and that it is addressing women’s issues because the percentage of the interest that is being charged is too high and most women cannot afford. The loans that are being dished out are quite small, they cannot assist women in coming up with meaningful projects.  Hon. Minister, maybe you can assist us in that regard so that we understand what is happening and with these few words, I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity.

         HON. SEN. GOTORA: Thank you Hon. President. Before getting into the debate, I want to thank the Hon. Minister from August last year, I believe she is the only Minister who is constant in coming up with reports to this august House.  She is the only Minister to my knowledge who comes to the august House and responds to motions and most Ministers do not come to the august House. – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] -

         The reason why I am saying that is because, what is hindering women from being empowered is the fact that most Ministers are men and they do not come to this august House. Women can even go far because the Minister is continuously coming to the House, I am from the royal family. My grandfather was a chief and he would consult my grandmother before making a decision. The decision that is to be made by my grandmother is the decision that my grandfather would apply.

         In Manicaland, we had the late old Chief Nyashanu who when deliberating on issues would refer to his wife. He would say Mai Jakahos, what do you think about this and a judgment would be made. This means our traditional leaders even though they were far ahead, were disturbed by the white people because we embraced their culture. 

The report that you gave to us Hon. Minister, included the issue of workshops and functions and the political party’s dialogues that were happening.  I have seen a lot of women sitting in this House and there are a few men, which means a precedent was set.  Let us push it so that we move forward. 

On the workshops that are happening, the Hon. Minister spoke about the role of the Gender Commission and like what Hon. Senator  Matibiri said, let us cascade them down to the schools, to rural areas then the issue will be addressed.  We normally talk about the patriarch where we find men being leaders in everything. The truth is that as we stand here as men because of our biological makeup, that is why Adam became dull.  He was given all the riches by God and God decided that he would create a woman to be Adam’s companion. To me, Eve did not commit any sin but Adam was responsible. He was asked where he was and he said the woman that you gave me. This is not the place.  So, as we are here as men, we were brought up by mothers. We need to accept that there is nothing that we can do that our sisters cannot do, that our women cannot do and that there is nothing that they can do that we cannot do.  Whether it is the chaos that is allocated to women or men, the different gender roles can be reversed.  A man can do what a woman can do and a woman can do what a man can do. Hon. Minister, before analysing your report, I picked several issues; the issues to do with workshops, the political intervention. I wanted the issue of the Gender Commission.  When God spoke to Adam, he said ‘let me create a helper who is right for him’.  It is simply because we are failing to fulfill what we were entitled to. 

To end this, let me say Minister, the Gender Commission that we have, if I was the one appointing when the term has expired, I was going to reappoint them because the report that you presented to us, to me is full of good things which we should emulate.  I hope that we will need to have a soft copy so that we can print for ourselves and that we can publish the good things which are being done by the Gender Commission, what we think needs to be fulfilled in time.  I thank you.

THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Thank you Hon. Senator Gotora for your debate. Indeed, the Hon. Minister has a sentimental attachment to this House and women.

         ^∞HON. SEN. FANUEL: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to debate. Firstly, I want to thank the Minister for the report that she brought. She started this mission on gender while she was the Minister of Information to an extent that the message has reached as far as Binga. As of now, I want to thank His Excellency that he appointed her for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs which leads gender. Hon. Minister has love for gender issues and we pray that she should continue doing this great job, especially empowering women.

She does not tire and what she is doing is so magnificent that even in our area she is known by her name. As we represent gender, in the past we were down trodden because once a man gets married, he changes the surname of the wife as if she is his child. So, because of he workshops that are being done through Gender Commission, they are giving awareness to women and we are saying let us have money for women in the rural areas so that they know their rights because without their rights, they can hardly do anything.

         Right now, we were saying 50% but because of the awareness, we are now advocating for 60% women because we are able even to be in leadership. Right now, we can even say that every woman who is able should be given a post or a position and you should stand up and work. As gender, we are saying we should be seen in any employment and we should be considered equally with men. Even if it is in employment, it should be on merit instead of looking at gender.

         We are saying even in the hospitals, let there be women. You will realise that long ago, women could not drive buses, but just because of the Gender Commission, women are now driving buses. They are now property owners because of the sensitisation through Gender Commission which is under the Hon. Minister, Hon. Senator Mutsvangwa. With these few words, I thank you Mr. President.

         +HON. SEN. MLOTSHWA:  Thank you Mr. President, I felt like it would not be prudent for me that I do not add my voice to the discussion on the Gender Commission.  I would want to thank the Hon. Minister for bringing this report to this House. We meet at a lot of fora and when you give your vote of thanks in these commitments that women usually meet, you always make sure that you recognise us women. We thank you for the effort.

Another thing that I want to say is that we have men here in the Senate who are gender champions. We want to appreciate these men because if we do not unite, we cannot reach this equality that we are discussing. Let us remain united and we reach this destination where we reach the 16 Days of Activism and the abuse of women will be eliminated. We will not talk about Gender-Based Violence. More than 50 women face this challenge.

The abuse of women again is 40%. If we could assist each other and encourage fellow men that a happy woman at home is able to take care of the children even in the absence of the husband. If a woman is being abused, the family will not grow and there will be no peace at home. If you abuse the woman, the children are also abused. We sometimes conduct programmes in rural areas and we say that they should come carrying their children. Women are actively involved in these programmes. It is either their sons or daughters and they come with them. It is easy when you are mobilising women to come because they partake in these activities. It is important that we recognise women and give them the dignity that they deserve.

In our Ndebele tradition, women are respected and they understand that for a kingdom to be administered, there is need for women to be there and the advisors were the women. They will provide men with the right guidance and direction on how to run and maintain the clan. We do not understand why men now lay hands on women. If we are sensitising women, they are supposed to recognise their rights, we are not supposed to forget the men because they are supposed to be taught that they have a part to play. 

Men should not feel belittled when they feel that women’s rights are being respected. They may feel that when a woman is promoted, she may not respect her man. A woman will always be humble even though she is elevated or respected. As senators here, when we get to our homesteads we respect our husbands and take care of the family chores that are accorded to women. It is important that we also encourage the women where we are gathering that if our lives are to become easy, we need to be humble and respect our husbands. As for me, I am a daughter to a church pastor and what I was taught through the Bible is that husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it to make it belong to God. I feel that the women should also respect their husbands. The Bible also says women should be submissive before their husbands. We should remember this so that our lives progress.

         When we are speaking of equality, we need to respect this so that gender equality advocates for peace. The Bible mentions that both men and women have a role to play. Even when we are going for marriage our paternal aunts give us guidance that we are supposed to be submissive to where you are going to be married. I encourage women to go and be humble to where they are going to be married.  To the women I say if a man strikes you with a clenched fist and say I am sorry I doubt if he will continue to assault you after you have asked for forgiveness. I do not think that gender encourages women to be hostile. Women are humble and understanding by nature. That way we are supposed to orient men to understand us and not abuse us.

Another thing that I want to mention is that women are now involved in education. Let us not leave women at our homes. Let us encourage women to go out there and learn what men also learn so that they will be able to survive even when the spouse is not there. With the life that we are living nowadays, you do not only need to put food on the table. It needs both men and women to work hand in hand so that they are able to support the family.

With these few words I say to the Hon Minister, may the Lord protect and guide you. I thank you.

THE MINISTER OF WOMEN’S AFFAIRS, COMMUNITY, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT (HON. SEN. M. MUTSVANGWA): I move that the debate do now adjourn.

Motion put and agreed to.

Debate to resume: Thursday, 19^th December, 2024.

MOTION

PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, SALE AND CONSUMPTION OF DANGEROUS ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

Sixth Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on production, distribution, sale and consumption of dangerous alcoholic beverages.

         HON. SEN. CHAKABUDA: I move that the debate do now adjourn.

         HON. SEN. GWATURE: I second.

         Motion put and agreed to.

         Debate to resume: Thursday, 19^th December, 2024.

 

MOTION

REPORT OF THE THEMATIC COMMITTEE ON INDIGENISATION AND EMPOWERMENT ON THE STATUS OF COMMUNITY SHARE OWNERSHIP TRUSTS

Seventh Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Report of the Thematic Committee on Indigenisation and Empowerment on the status of Community Share Ownership Trusts.

Question again proposed.

*HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: Thank you Mr. President for affording me this opportunity to add my voice to the report which was tabled in this august House to do with indigenisation and economic empowerment with regards to the community share ownership trust.

Mr. President Sir, as investors were coming into the country to do mining, we used to have an Act that talked about the 51% to be directed to the community.  Everything was done and it was moving smoothly to the extent that whenever they had extracts, they could surrender a certain percentage to the community.  It then led to the communities where communities managed to build schools, bridges and clinics.  It was all good for the development of the nation. 

However, after the repeal of the Indigenisation Act, the investors started to say we are no longer obliged to surrender a certain percentage to the community.  They used to extract minerals exporting them to their countries and nothing benefited the community and the country at large.  Whenever they were accorded that opportunity to do mining, they would drill boreholes for the community but now everything is down and dilapidated.

As a Committee, we visited areas in Zimunya, Zvishavane, Bubi and all those areas and discovered that they have the same problem whereby there is repealing of the law which was benefiting the community.  Now, the communities are suffering yet their areas are rich in minerals.

These companies which were supposed to surrender an average of 10% from their proceeds are now retaining all the profits and all the minerals and as a country, we are no longer benefiting.  Using the 10% of proceeds from these companies, communities had put in piped water, and some built classroom blocks, clinics and other developments.

However, the problem that led to the repealing of the law is that some communities also misused or mismanaged the funds because there was no proper administration.  In other areas where we visited, they would say the one who was responsible for the management of funds relocated to somewhere else.  Only if we had suggested that now that they are doing this, they could have made a policy to say that now we have Community Share Ownership Trust, there must be someone accountable and administering everything.  So, most of the Community Share Ownership Trust ended up crumbling.  Now that we do not even have anything tangible on the ground, some of them who managed to start their projects, about three of them are the only ones functioning.

This involves the time whereby when they were given the funds, some managed to buy graders and others managed to buy lorries but now that there is no continuous income of funds to service or to cater for those resources, I feel pity for those who are in Bindura. They had bought graders and a lot of other equipment and now that they no longer receive funds, they surrendered everything to the council. When they surrendered everything to the council, nothing was written down, no records were kept to an extent that no agreement was put on paper to manage or monitor the use of the equipment.

The council ended up using everything.  Then after they broke down, they simply packed them by the corner, nothing is functional as we speak; nothing shows that as they had received some funds, this is what they did, there are no records at all, nothing tangible is in place – there is nothing, Mr. President. So, these Community Share Ownership Trusts Mr. President Sir, I believe that the only thing left is that for those people within those communities where mining is being done should benefit from a certain percentage from the extracts of the minerals from within.

Now what is needed is that the problem was there before and nobody had conscientised them to say this is what should be done.  So, my prayer is that Mr. President, if we have the new Empowerment Bill, it should sail through this august House and ensure that we have a law to assist those Community Share Ownership Trusts to revive and revamp everything that they have in their constituencies.

Furthermore, as we visited those areas, people were saying mines, mines throughout.  Now that we have discovered that we have a lot of things which are happening, even tourism is there, conservancies are there, manufacturing is also there, everything is just silent because people were only mentioning things to do with mines. Other businesses came on board later.  So, we kindly pray for this Bill to be fast-tracked and include these modern businesses, not only focussing on mining.

After we have done that Mr. President, I think that will assist and help us for our Community Share Ownership Trusts to be revived. After they have been revived, they do not only have to be handed over to them, there is need to make sure that they must have a Statutory Instrument or a law which then guides them on whatever they have to do.  Their administration should know that once everybody believes that they used to have a Community Share Ownership Trust and that it has been revived, everything will start going well.

The good thing about the Community Share Ownership Trusts is that they include the chiefs.  We all know the importance of our local leadership.  Then whenever they will be doing their administration, there is a need for the designated chiefs to be reinstated and kept in office because they already know the people whom they work with in their areas.  After doing so, that will then help everybody in every area to align with their respective chiefs.   The chief will also be in the Community Share Ownership Trusts, which will then help all the citizens.

The communities will never suffer while these local resources are being extracted from this country to ensure the development of other countries whilst we continue to suffer as citizens of this country.

With these few words, Mr. President, I would like to thank you for the opportunity given to me. I thank you.

*THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF SENATE:  Thank you so much Honourable Senator Tongogara for your contribution.

HON. SEN. KABONDO:  Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity. I just felt I needed to add a few things to what Hon. Sen. Tongogara said on the report because I am also one of the people who is in that Committee.

There is one province in particular, that I would love to talk about. Of course, we went to all the other provinces and we saw what we saw and it was written in the report. But there is, like she said, that these Ownership Trusts involve chiefs.  The Matabeleland North one is or rather was or is still being chaired by our Hon. Senator Chief Khumalo – that is the Trust that I want to talk about because something in that Trust touched me.

When they were given the money, they sat down and agreed on giving a certain percentage to the youths, a certain percentage to the people living with disabilities and that really touched me.  They identified people and bought them six wheelchairs.  They also gave, I think it was USD5, 000.00, to the youths to do their projects, which to me really meant a lot because those people were benefiting from what was coming from their mines.

So, it really touched me and I got disturbed when it had to stop.  We realised that most of the Trusts were not doing any income generating projects because I think they had told themselves that the money was going to keep on coming and they just had to inject it into building their communities instead of making some income generating projects.  So, really if it could be revisited so that they get their money back, it would really make quite some good changes for the people in those communities. I thank you.

ᶺᶺHON. SEN. MOHADI:  Thank you President of the Senate for awarding me this opportunity to add my voice to this motion.  For those who went and visited through these public consultations and verification visits on this Committee, they have said much.   Nevertheless, though I am not a part of this Committee, I have a few words that I would want to add.

I would want to, first of all, extend my gratitude to Hon. Sen. Zvidzai who is the Chairperson for this Committee and also the Members of the Committee.  The Community Ownership Trusts are legally constituted and are recognised in our Constitution. – [HON. SENATORS: Inaudible interjections.] – May I please be protected Mr. President Sir?

THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF SENATE:  Order, order Hon. Senators!

ᶺᶺHON. SEN. MOHADI:  Thank you, as I was saying, all these things which are taking place, developing the communities through the project initiatives on the ground are led by the chiefs who are our traditional leaders. Then after people had seen that these things were successful, but the laws or the policies that were safeguarding these projects were not being monitored and evaluated, this ended up making these projects fail. 

These are not the only minerals that are within these projects. We have also minerals which are being extracted and these miners, do not even leave anything for the communities to benefit. As I am speaking, we have a mine that we have in BeitBridge which deals with coal.  They are just extracting coal from the mine and neither our chiefs nor the communities are benefiting from these resources. I feel that there is a need to look closely into these issues. We have citrus fruits like oranges. You will find that people are growing a lot of oranges but the oranges that remain here in Zimbabwe are the poor grade.  We have never seen an A grade orange in this country because they are all exported and we remain with nothing.  I would like to encourage those in this committee to also have the intention to revive these community ownership trusts so that they can be effective and have strong policies to ensure that whoever comes to get resources from the community should never take them raw.  They should also leave 10% behind to the traditional leaders who are the custodians. 

         We also need to monitor these projects.  If they are mines, we need to know the quantity of minerals they will have extracted and if they are fruits, we need to know the quantity of fruits being exported.  We need to have proper records of everything that is happening and what is being exported.  After monitoring, they should evaluate whether there is any value addition in our country and if the country is benefitting in any way.  Then on the extraction of resources they are taking away almost everything out of the country and we remain with nothing.  I want us to make follow-up on these things and make sure that we safeguard our resources and we benefit from them.  I thank you.

         HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI:  I move that the debate do now adjourn.

         HON. SEN. TONGOGARA:  I second.

         Motion put and agreed to.

         Debate to resume:  Thursday, 19^th December, 2024.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF SENATE

BILLS RECEIVED FROM THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

         THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE (HON. SEN. KAMBIZI):  I have to inform the Senate that I have received the following Bills which have been transmitted from the National Assembly:

• Finance (No. 2) Bill [H. B.12 A, 2024]
• Appropriation (2025) Bill [H. B. 11, 2024].

SECOND READING

FINANCE (NO. 2) BILL [H.B. 12A, 2024]

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE):  Hon. President, the Second Reading will be today and the Bills will be disposed in that order.  On the 28^th November, 2024, I presented in this august the 2025 National Budget under the theme Building Resilience for Sustained Economic Transformation.  The 2025 National Budget amounts to ZiG322.6 billion and that is Vote appropriations to the tune of ZiG240.9 billion and constitutional and statutory appropriations to the tune of ZiG81.7 billion.  This budget is premised on an environment that will see the economy recover and will support that recovery from a growth rate of 2% this year to 6% next year.  I must hasten to say as economists, we make assumptions about the performance of an economy and predictions.  Our prediction was that we would have a better rainfall season into next year.  I am seeing a bit of an improvement after a bit of a dry spell.  We were also expecting that the exchange rate would be much more stable and it would lead to inflation remaining under control and just making it easier to plan and do business.  We also expect fiscal and monetary policies to remain tight.

         The priorities in this budget are to establish a durable and stable macro-economic environment with increased use of domestic currency.  We also expect the budget to support productive value chains and diversify local product ranges in manufacturing and also in the mining sector.  We lose quite a bit in terms of illicit outflows in the mining sector - our minerals going out not fully beneficiated.  So, this budget seeks to close some of these loopholes and to also ensure that the local communities benefit from the corporate social responsibility activity of some of these miners.  We expect this budget to also upscale delivery of sustainable infrastructure projects and public services including investment in irrigation schemes that would evacuate water from the bodies that we have already invested in as a country onto the fields.  This will ensure that we build resilience against climate change.  In this budget, we want to support the upgrade of ICT infrastructure and drive the digitalisation agenda including artificial intelligence.

         Our youths are very important. They are the future and in this budget, it is our intention to support their activities including the capacitating of the Youth Bank and building vocational training centres among other interventions. 

On gender equality and empowerment, the budget will support the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, SMEs but also capacitate the Women’s Bank so that they can carry out the extension of loans with improved and increased capacity as well as trying to lower the interest rate on these loans.  I want to support the strengthening of public institutions so that we can always keep improving governance.  We want to support the devolution agenda.

         Our debt is an issue of concern.  It is not really the size of the debt but also the liquidity around it.  In this budget, we are saying during 2025, we will continue to support our arrears clearance and get a resolution process.  We will continue to cooperate with the international community, making sure that we remain open for business but also remain a friend to all and an enemy to none.  The Budget also proposes certain provisions for increasing revenue so that we can support all these items that I have spoken about by raising adequate resources.  Some of these interventions involve new taxes – if I can highlight a few. 

Some of these taxes are meant to support the health sector such as the new tax on fast foods.  We hope this will go a long way in supporting that Ministry. 

What you see going forward is a decline in international support for the Ministry of Health as some of the funds that have been extended by donors begin to dry up.  This is expected and as Government, we should fill that gap.  We need to start to prepare the ground to take over an increased burden in supporting our health sector.  We have also included some green taxes in the form of the carrier bag withholding tax.  Some countries have banned these products but we have said let us keep going and allow jobs not to be impacted, but let us impose a tax on these carrier bags.

We have also tried to stimulate domestic car production.  We tried this a few years ago and we had to slow down on it because there was a lot of push back and there was need to import a lot of buses back then to support ZUPCO.  We believe now we have quite a lot of buses and we have re-introduced duty on commuter buses.  We are supporting a programme of incentivising the import of knockdown kits which will then be assembled in facilities such as Willovale, Deven Engineering or Quest facilities among others.  We are encouraging the use of greener cars in order to reduce pollution – we are speaking to the green agenda and we have also incentivized the acquisition of charging stations that use solar power as opposed to the main ZESA power.

We have made adjustment to sugar content tax – we have this tax that we are setting aside for supporting our cancer response agenda.  We did not make any distinction before between concentration and ready to drink drinks.

If you have concentrated Mazoe, you are not likely going to gulp it down your throat, you will dilute with some water.  Surely, the tax on the concentrated bit of Mazoe, for example, should be lower than the tax on what you are going to drink.  I am just using that example.  We have made that adjustment and companies have lobbied us – they have convinced us that and we concur that is right to do. 

Therefore, I present this Budget before this august House and I move that the Bill be read a second time. 

HON. SEN. PHULU:  We welcome the presentation that we have received from the Hon. Minister. 

However, from the onset the Minister stated that the Budget was presented this august House.  This is not correct.  On the day that the Budget statement was presented –[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]-  The House adjourned and we were not afforded the opportunity to follow what was happening in the National Assembly on the screen. 

         I do know that in terms of the Constitution, the Budget is presented to the National Assembly.  Surely if we are to sit here having received this document last night and we are expected in less than 12 hours to be able to appreciate the complex issues that are presented in this Bill, it is surely impossible.  It could have helped had we been afforded the opportunity to listen in so that we can as the Bill is flowing in the National Assembly, be making notes, consulting the public and trying to follow so that we can make meaningful contributions.

         I do remember that the matter has been raised that when the Budget Committee or any other committee go out, we never get presentation of what the public said.  I remember the Hon. Senator Chief Ngungumbane raising this point forcefully. We were promised that this would happen.  We do not know what the public said.  We sit here with due respect as stooges expected to rubber stamp whatever is said because the language is complex. When you try and follow the issues from the Act rather than from a presentation, it is very difficult.

         Furthermore, we would like to suggest that when an amendment to the Finance Act is suggested because the Finance Act is amended every year, when you go on line to try and get the current Act, you cannot get one.  I got a 2019 one from ZIMRA on line when they were amending Section 24 b), you go there and you cannot find that section, therefore you have no context from the legislation – you do not have context from the presentation.  I oppose that there would be any meaningful debate here today.

         Senate gets a very bad reputation.  Newspaper reports come out, Bills cruise through Senate without debate.  The reason is that we never get reports from Committees.  We are always overlooked in terms of being meaningfully informed about what is happening in the House as the Bills go through.  We got this last night and we are expected to be the experts today.  Even in terms of engagement with stakeholders, they all go and engage in the National Assembly, they forget about the existence of Senate and yet when this day comes, we are supposed to make meaningful debates.  I know that we are under pressure, we are supposed to be closing – within eight days we are supposed to have done what we are doing so that the Bill is passed.  The Minister is under pressure and he needs to run the country.  We appreciate all that but certainly these issues need to be addressed.

         HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI: Thank you Mr. President for this opportunity. My appreciation to the Minister for coming to this House to make this presentation. Albeit it late or Gorilla tactics like. I think my colleague has very eloquently talked about that issue. We hope that moving forward we will get ample time so that we make reasonable productive contributions to this very important law that will direct the development of this country for the whole year next year.

         Mr. President, I wish to find clarification on certain issues, particularly to do with the numbers. The arithmetic of this budget and the relationship with all the indices that the Minister has got in the National Budget Statement. Beginning with the real GDP growth the Minister says will be 6%. I need some education concerning those numbers. If you go to the Blue Book on Page 73 the nominal GDP at market prices was last year ZiG 650 497 000 000. In 2025 it is a trillion point three and yes those are nominal but if we factor in the inflation numbers I do not know whether I am beginning to lose my arithmetic but that talks to 111% growth.

         If you assume that here Minister, one of the assumptions is that our inflation will be the regional inflation of 18% and we assume that our inflation may be around there. If we factor in those inflation numbers, I am failing to get 6% from the arithmetic that we are doing. At the lower end of inflation, I am getting something like 100%, and at the higher end of inflation maybe 78%. I know the Minister has got certain inflation figures, including the shock inflation figure which runs to about 90% and the anticipated inflation of about 40%.

Even those numbers do not seem to give me 6%, I attempt the arithmetic; I am not an economist and do not pretend or intend to be one but Mr. President I used to be a very sharp mathematician in my younger age and working around with numbers that are provided here I just need a bit of clarification or education as to how we arrive at that 6%. The number of inflation we are talking about, in one instance you are talking 18%, in another instant you are talking 40%, and in another instant, you are talking 90%. Which inflation figure are  we planning? Are we planning for shocking inflation of 90%, if so why are we not talking about the realities of that inflation?

         Secondly, Mr. President the budget theme for our budget next year is building resilience for sustainable economic transformation and resilience means adaptability.  It means that even with the assumptions we make that we will get a good rainy season, if we do not get it our budget should still talk to the achievement of a certain target, capacity to adapt to unforeseen vagaries.  If for example, the issue of global commodity prices does not become that bullish a resilient budget will still be able to perform to some extent. When you look through the broad expenditure in this budget of plus or minus ZiG270 billion, 85% of that is going to consumption and 15% to capital expenditure.  For me again some education might be necessary, resilience can only be built from capital assets and capital equipment.  If you are going to use only 15% of the national cake on capital, how are you building adaptability and how are you building resilience to the economy?  It is worrisome Mr. President, that if we do that there is no relationship between what we are doing and the theme of what we intend to do.  I think it is desirable for those two, the intentions and the actions to relate and connect so that we begin to see some movement.  Mr. President, I also wish to talk about the budget deficit vis- a vis issues of debt.  This country is saddled with debt and development is being pushed back because of the debt overhang.  We are not doing enough.  We are not doing ourselves a favour by being in a hole and keep digging.  We are growing the national debt because of the budget deficit. This budget is going to be financed through further borrowing and again I know that the Minister is a fundi on these subjects and I do not think I want to spiel with him, I am just saying look, I need some clarification.  I am one of his ordinary laymen walking in the streets of Gweru and I need to understand the dynamics around this budget.

         Mr. President, concerning foreign currency receipts one of the key areas is the diaspora. The diaspora is planned that it will contribute upwards of USD1.6 billion. I think we are not doing enough so that we can tap and cream from the diaspora. There is a huge component which needs a little bit of catalysis and fertilisation so that more can come from the diaspora. I do not see any interventions that will cause people in the diaspora to redouble their efforts in remitting this most needed money back home.

         I would like to go back to the issue of resilience and adaptability vis-à-vis our mineral resources. The Minister is talking about taxing hair - he is talking about taxing little money from the person on the street and from the old woman in Tsholotsho who sells cabbages by the road side. Sometimes you spend so much effort and get back so little and setting our eyes off real issues. If you look at the issue of minerals for example, or if you look at commodity marketing versus a commodification of minerals, tobacco or some agricultural products, it does not do us a favour in terms of growing the national cake.

         If you compare you will see that USD4.1 billion comes from raw minerals, your lithium, platinum, PGMs and gold as well. Looking at the manufacturing side, it is only 315 million out of the doers. So when we spent so much effort in exporting these raw materials against spending more effort on creating resilience so that even if the London Stock Market prices of gold, nickel, and if you are selling finished products, we are sure that we are resilient and our fortunes will not be as much dependent on what happens on the London Stock Market.

         So, issues of beneficiation should occupy a lot of our time should we build a resilient budget. Still on the issue of minerals, some base minerals like lime, at this stage, I wish to applaud my brother Hon. Senator C. Mutsvangwa for his initiatives around beneficiation of iron at Manhize. I believe that this is what we should be doing with respect to all our natural endowments, gold, lime and iron. I think because of that thrust to make sure that we are going to beneficiate iron, we might begin to have knock on effects, downstream industries etc.

         All I am saying is that let us focus on beneficiation if we should have a resilient economy. Even on your tobacco for example. When you sell flue cured tobacco, you get a fraction of what you get if you spend more time investing in making secrets and other by-products of the tobacco crop.

With these remarks, some of them may request a bit of education, other proposals, I have particularly with respect to issues of CapEx versus recurrent expenditure. I have got reservations that this budget can grow a resilient economy. Thank you.

         HON. SEN. C. MUTSVANGWA: Thank you very much Mr. President. I want to thank the Minister and his team for working so hard and so assiduously to bring about a budget which promises growth to our economy in light of the fact that – and this is notwithstanding that he had a very big challenge in the previous year because of the most severe drought which the country has faced in more than 47 years. It is a bold budget. Yes, there could be more of the proportion of the budget being given to the growth side vis-à-vis some of the observations about the amount of money which is being allocated to investments.

         As I went through the budget, I also saw a lot of incentives which are being given to the private sector, the domestic one, that is, where we are marshalling domestic direct investment but also an outreach to foreign direct investment. If we go on the global stage, about the availability of capital, the public international capital can offer USD9 trillion, that is the World Bank, IMF and other Government supported systems. If we go to the private sector on the international market, we get about USD100 trillion. It is right and proper that the Minister is beginning to focus much more on private international capital by offering incentives which encourage the inward investment of capital into Zimbabwe. This is the way to go. This is the way the economy will grow faster because we need private international capital which is much more abundant than international public capital.

         I also note that the Minister is not only going green by encouraging the importation of electric vehicles. It is not only a question of being green but a question of saving money because if we bring electric vehicles, we reduce our fuel importation bill. What I want is for us to have the Minister becoming even bolder in making sure that electric vehicles are eventually reduced to zero tariffs. We are a country with a lot of lithium. We are a country where a lot of cobalt passes through, which is another mineral for making batteries, coming from the Congo which is accounting for 60% to 70% of the global cobalt. We are a neighbour to both Congo and Zambia which produces 30% to 40% of the world copper which is used in electric batteries.  We are in a region which is well endowed. If we then add lithium of which Zimbabwe is one of the major hard rock resource countries, in addition, we have graphite in Karoi and also in Mozambique. We also have manganese. This region is well poised to become the future of electric energy vehicle mobility. What Saudi Arabia does today and Russia in fossil fuels, this region is poised to do the new energy electric vehicle.

         The Minister has kicked the ball by reducing duty on electric vehicles. I wish actually it could go to 0% but it is a good start. It is positing Zimbabwe as possibly the future country of electric energy mobility. I want to appreciate what the previous speaker has said about having a steel industry. Again, we look upon the Minister to encourage more incentives for additional beneficiation of an already beneficiated product. We must recognise that steel is the beneficiated product. What food is to human beings, steel is to nations? Steel is the diet of nations.

Zimbabwe to have a steel plant which even Europe does not have is now the considered view of the experts, ours is very well advanced. It is vertically and horizontally integrated. It means that we have actually the capacity to become a major supplier of steel products in the global value chain even in the production of cars.

         We see Morocco, an African country which has now become a major exporter of electric vehicles even ahead of China. We also take a similar position like Morocco because we do have steel and our steel is coming from a very nearby source which is seven km from the mine. It is being supported by coal from Hwange which is only 400km away from the mine. Should we want to make stainless steel, the Great Dyke is only 20km from the mine. Now you compare with China which is the biggest producer and deposits from Australia which is 6 000km, South Africa is 10 000km away, Brazil is 12 000km away, Indonesia 4 000km away. I do not know how God made Zimbabwe, all those things were put in one place.

         Coming to the production of stainless steel, frankly speaking, if we address the issue of energy which the Minister is doing by encouraging incentives in the energy sector when the private sector is coming, there is no country which should produce steel cheaper than Zimbabwe, period! We do have the resources for steel making for the next 200 years. The future of steel is in Zimbabwe. The Minister has started on the right direction in his budget. We want him to be even bolder in making sure that our steel industry is given every incentive to become the most competitive on the global market.

         This is a very forward-looking budget done under difficult circumstances but it is the beginning of better things to come. I also want to encourage the recognition of gold as the supporter of our currency by the Minister. It is inherent in that budget and everything is being done to support the ZiG as our currency. I want us to move in the direction where gold is treated as currency and not a commodity.  The whole world considers gold as money. That is why my colleague earlier on referred to the perpendicular price rise of gold in the past couple of years.

         Whenever there is a shooting war somewhere, gold price goes up. We should not treat gold as a commodity. We should be even more bold to treat gold as money because it has always been money for 5 000 years of human history. All the stories about Munhumutapa Kingdom which extend to Angola, are because we were anchored in the mining of gold as a country. This is the basis of the Great Zimbabwe civilisation since about 800AD. If our ancestors were so clever as to realise that gold is money and everybody else in the Indian Ocean came to this region to Zimbabwe to look for gold; the Shona word comes from Hindi, which means “sona”, meaning gold. Everybody treated Zimbabwe as a gold country. That is why we get the word “Shona”.

         The Portuguese came for gold. Rhodes himself finally came for gold. Between the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, it is important that we begin to treat gold more as money and shift it away from being a commodity.

         I do not want to make this debate long but this budget is forward looking under the difficult circumstances which the Minister has faced. I would also want a quick repeal of the MMCZ Act which recognises wrongly that steel is a mineral. How do you have a product which by chemistry is recognised as a raw material for further processing down the stream and then you put it under the rubric of a mineral? It is punished in many more years than one when it comes to the issues of retention.

         The price of steel on the global market has very thin margins. If we burden our steel industry, we actually kill the goose that lays the golden egg because steel is the industry which is going to revive Bulawayo. Bulawayo was known for its foundries which made metal products for our railway stream. The foundries need to come back home to Bulawayo so that it becomes an industrial city. We also need to see Harare become the centre for the production of all sorts of spare parts for motor vehicles.

Even going in the direction of the new energy electric vehicles, there is nothing now which can stop Zimbabwe from becoming a major centre of the manufacturer of new energy electric vehicles. We do have an advantage in that our friend South Africa has a lot of fossil fuel vehicles, that is those which are driven by diesel and petrol. It may take them a little bit longer to adapt to the new circumstances. They have also the added, perhaps disadvantage that their car industry is anchored in European companies, which are very much behind in the adoption of new energy-electric vehicles.  Europe is behind, China is ahead.

Minister, if you continue to build upon what you have done in your budget, we must encourage the new electric vehicle manufacturers in China who are now taking over the world by storm, to come and make a home in Zimbabwe so that we become the major supplier of new energy electric vehicles on the global market. There is nothing to stop us. We have the new energy minerals, cobalt, lithium, graphite, manganese and nickel. They are all here. Then we have the best quality steel because the company which is at Manhize is the top one in the world.  It is not a slouch company. They are the best. A Fortune 500 company, number 250, is in Zimbabwe. This is a good thing that the Minister and the President have done to attract a company of such calibre.

 Now, with steel and lithium in Zimbabwe, we can become the global centre for the next stage of vehicle automation when people move away from fossil fuels to new energy-electric vehicles. This is the direction in which the budget has started. We want to encourage it and as much as possible, we want Harare, Bulawayo and other cities to become the major centres for the manufacture of new energy-electric vehicles.

Associated with your budget the Minister, is the focus we are putting on attracting private investment so that the logistics chain between Zimbabwe and Mozambique is revived, not only to what it was in Munhumutapa times when there was a seamless border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique during the great empires of the past, but even in colonial times, Portuguese East Africa and Rhodesia were entwined. Then something happened because of Ian Smith. The border ended up being closed during the war and Mozambique suffered and Zimbabwe suffered. Beira became not our port, Mutare collapsed and we are now forced to go all the way to Durban, 2,000 kilometres away, to export. That has a big inflation factor on the Zimbabwe economy. The Minister and his budget is beginning to look in the proper direction, which is the proximity of Mozambique as the natural gateway for Zimbabwean exports. That should be encouraged. Minister, you are in the right direction. We want to make sure that the inflation factor coming from long distances of importing for the Zimbabwean market is reduced and we make Zimbabwe and Mozambique joined at the hip. We become twins between the two countries. For those who may know economic history, France and Germany fought three wars for their border, fighting for coal and iron ore. They fought three wars. The last war, they saw America emerge in the Second World War as the superpower. They learned the hard way. They became united and formed the Franco-German Steel Union in 1951.

So, their resource was no longer being fought for, but they were beginning to cooperate. That steel union between Berlin and Paris is what is now called the European Union. So, with our President being chairman of SADC, the basis of integration of the region is very much a possibility that can now be fully realised and the budget is doing the right thing, looking at encouraging private sector investment through incentives, so that the logistics chain in Zimbabwe is integrated not only in the region but also at the global stage.

Finally, Minister, four years away, we are in the Africa Free Trade Continental Union. We must not look at our industries as they are today and look for capacity utilisation because a lot of capacity utilisation means using old machinery which was inherited from Rhodesian times when it was imported under sanctions and it can never be efficient.

We need to look at new retooling where we get the best of the available technology in manufacturing. We throw away the junk that we inherited from the Rhodesian times. This worship of the colonial economy, which we sometimes hear from certain quotas is wrong.

We went inward during the colonial era, Singapore was as poor as Zimbabwe in 1950 but Singapore is now the richest country. It went open, we went inward and we ended up even with a war to reward that inward policy. The way to go is open, Minister and to encourage the best possible machinery to come and if it means we look for partners from outside who have got markets already.  If we look for partners who have financial capital, we bring them in, even if it means diluting our own companies so that we get technology and we get management expertise access to markets.

It is a clever way of development because 10% of an elephant is better than 100% of a mouse. After all, that will make this country become very much part of the global value chain. We must encourage Ford to get the parts for their cars in Zimbabwe. We must encourage BYG in China to get their parts from Zimbabwe. We must encourage Caterpillar to get their parts from Zimbabwe because we have the steel, and our people are so well educated and is easy to convert capital to profit. They are the best in Africa for business people. If you want a country where you can quickly see your capital develop and profit, it is Zimbabwe.

To show their adeptness at adapting to skills, you will be surprised that the whole Manhize was built by Zimbabweans. The Chinese only brought their technicians for every Chinese, 10 Zimbabweans were learning the latest fabrication techniques of steel. So that whole infrastructure came from the workshop at Manhize, not from China, from the workshop at Manhize. We need to give a pam-pam to those young people who built that steel plant at Manhize. They are Zimbabweans. We need to build upon the skills which they have acquired.

So, in your incentives for human skills development, that is perhaps the best starting point Minister, to take on the best fabrication of skills on the African continent, which we now have and make Zimbabwe a giant manufacturer of steel products because steel, I repeat, is what food is to human beings. When it comes to nations, steel is the diet of countries.  It is the diet of nations. Until the advent of the high-tech billionaires, for more than 90 years, the most billionaires in the world were in the steel industry. So, we are on the right road to creating more billionaires out of Zimbabwe and that is the focus which your budget has started upon. Minister, build upon that,and we are going in the right direction.

 I want to thank our President for having the foresight, first of all, to have a great Minister like you, of finance for this country, but more importantly, how the President has moved on the global stage to attract some of the best possible companies to come and put capital into Zimbabwe because we become part of the global value chain. If you are not part of the global value chain, then you are out of the road to development. I thank you.

         HON. SEN. MLOTSHWA:  President of the Senate, I would like to thank you for affording me this opportunity to debate.  I had to request Hon. Kabondo to sit because my laptop is about to shut down.

         Hon. Senate President, today I stand before you to express my deep concern and disapproval of the 2025 Finance Amendment Bill currently before us.  As we navigate the complex landscape of our nation’s economy, we recognise the overwhelming pressures that our fellow citizens, particularly the youth engaged in the informal sector are facing.

         Hon. Senate President, the issues presented to us in this Bill underscore a critical issue.  While we aim and develop a sustainable tax base and foster economic growth, the current approach risks squeezing every last cent out of the innovative young Zimbabweans who are doing their best to survive under the increasing difficult circumstances.  As we deliberate on these amendments, I urge each of you to consider the lived experiences of those who have remained in this country, those who have shown remarkable ingenuity and resilience in the face of adversity.

         Mr. President, a significant factor driving our young professionals to seek opportunities abroad is the harsh reality of navigating a system that seems determined to punish innovation rather than promote it.  Many of these young people have taken it upon themselves to create livelihoods through informal enterprises, utilising their creativity and resourcefulness to adapt to a rigid market.  Rather than supporting these efforts, the proposed amendments will burden them with excessive tax liabilities, strangle their operations and stifle their entrepreneurial spirits. 

         Mr. President, anticipating the future of our economy should not mean placing undue restrictions on those attempting to formalise their businesses or access funding.  The current provisions which threaten to dampen already limited opportunities to formal bank loans exhibit a clear misunderstanding of the environment we inhabit.  Our young entrepreneurs deserve encouragement not punitive measures that will deter them from seeking assistance from local banks. – [HON. SENATORS: Hear, hear.] –

         Furthermore, as outlined in the memorandum for the Finance Bill, the measure intended to address illicit financial transfers may inadvertently hinder genuine contributions.  The complexity introduced by these amendments may paralyse our budding innovators and further drive them into shadows where they will remain unregistered, untaxed and untouched by the support systems we ought to be developing.  As we discuss mining royalties, various taxation measures, let us not forget the overarching impact of these decisions on our societies. 

We are at risk of undermining the very foundation of survival tactics employed by many Zimbabweans.  The Bill risks killing the survivor spirit that defines us and erodes the innovative drive that has perished through decades of economic turmoil.  This is not merely about numbers and statistics; it is about the lives of real Zimbabweans struggling to get by and the collective memory of a nation filled with potential.  The proposed Bill failed to acknowledge the realities of the informal sector which has been a lifeline of many.  The real threat is not taxation itself but the manner we implement these taxes without consideration for those who fought diligently to feed their families, contribute to their communities and preserve the hopes for a future where Zimbabwe can thrive. 

Mr. President, I call upon this House to reconsider the harsh measures pushed forward in this Finance Amendment Bill, let us champion policies that nurture and support our people rather than suffocating their efforts to create a sustainable future in themselves.  It is only through collaboration, understanding and support that we can pave the way for growth and prosperity for our great nation.

Mr. President, there have been quite a number of good things that the Hon. Minister has done in this budget.  I will mention and appreciate the sanitary wear for girls, ZiG85 million provision by the Government in this budget. I commend the budget is presented together with the gender-responsive national budget as a stand-alone statement.  The fact that this is undertaken and delivered is an important aspect of this demonstration to gender equality.

The inclusion of risk management in this budget is good.  The budget demonstrates that the Government is fully alive to the risks related to climate change, the budget is progressive, namely on irrigation development, dam construction, supporting the climate change and adaptation plan, ongoing agricultural support and food security initiatives as this means we are budgeting with a view of the El Nino induced droughts and the impacts of climate change across the country in the forthcoming year.

I just have a few questions that I would need the Hon. Minister to clarify for us as the Senate.  The first question for me Hon. Minister, I would like, through you Mr. President, to know the budget currency.  What currency the Hon. Minister is presenting the budget on. The Budget Statement and presentation contains dual references to both ZiG and USD.  Members of Parliament would like to be clear on what currency is the budget set in.  For example, tax tables and debt tables, et cetera.

Secondly, the budget exchange rate.  May the Hon. Minister please clarify the exchange rate that is utilised in the budget to support the House in its constitutional role of budget tracking.  Fiscal discipline, staying within the budget, the Hon. Minister has stated that it is the clear goal of the budget.  May the Hon. Minister please clarify how recurrent expenditure is going to be reduced to ensure that we do not overspend; ring-fencing. When it comes to tax measures introduced in the 2025 budget, the previous budget, what will the Hon. Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion do to ensure that the monies collected for specific purposes are spent on specifics purposes.  For example, Sugar Tax, Airtime Tax and Data Tax, et cetera.

Disbursement prioritisation: may the Hon. Minister please clarify what is expected prioritisation for the disbursement of the first quarter of 2025?  Whilst we are aware that the rate of disbursement is affected by the rate of revenue collection.  What is the potential outlook for the disbursement management as it directly efficacy of prioritisation in the context of limited resources.

Lastly Hon. Minister, through you Mr. President, those monies collected for specific purposes and there has been legislation to support them, may the Hon. Minister commit to presenting a Ministerial Statement on the status of the Statutory Funds.  What is the current management of these monies by the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion?  I thank you.

         THE TEMPORAY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE:  Hon. Members, I am aware that we have other members here who are diabetic and my time is some minutes after 8 o’clock p.m.  So I am suspending business now and allow Hon. Members to go for dinner and come back at exactly 21.15 hours.  Hon Members dinner will be served on the Second floor.

         Business was suspended at 2010 hours and resumed at 2115 hours.

         THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE:

Order, I am quite sure we have all fed and I am happy that those who are diabetic will never collapse in here. The Hon. Minister of Finance can now make responses to the debates that have taken place before we went for dinner.

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Thank you Mr. President for the opportunity to present to Parliament and respond to certain comments, questions and input into our 2025 National Budget.  Let me begin with the comments from Hon. Senator Phulu who basically wanted me to make a correction that the budget was read in the National Assembly and not in the Senate. I agree with him. I make that correction Mr. President.

         Regarding reports for Portfolio Committees that he would have liked Hon. Senators to have sight of, I think that is a good idea. I am certain that through Parliament Administration, this is something that could be managed, but I can assure him that the input from the Portfolio Committee Chairs and Hon. Members was incorporated in the Bills that are coming to Senate. I want to assure him that, has been adequately addressed.

         I now carry on to Hon. Senator Zvidzai regarding the figures for the macro-economic framework on page 73. He wanted to know where he could quite work out what the 6% rate of growth that we have projected for next year, if you could do the following using the real GDP figures for ZiG. If you could take the 2025 figure of a 102.7 versus 96.9, that difference between the two is 6%. We were using the real GDP figures.

         He also made a very important point about the assumptions for these kind of gross figures for the budget. Have we taken care of risks that might arise as we focus on such a brighter future for the country into next year? Yes, we have and I would like to draw your attention or rather, his attention to page 85 of the Budget Statement. We have a nice section which is entitled Fiscal Risks to the budget.

         We have done a stress test of the budget by considering various scenarios to say, suppose we have some macro-economic risks and maybe we are wrong in terms of our GDP focus of 6% for whatever reason, suppose it turns out to be 2% lower and what will happen and we do those simulations and show that what will happen is that the revenue that are raised with lower will also put pressure on our budget deficit as well.

         We also look into how, for instance exchange rate risks could impact the budget. We look into the impact of commodity risks and some other contingent liabilities that come out of nowhere but impact the fiscal position. We also consider the impact of natural disasters that are unforeseen, some public debt risk. That is a very nice section to read especially if you are a statistician who loves simulations. I think the Hon. Senator would find that very fascinating.

         I now turn to a comment made about making sure that the budget speaks to the intention, being one of building resilience. If I heard him well, he says that the budget is skewed towards more recurrent expenditure as opposed to investment or capital expenditure and maybe its resilience character is compromised. Recurrent expenditure can have resilience characteristics. Resilience is quite broad. Our expenditure on the Pfumvudza/Intwasa Programme speaks to building resilience in our rural areas so as to cushion our rural farmers from the vagaries of climate. By the way, 60% of Pfumvudza/Intwasa farmers are women.

         So, you can see the impact of that budget expenditure item on the gender equity issues, but also our overall social protection on the budget, whether it is BEAM or whether it is looking at the grey mitigation programme, all those social protection programmes which are just simple recurrent expenditure programmes, our items speak to resilience. So, it is quite broad both recurrent expenditure and investment can have resilience characteristics.

         The resilience characteristics from infrastructure will come from investment in irrigation. I think that is an obvious one or indeed, building dams, but with a view of evacuating the water onto the fields eventually irrigation. So, all of that is a resilience which the budget is supporting.

On the matter of overhead, he mentioned that perhaps the size of the budget deficit might act to the level of debt, but we are determined for this not to be the case. Our target budget deficit is only 0.4% of GDP. Even at 1% of GDP, it is still something to be worried about because what happens here in terms of the link between the deficit is as follows: when you have a deficit, the tendency is to issue Treasury Bills or to borrow to finance that gap and when you borrow, you will just increase debt when you issue Treasury Bills or bonds. So, I worry that he is kind of projecting but I can assure him that the budget deficit will not be a challenge for us.

         Let me say more about debt.  If you see the jumping debt, most of it had to initially be with the debt that we took over from the Central Bank, what we call quasi-fiscal activities, which I did take through the Senate in the last Parliament for your approval.  So, this really pushed up debt quite a bit and that debt needs to be serviced.  A smaller portion of it is local but most of it is foreign and what we are doing right now is we are entering into debt-restricting arrangements with the creditors so as to reduce its impact on our cash flows.  We can smooth our cash flows in hot pursuit in terms of discussions with our creditors.

         In terms of foreign currency receipts, I thank him for highlighting the role of the diaspora, in fact, next year we expect them to send as much as 2,5 billion back home.  This contributes to our external balance of payment position.

         Mr. President one of the reasons why we continue to record a positive balance, we have more inflow than outflows externally.  The remittances are a big part of that explanation and it is a sector that we ought to continuously look after and further harness through innovative instruments such as Diaspora Bonds.

         On the issue of resilience as linked to mineral resources, again, he was correct to say that here let us focus on beneficiation and the budget should target this area. We are doing that for a start and we have already said that no mineral should be exported without beneficiation.  I was listening to Hon. Senator Mutsvangwa speaking when he talked about the Manhize Steel Project, which is a clear case of beneficiation taking place in an integrated iron and steel mine or facility.  It is no longer a mining company but rather a manufacturing company.

         So, that kind of focus giving your incentives to encourage diversification and beneficiation is critical.  I know that in the lower House, the Portfolio Committee on Mines and also the Portfolio Committee on Budget have visited the base metal refinery at ZIMPLATS and they are saying they are pleased with the progress, they are seeing where again we insisted that the company should invest in a refinery and that is bearing fruit.  There is progress here.  I agree that once you benefit, there is a lot more revenue that the country can earn and therefore improve resilience from the mining sector and not just to rely on raw primary commodities which are subject to fluctuations in the global commodity markets.

         There is a Senator who referred to the need to focus on job creation and the manufacturing sector in this budget.   He perhaps felt that we were not loud enough on this item.  I can assure you that this budget will set aside resources to create a fund to support new industries.  The Minister of Industry and Commerce has come up with industrialisation strategy where they are promoting investment in specific industries where there are gaps such as pharmaceuticals.  We are lucky that on the iron and steel front, we have got the Manhize Project.  It is happening, Hon. Senators have moved in quickly but pharmaceutical and other areas, we have set aside a fund in which I will seek your approval to invest in specific new industries in some of these key areas.

         Hon. Senator Mutsvangwa was very supportive of the budget extracts and its thrust and the incentives that we have encouraged investment by both domestic and mostly foreign private capital to boost our economy.  For example, the focus on electric EV cars not only speaks to the green economy but also is saving us money in the sense that if you have that kind of car, you would not use petrol or diesel.  Suddenly you will be moving but without having to use expensive fossil fuels that I have just mentioned.

         He requested me perhaps to be more aggressive and push down the import duties from the current 25 which already is a new figure, we had moved from 40 to 25 down to zero.  He is right boldness can pay off.  I will reflect on it as we go forward but maybe one step at a time.  He is correct that given the array of minerals that we produce here that go into the bouquet of minerals that are called the future energy minerals, lithium, graphite, nickel and so forth; surely Zimbabwe could become an important hub for EV-cars going forward.

         His narrative regarding the role of the steel sector in the development of the economy again is spot on.  I am reminded by some historical facts.  If you look at the development of South Korea, it is clear that when they established  Posco Steel they had learned how to develop a steel industry from Beclicham Steel in the US in America and they went back to Korea.  I was fortunate when I was young, I met the man who was responsible for planning that steel plant.  I did not meet him in Korea, I met him in some other foreign country in Europe and he gave me a very good lecture as to the impact of Posco as a backbone to the South Korean economy, supporting the chewables that develop the country such as LG, Hyundai, Daewoo and Lucky Golf Star and so forth.  But also, the Koreans have copied the Japanese who had established Palm Steel which was also the backbone for their steel production.  She built all car manufacturing Toyota and all manner of models.

         Hon. Senator Mutsvangwa's vision that there is that, perhaps the Manhize Steel Plant, will play a similar role for Zimbabwe.  In fact, if it does not play that role then we are missing the point.  It must play that role and become once again a backbone for the economy.  We have countries like Morocco positioning themselves but ours is a unique vertically integrated, horizontally integrated steel plant.  I do not know Mr. President, whether any of our Senators have been to the Manhize Steel Plant. If not, I would encourage you to do so.  It is certainly a marvel to see.

         Then going forward, the Hon. Senator is saying look, when it comes to gold, let us all be aggressive so that gold is seen as a currency and not just a commodity because we have always been a strong producing country going back to all the days of our Munhumutapa.  He is right about that.  This is something that we need to push forward.

         We should amend archaic laws that hold back the mining sector.  I agree with him we need to do that.

         The issue of logistics is important. If you tax the Manhize Steel Project, it is a very important project, it is located inland.  So, the issue of logistics is critical, which is what he was referring to.  Logistics to evacuate the product for export purposes, for further beneficiation down the line and that requires rail infrastructure and not road infrastructure and then port infrastructure for export.  So, the logistics aspect is very critical.

         Then thinking through I realised that the African Continental Free Trade Area is an opportunity for which we should be ready for and begin to retool.

         I now turn to Hon. Senator Mlotshwa who made comments about, first of all, the tax environment that perhaps, there was a sense in the comment that our taxes are too high. If you look at our tax to GDP ratio Hon. Sen. Mlotshwa, we are basically at about 18% of GDP – that is not very high.  It is about average, slightly above average for our size of economy, our type of economy.  There are countries that are ahead of us.  So, they will come across as being taxed.

         I think the issue for Zimbabwe, through you Mr. President, is about the distribution of the tax that we are seeing the incidence over time shifting more towards individuals, away from corporates and we have to try to steer that back.  Much of that is to do with the informalisation of the economy, that is why in this budget we also focus on that informalisation of the economy and tried to make sure the informal sector registers to pay tax and they actually pay taxes.

         Then Hon. Sen. Mlotshwa did highlight some of the good things about the budget such as increased budget or focused budget for items such as sanitary wear, risk management issues and so forth.  Then she had questions about the currency for the budget.  The currency is ZiG, that is our domestic currency but of course, we are in a multicurrency regime so certain items, not many, we would express them in USD.  We are still able to communicate, it is not a big deal that we have used USD for that but ZiG is our currency and that is the budgeting currency for Government.

         She also wondered whether we would stay the course in terms of fiscal discipline.  How do we ensure that?  We have done very well over the last six years.  We have been very disciplined and made sure that our budget deficit, Mr. President through you, does not go above the SADC 3% of GDP on average.  In fact, we have kept it well below that.  I can assure you; she should not get worried about us living beyond our means.  In any case, we cannot afford to live beyond our means, imagine if we had a budget deficit of 10%.  How would we even finance it?  Who do you borrow from locally, internationally to finance that kind of gap?  There are just no resources.  So, you have no choice but just cut back and cut back.

         Hon. Senators may have read about a circular that Treasury issued in this last quarter, beginning of the quarter where we said, look, can we pull out wasteful expenditure, travel, the unnecessary extra workshops and so forth and so forth – that is really to make sure that we stay within our means.  The only way to manage a ballooning budget deficit is to cut back on expenditure.

         On disbursement planning, quarter by quarter.  Yes, we plan on a quarter by quarter, we are able to share that with you.  After all, it is Parliament so you need to request that we are able to share with you as to what we prioritise but every ministry thinks it is a priority.  So, what happens is that every day there is pressure from all directions but of course, we have to make judgement and say what is important.  Like this week, what was high on my mind was paying the transporters for transporting grain to those who are in need of food.  I mean, that was priority.  I said to my team, please, I want to make sure that we prioritise this.  There will be other priorities quarter and quarter but we are very happy to share on a quarterly basis what our thoughts are there.

         There is the issue of ring-fencing certain funds, we always try to ringfence.  I think we learned a lot from the introduction of the Aids Levy that it is doable even though we did not create a fund specifically but we are always able to ringfence whether we are looking at the Sugar Content Tax which we have ringfenced to support our cancer response or looking at what is in this budget as a proposal, the tax on fast foods which again we are targeting for the health sector.  As I said earlier, we are likely to see a decline in the external support for the health sector over time.  So, we better prepare now to take over that budget when that arises.

         Hon. President, I will stop here for now.  I am happy to take any further comments and deal with any queries. 

         HON. SEN. KABONDO:  Thank you Mr. President.  It is kind of difficult to say what I wanted to say, especially what the Hon. Minister just said about people feeling that their ministries are a priority and need to be funded. 

          I would like to take this opportunity to applaud the Hon. Minister for coming up with funds for women through the Women’s Bank.  We thank you for doing that Hon. Minister.  My prayer and hope is that when this money is being disbursed, there will be some transparency.  I want to see the general woman in rural Zimbabwe benefiting from this money to empower themselves.  We really thank you for that.

         There is an issue of collateral, Mr. President, most of us as the ordinary women in rural areas do not have that.  Automatically that will strike us out from being beneficiaries of this empowerment fund.  If the Hon. Minister could work out something so that we manage to get this or maybe just strip the collateral issue so that we are able to benefit.  Thank you so much. – [HON. SENATORS: Hear, hear.] –

         HON. SEN. CHITSAMBA:   I would like to thank the Hon. Minister for the report which he tabled in this House.  Hon. Minister, has your budget included money for cancer, dialysis and radiotherapy machines for women?  Women are dying of cancer since hospitals do not have machines. 

         HON. SEN. MUNEMO:  Thank you Mr. President.  Hon. Minister, your budget spoke about Statutory funds which are monies collected for specific purposes and you have legislation to support them.  May you commit to present a Ministerial Statement on the status of the Statutory Funds?  What is the current management of those monies by the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion?

         Furthermore, I need to understand on taxes set to be collected, remain uncollected.  May you Hon. Minister, clarify the various taxes that you have brought forward to the House which have not been collected?  May you clarify if those taxes are being cancelled or the taxes are in effect and when collection is expected?

         I raise for the attention of the Hon. Minister, to consider the need to ensure that the funding gap for access to condoms is a real threat to the national anti-HIV and Aids strategy.  Again, the need to ensure that there is local domestic mobilisation and also need to support local manufacturing of tested and quality condoms.   I  therefore call the Hon. Minister to redirect resources to funding necessary scientific testing of locally manufactured condoms.  I thank you.

         HON. SEN. MOHADI:  Thank you Mr. President for giving me the opportunity to add a few points.  First and foremost, I want to thank the Minister for bringing this budget to this august House at the right time.  I do not have any questions but I just have a comment.  My comment is on agriculture, looking at the irrigation component.  I wish the Minister could look into this item specifically for Region 5 where they have got very erratic rain and the rain is not evenly distributed.  As a result, they do not have water in the region and cannot plough anything without irrigation.  Also, when talking about Region 5, we are talking about people who live by rearing livestock, be it cattle or goats.  So, without water and grazing, the livestock cannot survive.  If it is possible, there should be some supplementary feed that they grow for themselves. 

Lastly, I would like to thank him on the women issues.  As we look at issues that affect women, let me take this opportunity to remind the Hon. Minister that women make up 52% of the population but they are the poor of the poorest.  They need a lot of support from Government.  We should not also forget people with disabilities as they are part of us.  They have the right to live and survive with their spouses and children.  If possible, there should be a special budget allocated to people with disabilities.  This would assist a lot because they seem to be a forgotten nation.  I thank you.

         HON. SEN. CHAKABUDA: Thank you very much Mr. President.  I will start by thanking the Hon. Minister for bringing this budget to us.  I realised that in the budget, there are some ministries or some Votes that have been allocated very low amounts, some even 0.%.  Can the Minister assure us if possible whether these ministries with low allocations can be allocated their monies before it is affected by inflation so that these ministries can operate immediately?

         HON. SEN. MACKENZIE NCUBE:  I also join others in applauding the Minister for bringing the 2025 budget under very difficult conditions.  I particularly appreciate the prioritisation in terms of education for both primary, higher and tertiary which was allocated close to ZiG50 billion and healthcare which got close to ZiG30 billion.  Those are some of the biggest chunks in terms of appropriation as given by the Minister.  That shows we are seriously investing into the future in terms of education.  But this afternoon, there were some concerns in terms of employment for the youth whom we are churning out and frustration leading them to resort to use of drugs.  There is need to look into that so that we are assured we will have a responsible generation. 

         I have another comment in terms of the allocation for water resources which is around ZiG3 billion.  Despite the fact that the allocation seems to be fine but it is a departmental allocation.  Taking into account the fact that we are now seeing the impact of climate change – El Nino induced drought, I think it is very important that water affairs should actually be a stand-alone ministry to service both agriculture, mines and local authorities and not a department within another big ministry.  Like energy, it is a prime mover in the economy and if it stands right in the middle as a service ministry looking at the local authority which also uses a big chunk of water, maybe not as much as agriculture but a substantial amount of water so that we can focus on this scarce resource which comes sometimes in high intensity and other times, it does not come at all. We have seen the impact of that in this country.  Right now, it is raining all over the place but there are some other areas which are not getting anything.  So, there is need for heightened programmes in terms of water harvesting in a focused manner.  I would like the Minister to comment on that.  I thank you.

         HON. SEN. NGWENYA: Thank you Mr. President.  I just need to applaud the budget presentation which has been brought to this august House by the Minister.  May the Minister clarify what is expected prioritisation on for disbursement in the first quarter of 2025 maybe?  Whilst we are aware that the rate of disbursement is affected by the rate of the revenue collection, what is the potential outlook for the disbursement management as this directly affects the efficiency of prioritisation in the context of limited resources?  I thank you.

HON. SEN. KATUMBA:  Thank you President for recognising me. I would like to thank the Hon. Minister for coming with this Budget in this august House. Mr. President, can the Hon. Minister consider the level of taxation of households, especially in the preparation of the Mid-Term Review. They consist of introduction of new tax since 2018, which is creating pressure on households, reducing disposable income and shrinking economic activities in the informal sector, as we see it from the reduction of IMTT tax introduction up to now.

May the Hon. Minister consider exemption of economic activities through stipulating various areas of economic transactions and reduction of taxes to increase disposable income at household level to support consumer and economic activities. The present status in the introduction of new taxes, regardless of the presumptive tax on sectors is creating an overall context of over taxation. May the Hon. Minister indicate whether there is still tax relief for citizens and other measures, besides household taxes for supporting the economic activities and increase revenue for the country. I thank you.

+HON. SEN. E. NYATHI:  Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity. I would like to thank the Minister for bringing the 2025 National Budget before the House. The country is suffering from sanctions and the El Nino drought effect and he managed to distribute the Budget amongst all ministries. I am pleased to announce the budget that has been given to the security forces. These are the people that are supposed to be allocated a large chunk of the budget and I appreciate what the Minister has done. Thank you.

+HON. SEN. S. NDEBELE:  Thank you Mr. President for the opportunity that you have given me to also add my views pertaining to the 2025 National Budget. I would also want to extend my gratitude to the Minister for his planning and preparation and what he has done to distribute funds to different ministries. I would also want to thank the Minister for allocating funds to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, through the Women’s Bank and also assisting us with menstrual sanitary wear. We really appreciate this.

However, there is something that I also want to add, I do not know whether you have taken note of it. When you allocated funds to the Ministry of Women Affairs, did you also put into consideration that we are in the drive of capacitating women, especially developing them and equipping them to be independent so that they do not always rely on men? They can also be people who are self-sustaining. We also want women who are into cross border trading and have got flea markets, including vendors. Men can participate in the business aspect, including crafting. The problem now is that the taxes have been raised substantially because in everything they do, there is tax, be it a bus ticket, there is tax.

We are talking about women who are trying to be self-sustaining. Even when they go to the shops there is also tax. That is the same person who is being taxed everywhere. They end up thinking of going to the diaspora. Currently, we are importing many things. That is where we get everything used by women. People cannot cross the borders and they are losing a lot of money due to border restrictions. The little that we get from the Women’s Bank, people end up using only 40% of the money that you would have been given as the other 60% would have gone to taxes. People do not understand how the hefty taxes are affecting them. Even if when you want to buy a paper bag, you will buy it with tax and that is coming from the coffers of one person.

At the borders, there are a lot of charges, which may end up harming our economy, result in the country failing to raise revenue because people end up using illegal means so that they get money. If we can reduce these taxes, we do not know whether they have been approved. We are putting this before you so that the taxes are reduced and also make the borders to be accessible to people. Even those who are buying vehicles across the border, could you reduce the duty fees that are paid at the border posts?

This could assist us in getting products from our neighbouring countries. If the importation fees are reduced, this could assist in cutting a lot on the issues of smuggling. People will end up importing a lot of things into the country. We will end up blaming the security forces not taking into consideration that it is our failure to review our taxes and that is exacerbating smuggling. I urge that we should also put into consideration that in such taxes, they end up leading women into illegal activities because they want to avoid heavy taxation fees being brought upon them. My plea is that may we reduce these taxes, even though they have been approved? We want to take not that if we reduce these taxes, it will make life easier for women because the taxes are now too much.

To those that are starting up businesses like shops, the taxes will hit the person from the initial point. The council also wants the money, ZIMRA also wants something even from the stock at the shop. As the First Lady who is raising our traditional meals has urged us, a lot of women were engaged into the gastronomy event but there are people that want them to go and pay tax under the Ministry of Tourism. They are coming as an independent board. As it is right now, if one acquires a car, they will be taxed. My plea is that may you please reduce the phase of taxes that are upon women? These are some of the things that destroy our economy and our country. We want the money but we end up smuggling goods into our country illegally.

Coming to the security forces, especially the Defence Forces, the war veterans, as we are here, everyone is appearing nice in this peaceful country. Are we also taking into consideration that these people wherever they are, are they being taken care of, our war veterans?  I expect that there is no war veteran who is less than 50 years. It seems that everyone is now above 60 to 70 years. They are failing to assist themselves because it is hard for them to get their funds. Even if they get the money, it is being processed through the bank, which is also taxing their money through the bank charges.

Each and every board is taking some charges of some sort. If they put it through the phone and the bank, it is taxed from the bank and also through the phone again. Looking at their health, there is nowhere they are being assisted in terms of health.  The little they get, they have also put it into their health. I would wish if we could have medical aids. Most of them are now at the rural homes and they have to board buses to urban areas. When they buy sugar, they are taxed.

The issues relating agriculture, we thank you Hon. Minister and the Government on its efforts. The charges that are brought to the women even in agriculture, they do not discriminate regardless of the fact that we are still trying to promote the rights of women and equality. When it comes to taxation, there is no discrimination, they are just charged the same.

I want to put it to you that women face challenges that are different from men. I do not know maybe you need to increase the budget for women or you could put tax brackets that are different between women and men.

When I am standing, I am representing women,  challenges faced by women and that affects people with disabilities and our youth because they are the ones that bear the burden to be able to reach to such a level. If you follow the groups that I have mentioned and you are taxed, would it be fair? I do not think it is fair because these are people that are not being recognised. If they try to assist themselves, it seems as if they are breaking the law. Let us consider them also when making the budget. I do not know how you can put it to people who are aged especially the war veterans and people living with disabilities. We also want to make sure that we put laws into our public transport that they are also taken care of in this Senate House, as we mention the things that we want but we do not also put their needs first.

Issues relating to health, about 98% of the challenges in the health sector are being faced by women. Everything that we are complaining of and that we want, we increase the budget to the Ministry of Health so that we have enough medication and resources in the medical centres. We urge that women should be capacitated so that they can be able to cope on how the budget is structured and on issues like tax. Only a few tend to benefit from such initiatives and at the end you will find that the few that are capacitated in these areas are accessible. If you could increase the budget and capacitate the entire country. It is not that we are greedy when we say women should be counted in the budget, we are talking of women who are in the remote areas, for example Binga, who do not have access to all these provisions. Also, in terms of the social services for us to have momentum, we need to also consider that it is either here in Parliament or any other office bearers. We want you take care of their remunerations, they should get their money on the day they are supposed to be paid. If you had said you will pay them on the 10^th, the pay date should not be changed because they are responsible for the development of our country. I thank you.

HON. SEN. MANYENGAVANA: Thank you Hon. President for recognising me to add my voice on the 2025 National Budget. Hon. Minister, on your budget growth, it is going to be about 6% and you underpinned the growth assumption on three pillars, which is the coming of the rainfall that is normal to above normal, the stable exchange rate and tightening of monetary policies. For these three Hon. Minister, I do not see you as a Ministry in control of these items because you can not control rainfall; anything can happen. We want to know the measures that you as a Minister have in preparation of the rainy season.  The issue of exchange rate; year in and year out you come to the Senate and tell us you have managed to come up with a solution on the exchange rate. The other time it was 1:1 now it is 1:35. So, as a country, we need confidence coming from you.  What are the measures that you are now putting so that we have confidence in this budget?

         The tightening of money policy; you are very correct but you are also not in control of those fiscal policies, these are some things that you cannot control as a Ministry.  We need you to tell us. 

         On agriculture; you said our budget is agriculture based, you said you are putting money to build two dams which is Gwayi and Kunzvi.  When you look at your chat, I do not see money reserved for that.  It is coming from outside our budget or coming from somewhere because in our budget, it is more of salaries and other administrative costs on water harvesting.

         Hon. Minister, you did not go any further in telling the country how we are going to promote irrigation.  We now have erratic rainfall and we have plenty of dams but the dams are unused.  In your budget, it is not telling us how we are also going to make use of the harvested water.  If you go to Masvingo today, you will see Tugwi-Mukosi has water but it is under-utilised.  Your budget is not telling us how you as a Ministry are going to use the water for the benefit of Zimbabwe.

         Hon. Minister, another issue is of the taxes. Each time you come to the Senate, you are talking of introducing new taxes. Most of the taxes are affecting the poor.  You see people with money but you leave them. You see them going around dishing out money.  I think in our budget, you can also get money from these people who are dishing out money and driving around with black cars and all the staff.

         In our 2024 budget, even in your statement, you actually told us that we had a deficiency of 4.1 billion for 2024 and our money was finished in the first nine months. It was very visible because even civil servants were not able to receive their monies.  I hope this does not happen again in 2025. We also need to understand what the Ministry is going to do so that we do not have the same problem that was happening this year for pensioners and civil servants. For the first time since Independence, we were not able to pay our civil servants.  I need clarification on that one as well.

         Before I sit down, I need you to tell the Senate, what confidence are you giving Zimbabwe that this time around you have come up with a budget that will last for 12 months?  When you came into the city, you have been coming with an additional budget around midyear because your money will be finished.

         HON. SEN. SHIRI: Thank you Hon. President. I thank you very much Hon. Minister for coming up with this inclusive budget although it is not disability inclusive.  Hon. Minister, I am here to propose again to the Hon Minister to implement or operationalise the disability levy in that National Disability Policy.  Again, it will also remove completely the moveable collateral on financial inclusion for persons with disabilities because they are the poorest of the poor.

         If you want to empower persons with disabilities so that they live independent lives, we should support them financially, that is why I continue saying that the Minister must continue to operationalise the disability levy.  Maybe we can increase revenue by the sale of alcohol.  Already Hon. President, 11 billion was allocated to the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, yet it currently has arrears going as far as 5 billion.   BEAM has not yet been paid for up to now. 

         Hon. Minister, when it comes to social protection, we are looking at the marginalised and the vulnerable groups.  May you also kindly introduce assistive technologies because they are key wherever we want to achieve inclusion, Assistive Technology Fund?

         HON. SEN. ZHOU:  Thank you very much Hon. President. Allow me to thank the Hon. Minister for bringing this Finance Bill to this august Senate this evening. In my opinion, I think the budget outlook presented by Hon. Prof. Ncube looks progressive and that it is going to take Zimbabwe as a country to the next level in 2025. It will be same time when Zimbabwe will be concluding the NDS1 and the transitioning into NDS2.  So, Mr. President, I think that looking at the outlook where agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism are taken as the pillars on which the economy will be supported in 2025, I think that is the right way to go. 

I also think that with agriculture; irrigation, dam construction and so forth, projects like rabbit keeping, animal husbandry, piggery, poultry will then grow our economy from agriculture.

On mining, when I listened to the executive summary that was given by the Hon. Minister, he indicated that there were some identified leakages in our minerals which I think could be correct because there is a lot of talk that there are some investors that are looting even mountains, stones or anything that they come across. If there can be some measures that are put in place to plug off the leakages, then we are assured of achieving the 6% growth that we anticipate by the end of 2025.

Botswana, our neighbour has a very good mineral model where they work with De Beers but they are also the main shareholders and they know how much diamond has gone out, all the mundane information concerning their minerals. I think we need also as a country to move in that direction that we are always close to those that are either exploring for minerals or digging the minerals so that at least we are part and parcel of the processes so as to then know what goes on.  I heard in some debates here that there are trucks that are violating the Mozambique border line carrying different minerals into Mozambique. It is correct that Mozambique is very strategic to us but we need to know all the things that cross the border either going that side or coming this direction.

I also want to talk about the speech of the Minister where he indicated that the other taxes for example the tax on fast foods was necessitated by the fact that our development partners in the healthcare sector are sort of winding or scaling down their support to the country. I think that is a very good proposal because that will reduce donor dependence on the country and if we can look always to raise most of our resources, I think that is also a very good idea.

The figures on our tourism and in most cases, we understand that even hotels in Victoria Falls our flagship tourism destination are always maybe 80 to 90% full which is a very good trajectory and we have to continue supporting that sector so that we can attract the much-needed foreign currency. Most of the issues have been raised by those that spoke before me but I thought I could dwell on those, otherwise I support this Finance Bill which I think is progressive and it will take us to the next level.

*HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: Thank you Mr. President for affording me this opportunity to speak to this Finance Bill. I would like to thank our Minister of Finance for bringing this Finance Bill because if you look at the number of ministries as a country, everyone is vying for the increase of their ministry budget line but looking at the current economic situation, you find that they are trying.

I would like to also say the Minister spoke to the issue of beneficiation and I wanted to seek clarification on mines and mining development. The amount of money which was put here does it also include policy and administration, and mining development and management. Is that the same place where we get the amount of the budget line which will assist on beneficiation which was said is the way to go so that we do not export raw minerals.

Let me move on to the issue of War Veterans. When given a chance to speak, everyone speaks to the pathetic situation of our War Veterans. So, I am kindly seeking for clarification from the Ministers that we have existing War Veterans and widows whose husbands passed on who are trying their level best to survive but can those people not be excluded from tax payments as a way of appreciating what they did during the liberation struggle. With the bit of hustling that you do, kindly look after their welfare and safe keep your grandchildren.

         ⁺HON. SEN. R. M. NDLOVU: Thank you Mr. President of Senate. I wish to thank the Hon. Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion for coming to give us what he has in the 2025 National Budget.

         Official currency here in Zimbabwe is the ZiG which is supported by the gold but when I ask any one of us here, no one has ZiG in their pocket.  When is this currency going to be availed Hon. Minister?  Our neighbouring countries - if you go to Botswana, South Africa, Zambia with your USD, you go to the bank and change it to their local currency so that you can purchase whatever you desire in their country. 

         I do not understand in your operation Hon. Minister, when do you expect the ZiG to be available to the citizens and also be recognised as the currency for our country Zimbabwe? 

Secondly, we have street vendors who sell bales or second-hand clothes that are imported from other countries, they have flooded the markets around our country but we have manufacturing companies within the country who are losing business due to these street vendors. I would want to understand, do we have any model that inspects that these clothes are not bringing in any harmful diseases or anything that is dangerous? In Zimbabwe, we have big cloth manufacturers like Sales House in Bulawayo, it closed down due to street vendors and people lost jobs. This was because clothes vendors would sell right by the door of the shop and they will be selling clothes for $2, $3.  People will then not buy from shops because they sell new clothes which are expensive than the second-hand clothes.

Is this helping us as a country?  Is there any other way that we can have such that those with businesses who can comply with their taxes could be assisted for them to operate their businesses in a free way without being sabotaged by street vendors? 

Lastly, the street vendors within the CBD; if you tax these people a minimum of $2 or 20 cents, would that not also increase your revenue on tax collection?  These people are just selling for free and they are not assisting the country but individuals – [HON. SENATORS: Hear, hear.] -  Yes, we know that we are facing drought but we want to have order. We want them to have legal trading places where they will be selling their wares from.

Right now, they are just scattered everywhere – you cannot even drive freely in the streets. Some have been struck by cars because they are occupying the streets.  At the end of the day, the one who is driving is at fault but they are occupying the road.  You end up being involved in unnecessary accidents.  We want to know how you are going to address these issues in this country so that we also witness order in our country.  I thank you.

⁺HON. SEN. MLILO: Thank you Mr. President Sir.  Thank you Hon. Minister for bringing this budget before us. I will premise my debate mostly on issues of education. We see that you have given us the budget for the education but when we look at the schools, especially the schools in rural areas, you would see that there is money set aside for infrastructure and construction.  Looking at the schools in the rural areas, we once visited such areas – there is a lot of hot sitting in these schools.  Some of them are about over 100 learners in a house because it is not the set-up of a classroom. 

Are you going to disburse these funds as soon as possible so that they will be able to construct classrooms for our children to learn in proper classrooms which meet the conditions of a state-of-the-art school?

The budget is also silent on the issue of teachers. We understand that when we were going around the country, teachers do not have accommodation. They are travelling long distances to get to schools.  If they get accommodation around schools, you would find these teachers stay six to seven in one house.  It is silent in terms of teachers’ accommodation.  I do not know maybe it is part of the school infrastructure.  Does it include the construction of teachers houses?  I would like the Hon. Minister to assist with understanding about this issue.

When we went around the country, we did not have classrooms.  They stay away from school and they travel long distances to go to the schools. We want to understand, how is this budget going to assist these teachers?

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to respond to the inputs and comments by the Hon. Senators here present.  I thank them for their comments.

         There is an issue raised regarding the Women’s Bank that while the resources that have been allocated are welcome, we need transparent and equity and I agree with this, equity in terms of rural-urban divide.  This is something that we should insist on to make sure the Women’s Bank is able to support women also in the rural areas through their decentralisation programme.

         An issue was also raised regarding the need for collateral, that is an impediment and something ought to be done.  What we are working on is talking rather - with IPEC (Insurance and Pensions Regulator) is to extend what we call prescribed asset status to the Women’s Bank, so it is able to attract partners who then benefit from that prescribed asset status. I encourage you to partner with Women’s Bank thereby increasing the capital available to women and allowing the bank to also lower their stringent capital requirements.

         We also intend to extend the Government guaranteed for certain category of loans to the Women’s Bank so that we are able to reduce the collateral requirements including the interest rate.  We have also ruled out the possibility of finding private sector partners for the bank to take equity to invest in the bank to expand the collateral base and therefore, make it a more impactful bank for women entrepreneurial needs.

         Another issue that was raised regarding the cancer response or health response agenda through this budget, whether we have included the acquisition of cancer machines, dialysis machines, radio therapy machines.  Yes, we have in my provision for those.  In fact, as I speak, we have now raised close to USD30 million from the sugar content tax which we introduced last year and this is awaiting disbursement once the Ministry of Health completes its procurement processes to acquire cancer machines and other related machines to support those who are afflicted by these non-communicable diseases. 

         On the issue of committing to the ministerial statement to explain the management of certain statutory funds, am more than happy to do so Mr. President.  I am happy to come before the House to present the ministerial statement.  Then they need perhaps, to clarify progress on certain taxes, those which have been fast processed and  the ones which were slow. The slow progress that I have witnessed is in the tax on new mobile phones that are imported into the country, where I have received reports that the systems for tracking these phones are not yet in place and I am wondering why it has taken too long but we will get there. 

To explain further, every mobile phone has got an ID number, some long numbers which is unique, which is issued and which we will look to that phone.  So as soon as you walk through the border into our borders and buy sim card from one of the Telecalls, the phone will tell the telecall whether it is Econet or NetOne or whatever, that I am a new phone and this is my identification number.  We know how to track new phones as they come in for the first time into the country, therefore it should be easy to pay the customs duty on these phones but the implementation of these taxes has been slow because of the systems excuse.

This is not yet slow because we are still doing further research on certain aspects, it is the implementation of the wealth tax.  I disbursed a team to Luanda to take a look at what they are doing regarding the wealth tax.   There are certain lessons we have learnt and we will begin in earnest to demand that taxes be paid.  Of course, this also involves having to put values on houses and we are not targeting the primary dwelling, we are targeting the second, third or fourth house going forward.  These are some of the taxes I wanted to highlight where I feel that progress is slow.  I would not say the wealth tax is slow, it takes usually two years to get going on some of these taxes.   I would say the one where it is slow is this mobile import duty element. 

The issue of funding for HIV programmes that perhaps we should now increase the domestic resource mobilisation towards support in these areas. I agree with that, that is why I did mention that most of these taxes are going towards supporting the Ministry of Health in domesticating our resource requirement.  When it comes to local manufacturing of certain health sector products, as I said earlier, we have sources set aside for a fund that will be investing in the industrial sector.

Let me move on to Hon. Senator Mohadi, basically looking at irrigation schemes, especially in the dryer regions, she was correct that these irrigation schemes do make a difference in these dry regions.  I do not know how many Senators have been to Bubi-Lupane Dam in Lupane where there is now an irrigation scheme which is now grown and other crops are grown.  That is a very dry area but the presence of that dam and the irrigation system has changed fortunes of that sub-region, including just the quality of the homes that you see around Lupane area where this dam is found.  Also, you see a similar effect when it comes to Antelope in Matabeleland South where again we have a similar if not even bigger facility where water is supporting thriving irrigation schemes for wheat and other crops.  Clearly, it makes a difference. 

On page 163 of the Blue Book, you have a list of some irrigation schemes that the budget will be supporting perhaps that can give you further information.  Hon. Senator Mohadi also appreciated the support that we have extended to women entrepreneurs but the need also to continue focused on supporting the disabled.  I must say that the budget for those who live with disability is under the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare.  We have allocated budget to support those with disability. 

The Hon. Senator who basically drew our attention to low budget allocations to some Ministries and perhaps try to understand why this is the case.  She is correct, there are some Ministries whose role is mainly regulatory or supervisory, they do not really undertake projects but they supervise entities that are investing in that sector.   For example if we take the Ministry of Mines, it is largely a regulatory Ministry regulating the private sector.  Just think about the investment that is taking place in the mining sector since 2017, it is actually remarkable.   It is not the Ministry of Mines in the Manhize project or indeed any of these other projects, it is the private sector doing it.  Then the conducive environment for this to happen is being created by the Ministry, being created by what we do here in Parliament when we present the budget setting the various laws and incentives, all that environment then caused the private sector to act.  Also, it is fair to say that a Ministry such as the Ministry of Energy is also a regulatory authority we have got a large entity like ZESA that is rested in the energy sector.  Then we have independent power producers, what the Ministry has been doing, working with Treasury is just to create the right environment for all the private sector producers to invest in the sector.  What I am hearing now is that they are very pleased with the level of tariffs, of course it is high but if you are on the other side, you are an investor, you will feel that it is a good incentive at 16 cents per kilowatt, it is economic enough.  Most of the investors in the solar business are profitable at a tariff rate of about 10 cents per kilowatt hour.  There is a full amount of cushion, we are now providing a guarantee to power purchase agreements within these sector, IPP sector, then we are also able to extend currency compatibility agreement.  These three pillars have been instrumental in drawing in investors in the sector.  Of course, we should do more but the point I am making here is that that regulatory role of some of these Ministries they themself do not do the investments but they cause the private sector to invest. 

I now turn to the comment by Hon. Senator Ncube who again applauded the efforts of the budget in driving transformation in our economy and the prioritisation around education, health, primary and secondary education budget is 20% of the overall budget. It has met some of the targets such as the Dakar target.  If you add the budget for Higher and Tertiary Education, 6% basically, close to 26% of the entire budget, so clearly that Dakar target has been met comfortably. 

Turning to the Health Ministry again, where there is a budget of about 13.5% of the total budget, this is close to the Abuja target.  Also the Minister of Health receives additional resources from outside which I have referred to about USD100 000 000 in addition 13.5% domestically provided for.  Then the concern that Senator Ncube raised regards to the youth and drug and substance abuse issues that we should look into this issue. 

Yes, in this budget we have tried to support the response effort in this sector.  Government has set up a taskforce to look into the drugs and substance abuse which is chaired by the Minister of Defence.  Really, we have to work hard to come up with policies, strategies, harness all of Government energies in there of the response to this issue.  We have allocated budget through the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare to deal with drug and substance abuse issue. 

Turning to the matter of water resources, being a piece of infrastructure, maybe deserving of a separate Ministry, of course I cannot comment as to whether this should be done or not.  Usually we leave this to the Head of State do decide but he is correct to say that it is a very important issue, water in all its forms, so they are talking about  building of dams for using in agriculture and tourism, our rivers, our lakes are and so forth.  These are serious resources that service the entire economy.  I can understand why perhaps he made a comment about it being a standalone Ministry. 

Turning to Hon. Sen. Ngwenya, who also applauded the budget, he did go to the heart of the issues on how you perhaps prioritise the disbursements, what are you going to do in the first quarter?  As I said, every Ministry thinks it is important to get budget first but just from the prioritization, you can see that education especially since our children will be going back to school early in the new year and middle of the year.  That is a response area that needs attention in terms of releasing the budget to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. 

         We need to be healthy all the time.  So, one cannot say that I will priotise health now but not in the next quarter or the following quarter.  This is continuous support for everybody. These are some of the areas that we also try to priotise but every Ministry thinks it is important since we do programme-based budgeting. We find it is about specific programmes within a certain Ministry that get priority in consultation with those ministries.  I can assume but then what happens is that in the second quarter, we see demands for devolution funding once the projects are clearer from the ground and also some infrastructure.  We start pushing the budget towards that direction.  This is just a flavour of what goes on in terms of the budget release side.

         There is a Senator who expressed concern that the level of taxation is on the high side.  We are seeing an increase in formalisation.  This is an issue and I said that before, 18% of tax revenue of the GDP of Zimbabwe is not highly taxed but the issue is the distribution of tax.  That is something balanced that we need to merge along and make sure it is correct and everyone is paying their fair share of taxes.

         In terms of the informal sector, in the previous budget, we tried hard to really get the informal sector to begin to pay their share, at least register to pay tax.  That is quite important.

Hon. Senator Nyathi raised various issues.  I think you were happy with the budget and thank you very much. He also mentioned that the allocation especially to the security cluster is a good one.  We were quite pleased with this.  Without peace, we cannot develop.  It is a mastering gradient and is almost a pre-condition for development.  We need to be in the development of peace.  He said that if you think these things are expensive, trying war is even more expensive.  So, I agree with you.

         Hon. Senator Ndebele, you did comment on the various allocations perhaps but you went to the issue of the Women’s Bank support and sanitary wear support.  Generally, we need to increase support for women.  They face some challenges when they go about doing their entrepreneurship business as cross-border traders and so forth.  They face quite a variety of different taxes. I must hasten to say some of these are not taxes as levied by the central Government but these are levies that are typically levied by local authorities.  As I said earlier, we find in central Government that some of these local authorities and some of the agencies within the central Government are collecting more than ZIMRA.  This also causes us to look into the whole issue of the environment for doing business for women who produce supplies for everybody. 

         The issue of smuggling, that we need to deal with.  We currently have a blitz programme to deal with the issue of smuggling.  You also mentioned the need to support war veterans.  I must hasten to say that if you take a look at the Appropriation Bill, there is an amount allocated for that.  That amount does not pay in the full picture.  Two other things are hidden.  One is the allocation for pension for statutory obligations which is about ZiG3.5 billion in addition to that budget that goes towards pension and so forth. 

         There is also the issue of war veteran companies.  You may be aware that a couple of years ago, we gave war veterans through the war veterans funds, six farms.  We still have some provinces that have not released farms because in every province we are supposed to release a farm.

There are about 21 mining claims and there is also the creation of a financial institution, hunting concessions and so forth. I think they just need to tied up things and make sure that group of companies begin to perform for the benefit of war veterans. The War Veterans Fund has a shareholding in Kuvimba Mining Group and I know that they received a dividend of USD200 000. So, there are some hidden assets that are meant to benefit war veterans. I agree with you that we should never tire in supporting our war veterans.

In terms of women in agriculture, we should be supportive, women in health and those living with disability and the quality of social services. I agree with you and these were very good and persuasive comments that we should always strive to do better as Government in these areas. There is a Senator who wanted to know a bit more about our assumptions on the rainfall battle, the fact that they have got a stable exchange rate, type of fiscal policy as assumptions underpinning our projected 3% rate of growth. Yes, these are our assumptions and that is what we do in this kind of forecasting business. We have everything based on assumptions and if one of the assumptions is wrong, that will impact your rate of growth and you should read this in conjunction with the section of that stress testing the budget which is in this book. Here, where in a sense we are relaxing some of these assumptions and say but what if we do not have a stable exchange rate as projected, what if the rainfall pattern is not great and so forth.

We have stress tested these assumptions as well to see how the budget performs under those circumstances. Of course, you wanted elaboration on the specific policies around keeping a stable exchange rate, tight monetary policy and others. A tight monetary policy, to tighten it you would always need a positive interest rate and discourage excessive borrowing and lending. Sometimes where Bills will increase reserve requirement at the same bank deeding in September to curtail a liquidity. In fact, you will suck liquidity out of the market.

There are all manner of monetary policy tools that are at the bank disposal to tighten monetary policy. On the fiscal front, you just have to live within your means that you do not monetise the deficits and therefore cause an increase in upsurging money supply and then cause volatility on the exchange rate front which often spills onto prices in the shops and causes inflation. That is how you put it simply and that is what we always watch in terms of these variables impact, the whole issue of stability.

Under agriculture, you did mention that two dams, Gwayi-Shangani and Umguza are being targeted. These have been budgeted for and we will be able to make progress on these. On irrigation schemes, these are in the Blue book and I am just trying to find other areas.

The contribution regarding disability level and removal of collateral for those living with disability and support for social protection and assistance in terms of assistive technologies, again I really found this contribution very persuasive form Hon. Senator Shiri. These are very persuasive proposals and I think that when we engage our banks regarding support for those who are disabled, this is one area where I think we should extend guarantee as Government so that if the enterprenuer is disabled or lives with disability, they will not be required to produce collateral.  I am already seeing opportunities beginning to be helpful on this account, but I will really retain these four areas for further examination to see where we would support. 

Then Hon. Senator Zhou in the minerals mining sector; minerals being smuggled through Mozambique and so forth, you are right, there have been leakages but I came across a report this morning where some of the lithium producers where you think lithium is being exported but it is always lithium plus.  We have some concoction of rare earth minerals that are even more valuable than lithium that are being exported.  Someone even said that is the reason why perhaps you find that even though lithium prices have dropped, lithium companies are still exporting.  Usually when prices drop, you ought to shut down but that is not the case.  So, what is going on?  Someone thought this would be one of the explanations to say that there is something else in there that is more valuable and whose price has not dropped to the extent of lithium and allows these companies to continue to operate. 

On controlling our exports and tax on fast foods which again you were very supportive of and the need to support the tourism sector which currently is the fastest sector followed by ICT sector.  I thank you for those comments. 

Hon. Senator Tongogara, your comments around the need to support beneficiation as to whether the budget for beneficiation programmes is in the Ministry of Mines Budget or not – it is not in the Budget for the Ministry of Mines.  Beneficiating is what we achieve by insisting that the private sector investors must beneficiate.  They beneficiate at their cost.  They benefit from that beneficiation but so do we as a country in terms of revenue earnings and taxes.  The Ministry of Mines then plays the supervisory or regulatory role that I mentioned earlier.

On support to war veterans including waiving taxes; that is a very interesting proposal that I will take on board to reflect more on it to see how this could be carried forward.  I have got my staff at the back and they take copious notes and we will examine it properly and see how we can be supportive to our gallant fighters.

Turning to Hon. Senator Ndlovu regarding the official currency being ZiG and wondering how many people have got paper ZiG with them.  The ZiG is in circulation and mainly electronic.  We went the route of promoting its electronic version because Zimbabwe is a mobile money country.  We are one of the world leaders in that and perhaps we should not disadvantage ourselves by moving away from that.  That should be an encouraging position which is convenient for financial inclusion.  You are right that sometimes when you feel the money you touch it and you feel that it is your,s so why do you not have more of it?  Here our approach has been impacted by what happened to the Zimbabwe dollar each time we were putting cash on the marke,t you suddenly see this picture on social media of the plane carrying the notes leaving some place in Europe and you say, ‘sebephuma, hanti uyababona’.  As policy makers, we respond to those things.  We know it is an issue and then we say how we should manage this by curtailing the paper money circulation and encourage the electronic version to circulate. However, we are listening carefully to the sentiments that you are raising.

On the issue of traders who are taking away informal businesses, again we are pleased to let you know that our blitz programme is going well. We will crack down on smuggling and the informal sector.  Hon. Sen. Ndlovu, the informal sector is not informal to the City of Harare, Bulawayo or any other city.  They know who they are because most of them have got vendor hawkers’ licences.  The municipal police go after them and these individuals pay their dues to the local authority here and there.  The same sector is informal to ZIMRA – one hand it is formal to the city council but informal to ZIMRA.  When we talk about informality to the national tax collector being ZIMRA.  This really means that the local authorities and ZIMRA not perhaps – they should work together so that they share the database suddenly operators who appear informal will appear formal because we now know who they are.

Hon. Sen. Mlilo, thank you for your comments.  We need to spend more on the quality of the teaching infrastructure.  I agree.  These things are never achieved in one year.  We keep going after allocating this year.  These are multi-year programme.  We can never allocate enough money but there are some allocation for schools development and teacher accommodation and so for.  I now move that the Bill be read a second time.

Motion put and agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage: With leave, forthwith.

COMMITTEE STAGE

FINANCE BILL NO. 2 BILL, 2024

         House in Committee.

Clauses 1 to 11 put and agreed to.

On Clause 12:

HON. SEN. PHULU: Thank you Mr. Chairperson, I noticed that we are saying we have added to the list of those who cannot claim any deductions and I noticed that the arts are affected.  I want to understand the rationale in the sense that how much money do we make out of this, given the peculiarities of our industry which is at its infancy and will it not harm those up and coming creatives who will need to purchase rights for instance to make a bid which will maybe, once it becomes proficient, yes, tele-profit perhaps but a lot of them do this creatively. Some of them do this to get a start.  I wanted to hear the Minister perhaps make us understand and also to see if those who do it use this creatively because we are on the internet now, I can get my credit card, buy a bid, buy software which is patented as a copyright.  I thank you.

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE):  Thank you Hon. Chairperson.  This Clause 12 seeks to limit the deductibility of royalty fees hence fees paid for the use of let us say copyrights, patents, trademarks it limits to a maximum of 1 ½ % of the company’s revenue or the comparable value that is determined in terms of the schedule but also it limits the deductibility of rental expenditure against taxable incomes in cases where such person fail to declare the onus or rental thereof.  This is to enhance tax administration.  This speaks to what we have in paragraph 600 of the National Budget statement as I presented.  Here we are just trying to deal with certain opaqueness and declarations and to make sure that there is no excessive inflation of what is deductible that is why we then put a cap on what is deductible.  We think this is a good thing in order to limit this possibility of excessive claims. I thank you.

Clause 12 put and agreed to.

         Clauses 13 to 16 put and agreed to.

         On Clause 17:

         HON. SEN. PHULU: My debate is to understand from the Minister the extent to which this will hamper scores of young people who have no tax returns but will try to do start-ups. Is there any support to help them as they start out to ensure that they are technically conditioned to be able to make sure that they comply with these complex processes to ensure that one has a tax return, otherwise the approach moves to normalise tax return.

         +HON. SEN. MLOTSHWA: Thank you Mr. President. I have noticed that most women do not have collateral and they take returns if they want loans from the bank. The Hon. Minister was not lenient enough on that. They should present little if they want loans. Thank you. 

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Thank you very much Hon. Chair. I thank the Hon. Members for their contributions. If you have no collateral, therefore, you would not be able to borrow from the bank and do business, neither would you be able to pay taxes. I do not think that would be an issue because if you are not in the tax bracket because you have not been able to initiate your business and because you have not been able to have the collateral, let us separate the issue of assets to collateral away from that of paying taxes.

         The issue of collateral as I said earlier, through the Women’s Bank, we are looking at ways to reduce that requirement through this prescribed asset as packaging and also getting additional shareholders and then guarantee onto the bank. That is one thing and one is able to access a loan. The issue of paying tax is actually a formalisation issue. It is a good thing. You would not pay taxes if you were making a loss. You do not pay taxes if you are making the right levels of profit. So, it is a good thing to be a good tax payer and then you can expect good service from Government because you are a responsible citizen.

         You will notice that in all countries that are progressing and developing going forward, increasingly their citizens are increasing numbers starting to pay taxes. Eventually, everyone who ought to pay tax will start and it is progress and is a good thing.  I do not think you will see it as a burden. It is a way to formalise affairs properly. I thank you.

         Clause 17 put and agreed to.

Clauses 18 to 29 put and agreed to.

         On Clause 30:

         HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI:  Thank you Mr. President. This section talks to the tax on exportation of unbeneficiated platinum and to the best of my knowledge and others knowledge, unbeneficiated platinum comes together with other minerals. It still does not help our purse. If we include other related minerals particularly those that come together with palladium, rhodium, cobalt, this comes together with platinum matt that is exported.

When we talk to the issue of unbeneficiated platinum, what level of beneficiation are we talking? Are we talking of platinum that has not been purified to platinum metals or something that has had a bit of value addition made to it, like getting the platinum or concentrated? Is that sufficient beneficiation, is it insufficient beneficiation for us to get to this?  In other words, I am basically saying, can we be specific with respect to the depth of beneficiation?

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Thank you Hon. Senator for that robust question. This clause is not about the type of beneficiation nor depths, neither do we want to specify this here. This is about the currency of trade. What it is doing is to clarify that whenever this tax is paid, it should be paid in the currency of trade, that is all. Elsewhere, we deal with other beneficiation issues through our various pieces of legislation but this is just about the current trade only. Thank you.

Clause 30 put and agreed to.

Clauses 31 to 40 put and agreed to.

         On Clause 41:

         HON. SEN. NCUBE: On Clause 41, underneath it says ‘with effect from the 1^st of January 2010’.  Is that date correct?

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Thank you very much, the date is correct.  It looks awkward but it is correct.  I thank Hon. Sen. Mackenzie for the question.  What is happening is that here we want to recognise at law, the date on which royalties were recognised in the Income Tax Act for the first time.  We thought that legally, that is how we should do it.  That is what the lawyers advised us.

         Clause 41 put and agreed to.

         Clauses 42 to 54 put and agreed to.

         House resumed.

         Bill reported without amendment.

         The Temporary Chairperson having realised that Clause 55 had been omitted.

THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (HON. SEN. CHIEF KHUMALO):  May I call the Senate to order once again.  There was one clause that was left out and it is Clause 55, Amendment of Chapter 22:19.

House in Committee.

Clause 55 put and agreed to.

HON. SEN. PHULU:  Point of order, but the Bill had already been reported and we had gone out of Committee.  How are we back in Committee?

THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON:  It is noted Hon. Senator Phulu.  We have already reported to the President.  He is coming back but your concerns are noted. 

HON. SEN. PHULU:  Thank you.

House resumed.

Bill reported without amendments.

Third Reading:  With leave, forthwith.

THIRD READING

FINANCE (NO.2) BILL [H. B.12A, 2024]

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. NCUBE):  I move that the Bill be now read the third time.

Motion put and agreed to.

Bill read the third time.

SECOND READING

APPROPRIATION BILL (2025) [H. B. 11, 2024]

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE):  Mr. President, I thank you.  This Appropriation Bill seeks to allocate resources that will be critical as we march towards the achievement of Vision 2030 through the implementation of NDS1 Strategy.

In terms of the strategy and this accompanying budget, we intend to focus on some critical areas that will support some of these areas including bolstering the conditions for stable and sustainable economic growth, it being that of a stable macro-economic environment.  The budget is also seeking to support the development of critical and domestication of critical value chains that will not only increase revenue earned within the economy but also will advance the transformation of our economy towards upper-middle income status.

Through this budget, we are also going to up-scale investments in infrastructure in public services in both rural and urban areas.  In doing that, we will try to work hard to crowd in the private sector through appropriate public-private partnerships.  Through this budget, we are also going to invest in upgrading the digitalisation of our economy in promoting artificial intelligence.  After all, every economy is marching ahead with digitilisation which is the way to go and this use of digital infrastructure cuts across the entire economy and no one is left behind in terms of the use of ICT gadgets and requisite infrastructure.

In this budget Mr. President, the youths, SMEs or women will not be left behind.  We have allocated the budget in those areas to support our SMEs, to make sure that women have better access to loans through the Women’s Bank and to make sure that rural girls are not left behind by supporting the provision of sanitary wear. We will also make sure that devolution as an agenda is well supported.  This is development being driven bottom up as opposed to top down.  As we do this we need to accelerate the clearance of our arrears as a country to ensure that we are able to remove the albatross of debt around our necks and that of the economy.  I thank you.

         HON. SEN. PHULU:  I would like to appreciate the effort that has been put into ensuring that there is balance in the manner in which our money is being appropriated.  I would like to note particularly the fact that Health has been given ZiG 22 billion and Lands - where we eat as compared to Defence ZiG 18 billion.  It means we are putting emphasis towards our social issues.  We are taking care of our health, land and agriculture which is the backbone of our economy.  I would like to particularly note that education has been combined primary, secondary with higher and tertiary education.  We hope that as we go forward we will really see on the ground a vast improvement in the progress of that sector.  I really appreciate that. We believe in the separation of powers and our Constitution says so.  If you compare what the Executive is getting certainly, they get a huge chunk of the budget because they implement but if you compare with what we get as the Legislature and Judiciary, we would have perhaps wanted to see the gap a little bit more.  Perhaps ZiG3 billion because they are the three Arms of Government and they balance each other out particularly Parliament with its oversight and legislative roles which have been recognised in NDS1 where the Hon. Minister in his preface indicated they will have to ensure that institutions get more support and I think the Judiciary and Legislature rank at the top.  We have also been recognised in NDS1 in the sampling of the oversight role of Parliament together with the role of Government approach that has been underlined in this policy document.  We would have perhaps wanted to see more being given to the other two Arms of Government to ensure that this separation of powers works well for us.  We want to see a strong Judiciary and Legislature and not having to scrounge around for funds to make ends meet in terms of funding.  That is the reason why we always have to scrounge around for funds is because we do not get sufficient funding to begin with.  I would want to hear the comments from the Hon. Minister in his response.  I thank you.

         HON. SEN. CHAPFUDZA: Thank you Mr. President.  I would just like to comment on one issue.  I have seen that the total amount that has been appropriated is ZiG240,936,000,812 billion. When I looked at the figure appropriated to ZACC it is just ZiG236,000,225.00 million and this is the one that is to protect the 240 billion.  I think this amount is too little because if we do not provide the people who work at ZACC with adequate resources, they may end up being corrupted also.  So, I think the Minister should have increased the Commission’s Vote so that they will do their work effectively without even looking at the offers they will be given by people that might want them to engage in corruption.  I thank you.

         HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI:  I have got a few observations on the Appropriation Bill.  Firstly, there is the allocation to Parliament which is ZiG2,145,000,000 billion.  It clearly says legislative agenda and oversight services but Parliament has got two other critical responsibilities namely representation and development.  With respect to development, I am talking about CDF and I would like to know if it is included in the oversight and legislative services or is it a subsection that has been forgotten?  Then the other thing is the issue of representation as a key role of Parliament, which needs Parliamentarians to exercise that role with efficacy.  Then the tools of trade: we were promised computers and other gadgets to enable us to do our representative work better but it appears this has been forgotten.  If that is the case then I propose that the Minister does look into the budget with a view to fund those responsibilities of Parliamentarians.

         Then moving onto the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, I am battling because the tool of trade that I have got is severely under pressure with the documents that we get from Parliament.  So please bear with me when I slow down because I will be trying to get to the topic that I want.  With the difficulties in the economy there are a lot of short cuts that industrialists engage in particularly, issues of metrology where inspectors do not frequent these industrialists with respect to issues of metrology on the product that they produce. I think there is need for a bit more funding to enable inspectors to make sure that they do thorough work to protect consumers. This applies as well to industry and commerce.

Mr. President, I also want to talk to issues of agriculture and propose that there is a key element of the agriculture value chain that is not being funded. The Minister is strong on the left-hand side of the equation, the production side of the equation, - Intwasa and funding of that and also other things. There is a missing link because the production that farmers engage in is related to the availability of markets. There is no mention of strengthening of the Agricultural Marketing Authority so that the villager in Dotito and Bikita, who produces a bag of ndumba can still get it to the market and get a market available.

Livestock, for example, the markets which we used to have are all dead. The people are being fleeced by what we call magombiro, people who just go and say you are desperate, so I am going to pay $50 for your livestock. I think there is need to strengthen the right-hand side of the value chain so that markets are available for the producers. This is so that even GMB, when they collect a farmer’s product, they must readily pay the farmer so that the farmer can happily go and drink a bit of happiness drink and invest in the farming for the next season.

Mr. President, I also want to talk about the allocation to the Auditor General (AG). Zimbabwe is asphyxiated by corruption at the moment. Corruption is one of the deadliest diseases that is dealing a big blow on the performance of our economy. Corruption is pervasive in MDAs and in the private sector. You touch it, you can see it and you can talk to it. It is so huge and present, omnipresent. The AG has to be capacitated to the fullest so that audits can quickly be done and wrong doers corrected. I therefore propose that the allocation for the AG’s Office be upped a little bit so that the AG can hire where they shortfall. They can hire professional auditors so that these tasks can be executed with speed and haste for the benefit of deterring those with long hands.

Mr. President, I also want to speak to the issue of disaster risk management in the Ministry of Local Government, which I think as you can see, although we are signatories to the Kyoto Protocols on disaster risk, we do not seem to value disaster risk preparedness sufficiently. This is why if a drought happens, it upsets the whole economy and the whole budget. There is need to ensure that we are careful about disaster risk funding.

Mr. President, I also would like to have a look at retention funds amounting to $6 billion. As I was speaking about corruption, it is so present, even in funds that have been allocated to ministries. Now, you have got retention funds amounting to $6 billion. In USD terms at today’s rate, that is about a quarter of a billion, that is kept by departments. This is a breeding ground in my opinion for corruption. This is a provision for a feeding trough for those people who have got a tendency to enjoy from what they do not deserve.

Mr. President, these will be my submissions and of course I am also going to conclude by talking about issues of devolution. Mr. President, we have gone so long talking about devolution funds. It is common knowledge that development is intense if, as the Minister said is bottom up. The devolution funds, as happening now, are nothing bottom up. I would personally not call that devolution and prefer to call it de-concentration funds because this is money that the Central Government determines where it goes, instead of the people at the base deciding where this money should go.

There is a lot deceit around this fund and I would suggest, strongly that we relook at it so that we also pursue issues that pivot issues of devolution. The law around devolution is absolutely necessary. The waste of resources paying people that have got no laws governing how they must work. It is a sad story. Yes, call them devolution funds as you may. Personally, I do not think that the intensity of development from every dollar of this so called devolution would equal the intensity of development if we had proper true devolution.

Thank you Minister, at least you are still trickling down something but I think it would make better sense if it was related to the truth called devolution, as desired by the people of this country, when they crafted their own Constitution in 2013. With these remarks, Mr. President, let me conclude by talking to issues of inland water transportation. Water is a huge disaster today in this country, whether it is irrigation water, whether it is clear potable water but more emphatically, we have to rethink. We have to rejig our funding of the transportation systems for water particularly for the urban areas.

They transport water from miles and miles and the infrastructure is in serious state of decay and needs a heavy investment in the same. Mr. President, copying from a colleague, with these few remarks, I do submit. Thank you.

HON. SEN. CHIEF SIANSALI: Thank you Mr. President. I woke up at the right time as I was dosing. I would like to draw the Minister to Vote 29 for the Judiciary Service Commission (JSC). You will realise that our courts which are managed by the JSC from the primary court is presided over by the Headman or Headperson then followed the Community Court presided over by a Chief and the ladder goes. However, year in year out, funds are appropriated for these courts up to the lowest but the JSC has deliberately ignored

these two courts. Nothing is done as to their trainings, as to their management and anything else that follows forth. These courts are required to behave and act, dispense and discharge cases as to the  minimum required standards by the JSC. The presiding officers of these courts have become a laughing stock as they just get into office without any training but society requires them to behave like those that are trained. I draw the attention of the Hon. Minister that if word can be shared with the JSC to also consider these courts and capacitate them so that they can behave likewise.

The second is on Vote 31 for the National Council of Chiefs, this Government has acted in contempt since 2013 whereby funds are appropriated for the National Council of Chiefs which is supposed to behave as a stand-alone institution like any other commissions that are appropriated like the ZEC, Human Rights Commission and others. However, Government has deliberately ignored the institution not to fund it to have its own independent office so that it can run its own affairs. This budget is not managed by the National Council of Chiefs, it is managed by the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works which is not in the proper order. For how long shall we remain in that queer format? Does the Minister then guarantee that these funds that we appropriated this coming year cater for the establishment of independent offices for the National Council of Chiefs, staffing and furniture so that the National Council of Chiefs can then run its own affairs but not to run as a department under the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works? We have been acting illegal. This Parliament is a legal institution and is appropriating funds giving it to the wrong hands. It would be better off maybe to just leave and we act as a department under Local Government than to dummy-play as if everything is normal. I thank you.

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Thank you Mr. President. Let me start by responding to the comments from Hon. Senator Phulu. You did note that he feels the budget did try to strike a balance among different needs, whether health, education but still feel that perhaps when it comes to the legislature we could have done more. This also comes out of the comment from Hon. Senator Chapfudza. Basically, when we met to consult each other on what the budget should look like, we met in Bulawayo in the pre-budget seminar with an overall envelope of the order of 140 billion. There was a request that please Treasury, look around and increase the budget for everybody. What happened was, the budget request across all MDs was something like 700 billion which is almost as high as the size of the GDP of the economy in ZiG. You can imagine if Parliament, the Government, the Judiciary were to have a budget which is equal to the GDP, the whole economy, what that kind of country would look like; obviously that is not possible. So we were able in the end to come back and now we have a budget envelope of 340 billion, which is what we are appropriating. We really worked hard to increase the budget of every ministry, department including the legislature.

We went further Mr. President, yesterday debates in the Lower House, to do more. This also speaks to what Hon. Senator Chapfudza was asking to say what else are we covering or rather than what seems to be presented. We are covering a lot of things. The CDF is covered and we have also included the CDF arrears as well in the budget. We have also covered the tools of trade in terms of office equipment for both yourselves and also staff. We also included additional requirements for fuel. We have also included motor vehicles, we have heard that there is demand for motor vehicles for both the Upper House and the Lower House. We have made a provision for that.

We have also set aside a budget for improved allowances locally and also internationally as you try to meet your duties abroad. What we have also done is, we have set aside resources for the constituency offices including other support services that go with these offices. Mr. President, when it comes to the staff of Parliament, we as Treasury have approved that staff of Parliament should earn 30% more than the rest of the equivalent civil service colleagues. We know that they are not civil servants but they are earning 30% more. In addition to that, we will be purchasing four mini buses and one large bus for their transportation because you are now operating from Mashonaland West as opposed to Central Harare. There is some distance to cover.

We have also set aside some allowances for meals as well that is also being included. So, we work hard to try to present a package not just for the staff of Parliament but also yourselves Senators and those in the Lower House. All those things are covered in the budget that is presented.

There is also reference made by Senator Chapfudza to the Minister of Industry and Commerce in that there are some short-cuts in terms of metrology which I guess is measurement where there is claim of some weight of some goods when that is not the case. Claim of some quality of the goods when that is not the case. I agree with this. Certainly, we will support the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in this regard to improve in this inspection.

On agriculture, the Hon. Senator said we were too silent on the market role aspect which is demand side. No, we have not been too silent if you can turn to paragraph 257 and paragraph 259 of the main document, there is a section that deals with marketing aspect not just armor but also the commodity exchange as well.

On the Auditor General budget deal with Anti-corruption, of course we are very happy as Treasury with the role that the Auditor General plays. In fact, we understand this to be so important that we have even bolstered the entire audit function by including an internal audit function right across government so that the work of the Auditor General is also enhanced and she gets more information out of the system. So she can be even more effective as an auditor. In terms of the budget again, coming from the consultations and also the debates in the Lower House, we were able to bump up that budget for the Auditor General.

Now turning to disaster preparation, of course we have the Disaster Response Unit in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and that has been allocated a budget. There is also a National Disaster Fund under that unit. We have also supported two other initiatives, which is Sovereign Risk Insurance Programme where the sovereign is buying insurance from Africa. Last year we were able to receive payment to the tune of US$32 million which then we distributed to 27 districts that were mostly affected by drought. This is insurance at a sovereign level and the insurance is to vulnerable families in the key affected districts. There is also insurance that insures farmers for which farmers pay an insurance premium. We ran a survey last year in Goromonzi where we insured 2 000 farmers.  The farmers paid in terms of premiums USD15 each and the maximum pay out if their crop failed was 300 dollars.  We had about 22% crop failure and so the farmer was able to get compensation of USD65.  Even at that, it is still a good investment, you invest USD15 in terms of insurance premium and get back USD65, it is not a bad investment at all.  We think we have perfected this crop insurance and we now want to spread it to the rest of the country but also to the livestock sectors.

I agree with the Hon. Senator when it comes to retention funds, half a billion retained, he wants to know whether these are being managed or used properly.  I also want to know, so I agree with him that I will dig to make sure that these funds are properly used.  As Treasury, we actually do not like this retention of funds by MDAs for the reasons that he mentioned.

In terms of devolution, he had very tough words on devolution, in places where it has been used properly and we probably just set aside all the legalities and so forth and tried to say citizens getting the clinics, schools, better roads that they deserve or boreholes from these devolution funds. In places where the funds have been applied properly, citizens have benefited from these funds, also they have benefited from the CDF as well.  Legalities aside, this can be a very useful fund. 

When we design this allocation process for devolution funds, we took into account the quality of infrastructure in each of the district, the levels of poverty, those are critical things and then the size of population.  We believe that this begins to really zoom in on the critical conditions in that specific district. It is now then left to those at the bottom to then design these projects and then the questions we talked about.  The Hon. Senator had very tough words for this programme.  I think that is fair, we will seek to do better and make sure that we clean up this programme.

Coming to the issue of water, the old infrastructure for water reticulation, he is correct, I know cities which lose easily 50% of their water that is treated including City of Harare, it seeps into the ground because the pipes are not in good order. They are rotting away. He is right about this, there is need to invest in that infrastructure.  I think this is an investment that local authorities must lead rather than central government.  Central government is responsible for raw bulk water.  Beyond that in terms of the piped water, it is local authorities. Government can support but local authorities have to take the lead and make sure that right user charges and they can collect from those who are using the water and develop water infrastructure on the back of that.

They can even crown these private sectors, I still remember when young and in banking and we tried to partner, City of Harare here in the late 90s to revamp the water reticulation system, I am afraid to say we did not succeed in getting that partnership in place.  Maybe we did not have a good proposal, I do not know but we were not successful.

Coming to Hon. Senator Siansali, regarding Vote 29, the JSC, he was very educative in terms of the 3-tier court system and that the first two tiers are not well capacitated and there is need for JSC to capacitate these. I agree with him if there is some sense of neglect here.  There should be refocus on all the tiers so that no court system will be left behind.

On Vote 31, Council of Chiefs, yes again you had strong words regarding this Council of Chiefs to sit below the ministry, the minister manages the budget, then it will be stand alone.  This is something that the Minister of Local Government should carry forward as a lead Ministry so that if there is need, the Council of Chiefs is a stand-alone Commission. We as Treasury will support the need in this regard.  Hon. President, I now move that the motion be adopted. 

Mr. President, I now move that the Appropriation (2025) Bill [H.B. 11:2024] be read a second time.

Motion put and agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage: With leave, forthwith.

COMMITTEE STAGE

APPROPRIATION (2025) BILL [H. B. 11:2024]

House in committee.

Clauses 1 to 2 put and agreed to.

On Clause 3:

HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI: I see that the Consolidated Fund charged $234 billion, my debate is around the retention funds amounting to $6 billion and my proposal is that these funds be transferred to the Consolidated Fund so that they are properly managed, are allocated from one source and that resources can be deployed for their meaningful purpose for the best advantage of the people of this country.

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): As I said, I agree with the Senator in terms of the management of these funds and in Treasury, we are not big funds of retention funds but I think that it will be too sudden if we sit here and then at a stroke of a pen, we move everything. I think what we need to do was to give these MDAs adequate time and notice to say this is what we are going to do because they have structures for managing these funds. If we suddenly pull the carpet under their feet, it just would not be proper management really and courtesy. So, I agree with it in terms of principle. Let me look into it going into the following budgetary year and give them adequate time to prepare for this change of management processes.

Clause 3 put and agreed to.

Clauses 4 and 5 put and agreed to.

On Clause 6:

HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI: My input here does not suggest at all that I have got any doubt with respect to the capacity and ability to be transparent by the Minister but the issue of just virementing these numbers, feeding one Vote and starving another is probably to me very worrisome.

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): I can assure the Hon. Senator that he should sleep very well tonight and subsequent nights because there is nothing to worry about. As you can see, what we do is, we follow programme-based budgeting and we are actually measured on how well we follow it. You have seen these surveys that we subject ourselves to and then get ranked and now we are ranked number three in Africa and all that. All those tools are designed to keep us on the straight and narrow and we subject ourselves. What this clause is about really is about saying, look, I do not have to come to Parliament every time we need to move small monies around but at the end of the day, these programmes govern how money ought to be moved around. You will find that where one turns to perhaps have a hand in, is in the unallocated reserve which is what I ought to do when ministries are short and one is able to deploy resources for that ministry in that programme but the Senator should sleep well, the budget is in good hands. I thank you.

HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI: My input is informed by what has happened in the past, where some Vote exceeds by more than 100% and others suffer to the extent of only getting something like 20%. What I am trying to say here is that if we give the Minister that latitude or all that flexibility, he can very easily use this clause to craft a completely different budget from this one we are passing. So, I am very worried about that and the possibility of such a clause being abused to re-craft a completely new budget where you find that one ministry might get 100%, the next one 10% and the character of the budget completely changes from what we have agreed upon here. Whereas it is necessary to provide vent holes, you must constrict them so that they do not vent too much. Thank you.

HON. PROF. M. NCUBE: Agreed.

Clause 6 put and agreed to.

THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: I shall now put Schedule Section 4 of the Bill. In doing so, I have to draw your attention to Standing Order Number 145 which guides on consideration of schedule of Appropriation Bill. It provides as follows; (145) At the Committee Stage of an Appropriation Bill, the clauses having been disposed of, the Chairperson shall put separately for debate in the order in which they are arranged on the Order Paper, the supply grants comprising the schedules and no questions shall be put thereon.

Secondly, following the procedure laid out in sub-order one, debate shall be allowed on matters of administration and policy relating to the Ministry or department whose supply grant is before the Committee of the Whole House. I will put the supply grants as follows;

Vote 1 – Office of the President and Cabinet – $10 567 629 000.00, put and agreed to.

Vote 2 – Parliament of Zimbabwe – $2 753 361 000.00, put and agreed to.

         Vote 2 – Parliament of Zimbabwe - ZiG2 753 361 000,    put and agreed to.

         Vote 3 – Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare - ZiG 11 710 480 000, put and agreed to.

         Vote 4 – Defence – ZiG18 051 583 000, put and agreed to.

         HON. SEN. PHULU: Point of clarification.  I thought the rule said we cannot debate?

         TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (HON. SEN. A. DUBE ): Yes.

         HON. SEN. PHULU: When we are asked any debate, may I or may I not debate?

         THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Debate shall be allowed on matters of administration and policy relating to the ministry or department whose supply grant is before the Committee of the Whole House.

         HON. SEN. MLOTSHWA: Another point of clarification Chair. What does that mean to us in layman language? Do we debate or we do not debate?

         THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON:  On matters of policy and administration, you can debate.

         Vote 5 – Finance, Economic, Development and Investment Promotion – ZiG 28 709 968 000.

         HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI S.: There is a debate Madam Chair.

         THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: We do not debate.  Is it a matter of policy?

         HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI:   Policy and administration.

         THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: You can proceed Honourable Senator.

         HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI S: Thank you very much.  One of the key issues around policy and administration in the ministry is to do with strengthening.  One of the key problems we have in the extractive industry is illici financial flow.  It is an administrative issue in the ministry to make sure that the Financial Intelligent Unit is strengthened so that we can curtail the illicit financial flows, particularly related to gold. 

         HON. PROF. M. NCUBE: Thank you.  The Honourable Senator is correct.  We should capacitate the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to really stamp out all forms of money laundering, illicit outflows, especially gold.  I agree with him and we have worked hard to do this including additional personal tools of trade and we will do so.  I thank you.

Vote 5, put and agreed to.

Vote 6 – Office of the Auditor General - ZiG739 238 000 000, put and agreed to.

Vote 7 – Industry and Commerce - ZiG 550 863 000, put and agreed to.

On Vote 8 – Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development - ZiG22 934 997 000.

         HON. SEN. MLOTSHWA:  Madam Chair, I was interested as I was looking at this Appropriation Bill.  I want to know, in terms of expediting availability of water – we have a water crisis in Bulawayo.  We want to know the policy on expediting this.  Is this money enough for the Gwayi-Shangani Water Project to be finished in a specified time because of the water issues that we have in Bulawayo? 

         As we look at this, we hope we are going to have dams, the administration of dams and the building of dams in this Appropriation Bill. I thank you.

         HON. PROF. M. NCUBE: I thank the Honourable Senator for that question.  I have been in contact with the Mayor of Bulawayo who has requested USD2 million to deal with urgent issues in the City of Bulawayo.  We are in the process of releasing USD1.5 million towards that effort. 

         Overally, in terms of other sources, the City also wants to develop Glassblock Dam, we have supported the City in order to acquire resources from abroad last week.  I also rise them to go to Morocco where they met with investors during the Africa Investment Forum for that PPP project. 

         When it comes to Gwayi-Shangani, it is being funded by Government through this Budget so that by the end of next year, this dam is finished and the pipeline development is well underway towards Bulawayo.  When there is more water in Bulawayo in addition to what is being provided through the Nyamandlovu Aquifer, we can then release some of the dams in Matabeleland South so that those dams can then support in water provision for animals in Matabeleland South. 

         That is the overall plan going forward, I thank you.

         Vote 8, put and agreed to.

         Vote 9 – Mines and Mining Development - ZiG764 794 000,  put and agreed to.

         Vote 10 – Environment, climate and wildlife - ZiG 516 846 000, put and agreed to. 

         On Vote 11- Transport and Infrastructure Development - ZiG 5 543 641 000.

         HON. SEN. CHIEF SIANSALI: The figure said it is incorporative of some funds to work on the Bulawayo – Victoria Falls Road.  The road is now impassible.  It is now a death trap for us all.  If not so, Hon. Minister, maybe you may consider to allocate another vehicle for Members of Parliament that ply that road because we are destroying our vehicles everyday as we go back home and come here.  I thank you.

         HON. PROF. M. NCUBE:  I agree with the Honourable Senator, that road is in a bad state.  It is damaging. Everybody who uses that road is affected. 

         As Government, we have given a concession to a company to lead the redevelopment of that road on a public-private partnership. Basically, build own transfer basis (BOT). It is a very similar arrangement as with the Plumtree – Harare – Mutare Road which was build by Group 5 if you recall. We hope that this will then deal with that road.

         Therefore, the budget for that road will be seating under this BOT programme arrangement which is not in this Budget.  For what it is worth, we have also put the road from Harare to Nyamapanda boarder post on a BOT arrangement including the boarder post.  So, you find that we increasingly use this model over time because it gives some relief to the fiscus.  We belief that these roads which are trunk roads, transnational roads which we believe are profitable should be put under PPPs and then the project promoters can recoup what they invested in the roads from the toll fees.  I thank you.

         HON. SEN. CHIEF SIANSALI:  Madam Chair, we have heard that promise for the past three or four years now, may the Hon. Minister give timeframes on this or maybe the promise for the next three years to come so that we do not give immediate hope.  He said we have got PPPs coming and we think maybe January, February, March we will see something happening on the road but you realise we will get into another year and we still get the same promise again. Can he give a timeframe to say in the next five years, we will be working on the road, then we will cease to mount pressure? 

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE):  Maybe to wrap up the conditions for the PPP arrangements on Victoria Falls Road within the next six months of next year, 2025 because we have to negotiate the concession agreements with the project promoters.  They too need to show proof of funding, they claim that they already have the money both domestic and foreign, that is why they got the contract in the first place. We hope that in the next six months, let us say June next year, 2025 the agreement should have been signed and then work should begin in the second half of next year.  If we delay beyond that, that is not very good. 

         HON. SEN. PHULU:  Mine is on policy maybe rail and aviation infrastructure.  I know that the Hon. Minister has said before that the thrust is to rehabilitate our rail and mention of PPPs have been made.  To what extent those figures allow this Ministry to actually move forward swiftly towards rehabilitation of our rail.

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE):  Thank you very much, the NRZ now sits under Mutapa.  Mutapa is having negotiations for a loan facility with IndiaExim Bank via AfricaExim Bank of US$115 000 000.  In addition to that, China Rail has finished a feasibility study for revamping the NRZ which covers both fixed and rolling infrastructure including signal infrastructure.  I am aware that Mutapa is also having conversation with the third potential partner.  Through those initiatives, we would like to conclude as soon as we can on a partnership that will see us upgrade the infrastructure for NRZ. What I have just described is not in this budget, it is something that Mutapa is doing.  Initially I was heavily involved with the negotiations with the IndiaExim Bank but since we handed over the NRZ to Mutapa, they will handle that.  What we have in here inzwisa, real money is coming.

         Vote 10 put and agreed to.

         Vote 11 – Transport and Infrastructural Development, put and agreed to. 

         On Vote 12 – Foreign Affairs and International Trade – 3 989 780 000

         *HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: Thank you, I remember on the issue, the amount allocated to those on foreign missions should be increased because they should have good accommodation. On the funds availed to Foreign Affairs, does it include funds to build accommodation for staff at embassies? 

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE):  I want to thank Hon. Senator Tongogara for the question.  Yes, we believe that we have set aside adequate budget for that to support our hardworking embassy staff.  I think if you check Johannesburg and Pretoria area, a lot of progress has been made in revamping the accommodation, the consular and also in Botswana, it is the same.  A lot of progress has been made. Going forward, we are looking at Addis Ababa which is in a very bad state as well as London and New York.  I must say that for London and New York, we have received offers from promoters in the private sector who would like to enter into public-private partnerships with the Government to revamp those embassies because we believe that if part of those embassies could be rented out for commercial use, that will pay for the cost of upgrade of those embassies.  

         I can assure the Senator that in another few years we will have covered quite a lot in revamping these embassies, I thank you. 

Vote 12 put and agreed to. 

On Vote 13 – Local Government and Public Works – 4 907 792 000

         HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI:  Thank you Madam President, the Minister observed that I am very passionate when it comes to issue of devolution.  This passion is fed by the people who spoke in 2013 who demanded devolution.  The devolution policy is losing steam and I discovered that and I was told on finding out that the reason why we are not having a devolution law as demanded by the Constitution is to do with unavailability of enough drafters.  I thought it was ridiculous that indeed my three or so sources indicate that it is lack of enough drafters to make sure that the inputs of the people can be drafted into law so that devolution can begin to work for the people of this country. 

         Madam President, I therefore propose that the Administration Vote be increased so that we can go everywhere, including to the moon to look for drafters who will draft this particular law.  

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE):  Thank you very much.  The issue of drafters, I do not think it has just affected this Bill in question, all Bills go through the Attorney General’s Office.  What we have done, we have taken two steps, first of all is to upgrade the structure of the Attorney General’s Office and in doing so, we have regraded upwards the position of drafters, their salaries in order to encourage attracting and retaining these drafters because they train them and then they lose them to the market and other players.  Also, we want to start applying talent retention funds which is under the Public Service Committee in order to do top ups of salaries and retain these drafters.  He is correct that we have had a challenge in recruiting and then retaining drafters in the Attorney General’s Office. 

Vote 13  put and agreed to. 

         Vote 14 - Health and Child Care – ZiG28 823 595, put and agreed to.

On Vote 15 – Primary and Secondary Education –ZiG 46 764 004 000:

         HON. SEN. M. NCUBE: Thank you Madam President.  I would like to find out from the Minister whether the BEAM programme is embedded under Learners' Support Services.  If so, can the funds be disbursed timeously or expeditiously because most rural schools are really hamstrung?  BEAM funds are disbursed once a year.  Thank you.

         +HON.SEN. MLOTSHWA:  I want to ask the Hon. Minister about the 46 billion.  If he had distributed this money, the students in rural areas do not have books as they are using the new curriculum. It is difficult for the parents to get such kind of money.  Furthermore, the Head of State said no place and no one should be left behind.

         The issue of the internet, that money is being sent to the employees but not being allocated to the children.  What do you say Hon. Minister?

         +THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE):  Thank you Hon. Mlotshwa for the intervention.  ICT stretches to the Ministry of ICT and is coordinated by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.  So, the budget for ICT which was assisting the schools is also at ICT jointly.  You might notice that the money is very little but it is allocated to ICT. I can not tell how much it is but there are some funds.  You also stretched on the books whether they should not get textbooks, we tried to budget for the Ministry so that they get the textbooks.

         On the question of Hon. M. Moyo regarding the BEAM programme, the BEAM programme budget sits under the Ministry of Social Welfare.  So, it is one of those things you may recall during the pre-budget report; it was proposed that it should be moved directly to Primary and Secondary Education.  It is a proposal that will be considered when the Government fixes the rigging things in terms of organisation but it is sitting under the Social Welfare.  The two ministries work together to distribute those funds.  Thank you.

         HON. SEN. PHULU: They should remain for Social Welfare.  The primary education stands to children with special needs.  We do not see them on the programme here. What is the policy of the Ministry in dealing with those children because they should have a head there?  Where they are mainstreamed, they cannot disappear into infants or into junior or secondary. I would like to suggest that perhaps this policy should change.

HON. PROF. M. NCUBE: It is not very easy to create a programme right now since we are doing programme-based budgeting but Hon. Senator Phulu is correct, this is a very important area. I would assume that it is sitting under one of these programmes but I will need to consult the relevant Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to say where exactly this element sits. I suspect that it is a sub-element of one of the programmes but I will follow up on it. It is a very important area.

Vote 15 put and agreed to.

On Vote 16 - Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation Science and Technology Development - ZiG10 443 772 000:

HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI: Thank you Madam President. The innovation hubs policy that the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education has sculpted is a very important point because it cuts across the issues of the economy, beneficiation and all that we have been talking about all day this night. Madam President, I had an opportunity to visit an innovation at a certain university and the innovation that they are proudly talking about is sewing uniforms and making sanitisers, breeding chickens. This is not what we expect from institutions of higher learning.

We expect them to develop for us new knowledge and there is nothing new or innovative about sewing an umbrella. This is because there is no deliberate funding to promote innovation and encourage innovators to work on and bring forth new knowledge. I therefore propose and kindly ask the Minister to please put in some money on this budget on this particular line to encourage true innovation at Chinhoyi University, Bindura University, NUST, MSU and at University of Zimbabwe. If we did that, the benefits are just so huge and we have got brilliant minds. The Minister is the first person in this room to agree with me that if innovation is properly funded, the benefits are immeasurable. May the Minister commit to put in some money on this line? Thank you.

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Thank you very much. I am not so sure but first of all, I agree with him that innovation is critical and can change the economy. That is how the economy is developed through innovation. I do not think that it is an issue of absence of budget, I think it is exactly what he mentioned which is perhaps if some of those resources that were applied on the products that he mentioned were then directed on cutting edge research, then that objective will be achieved.  I think it is a matter of prioritisation.  I am too sure that we need more sanitisers from investors so clearly those resources could be deployed to a cutting edge research. Sometimes researchers do not need a lot of money to produce cutting edge research.  Money is needed in the commercialisation aspect.  There is need for these investors to partner with the private sector.  We also have a national adventure fund.  We also have Verity Engineering for those entities that are engineering oriented.  These sit within the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education.  There is some decent budget already allocated.  What is required is prioritisation towards cutting edge research that the Senator referred to.  Generally, I agree with you.

         Vote 16 put and agree to.

         On Vote 17 – Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development - 1 056 719 000

+HON. SEN. S. NDEBELE:  The one billion that is being

mentioned here will not match what we are advocating for because the Women Affairs is the one that is responsible for this department that we are complaining about.  May the fund be increased if possible.  May it be known that if it is increased, we need to know where the money will be viremented from.

         HON. SEN. MANYENGAVANA: I also want to add my voice on the Vote for Women Affairs – one billion; Minister since afternoon yesterday, we agreed that we need to empower our women.  52% of our population is women.  I plead with you to increase the amount from one billion to something else. 

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): The rules do not allow us to make changes at this stage in terms of the money but perhaps to speak to policy issues.  I think the policy of providing Government guarantee to the Women’s Bank for example is a good one that will enhance the impact of that bank on female entrepreneurs and also the issue of prescribed asset status is also critical.  The balance sheet of the bank is not included in this Budget.  It sits outside this Budget.  Those are the policy issues that I could speak to trying to respond to the need to support our women entrepreneurs.

+HON. S. NDEBELE: Where exactly are you going to get the money because the Women’s Bank falls under Women Affairs.

         +HON. PROF. M. NCUBE:  We will take it from other Votes.  If it is not enough, we take from the unallocated reserves.

+HON. SEN. MLOTSHWA:  It might appear as joke but we note that the women’s budget is only 0.35% whilst women constitute 52% of the total population of this country.  I do not know if the Minister thinks it is enough from these reserves where he is going to take money from.

HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI:  On a point of order, when we discussed the capacity of the Minister to shift around budgets, he said he agreed with the proposal that he must not over play around with budgets taking from this place to the other but I can see a little bit of vacillation. 

THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: I think that is a comment Hon. Minister.

HON. PROF. M. NCUBE:  In terms of the discussion, that was not the Budget re-allocation.  It was about where will you get the money to capacitate the Women’s Bank, it is already budgeted for or it is sitting in this Budget.  It was not budget reallocation.  It is already earmarked for capacitation and capitalisation of the bank.

Vote 17 put and agreed to.

Vote 18 – Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage – 16 183 387 000, put and agreed to.

On Vote 19 – Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs – 5 744 932 000:

HON. SEN. MATIBIRI:  From this Vote, about three billion of that amount is going towards rehabilitation and incarceration of the offender.  I was present in Bulawayo where the clarion call was made to the effect that let us make sure that our prisons turn to be production sites.  I think this Vote is too much just for purposes of rehabilitation and incarceration.  We could have done better by allocating that money to access like legal services because there are a lot of inmates who need legal representation so much that what then remains, we give it as seed money to prisoners so that they run their own field – they do production and feed themselves because I think that is where the majority of this budget is going.

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE):  All I can say is that I take note.

Vote 19 put and agreed to.

Vote 20 – Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services -  533 148 000, put and agreed to.

         On Vote 21– Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training – ZiG100 890 965:

         HON. SEN. NDEBELE: Thank you Madam Chairperson. I think the allocation of youth is very low because of what we have been talking about, mostly drugs. These youths must be empowered so that they will lead as time goes on. I think the budget needs to be increased to empower our youths.

         THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (HON. A. DUBE): Hon. Ndebele, I am sorry but today, we are not debating. We are discussing Policy and Administrative Matters.

         HON. SEN. NDEBELE: Thank you Madam President, you can change the policy the way you want. That is what I am saying.

         Vote 21 put and agreed to.

         Vote 22 – Energy and Power Development - ZiG409 788 000, put and agreed to.

         Vote 23 – Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services - ZiG741 447 000, put and agreed to.

         Vote 24 – National Housing and Social Amenities - ZiG766 101 163, put and agreed to.

         Vote 25 – Veterans of the Liberation Struggle Affairs - ZiG807 284 000, put and agreed.

         Vote 26 – Tourism Hospitality Industry - ZiG324 584 000 put and agreed to.

          On Vote 27 – Sport, Recreation Arts and Culture - ZiG908 387 000:

HON. SEN. PHULU: Other than these Votes and programmes that we received, is there any accelerated effort to ensure that we get stadiums in Zimbabwe? It has become an embarrassing point that perhaps needs to be dealt with swiftly Madam President. 

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Thank you, I agree with Hon. Senator Phulu that there is a need to upgrade our various stadiums starting with the National Sports Stadium.  We have allocated a budget for that to happen and we are fortunate to have a private sector partner who will also put additional resources towards that.  I think we also see some progress in revamping the National Sports Stadium but other stadiums also need attention but we will progressively attend to them. I thank you.

Vote 27 put and agreed to.

Vote 28 – Skills Audit and Development – ZiG253 175 000, put and agreed to.

Vote 29 – Judicial Services Commission - ZiG1 284 621 000, put and agreed to.

Vote 30 – Public Service Commission – ZiG10 723 973 000 ,put and agreed to.

 On Vote 31 – National Council of Chiefs – ZiG196 360 000:

         HON. SEN. PHULU: Madam Chairperson, is there any intention to ensure that the money is allocated to the traditional leaders as governance goes directly to them rather than going through the Minister of Local Government?  They have cried over the years about this issue and I think it is an important institution.  If we say our chiefs are not quite capable of governing themselves when certain associations can, what are we saying about the status of our chiefs?

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): As of now, the structures have not been set up for them to receive resources and administer resources independently as an independent commission.  As I said earlier, I think in this matter we need to engage the Ministry of Public Service so that we can work together to create this structure and take it through the right approval processes.  We are happy to disburse the budget as long as there is a proper structure to administer its guidance as well as the Treasury when the structure is ready.

         Vote 31 put and agreed to.

         Vote 32 – Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission – ZiG176 291 000, put and agreed to.

         On Vote 33 – National Peace and Reconciliation Commission – Zero.

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Madam Chair, it is zero because it ceased to exist at the end of last year.

         Vote 34 – National Prosecuting Authority – ZiG460 483 000, put and agreed to.

         Vote 35- Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission – ZiG236 225 000, put and agreed to.

          On Vote 36 – Zimbabwe Electoral Commission – ZiG467 362 000:

         HON. SEN. ZVIDZAI: Thank you Madam Chairperson. There is a policy on voter registration that demands that it be continuous but throughout the country if you go around registration centres, there is no continuous voter registration which falls foul of the provisions of the Constitution and if you consult with ZEC, they will  tell you that they are incapable of doing that on account of posit of resources. Consequently, I propose that the Vote be increased so that ZEC can register people continuously as provided for in our laws. As the minister might agree, I would like to know the depth of the agreement and how much money he is prepared to put into that.

         HON. PROF. M. NCUBE: In terms of the process, at the moment one would be unable to change the Vote to increase or decrease but just looking at the structure of the two programmes, governance and administration as well as management of elections and fire and arms, I think the issue of continuous registration will fall on one of those programmes. What should happen here is that ZEC should get on with the business.  If they run out of budget, then we will be able to take care of them using UR. Thank you.

         Vote 36 put and agreed to.

         Vote 37 - Zimbabwe Gender Commission – ZiG177 290 000, put and agreed to.

         Vote 38 – Zimbabwe Land Commission – ZiG194 198 000, put and agreed to.

         Vote 39 – Zimbabwe Media Commission – ZiG144 193 000, put and agreed to.

         Vote 40 – Health Service Commission – ZiG164 779 000, put and agreed to.

         Vote 41- Office of the Attorney General – ZiG218 725 000, put and agreed to.

         Total – ZiG240 936 812 000

         House resumed.

         Bill reported without amendments.

         Third Reading: With leave, forthwith.

THIRD READING

APPROPRIATION (2025) BILL [H. B. 11, 2024]

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Mr. President Sir, I now move that the Bill be read the third time.

         Motion put and agreed to.

         Bill read the third time.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

BILL RECEIVED FROM THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

         THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: I have to inform the House that I have receive the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill [H. B. 4, 2023] from the National Assembly.

Hon. Senators, I would like to thank you all for the hard work and for staying so late until we came to where we are right now. You deserve a very big round of applause. On that note, allow me to recognise the Hon. Minister to adjourn the House.

         On the motion of THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE), the House adjourned at Twenty Minutes to Two o’clock a.m.