One has to be funny to be appointed minister in Zimbabwe - Ndebele

Magwegwe MP Anele Ndebele has told Parliament that according to his observations in Zimbabwe one has to do something funny in order to be appointed minister.

Speaking in the house, Ndebele said each time he gets home he is at pain to explain to his daughter why he is not a Minister because some things may be good and not good for her.

"But this question keeps cropping up. Every time she wants to know and the answer that I have given her, as I have seen things play out in this House, is that in order to be a minister in this country my daughter, you just have to do something funny and you are appointed," he said.

But Speaker of the house Jacob Mudenda said he was at pains again to correct Ndebele.

"Member who was on the floor. Again, if he can read the Constitution of Zimbabwe it will reveal to him how the appointing authority appoints ministers and that privilege remains the privilege of the appointing authority. I would want the Hon. Member to kindly respect that and not go into the pedantics of trying to go outside the Presidential debate please," Mudenda said.

Ndebele said he was fully aware as a Member of Parliament that a ministerial appointment does not make one infallible neither does it translate to the fact that they immediately become the domain of all intelligence.

"The point I was trying to bring across is that in articulating matters, members of the Executive need to speak from the same dashboard. They need to articulate the same issues regarding how we wish to take our country forward. It is a matter of collective responsibility, I think, when you are in Cabinet," he said.

"Hon. Speaker, when we look at the President's Speech, a lot of it is centred on boosting economic recovery, but my understanding from what I have observed during question and answer sessions in this House is that his lieutenants may not be economically literate and at this particular moment, Zimbabwe requires stewards that understand the nuts and bolts of how economies run."

"For instance, if you read the Auditor General's report, it is littered from page one right up to the end with people stealing from this very Government and the stealing goes on under the very nose and the watch of our ministers. If people are stealing in this manner, what it means is that our ministers do not understand the nuts and bolts of how economies work."

He said it is the truth that people are stealing from the public purse.

"One is tempted you always encourage us to go back to school, one is tempted to advise the University of Zimbabwe to craft some financial literacy courses specifically for our ministers because they leave these things to so called technocrats who are permanent secretaries. The same permanent secretaries who were sitting on those boards that were milking our economy," Ndebele said.

But Mudenda mocked at him saying "I do not even know what he is talking about or which speech he is debating. I am lost. I need him to guide us. Which debate is he debating on."