News / National
MP lavishes praise on Mugabe
21 Nov 2013 at 09:47hrs | Views
Justice Mayor Wadyajena, the Zanu-PF Member of Parliament for Gokwe Nembudziya has lavished praises on President Robert Mugabe describing him as a great leader.
The businessman-cum-politician has already fitted much into his 32 years and was one of those who came forward to join Zanu-PF candidates' list in the last poll.
He was elected at the general election, which is why he was moved to break convention and deliver a maiden speech in Parliament on Tuesday lavishing praise on Mugabe's re-election to a seventh presidential term.
Wadyajena, a player in the fuel-distribution business, congratulated the Zanu-PF leader on his successful re-election, praising the 89-year-old's "extraordinary leadership."
The youthful MP, said to be linked to the Emmerson Mnangagwa faction, heaped praise on Mugabe's moral authority and wisdom, in comments seen as flattering the president's re-election campaign.
"Mr Speaker Sir, I rise to congratulate His Excellency the President, on his thunderous and resounding victory in the July 31, 2013 harmonised elections which were endorsed as free, fair and credible by Sadc, the African Union, and indeed by the UN itself in the wake of congratulatory message sent to his Excellency by UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon on the occasion of his swearing in and other members of the progressive world," Wadyajena said.
Although the main local monitoring team, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn), said balloting in the July 31 vote was "seriously compromised", the AU and Sadc, which sent the biggest international observer teams, endorsed the elections as largely free and fair, while the US called them "a deeply flawed process."
Wadyajena said "even those who were contesting the conduct and outcome of the elections ended up withdrawing their cases from the courts and conceding that they were free, fair and credible."
He was referring to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)'s charge to use the courts to force a fresh election, which the MDC subsequently withdrew after casting aspersions on the integrity of the judiciary.
Zanu-PF won 160 of the 210 seats in Parliament, compared with 49 for the MDC and one seat for an independent candidate, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) said.
Wadyajena also congratulated the opposition MDC MPs, in remarks seen sledging the opposition ranks.
"I also congratulate them for making it to this august house and remind them that elections are not zero sum games," Wadyajena said. "You win some, you lose some but the mark of a true democrat is the realisation electoral contests yield one of three possible outcomes a win, a loss or a stalemate.
"In this particular case, accept that Zanu-PF won resoundingly in the harmonised election and help us put our shoulders to the wheel to ensure the full implementation of the progressive economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation (Zim asset) for Zimbabwe is indeed our asset together.
"His Excellency implored us to turn our swords into ploughshares. Indeed if the world is for us like this who can be against us?
"However, they must understand that while the minority will have their say, the majority will have their way."
Tsvangirai has maintained that his MDC party did not lose the election, which he insists was stolen with help from Israeli and Chinese experts and the local intelligence.
Debating the motion in reply to the Presidential Speech, Wadyajena, who in the new chairperson of the parliamentary committee on Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, said he would like to "congratulate Gushungo on an articulate, comprehensive and results-oriented speech that he was pleased to give, outlining his expectations of this august house and the key deliverables honourable members should make to the heroic people of this great country."
"I applaud His Excellency the President for cogently articulating the 'bread' and 'butter' issues affecting the ordinary person without losing sight of the vision we must achieve and become as a nation," Wadyajena said.
"I laud the call to implement the country's Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment laws with greater tenacity and vigour in order to ensure that our people become significant stakeholders and not mere bystanders in the running of the national economy and our God-given natural resources and endowments.
"To that end and for the benefit of people at the grassroots, I look forward to the introduction of a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensure the proper management of Community Share Ownership Trusts."
He said Zimbabwe continues to outpace other countries in literacy, "in spite of the depredations occasioned by the illegal and debilitating economic sanctions on all levels of our education system from pre-school and zero (0) grade to higher and tertiary levels."
He congratulated Mugabe for correctly identifying recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall patterns and a lack of adequate funding as the three-headed "Hydra" weighing down the performance of our agricultural sector.
"My constituency, Gokwe Nembudziya lies in Agricultural Regions four and five and is prone to recurrent droughts because of the low and erratic rainfall pattern," he said.
"As a result, the constituency is only suitable for small grains, short season maize varieties, cotton and livestock production. People in my constituency await with bated breath the realisation of government's initiative to intensify and expand the Zimbabwe Livestock Drought Mitigation Programme under which farmers in drought prone areas are being assisted to save their livestock."
He called for enhanced prevention measures to promote awareness campaigns in bovine diseases and quickly respond to emergencies, as and when they occur.
"Recently, the constituency had the misfortune of losing 26 herd of cattle due to red water disease as a result of a lack of dipping facilities in Nembudziya 'B'," he said.
He said people in his constituency were concerned with the low cotton prices to the extent that some are abandoning this vital crop.
The road network in Gokwe Nembudziya, he said, was in deplorable state which is a serious indictment on the development endeavours of the constituency.
"The state of roads in the constituency requires urgent intervention, for example, the section from Patchway to Sanyati was once a tarred strip and is now in a very bad condition," Wadyajena said.
"Even District Development Fund (DDF) and council roads are in a sorry state.
"The Munyati Bridge, which separates Mashonaland West and Midlands, has been under construction since the 1990's but is not complete up to now.
"Likewise, there is an urgent need to tar the road from Chinyenyetu to Nembudziya Growth Point. People in my constituency do not understand why the responsible ministry decided to construct a three-kilometre tarred road, now commonly referred to as 'Bhuka Strip' which leads from nowhere and goes nowhere"
He said his constituency has a dire shortage of schools with some pupils waking up as early as 3 am to access the nearest school.
He however, thanked the authorities for the Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam) programme which is really helping the indigent pupils and orphans, among others, to access basic education.
"At a more general level, the majority of schools in the constituency do not even have boreholes or some other reliable sources of water supply, for example, Nyamazengwe Secondary School and Copper Queen Primary and Secondary Schools," he said.
"Nyamazengwe Primary school has more than 1 000 pupils but there is no borehole or some other source of safe drinking water. At Chinyenyetu School, for example, animals, pupils and the surrounding community get water from the same borehole. The shortage of water is particularly acute at this time of the year."
He said his constituency require electricity.
The businessman-cum-politician has already fitted much into his 32 years and was one of those who came forward to join Zanu-PF candidates' list in the last poll.
He was elected at the general election, which is why he was moved to break convention and deliver a maiden speech in Parliament on Tuesday lavishing praise on Mugabe's re-election to a seventh presidential term.
Wadyajena, a player in the fuel-distribution business, congratulated the Zanu-PF leader on his successful re-election, praising the 89-year-old's "extraordinary leadership."
The youthful MP, said to be linked to the Emmerson Mnangagwa faction, heaped praise on Mugabe's moral authority and wisdom, in comments seen as flattering the president's re-election campaign.
"Mr Speaker Sir, I rise to congratulate His Excellency the President, on his thunderous and resounding victory in the July 31, 2013 harmonised elections which were endorsed as free, fair and credible by Sadc, the African Union, and indeed by the UN itself in the wake of congratulatory message sent to his Excellency by UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon on the occasion of his swearing in and other members of the progressive world," Wadyajena said.
Although the main local monitoring team, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn), said balloting in the July 31 vote was "seriously compromised", the AU and Sadc, which sent the biggest international observer teams, endorsed the elections as largely free and fair, while the US called them "a deeply flawed process."
Wadyajena said "even those who were contesting the conduct and outcome of the elections ended up withdrawing their cases from the courts and conceding that they were free, fair and credible."
He was referring to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)'s charge to use the courts to force a fresh election, which the MDC subsequently withdrew after casting aspersions on the integrity of the judiciary.
Zanu-PF won 160 of the 210 seats in Parliament, compared with 49 for the MDC and one seat for an independent candidate, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) said.
Wadyajena also congratulated the opposition MDC MPs, in remarks seen sledging the opposition ranks.
"I also congratulate them for making it to this august house and remind them that elections are not zero sum games," Wadyajena said. "You win some, you lose some but the mark of a true democrat is the realisation electoral contests yield one of three possible outcomes a win, a loss or a stalemate.
"In this particular case, accept that Zanu-PF won resoundingly in the harmonised election and help us put our shoulders to the wheel to ensure the full implementation of the progressive economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation (Zim asset) for Zimbabwe is indeed our asset together.
"His Excellency implored us to turn our swords into ploughshares. Indeed if the world is for us like this who can be against us?
"However, they must understand that while the minority will have their say, the majority will have their way."
Tsvangirai has maintained that his MDC party did not lose the election, which he insists was stolen with help from Israeli and Chinese experts and the local intelligence.
Debating the motion in reply to the Presidential Speech, Wadyajena, who in the new chairperson of the parliamentary committee on Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, said he would like to "congratulate Gushungo on an articulate, comprehensive and results-oriented speech that he was pleased to give, outlining his expectations of this august house and the key deliverables honourable members should make to the heroic people of this great country."
"I applaud His Excellency the President for cogently articulating the 'bread' and 'butter' issues affecting the ordinary person without losing sight of the vision we must achieve and become as a nation," Wadyajena said.
"To that end and for the benefit of people at the grassroots, I look forward to the introduction of a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensure the proper management of Community Share Ownership Trusts."
He said Zimbabwe continues to outpace other countries in literacy, "in spite of the depredations occasioned by the illegal and debilitating economic sanctions on all levels of our education system from pre-school and zero (0) grade to higher and tertiary levels."
He congratulated Mugabe for correctly identifying recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall patterns and a lack of adequate funding as the three-headed "Hydra" weighing down the performance of our agricultural sector.
"My constituency, Gokwe Nembudziya lies in Agricultural Regions four and five and is prone to recurrent droughts because of the low and erratic rainfall pattern," he said.
"As a result, the constituency is only suitable for small grains, short season maize varieties, cotton and livestock production. People in my constituency await with bated breath the realisation of government's initiative to intensify and expand the Zimbabwe Livestock Drought Mitigation Programme under which farmers in drought prone areas are being assisted to save their livestock."
He called for enhanced prevention measures to promote awareness campaigns in bovine diseases and quickly respond to emergencies, as and when they occur.
"Recently, the constituency had the misfortune of losing 26 herd of cattle due to red water disease as a result of a lack of dipping facilities in Nembudziya 'B'," he said.
He said people in his constituency were concerned with the low cotton prices to the extent that some are abandoning this vital crop.
The road network in Gokwe Nembudziya, he said, was in deplorable state which is a serious indictment on the development endeavours of the constituency.
"The state of roads in the constituency requires urgent intervention, for example, the section from Patchway to Sanyati was once a tarred strip and is now in a very bad condition," Wadyajena said.
"Even District Development Fund (DDF) and council roads are in a sorry state.
"The Munyati Bridge, which separates Mashonaland West and Midlands, has been under construction since the 1990's but is not complete up to now.
"Likewise, there is an urgent need to tar the road from Chinyenyetu to Nembudziya Growth Point. People in my constituency do not understand why the responsible ministry decided to construct a three-kilometre tarred road, now commonly referred to as 'Bhuka Strip' which leads from nowhere and goes nowhere"
He said his constituency has a dire shortage of schools with some pupils waking up as early as 3 am to access the nearest school.
He however, thanked the authorities for the Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam) programme which is really helping the indigent pupils and orphans, among others, to access basic education.
"At a more general level, the majority of schools in the constituency do not even have boreholes or some other reliable sources of water supply, for example, Nyamazengwe Secondary School and Copper Queen Primary and Secondary Schools," he said.
"Nyamazengwe Primary school has more than 1 000 pupils but there is no borehole or some other source of safe drinking water. At Chinyenyetu School, for example, animals, pupils and the surrounding community get water from the same borehole. The shortage of water is particularly acute at this time of the year."
He said his constituency require electricity.
Source - dailynews
