MPs in gold smuggling to survive

Zimbabwe's 'poorly remunerated' legislators have turned to illicit activities, including gold smuggling and corruption, to maintain a high standard of living perceived of them by the electorate, parliament heard yesterday.

Mutasa South legislator Irene Zindi told the National Assembly that most lawmakers were engaging in corruption and other vices so as to satisfy an expectant electorate's material needs.

Zindi was contributing to a debate on political parties funding and the Constituency Development Fund introduced by MDC-T MP Alexio Musundire.

"The electorate has a perception that members of parliament are rich and have resources at (their) disposal. They look to the MP for their financial needs, even to the extent of requesting for things which I as an honourable member cannot afford. This results in some MPs engaging in corrupt practices and smuggling of gold, among other things, so as to satisfy the electorate and assist them," Zindi  said.

"Mr Speaker sir, this is one of the reasons you would read in newspapers that members of parliament have been implicated in corruption and other things, it is because they would want to provide the electorate who don't understand our role as legislators."

There have been numerous reports of cabinet ministers and lawmakers engaging in illegal activities with the recent being revelations by President Robert Mugabe that a cabinet minister and a female legislator demanded a bribe of $120 000 from a potential investor to facilitate meetings with the highest office in the land.

"I think even the decision to go to China (by some MPs) was motivated by the desire to get some wares for resale so that they get some money and meet the demands and expectations of the electorate."

Recently, a number of MPs were stranded in China while on a shopping spree resulting in them missing their flight home.

The legislators are expected back in the country today after the intervention of officials from the Zimbabwe embassy in China.

Zindi had to read a text message from a resident in her constituency asking for over $1 700 for school fees so that the house could appreciate the extent of reliance the voters have on their MPs.

The lawmaker said government should educate voters not to bother their elected representatives with material demands as they were equally impoverished.

According to the motion, government should fund operations of political parties in the country in line with provisions of the Political Parties Finance Act and that money allocated for constituency development be availed to ensure that lawmakers were capacitated to deliver on their constituents' developmental expectations.

In introducing his motion, Musundire said the non-availability of the constituency fund had hampered development in various areas of the country.

"Although they were abuses of the fund in the previous parliament, I think those who abused the money should be prosecuted," he said.

In seconding the motion, MDC-T chief whip Innocent Gonese said while the public perceived lawmakers as people with deep pockets, they were in fact poor people who engaged in cross-border trading to supplement their meager earnings.

"I know some of the new MPs  were thinking there is green grass here, there is nothing greener here Mr Speaker Sir, the only thing that looks green is the carpet and the benches otherwise it is a dry land," Gonese said.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated development, at least five parliamentarians have crashed their new all-terrain Ford Ranger vehicles in less than a week after they were issued to them, the minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Obert Mpofu, revealed yesterday.

Speaking during a driving schools' operators meeting organised by the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) in Bulawayo, Mpofu said one of the parliamentarians was Lupane member, Mail Nkomo.

Mpofu said he had received news that the car was being driven by Nkomo's daughter when it crashed.

"Four other parliamentarians have been involved in similar accidents, but I am not sure who as yet," he said.

Legislators last week each received the all-terrain Ford Ranger vehicles under the $11 million vehicle purchase scheme financed by the government.