Demotion of corrupt ministers does not equal their offences - Senator Sibanda

Gwanda Senator Bheki Sibanda has said the punishment of most ministers for corruption have proved to be their dismissal from the potfolios which he said does not match their offence.

Speaking during senate Sibanda said he believe that the negative performance of the economy is due to a 'laissez faire' attitude, corruption, our failure to listen to each other and also due to incompetence.

"If you wrote an examination ten times and did not pass it eight to ten times, you have failed to do your job," he said.

"It was also raised during debate that we need to prove that there is corruption in this country. I urge all Senators to regularly refer to the Auditor-General's Report on the goings on at Air Zimbabwe, the Willowgate scandal where it was explained that the Ministers were punished by being demoted. I am sorry that most of us in this country believe that the punishment did not equal the offence"

Sibanda said he also believe that they cannot question the existence of corruption in this county after the Vice President and Chief Justice of this country participated in an anti-corruption launch.

"In 'IsiNdebele' we say that, you cannot query whether a goat is male or female because it is obvious. Therefore, I do not see any reason why anybody should be asked to prove that there is corruption in this county," he said.

"Now, I will move on and talk about the issue of questioning the usefulness of the GNU (Government of National Unity). I will not argue the case for the GNU as I did not actively participate in the GNU. Those who participated in the GNU have put a clear case about how helpful the GNU was. I will only quote what the President said. The President in an interview with CNN said, "The Inclusive Government is a real power-sharing agreement, do not denigrate it."

He said what are the future prospects of our economic thrust?

"I want to believe that it is within the capacity of Zimbabweans to re-engineer and redirect this economy. We are capable, history says we are capable, as we have overcome numerous problems to deal with issues in this nation. I insist that unless we put our heads together, come together and recognise that the Zimbabwean society is bigger than the three to four political parties that may be involved, we are not likely to get out of this economic quandary," he said.

"I therefore urge that my two suggestions that we should get together sit down and explore all the possibilities about redirecting our economy. I will skip the second suggestion but having made those observations, I would like to propose that this Senate adopts the Motion that I raised and once again I would like to sincerely thank the entire Senate and encourage the Senate to engage in more robust debate each time issues of national importance are raised."