$100 000 SMEs funds being abused by greedy officials- Maridadi

Mabvuku-Tafara MP for MDC-T James  Maridadi said a funding amounting to $100 000 by government that can be used by 50 families in Highfiled to embark on Small to Medium Enterprises was allegedly being abused by greedy officials

Speaking in parliament Maridadi said where there is funding that can be used by 50 families in Highfields to embark on SMEs, it might be $100 000 from the Government; that money is abused by corrupt officials and people who probably live in Greendale.

"That is painful If you go to a company, you find a Chief Executive Officer who gets $535 000 earned by one person. If you are to consider that amount of money…" he said. "What I am saying is that what is making Kuwait attractive to our children is that if you were to give a Member of Parliament or Vice President Mphoko here $500 000, even the cats in Bulawayo will know what will have happened. But here, because of corruption, this money is consumed by one person. The second reason why people did not go to Kuwait and demonstrate is because of the diplomatic relations with Kuwait. Therefore, we do not need to affect our relations."

He said  when Speaker Jacob Mudenda went to Kuwait, he heard about the girls in Kuwait and he tried to engage the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

"The Minister of Foreign Affairs did not even come to the phone to talk to the Speaker. The money that was supposed to repatriate the girls was not available. This later came from an individual," he said. "This means the Government could not even get $50 000 to repatriate the girls back to Zimbabwe. That is not a good scenario. A point of order may be raised but that is bad. A country that is not able to protect its citizens is not a country. It was supposed to be realised that there are 21 girls who are in slavery and the Speaker of Parliament is requesting.  If you look at the hierarchy of Zimbabwe, there is the President and the Vice President."

Maridadi said from the Vice President there is the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chief Justice.

"However, the Speaker, the second person in the Zimbabwean hierarchy phones the Minister of Foreign Affairs to discuss the issue and he cannot attend to the call.  What is the Minister of Foreign Affairs doing if he cannot attend to the call?" he said.

"For one to be a Speaker of National Assembly, he or she has to have a constituency and elected by the people. Parliamentarians also vote for the Speaker.  It means the Speaker has a more direct contact with the people than anyone else.  However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs refuses to address the issues raised by the Speaker.  As a Minister, you do not respect the Speaker and you were not even elected by the people but a proportional representative Member.  Let me say, my time is almost up.  Let me reiterate what was said.  Even in Zanu PF there were others who used to write good assignments at university such as Hon. Mbwembwe, why not remove them and appoint other Members."