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Lloyd Gumbo Herald Reporter
MDC-T must accept defeat in the harmonised elections and work for the good of the country by supporting Zanu-PF in the implementation of indigenous empowerment programmes, parliamentarians heard yesterday.
Delivering his maiden speech during a motion on President Mugabe’s address during the official opening of the Eighth Parliament, Gokwe-Nembudziya National Assembly member Cde Justice Mayor Wadyajena said there was need for the MDC-T to accept that elections could only produce one winner.
“In this particular case accept that Zanu-PF won resoundingly in the just ended harmonised elections 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,” Cde Wadyajena said to applause from the House.
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“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 (MDC-T) must understand that while the minority will have their say, the majority will have their way.”
Cde Wadyajena expressed gratitude to the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders for appointing him Parliamentary Portfolio Committee chairperson for Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment.
He pledged that his committee would deliver on its mandate.
“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.
“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,” said Cde Wadyajena.
He hailed the President for spearheading the country’s prowess in literacy level in Africa despite the illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the West.
Cde Wadyajena said President Mugabe’s call on the nation to place greater emphasis on the teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics including prioritisation of youth empowerment and entrepreneurship development was well conceived and far-sighted.
He said President Mugabe correctly identified recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall patterns and a lack of adequate funding as the “three-headed hydra weighing down the performance of our agriculture sector”.
His constituency being in region four and five, he said, it was prone to recurrent droughts adding that people in the constituency awaited the realisation of Government’s initiative to intensify and expand the Zimbabwe Livestock Drought Mitigation Programme.
Cde Wadyajena said cotton farmers in Gokwe-Nembudziya were concerned with the low prices of the crop leading to some of them abandoning growing it.
He also bemoaned the state of road roads in the constituency describing them as deplorable.
On the state of schools, Cde Wadyajena said there was a shortage of schools with some of the pupils waking up as early as 3am to access the nearest school.
Funding for women’s projects, he said, was another challenge.
“All in all, the provision of health in the constituency is not adequate as people walk long distances to access this vital service.
“As an example, patients from Tongogara walk more than 40km to access the nearest clinic at Tsungai. This is a matter of grave concern to expectant mothers who have to walk to long distances to access medical attention, resulting in some of them delivering on the way,” he said.
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