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Felex Share Harare Bureau—
PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday said Cabinet Ministers should pull up their socks and cut on travelling to ensure the successful implementation of Zim-Asset.
Speaking during the luncheon hosted by the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing after the official opening of the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament in Harare yesterday, President Mugabe said he was fed up with government officials who always travelled at the expense of service delivery.
“Sit less on your chairs and I’m fed up with this business of always attending meetings and this too much travelling,” he said. “Too much travelling, very little attention is being given to practical work.”
President Mugabe said people needed practical servants not theorists.
“Zim-Asset should not remain just a name,” he said. “Zim-Asset must be a practical engine. On paper we say yes, we need to produce food. On paper we say we need to produce products and beneficiate them. That we as an indigenous people must equip ourselves and sustain that development.
“That is what the paper says, but what we say on paper is not put in practice. We must be practical people now, not just theorists.”
More action, President Mugabe said, was needed on the part of Cabinet Ministers.
“Act, act and act more. We have a tendency to have debates. Aah there is a meeting there President come and open this, ooh we have this issue now,” he said.
“I have a string of invitations to meetings, I would want to be invited to see what is going on. Are we invited to see an irrigation scheme a dam being constructed, a new mine being opened or the road Beitbridge-Masvingo-Harare being done. That’s then we will tell the story of Zim-Asset and this is where our Ministers must play their part.”
President Mugabe added: “We can’t see Zim-Asset succeeding. We want to see things happening in agriculture, we can’t just be taking, talking, talking. The irrigation schemes, where are they? Kuagriculture ikoko, what is happening with the Cold Storage. Dying? The parastatals, they are the ones that must sustain agriculture, we should see them work.
“As for Dairiboard, we are buying milk from South Africa because there is shortage of milk in the country. So, let us ensure that we are practical.”
President Mugabe expressed gratitude to Members of Parliament from all the political parties for attending the opening of Parliament.
“I was delighted that regardless of party affiliation they attended,” he said.
“Your unity on national issues that I thought we developed during that period of our Inclusive Government and I thought we were going to carry on with that tradition of finding ourselves regardless of our party affiliation, regardless of where I come from and regardless of our political persuasions and recognising that we all belong to each other.”
President Mugabe said food security was for everyone and no one should be discriminated.
“People must eat and survive. Even thieves are entitled to food. Of course, they must earn it properly, but they are entitled to food,” he said to applause.
Online Reporter