adminrealising their colleagues in the Lower House were using the money to garner votes.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has bowed down to pressure from Senators who want to be allocated money from the CDF just like their counterparts in the House of Assembly.
Senators argue the CDF has given an unfair leverage to House of Assembly Members during elections.
Speaking in Senate last week, Minister Biti said he would come up with an Act of Parliament that would ensure Senators also get the money.
“What I am going to do in the second half of this year is to come up with an Act of Parliament that deals with CDF that will make sure that the Upper House is not subordinated by the Lower House. “I heard that when other Senators want to be Members of Parliament, they are beaten up. I am looking at coming up with an Act of Parliament concerning the CDF.
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“Members of Parliament avakus-hayina, deligitimising the Senators. I hope we will come up with an Act,” Minister Biti said. In separate interviews on Thursday, senators across the political divide demanded that they should also be given CDF because they also have constituents to serve.
Zanu-PF Senator for Mazowe, Cde Agnes Dete, said it was not fair for the Government to give CDF to members of the Lower House only.
“I am receiving requests from schools in my constituency. They want me to assist with roofing because they think that I am also a beneficiary of the CDF.
“We should also be considered for CDF because people in the constituencies we come from expect us to help in the development of the area.
“As ex-officio members, we don’t have the power to challenge members of the Lower House if we see that there is a problem and there are other areas we may feel need development but the beneficiary has the final say,” she said.
Senator Dete said Members of the House of Assembly were now using the money as a campaign strategy.
“If I stand for election with a beneficiary of this programme, there is no way I can win because people will be looking at what the MP would have done for them yet I won’t have anything to show,” Sen Dete said.
UMP-Mudzi Senator, Cde Oriah Kabayanjiri (Zanu-PF) said: “The current system does not augur well with us senators from all the parties.”
We can’t just be ex-officio members in a programme, which calls for accountability. We feel we should also be given CDF so that we can develop our constituencies.
“It doesn’t make sense that they should discriminate when we all represent the people and even when we see something wrong, we can’t challenge them. This anomaly has to be corrected as a matter of urgency.” MDC-T Senator for Mutare, Mrs Keresensia Chabuka, said Senators were being undermined by Members of the House of Assembly because of CDF.
“As Senators, we have big constituencies but only those from the Lower House are being given money and now our power is being undermined by House of Assembly Members who think they are more important than us because of CDF,” she said.
Mutasa – Nyanga Senator, Mr Patrick Chitaka (MDC-T), said there was a problem where the Senator was from a different party, which led to others being sidelined.
“We have problems where a senator is from a different party from the House of Assembly Members.
“There are high chances of people avoiding to include each other in developmental projects because of their political interests and this affects development.
“It is important that they also give us CDF because there is discrimination on the part of the executive here. Also politically, senators will be in trouble because Members of the Lower House will appear
to be working hard and the senators will be portrayed as being useless,” he said.
Tsholotsho Senator, Mr Believe Gaule, said politicians should not be given the money because they were politicising it.
“CDF should be removed from MPs and given to local authorities as grants like they used to do.
“Politicians have a tendency of politicising Government money as if it’s coming from their pockets.
“Local authorities know which areas need to be developed than politicians who will do it for the sake of buying votes,” he said.
Sen Gaule said there were a lot of irregularities with the way the CDF was utilised.
“If an audit is to be carried out, some people will rot in prison because the funds were not used properly.
“For the sake of transparency there is need for this money to be extended to the local authorities who will do it through tender so that everyone can see how much would have been spent,” Sen Gaule said.
Minister Biti provided for CDF in the 2010 National Budget and most MPs have so far been given US$50 000 under the programme.
There are reports that the money will be increased to US$60 000 next year.
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