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Harare Bureau
DEBATE on parastatals’ bosses paying themselves hefty salaries spilled into parliament on Thursday with legislators calling on government to take stern measures against such vices.This followed revelations that Premier Service Medical Aid Society chief executive Cuthbert Dube was earning a basic salary of $230,000 monthly, while suspended ZBC boss Happison Muchechetere was taking home $40,000 every month.
There is widespread speculation that bosses in other parastatals are also earning huge salaries. Legislators raised the issue of salaries while debating motion on a China Exim and Import Bank loan agreement for the expansion of Kariba South power station.
They said government could not watch parastatals bosses bleed the country.
“Today (Thursday), I had the opportunity to buy one daily newspaper, (The Herald’) which had an article on hefty salaries of $200,000 and something in Zimbabwe per month,” said Bikita West MP, Munyaradzi Kereke.
“The same institution cannot pay for medical bills for cancer patients. I am bringing it in this House because it is relevant. Zimbabwe! Zimbabwe! Zimbabwe! Let us not allow daylight robbery of tax payers. The subscriptions that are being paid by civil servants hoping that on the day of reckoning when it matters the most and they need to access a certain service must be deployed usefully. They cannot get the service.”
MDC-T legislators insinuated that Zanu-PF was responsible for the behaviour of those parastatals’ obscene salaries. But Buhera South legislator Joseph Chinotimba distanced the revolutionary party.
“When a person has done something wrong, he should be tried personally and not put blame on an organisation or party because of one individual. We cannot blame MDC as a whole because of one person. Let us pin-point the blame on that person.
“If one MDC person is divorced by his wife, it is that person and not the MDC party,” said Chinotimba in apparent reference to MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai who was allegedly left counting the costs after his wife Elizabeth Macheka walked out on him recently.
Added Chinotimba: “When a person has a case to answer, he should be taken before the courts and not castigate an organisation or party. We are parliamentarians. If there was a person who was on payroll while also undertaking corrupt activities, let us point at that person.”
Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa praised Chinotimba for knocking sense in some MDC-T legislators who blamed Zanu-PF.
“We are definitely not going to support corruption which is leading to the destruction of Zimbabwe. We need to work together and nip corruption in the bud before it destroys the country.
Thank you for the advice that whenever we talk of corruption, we should direct our criticism to the particular individual or the families involved,” he said.
Government has since made it clear that it is taking action against the bosses.
Online Reporter