adminFarirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Vice President Joice Mujuru yesterday urged legislators to help Government fight corruption, as she stressed the need to enact laws that facilitate successful implementation of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation. The blueprint was adopted by Government last year after Zanu PF’s victory in the harmonised elections and will run until 2018.
VP Mujuru was officiating at the two-day Zim Asset awareness seminar for parliamentarians in Harare.
“Zim Asset will succeed when we observe dignity at home and at corporate levels. Hunhu hunokosha. We should all shun corruption in all its forms. Government is unanimous in its resolve to eradicate this scourge, and I wish to urge legislators to support this effort. We may differ in the implementation but the objectives are the same,” she said.
“The thrust of the economic blueprint is to open up business opportunities in all sectors of the economy. As such it becomes our responsibility, as stakeholders, to ensure that we have a conducive legal framework that facilitates ease of doing business. This necessitates collaborative effort in eliminating structural and other barriers to business.”
Government has embarked on processes to rid public enterprises of corruption following publication of “obscene” salaries and flouting of tender procedures in most parastatals. She added that it was important that parliament played its oversight role over the executive.
“In pursuance of Zim Asset objectives, the legislative, representational, public debate and oversight roles of parliament become quite critical. As parliamentarians your oversight role in ensuring that Government policies, programmes and projects are successfully implemented to realise economic growth, development and prosperity for all Zimbabweans remains paramount.
“To that end allow me to say the quality of work coming from our two chambers is quite commendable. If we maintain that momentum, then real progress is guaranteed,” VP Mujuru said.
She said President Mugabe had, during the opening of the First Session of the Eighth Parliament outlined Bills that would be brought to parliament and would positively change the business environment in the country.
She said one such Bill was the Tripartite Negotiating Forum Bill that would facilitate negotiations between Government, business and labour.
“Your support in ratifying the various pieces of legislation that will be presented before you during the implementation period of the Plan cannot be overemphasised. Together we can build Zimbabwe into a prosperous nation,” VP Mujuru said.
The Vice President added that it was also important for parliament to facilitate adoption of laws that promoted the growth of the information and communication technology sector as it had a possibility of providing employment opportunities to young people.
“In the same breadth, sufficient and urgent attention needs to be given to the banking and financial services sector in order to address the liquidity challenges being faced by industry whilst seeking to mobilise funding for programmes and projects under Zim Asset.
“The successful implementation of Zim Asset will require us to work together, pursuing win-win partnerships and joint ventures which recognise and place an appropriate value and weight on the aspirations of our people,” VP Mujuru said.
Zim Asset is divided into four clusters that include Food Security and Nutrition, Social Services and Poverty Reduction, Infrastructure and Utilities and Value Addition and Beneficiation.
“The cluster approach will facilitate easier prioritisation of Government programmes and projects up to 2018. Further, it will eliminate the solo mentality and over compartmentalisation while engendering effective coordination, monitoring and evaluation as well as efficient allocation of resources,” she said
The workshops objectives include the creation awareness of Zim Asset among legislators, enable them to appreciate their role in providing legislative framework for the blueprint and to create a five year university programme from certificate up to post doctoral levels as a practical way of implementing the programme.
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