Ministers snub Senate

Senate President, Cde Edna Madzongwe, also expressed concern over the failure by the ministers to attend the question time session, which is on Senate schedule every Thursday.
Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Sesil Zvidzai later walked in and fielded questions without notice related to his portfolio.
Earlier on, Cde Madzongwe told Senate that as presiding officers, they had submitted their concerns to leader of Government business in Parliament, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai but nothing had been forthcoming.
“We have tried to impress upon the leader of Government business, the Prime Minister that his ministers are not coming. I am sure he is attending to it but results have not yet come,” said Cde Madzongwe. Bikita Senator, Kokerai Rugara (MDC-T), accused the ministers of not taking the business of Senators seriously.
“It should be understood that we are policymakers and in the higher House, we need their attention,” said Sen Rugara.
“I am sure they have seen the questions (on the Order Paper) but they have put them off. We should try another way, maybe they can come.”
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made had also been asked what Government was doing to ensure that the Grain Marketing Board pay farmers. Deputy Minister Zvidzai told Senate that while his Ministry did not condone corruption, it was “natural” that in any given population 20 percent would have people who were corrupt.
He was responding to a question from Non-Constituency Senator Morgan Komichi (MDC-T) on what was being done to deal with corruption by councillors in local authority.
Chiefs’ Council president, Fortune Charumbira, took the Deputy Minister to task on why he seemed to view corruption as a natural phenomenon in the wake of zero percent tolerance on the vice.
Responding to another question, the Deputy Minister said there was a loophole in the Local Government Act regarding the appointment of special interest councillors.
He was responding to a question from Mutasa-Nyanga Sen Patrick Chitaka (MDC-T) whether special interest councillors were serving any value.
“The law did not define what a special interest councillor is. The law had a loop and can be abused. The principle of having special interest councillor is good but the law is not well tied,” he said.
“What tends to happen is that we tend to get what is politically appetising and appoint fellow losing councillors.”