adminbusiness, but for communicating with their constituencies on programmes and other relevant information.
Mr Mare wrote a letter asking for donations, saying MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai was visiting his constituency on a familiarisation tour in his capacity as the Prime Minister.
Yet Mr Tsvangirai was in Chiredzi for the party’s rally at Tshovani Stadium on Saturday. Mr Mare received donations in cash and in kind from the Chiredzi business community after misrepresenting that Mr Tsvangirai was visiting on government business.
It was not clear yesterday if the cash and donations Mr Mare received were directed to the rally as there were no records to show how much he got from the donors. There are fears that Mr Mare could have diverted the donations to his own use.
“Yes, it’s true I used the letter that had a parliamentary logo to get donations and as far as I am concerned, there is nothing wrong at all with what I did because I was hosting the Prime Minister in the Government of Zimbabwe,” said Mr Mare.
“I represent Government here in Chiredzi as the local Member of Parliament and I have the right to use that logo.” But Mr Mare failed to explain why he indicated in his letter that the visit was a familiarisation tour when it was a rally.
“I recently attended a meeting which was supposed to be a Government meeting, but I was surprised when some people started chanting party slogans, so what is wrong if Mare does it?” he said.
“I simply did what people from other political parties do.” Clerk of Parliament Mr Austin Zvoma yesterday said Mr Mare contravened parliamentary rules and regulations by using the logo for party business. He said the legislator would be sanctioned if it is eventually established that he indeed abused the Parliament’s logo.
“A Member of Parliament can only use the logo when communicating with his constituency on programmes that they do, but to communicate about party programmes using the logo is an abuse and members are aware of that,” said Mr Zvoma.
“It is a layman’s argument to say that he was arranging a meeting for his party leader and that is why he used the logo. When we get the full story, then we will see what we can do about such abuse.”
Mr Zvoma said Parliament had clear structures and leadership which were distinct from those of political parties. “The members know that they cannot use the Parliament logo to advance party business,” he said. “They are aware that they cannot campaign using the logo because it belongs to Parliament and not to their political parties.”
The MDC-T rally for which Mr Mare used the Parliament logo to raise funds was addressed by Mr Tsvangirai where he said his party alone could not guarantee the future of Zimbabwe without Zanu-PF and President Mugabe.
Online Reporter