Advocate Jacob Mudenda
By Dickson Bandera
Members of Parliament have a key role in the achievement of the country’s development agenda hence the need to discharge their duties effectively, the Speaker of Parliament, Honourable Advocate Jacob Mudenda has said.
In his address at a Post Budget Seminar to unpack the 2023 National Budget held at the Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare recently, the Speaker said the members of parliament were a vital cog in the government’s quest to transform the economy.
The 2023 National Budget was presented to Parliament by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube on Thursday 24 November 2022 under the theme, “Accelerating Economic Transformation” and was followed up by meetings to analyse and discuss the proposals.
“Parliament’s power of the purse or its allocative power, is regarded as the most comprehensive and effective weapon by which the Executive is able to concretely consummate the national development agenda,” said Advocate Mudenda.
“I, therefore, call upon various Portfolio Committees to ensure that there is efficiency, effectiveness and transparency in the employment of public funds as they exercise their oversight role,” he added.
Advocate Mudenda said he expected to see the lawmakers pushing focused action on the 2023 national budget to ensure proper implementation.
“I look forward to Committees of Parliament tabling their analyses on Budget implementation and performance reports for the Ministries they oversee in order to ensure that the budgetary allocations have been expended prudentially.”
Zimbabwean National Assembly has 19 Portfolio Committees whose aim is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of government departments and other matters falling under their jurisdictions as Parliament may by resolution determine.
These portfolio committees are manned by Parliamentarians who are mandated to table at least one report per session in Parliament covering their activities.
While overseeing government’s activities is a top priority, Advocate Mudenda also urged the parliamentarians not to forget those who elected them into office.
“I also encourage Honourable members, not only to hold government accountable but to be also accountable to the electorate by ensuring that as Members of Parliament you will not fold your arms wherein you fail to effectively discharge your representative role. Account fully to the electorate that gave you in trust the authority to represent them without fear or favour.”
Economic Transformation has become a catch phrase in president Mnangagwa’s Second Republic as government has set milestones under the National Development Strategy 1 and overall, under Vision 2030 which seeks to transform Zimbabwe into an Upper Middle Class Economy by 2030.
The 2023 National Budget budget was set with a goal to continue with the economic recovery trajectory which has produced some positive results and thrust Zimbabwe among the 10 fastest growing economies in Africa, according to the World Bank.
Government has been fighting the economic war from many fronts and recently wedged a war against economic saboteurs who have created parallel structures which bring distortions in commodity prices and exchange rates thereby fueling currency instability.
The decline of inflation on a month on month basis from 12.4% in August 2022 to 3.5 % in September 2022 according to ZIMSTATS is one of the milestones of economic stability measures spearheaded by the Finance ministry.
The Parliament Speaker also called the generality of Zimbabweans to be vigilant as work towards the economic transformation is now on course.
“Buoyed by this Presidential mantra (“Nyika Inovakwa nevene vayo”), we need to confront our economic challenges with a positive transformational mind-set which our President has recently dubbed the Fourth Chimurenga/Umvukela.”
“We need a new mind-set of self-belief that we can do it and we shall overcome our economic vicissitudes,” he added.
