MEMBERS of Parliament are demanding FIVE vehicles each, one every year, for the duration of their five-year terms.
The shock demand is being pushed by Parliament’s Welfare Committee.
MPs are normally provided soft loans to acquire vehicles for use in constituency business – but the cash-strapped government found itself unable to fulfil that commitment after the 2008 elections. MPs queued up to borrow vehicles from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe which they are refusing to return.
Uzumba MP Simba Mudarikwa [Zanu PF], a member of the Welfare Committee, says vehicles bought by MPs under the parliamentary vehicle loan facility are “not worth using” after a year because of heavy use.
"We are actually recommending that MPs get motor vehicles every year, especially those in the rural areas because there is a lot of travelling to and from Parliament and within our constituencies," Mudarikwa said.
He claimed MPs exceeded 200,000km a year in road travel, adding: “Once a vehicle reaches that mileage, it’s no longer worth using.”
The Welfare Committee is chaired by Mberengwa East MP Makhosini Hlongwane [Zanu PF] and has among its members the Bulawayo East MP Thabitha Khumalo [MDC-T].
The latest demands by MPs will anger voters and thousands of public sector workers who have endured pay cuts as the year-old unity government battles to pull the country out of a decade-long economic crisis.