PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
*Thursday, 16th May, 2019*
*This is an abridged version of Parliamentary proceedings with a bias towards matters specific to Norton and its Parliamentary representative. For the full hard copy version of Parliamentary proceedings visit the MP’s office.*
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
*HON. T. MLISWA*: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I think for the purposes of clarity, it is important for the Minister to tell us whether it is figures in RTGs or US$, because the Budget was in US$. He keeps saying that there has been some income generated which is more than what it is in US$ at the end of the day.
So it seems to confuse everyone. He needs to talk about the US$ which was the Budget approved by this Parliament in this House. I would like first of all to find out whether it is RTGs figures you are giving us or US$ figures or interbank figures again. Nobody knows.
The other issue is on the parastatals. Which company is going to do the valuation of those parastatals? What figures are you looking at in terms of disposing these parastatals because you want to raise a certain amount of money?
In raising a certain amount of money, what is the worth of each parastatal and the shareholding you want to dispose of and the due diligence that will be done. Who will do that, because we see a lot of agreements that Government has gone into. They do not seem to see the light of day. For some reason, each Minister who comes in wants a new agreement.
The NRZ deal that he spoke about, the Minister did not actually say what we thought he would say.
There are allegations that the company DIDG did everything necessary. I actually got information of all the documents which they say they had supplied to Government. They were actually shocked to hear the Minister in Parliament saying that they had not met the requirements which I will furnish with you as well. NRZ is going to be on track but Hwange….
*THE HON. SPEAKER*: Hon. Mliswa, go to the question please.
*HON. T. MLISWA*: The question is that the parastatal which supplies coal to Hwange is not functional. You have also sold to Billy Rautenbach and others the richest concession at the coal mine. It is no longer under Hwange. What is the point of having rail when Hwange which is controlled by the State is no longer supplying coal and as we speak, is in intensive care?
*FINANCE MINISTER NCUBE* Then there was a question by Hon Mliswa saying that I am confusing the audience in terms of US$ and RTGS$. I think he did miss my first presentation on the statement yesterday where I tried to clarify that.
The US$ apply prior to the Monetary Policy Statement and RTGS$ apply post the Monetary Policy Statement. What we have to do if you want to compare like with like is to convert the past GDPs back up to 2009 into RTGS$ as well, then we can compare like with like going forward.
On the issue of which company is valuing parastatals. There is a process. First of all, we had a Cabinet decision in April 2018 that would have decided on the roadmap for each parastatal – partial privatisation, liquidation, full privatisation or restructuring.
Then Inter – Ministerial Committee is then set up, that Inter – Ministerial Committee has a technical committee attached to it and then its job is really to give a broad macro roadmap and then move on to appointing a transaction advisor through an open bid process. Expression of interest is done and professional advisors bid and then one is selected. It is a full procurement process.
For each State owned enterprise transaction, there are different transaction advisors but also there are full processes for the appointment of each transaction advisor for each parastatal.
That is the first thing. Once a transaction advisor is appointed, they then run the process working with this Inter – Ministerial Technical Committee. They invite bids for equity participation if that is the target in the first place for whatever level of equity, they express interest and that will then be evaluated by the transaction advisor.
They then make their recommendation which is then considered by this technical committee working with SERA and a final bidder is then chosen. There is a whole sequence and I would be happy at some point to avail the documentation for this process. It is very carefully worked out.
The Hon. Member then referred specifically to Hwange saying that the company is not going to function and investment in rail will not serve any purpose. I do want to start giving strategic answers to that issue.
There are others who are more able than me on how that company is working – what strategy is and how that links to the national railways. I would not want to start pronouncing on it. All I said when I mentioned the company was in the light of the past to say you had Hwange, NRZ and ZISCO Steel and that was a self reinforcing ecosystem where coal and coke would move from Hwange through the rail to ZISCO for production of steel. It was in that context. I would not wish to speculate on the strategy going forward.
On the agricultural sector and how to improve the tobacco sales. First of all, let us look at the reasons. It has been really the poor rainfall pattern this season which has impacted the tobacco sector and lowered the average prices for tobacco. One thing that we did was to remove the…
*HON. T. MLISWA*: Tobacco was not affected by the rains, it was the price. Maize was the rain. I am a farmer. It was a good tobacco season. So, you must not lie.
*THE HON. SPEAKER*: Order Hon. Mliswa. Would you withdraw your statement that the Minister is lying.
*HON. T. MLISWA*: I withdraw the word lying and replace it with misleading because we had a good tobacco season but it was the prices which were not good.
*THE HON. SPEAKER*: You need to appreciate that I understand your English.
*HON. PROF. M. NCUBE*: If I can carry on, looking at the tobacco prices, if you look at the average prices at TSF, it is US$1.66 per kg, Boka is US$1.59 per kg and Premium Tobacco Floors is US$1.55 per kg. The average is about US$1.77 per kg. Certainly the prices are lower because last year the average was US$2.76 per kg. Basically, it is like there is a 38% drop in the average price of tobacco. The Hon. Member who asked the question was right that there are issues in the sector and prices is one of the issues. My explanation as I speak to the experts who are tobacco farmers as well and I note is that the quality of the crop was impacted by the late onset of the season. The quality of the crop has been impacted by the rain pattern and that lowered the price.
What we have been doing in trying to move the price upwards is to speak to some of the tobacco merchants to make sure that they could start offering higher prices and we are having conversations with them. When I visited the tobacco floors a couple of months ago, I was told that the 2% tax was impacting transactions and trading on the floor. I immediately gave an exemption on that.
I am delighted that I got a positive response to say that was a good thing to do. In trying to answer some of the things that we have done, those are some of the things that we have done.
On the revenue surplus Mr. Speaker Sir, where the Hon. Member noted that the ordinary people are not feeling the surplus on the ground; we are already making use of the surplus. We are financing the food relief programme in rural areas. We have also begun distributing food in the urban areas.
In the history of the country, we have not been giving out food and social protection programmes in urban areas. We have started doing that and we will continue to improve.
The other thing that we need to consider is whether we should also look into cash transfers by making sure that these cash transfers are conditional on public works programme and also the food relief in the rural areas especially, should be linked to some kind of public works programme.
Notice having been taken that there being present fewer than 70 members, the bells were rung for Seven Minutes and a Quorum still not being present, THE HON. SPEAKER adjourned the House without question put at Three Minutes to Five O’clock p.m. pursuant to the provisions of Standing Order Number 56.