Senators vehicle loans to cost Z$132 billion
By Tererai Karimakwenda
13 December 2005

The Daily Mirror newspaper reports that the clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma said on Monday that a fund set up to provide Senators with official vehicle loans is inadequate. Zvoma said this at the induction seminar for Senators, where he also presented a paper on the composition, powers and functions as well as the administration of parliament.

Zvoma gave no exact figures for the funds available for the vehicles.He calculated that according to information he had been given by the Treasury, a 4X4 vehicle would cost around Z$1,8 billion. At almost 2 billion dollars a vehicle, the total will be close to 132 billion Zimbabwe dollars. Zvoma also said “The biggest challenge is that it is not substantial in terms of repayments which we must address". Critics who opposed the creation of the senate had said the country could not afford this unnecessary exercise, and already they are pointing to this enormous vehicle budget as proof of what they feared.

In her opening remarks, the President of the Senate Edna Madzongwe said Zimbabweans expect Senators to justify the re-introduction of the Upper House on the basis of work they would do. She also said the induction course was meant to help senators realise where they can best participate in the overall goal of national development. Yet the shortage of enough funds for vehicles emerged as the only issue reported in detail from the seminar. This has further fueled the argument that those who wanted to be senators were only interested in personal gain.

Time will tell whether the senate will improve governance in Zimbabwe, but given the overwhelming majority of senators belong to ZANU-PF, it is likely the ruling party’s policies on the media, freedom of expression and distribution will prevail.