As debate over the US$40 000 loan facility granted to Members of Parliament rages on, under fire opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) legislators say the lending was above board.
The opposition lawmakers had been castigated by their leader Nelson Chamisa for receiving the loans with some quarters claiming that it was a bribe from President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration.
Addressing journalists in Harare, CCC chief whip in Parliament and Dangamvura-Chikanga legislator Prosper Mutseyami said the loans were above board since they had been announced in the mid-term supplementary budget.
“The suggestion in some quarters that loans are donations is not correct. In the mid-term supplementary budget of September 2022 approved in September, provision for a housing vehicle loan for about USD40 000. The loan was understood as genuine part of the MPs welfare. The loan is therefore not a surprise executive instrument but that one that went through the due process of appropriation as is provided in our constitution of our country.
“It is not discretionary issue or an executive gratuitous gesture unlike grants granted to Ministers and deputy Ministers, the loan is not new and is not a new one. In October 2022 MPs were made to sign binding loan application forms which they executed. In late November Parliament made partial disbursements of these loans, the loan in question is above board and is no excuse for State failure or the deplorable state of public service. It is no excuse for 42 years of mismanagement and misallocation of public resources,” said Mutseyami
