PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe will next week give a State of the Nation Address (Sona) at a time the country is in a political and economic tailspin characterised by serious cash shortages, company closures, job losses and goods disappearing from the market.
Source: Mugabe to address the nation next week – NewsDay Zimbabwe November 25, 2016
BY VENERANDA LANGA
Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda announced in the legislature yesterday that Mugabe would face the nation next Thursday.
“He will address a joint sitting of Parliament on the Sona, which will be delivered at 3pm in the National Assembly,” Mudenda said.
The announcement attracted derision from opposition MDC-T MP for Musikavanhu, Prosper Mutseyami, who interjected saying that this time Mugabe’s speech must be checked to ensure he delivers the correct one.
“I hope you are not addressing the chair, who is not responsible for the President’s speech,” Mudenda responded.
Last year, Mugabe mistakenly read the 2015 Sona during the official opening of the previous session of the Parliament.
Meanwhile, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa was commended by the opposition for following procedures on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill by allowing the public to air their views on it.
The compliment was paid by Kuwadzana East MP Nelson Chamisa (MDC-T) after Chinamasa had moved for suspension of standing orders relating to the introduction of Bills in respect of the draft legislation to ensure the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance holds public consultations on the Bill.
The Bill will amend the RBZ Act (Chapter 22:15) (No. 5 of 1999) to enable the central bank to issue bond notes exchangeable at par value with the United States dollar on the same basis that it previously issued bond coins.
The Bill will also seek to validate the issuance of bond coins currently in circulation.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance is expected to visit various parts of the country next week to get public views on the Bill.
Members of the public have already expressed disdain and lack of confidence in the bond notes, but Chinamasa on Wednesday told Parliament that Zimbabweans would only reject them at their own peril.
COMMENTS
Where’s the 15 billion?
Mugabe should save himself the trouble. The only thing we want to hear is his resignation speach
waiting
Will he be awake?
Mugabe has no idea about the state of the nation. If he knew an iota he would have resigned ages ago.
The state of the nation is such that whoever is in charge or pretends to be in charge should just step aside.
Now that his mate Castro has died, grandpa will want to spend another $1,5million by flying to Havana for his funeral. Why don’t they just send rocket scientist and bomb maker Prof Moyo, he just needs to take a wreath made from fresh Zimbabwe flowers. Send him on a commercial flight. There’s no good shops in Havana (soon to happen in Zim) so no need for a big entourage of thieves (Grace included) who want to go duty free shopping at taxpayers expense.
It will be the same washed out story of non-existent western sanctions and drought. The 90 year-old coward is not brave enough to take responsibility for anything.
There are a few shops in Havana which are well stocked, but these are for the elite and people with foreign currency (Like Grace and the rest of the mafia)
I bet he says “I am not the one”..
No need to go to Cuba . Bob should simply watch the funeral on TV and send his condolences via that media. Saves us paying for his lavish lifestyle.
How I wish that it were Mugabe’s ashes that were being trailed through Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean people would then come out to gape in great numbers, just to make sure that the killer of their future is really dead.
Well, more dead than he is now.
I only hope that when he comes back from his Havana trip in the morning ,that he will take another one…a fatal one…right from the top to the bottom of the airliner’s steps…and hopefully taking his junior typist with him.