Finance and Economic Development Minister, Mthuli Ncube said that the government will soon buy cars for Ministers and MPs who have been very patient up to now.
Ncube revealed this during an Alpha Media Holdings event dubbed In Conversation with Trevor on Wednesday.
One of the participants at the event, business executive Ashton Ndlovu, queried why the government was planning to buy vehicles at a time when the country is in darkness and owes South African power utility Eskom and HCB of Mozambique US$83 million. He said:
You spoke very eloquently about how patient ministers and MPs have been and how you are going to act this week on sorting out their cars.
I do not know how much that is going to cost, but if you juxtapose it against the US$43 million that we owe Eskom, of which we paid US$10 million, how do you think that is perceived against the background when the nation perceives that US$23 million paid to Eskom would alleviate our electricity situation substantially.
In response, Ncube said that the issue of ministers and legislators’ welfare also demands attention. He said:
We cannot have shiny cars parked around parliament when people are hungry and when inflation is raging the way it is doing; we need to manage perception, but unfortunately, there will always be competing needs because I also know, Mr Ndlovu, that there are MPs who are literally destitute, whose balances have been eroded by inflation.
They are getting into kombis to get to their constituencies and their communities have no respect for them. They do not believe that these MPs will bring relief to their communities when they cannot bring relief to themselves.