The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) says its MPs are free to take the US$40 000 housing loans from parliament, but they must repay them.
CCC leader Nelson Chamisa previously declared that the loans were a bribe and warned his MPs not to “drink from the poisoned chalice” as they will face the wrath of voters.
On Wednesday, deputy CCC spokesman Gift Ostallos Siziba announced the compromise deal after appearing at a news conference with some of the MPs led by CCC Chief Whip in Parliament Prosper Mutseyami. Said Siziba:
There had been a misunderstanding over the loans, but the MPs have clarified that it was in fact they who led the push for housing loans and secured the concession in the supplementary budget in September. There can be no question of them not repaying the loans.
Mutseyami told journalists that the loans “cannot bribe or derail our cause,” appearing to directly contradict Chamisa. Said Mutseyami:
The suggestion in some quarters that loans are donations is not correct. In the midterm supplementary budget of September 2022, a provision was made for a housing or vehicle loan of US$40 000. This loan was understood as a genuine part of the MPs’ welfare.
The loan is therefore not a surprise executive instrument but one that went through the due process of appropriation as is provided in the constitution.
It is not a discretionary issue or an executive gratuitous gesture like the grants given to ministers and deputy ministers.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesman George Charamba on Wednesday said that the disbursement of the loans was being done by alphabetic order.
He claimed CCC deputy leader Tendai Biti was the first to get the disbursement as his surname places him top. He said:
Did you know that by today, 100 MPs had been paid? Or was that payment by alphabetic order?
Meaning the first to be paid was Biti Tendai. With Chikwinya Settlement (Mbizo MP) among the top 10 to be settled! Which explains why Biti was funerally quiet.
| ZimLive