HARARE – Zanu PF MPs have demanded disbursement of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) allocations in United States dollars, telling an induction workshop for legislators recently that service providers were rejecting local currency.
The induction workshop was boycotted by opposition CCC MPs who were protesting the ouster of their colleagues under a highly controversial recall order by self-imposed party secretary general Sengezo Tshabangu.
The legislators, who by virtue of being ruling party representatives, have failed to challenge government’s ruinous economic policies, admitted that funds disbursed in local currency made it difficult to secure essential material to complete projects undertaken under government’s CDF grants.
All 210 constituencies in Zimbabwe get the equivalent of US$50,000 CDF in local currency, based on the exchange rate on the day of disbursement.
Tsholotsho South MP Musa Ncube said lawmakers have been forced to channel the funds towards buying cement which is one of the few construction materials still obtainable in local currency.
“The reason why sometimes we do not quickly use the CDF is what we encounter with the service providers,” he said.
“Most of the service providers refuse to take local currency.
“That’s why at times we opt to buy maybe cement because some cement companies still accept Zimbabwe dollars.
“The idea would be to offload the money quickly before it is eroded by inflation.
“Transporters are not taking RTGs because they cannot relay the money into buying fuel which is priced in US dollars.”
Murewa West legislator Farai Jere felt the government grant was too little to run a successful community project.
“The amount needs to be reviewed upwards so that an MP can do a project in every ward of a constituency,” he said.
Mwenezi West MP Priscilla Moyo requested prompt disbursement of the grant to try and beat inflation.
National assembly speaker Jacob Mudenda admitted that CDF administered in US dollars was essential, adding that, “The problem needs to be brought to the attention of the Minister of Finance because it is a real problem where the supplier demands payment in USD.”
However, the MPs’ demands for CDF to be disbursed in US dollars faces a hurdle in President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s adamant vows the local currency will stay against all odds.
In his speech at his inauguration recently, Mnangagwa vowed the country will not dump the Zimbabwe dollar anytime soon, adding that “no country has ever developed without its own currency”.
