Matabeleland South senator demands action on cotton processing and worker retention

Image Source : Magnific

Senate Watch

BULAWAYO — Matabeleland South Senator S. Moyo has challenged the government to translate international parliamentary resolutions on value addition, youth mobility and accountability into action at home, citing closed cotton ginneries, delayed farmer payments and the departure of skilled workers.

Moyo raised the concerns during Senate debate on a report from the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States African Region Parliamentary Group and the first Africa-European Union Parliamentary Assembly held in Eswatini in May.

Moyo said Zimbabwe’s participation in the meeting was important, particularly its advocacy for value addition and beneficiation of African raw materials. But he said the country’s domestic record had to match its international position.

“This report is not judged by the beauty of its words,” Moyo told the Senate. “It is judged by what changed our people back home. That is the test I will apply today.”

He welcomed the delegation’s push for the beneficiation of African minerals and raw materials, independent funding for the OACPS, stronger parliamentary accountability and support for women farmers and young people.

However, he said the calls for beneficiation rang hollow while local cotton-processing facilities were shutting down.

“Right here in Zimbabwe, cotton ginneries have been shutting down,” Moyo said.

“Farmers are going for a season without being paid on time and we continue to export raw lint instead of finished cloth.”

“We cannot create lead-free value-addition in Eswatini while we are exporting our raw cotton and raw materials at home. Charity and credibility begin at home.”

Moyo said the issue affected communities in Matabeleland South, including cotton farmers in Gwanda, and families whose members had crossed borders in search of work.

“I rise on behalf of the cotton farmers in Gwanda who no longer has a chance to take this crop to the mother in Beitbridge who has watched her children across the border to look for work,” he said.

He urged the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development to present a plan to the Senate within 60 days on reopening and rehabilitating closed ginneries, ensuring farmer payments and widening access to drought-tolerant seed varieties.

The senator also questioned the gap between the report’s support for youth mobility through education exchanges and the ongoing movement of Zimbabwean professionals out of the country.

“This report celebrates Zimbabwe Open University participating in the Erasmus+ Programme. That is good, but this same report is silent on the deeper crisis,” Moyo said.

“Thousands of our nurses, doctors, teachers and engineers are leaving this country every year. Not for exchange programmes but because they see no future here.”

He called on the Public Service Commission and the Health Ministry to report to the Senate on a retention strategy for nurses, doctors and teachers.

The Eswatini meeting’s report recorded agreement that reports from OACPS meetings should be tabled before national parliaments within 90 days to strengthen accountability. Moyo said that commitment should be enforced locally.

“Where are the implementation matrices? Where is the accountability the Government itself agreed to in Eswatini?” he asked.

Moyo also proposed that future Zimbabwean delegations to OACPS, Southern African Development Community, African Union and Commonwealth meetings should include opposition legislators on a proportional basis.

He said ordinary Zimbabweans wanted tangible improvements rather than reports that were not acted upon.

“The people of Matabeleland South, indeed the people of Zimbabwe, are not asking for another report to sit on the shelf,” Moyo said. “They are asking for cotton ginneries that work, for hospitals that have medicine [and] for young people who do not have to cross a border to find a future.”

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