SW Radio Africa (London)
Tichaona Sibanda
12 November 2008
The precarious water situation in Harare, which is also under a serious threat of a cholera epidemic, forced the adjournment of Parliament on Tuesday to the 16th December.
Parliamentary business came to a halt a few hours after the legislators had resumed sitting. The House of Assembly had originally been forced to adjourn on the 23rd of October to 11th November because of lack of funds from government, after reports claimed that MPs based outside Harare were being turned away from hotels in the capital as there was no money to pay their bills.
MDC MP for Mbare, Piniel Denga, said there was very little business in parliament on Tuesday, except debate on the presidential speech. There were no new motions introduced. The impasse over the formation of an inclusive government has also delayed the introduction of constitutional amendment number 19.
The constitutional amendment - which has yet to be formally put on the agenda - is supposed to be rushed through to create the post of Prime Minister that Morgan Tsvangirai has been allocated under the power sharing deal, along with other posts and changes.
'At the end of business it was decided to adjourn parliament to next month because of the bad conditions of toilets in the building. We are sitting on a time bomb if we don't act quick enough to avert the spread of the deadly cholera disease,' Denga said.
Bad governance, plus chronic economic mismanagement and corruption, has meant that government has done nothing to maintain the water system.
Water has become the most sought-after natural resource in the country and chronic shortages affects over 60 percent of the country's population.
Millions of people do not have access to clean drinking water or adequate sanitation facilities and open sewers are a fact of life in most high density suburbs.
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I remember campaigning for water in Bulawayo in 1995. Clearly I wasnt successful. Mental note. Try harder next time.
Even they too will soon find that they cannot come for business. Like teachers, they will stay at home and start looking for a few US dollars and catch a bus to the nearest border, while such buses still exist, never to come back. Elder has lived long enough to know that survival ranks high in people's minds. Even Mugabe himself will eventually escape to some foreign destination, and refuse to return.