The introduction of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) has obscured the constitutional duties of Members of Parliament (MPs), Hwange Central legislator, Daniel Molokele, has said.
In 2010 the government 2010 introduced CDF to go towards the development of the country’s 210 constituencies in which MPs working with people in areas they represent in Parliament come up with projects to be funded by the fiscus.
Speaking Friday on This Morning on Asakhe, an online programme hosted by CITE on Twitter Space, Molokele said it is the responsibility of MPs to spearhead developmental projects.
“I think the biggest sort of myth about parliamentarians is that they are development agents so the community at the constituency level has the expectation that an average parliamentarian will never be able to meet, being a development agent,” said Molokele.
“I think this has been worsened by the fact that a few years ago, Parliament of Zimbabwe approved the concept, called the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), where it allocates a very minimal amount annually to each of the 210 constituencies, and they say they a Member of Parliament should work with the local communities to come up with high impact projects.”
He emphasized that MPs have three roles – legislative, representative, and oversight.
“I think it’s very sad to say that while as Zimbabweans we claim that we are very educated when it comes to issues as simple as national governance,” said Molokele. So maybe this is another opportunity to do a little bit of civic education to explain to the listeners. So parliamentarians are the voice of millions of other citizens, so they speak in a representative capacity.”
The Hwange Central legislator said some other expectations from citizens outside the three roles were unconstitutional.
This is despite the fact that when politicians campaign to be elected into office promise the electorate some things outside their constitutional mandates
