Norton legislator, Temba Mliswa, has said while Members of Parliament (MPs) are grateful to have received US$40 000 housing loans, they still expect their allowances that have not been paid since September 2022.
This is not the first time the welfare of MPs has been raised in the house of assembly, according to OpenParly.
In what has become a regular feature, local hotels last year turned away and evicted legislators over unpaid bills by the Zimbabwe parliament.
Furthermore, some MPs were said to be selling fuel coupons to augment their paltry salaries that had been eroded by inflation.
Speaking in parliament last week, Mliswa said Members of Parliament had not received their outstanding allowances from September. He added:
I would like to thank you for the US$40 000 that we received as it is said that half a loaf is better than nothing, so I want to thank the Government for the disbursement of the US$40 000.
On allowances, we did not get our monies, especially after coming from the Pre-budget Seminar.
This was in November, so we actually thought that since we had Pre-budget in November, all the outstanding issues would be taken care of.
We then went on a break; there are field visits that are also outstanding in terms of payments. The rate was 600 at that time and now it has gone to 1200, so we are merely getting half of what we were supposed to get.
In response to the concern, the house of assembly speaker Jacob Mudenda enquired why the lawmakers had not engaged him in regard to non-payment of allowances.
Harare East lawmaker Tendai Biti responded saying they have been engaging through the Chief Whips.
