Speaker of Parliament: What, then, should be done to unlock the full productive potential of Tugwi-Mukosi, the country鈥檚 largest inland dam and other major dams? This is the pertinent question you must put to the Executive and the 2027 Budget should answer it with funded projects and implementation timelines. Concomitantly, the Budget should provide adequately fundedand responsive social safety nets to cushion vulnerable households against climate-induced food insecurity and loss of livelihoods, especially in the rural hinterland. The climate-resilience agenda needs to be complemented by a deliberate commitment to gender equality and inclusion. The Budget must enhance gender equality and insist that every Ministry demonstrates, in its estimates, how women, the youth, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups will benefit.
The effectiveness of Parliament鈥檚 oversight mandate depends on the consistent and assiduous enforcement of accountability mechanisms. This brings us back to the monthly, quarterly and annual reporting obligations under the Public Finance Management Act [Chapter 22:19]. Reports are oftensubmitted long after financial matters have been overtaken by events, rendering their scrutiny a belated formality. You are encouraged, therefore, to brook no systemic delay and seriously consider whether the statutory windows themselvesshould be shortened. Where Accounting Officers persistently fail to comply, invoke disciplinary remedies as outlined insections 85, 86, 87, 88 and 91 of the PFMA, including publicly summoning them to explain non-compliance on the record. To that end, section 35 of the PFMA read together with section 309 of the Constitution, obliges all MDAs to submit their accounts for audit.
Speaker of Parliament: Those audit outcomes must, henceforth, inform budgetary allocation because prudence forbids entrusting fresh public resources to those who have failed to account for what they have already received. Programme-Based Budgeting and the Integrated Results-Based Management framework give this principle practical force by requiring that every dollar appropriated be traceableto an output and every output to an outcome the citizen can see or experience. Accordingly, the 2027 National Budget should serve as the enduring instrument of developmental justice and equity as the nation marches resolutely Towards a Prosperous and Empowered Upper-Middle-Income Society by 2030. Kure Kwegava Ndiko Kusina Mutsvubvu/Induku Enhle Iganyulwa Ezizweni/Kulimusimbimubotu takulampi Pee!!. It is now my distinct honour and privilege to declare the 2026 Pre-Budget Seminar officially open as I wish you candid, rigorous and insightful deliberations.
Speaker of Parliament: Those audit outcomes must, henceforth, inform budgetary allocation because prudence forbids entrusting fresh public resources to those who have failed to account for what they have already received. Programme-Based Budgeting and the Integrated Results-Based Management framework give this principle practical force by requiring that every dollar appropriated be traceableto an output and every output to an outcome the citizen can see or experience. Accordingly, the 2027 National Budget should serve as the enduring instrument of developmental justice and equity as the nation marches resolutely Towards a Prosperous and Empowered Upper-Middle-Income Society by 2030. Kure Kwegava Ndiko Kusina Mutsvubvu/Induku Enhle Iganyulwa Ezizweni/Kulimusimbimubotu takulampi Pee!!. It is now my distinct honour and privilege to declare the 2026 Pre-Budget Seminar officially open as I wish you candid, rigorous and insightful deliberations.
Speaker of Parliament: Over the years, these Seminars have become indispensable instruments of democratic statecraft and the prudent stewardship of the public resources.
Relatedly, the commitment to continue promoting value addition and beneficiation of minerals and agricultural products is integral to the same economic transformation agenda. Nowhere is the imperative more vivid than in the lithium sector, where the country exported 520.9 thousand metric tonnes of lithium concentrate in the first half of 2026 alone, earning US$671.7 million. One can only imagine the value that would have accrued to the country had the concentrate been refined locally into battery-grade lithium! Other resource-endowed nations have demonstrated that this gap can be narrowed. Indonesia's 2020 ban on exporting raw nickel ore drew substantial smelting and refining investment onshore and multiplied the value of its nickel exports. The2027 Budget must drive Zimbabwe鈥檚 own beneficiation agenda through targeted incentives that build domestic value chains and convert the mineral endowment into industrial capacity, employment and enduring national wealth.
The economy remains vulnerable to climate shocks as previous droughts have painfully demonstrated. The World Meteorological Organization has warned that El Ni帽o conditions will persist into 2027, with the attendant risk of below-normal rainfall across much of Southern Africa. The 2027 Budget should, therefore, deepen investment in irrigation infrastructure, drought-tolerant crop varieties and disaster-response capacity, guided by the six pillars of drought mitigation adopted by Cabinet. In addition, the Budget should reduce dependence on rain-fed agriculture and promote the use of existing water bodies for irrigation andagro-industrialisation to achieve food sovereignty. That is why the Dam-As-An-Economy concept has to be embracedunequivocally, fully operationalised and given a dedicated budget line. Every major dam must become an economic ecosystem sustaining irrigation, aquaculture, tourism, renewable energy, agro-processing and rural industrialisation
