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Parly committees breathe fresh air into stuffy Zim
Clemence Manyukwe, The Financial Gazette (Zimbabwe)
January 25, 2007

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=2324

PARLIAMENTARY committees resumed proceedings this week after taking a recess in 2006, a year in which they began to flex their muscles, shedding the long held perception of them as mere rubber-stampers.

That negative picture of a decorative body with little independence from the executive first emerged out of Constitutional Amendment number 9 of 1989.

That amendment abolished the bicameral parliamentary system by scrapping the senate and creating a unicameral legislative body consisting of 150 members, 30 of whom were to be appointed by the President and the Council of Chiefs.

The 30 appointees made a mockery of the legislative process, as the effect of their presence was that even if the opposition won 74 seats and the ruling party won 46 seats in a general election, the governing party would still command a majority in Parliament.

Prior to that constitutional amendment, the original senate — which lasted from 1980 to 1989 — had 40 members, the majority of whom were elected by the House of Assembly and the remainder appointed by the Chiefs’ Council and the President.

The reintroduction of the 66-member Senate in November 2005 increased the number of presidential appointees in Parliament by six.

Delays by the courts in making rulings on electoral disputes have also battered Parliament’s credibility. Zimbabwe has gone from one election to the next with voting results in many parliamentary constutencies still being disputed.

The word "Parliament" is derived from the French verb parler, which means to talk, and last year, Parliamentary committees did more than just talk when they began to assert themselves.

But it remains to be seen if the committees can sustain the momentum.

In a report last year, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Welfare said it resisted pressure from Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti after he tried to interfere with their work following negative press reports precipitated by the committee’s visit to Harare Hospital which revealed that the institution was collapsing.

Muguti summoned the committee members in an attempt to give them "instructions", but the MPs rebuffed him, because they perceived his actions as an attempt by cabinet to influence their work.

The committee proceeded to present a damning report on the collapse of the health sector.

Part of the report said: "Shortages of human resources are contributing to the sub-standard services being delivered today. There is a 70 percent vacancy rate in some categories and this sent shivers down the spine of committee members."

The Parliamentary Legal Committee, chaired by MDC MP Welshman Ncube, also made its presence felt. For the first time since the original version of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) in 2000, it forced the executive to withdraw legislation. Two draconian pieces of legislation were abandoned, the Suppression of International Terrorism Bill and the Interception of Communications Bill.

The committee convinced Attorney-General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele and the two ministers sponsoring the Bills — Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi and Transport and Communications Minister Chris Mushohwe — that the proposed legislation was unconstitutional.

New versions of the Bills are now in place with improvements being noted on the Terrorism Bill.

However, critics argue that even with amendments, the eavesdropping is still repressive.

Despite concerted efforts by government officials to sweep under the carpet the corruption that destroyed Ziscosteel, the Parliamentary portfolio committee on Foreign Affairs, Industry and International Trade showed some teeth and probed the pillaging of the steel company.

The Zisco saga later led Parliament to set in motion the impeachment of Industry and Trade Minister Obert Mpofu on charges that he lied under oath.

The Transport and Communications committee also demonstrated last year that it would not brook any top level interference when it moved to charge Information Permanent Secretary George Charamba and Zimpapers boss Justin Mutasa with contempt of Parliament after members of the committee were barred from visiting the Chronicle newspaper in the course of their work.

The same committee, chaired by ZANU PF MP for Makonde, Leo Mugabe, threatened to charge Harare Commission chairperson Sekesai Makwavarara with contempt for not taking their hearings on operations at Town House seriously.

The committee also censured Media and Information Commission (MIC) chairperson Tafataona Mahoso for branding a two-day parliamentary conference for media activists lobbying support for a voluntary media council as "a regime change activists’ gathering."

Parliament itself resisted pressure from the presidency. A committee chaired by ZANU PF’s Mazowe West MP Margaret Zinyemba opposed a directive issued by Vice President Joice Mujuru for Harare to transfer the billing and collection of water revenue to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa).

In its report during the year, the Local Government Committee recommended that "urban councils should be given back the duty, with Zinwa concentrating on rural areas." The committee was, however, overruled on the matter.

The Public Accounts Committee, chaired by MDC Glen Norah MP Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, investigated abuse in the handling of public funds at the Social Dimension Fund, a hearing continuing this year.

The Lands and Agriculture committee sparked controversy by warning about a poor harvest due to shortages of inputs, thus contradicting government’s claims of a bumper crop.

The committee, after years of beating about the bush, blamed the farming chaos directly on Agriculture Minister Joseph Made.

Lands committee chairperson Walter Mzembi, ZANU MP for Masvingo South, told this paper last year that "committee members remain unconvinced that things are being done correctly at the (Agriculture) ministry)."

The Defence and Home Affairs committee, chaired by Zanu PF Bikita West MP Claudious Makova, opened up its hearings to the press, after parliament had barred the media for many years on the flimsy grounds that the committee’s deliberations covered issues of national security.

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