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Parties conclude agreement - Bill watch 36/2008
Veritas
September 12, 2008

Agreement reached

Late yesterday evening President Mbeki announced that the three parties had concluded and signed a final political settlement.

Official signing ceremony – Monday 15th September

There will be a official signing ceremony in Harare on Monday 15th September at 10 am. The ceremony will be attended by regional and continental leaders.

Composition of new Government

According to President Mbeki the parties will over this weekend work out the composition of the new Government. This will also be revealed to the public at Monday’s official ceremony.

A Bill Watch Special will be sent out early next week summarizing the agreement, giving details of the new Government, and offering available documents in electronic form.

Parliament

The Senate was adjourned until the 7th October and the House of Assembly until 14th October. There is a possibility in the light of the new agreement that Parliament may be recalled earlier.

Statutory Instrument gazetted this week

Only one statutory instrument was gazetted this week - the Exchange Control (Payment of Salaries by Exporters in Foreign Currency for Critical Skills Retention) Order [SI 127/2008]. This order, effective immediately, sets out the procedure for an exporter to obtain Reserve Bank authority to pay salaries in foreign currency to an employee possessing “critical skills”. Where authority is granted the salary must be paid into the employee’s foreign currency account [it must not be paid in cash] and the funds will be treated as free funds. [Electronic version of SI available on request.]

No Bills were gazetted. All Acts previously passed have been gazetted.

SADC Tribunal – Land case update

The SADC Tribunal had been expected to hand down its decision in this case on 11th September. [Reminder: Mr Campbell and 76 other applicants have applied for a ruling that the Government’s land reform policy as embodied in Constitution Amendment No. 17 is in breach of Zimbabwe's treaty obligations as a member of SADC.]

Instead, the Tribunal heard argument in a different case - an application by over 300 black Zimbabweans complaining that because of the Tribunal's interim restraining order in the Campbell case they cannot move onto land allocated to them by the Government. [Reminder: In July the Tribunal rejected an application by the same applicants to intervene in the Campbell case in support of the Government’s arguments.]

The Tribunal's decisions in both the Campbell case and this new application are expected to be given next week.

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