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Parliamentary Roundup Bulletin No. 6 - 2011
Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust
February 23, 2011
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Introduction
The major highlight
in the House of Assembly yesterday was question and answer session
where backbenchers quizzed cabinet Ministers about policy issues
and programmes under their purview. The Senate on the other hand
continued with its debate on the motion denouncing the violence
which occurred in Harare recently.
House of Assembly Plenary
Session on Wednesday 23 February
Questions
without Notice
Backbenchers
fired the following impromptu questions on policy issues at the
few Ministers who were in the House yesterday;
Cabinet
Role in the Budget Process
Hon. Willias
Madzimure asked Deputy Prime Minister Professor Mutambara if the
National Budget was a preserve of the Minister of Finance given
that some Ministers, namely the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Joseph
Made and the Minister of Tourism, Mr. Walter Mzembi, have been accusing
Hon. Tendai Biti of deliberately under-funding their sectors as
a means of political sabotage. Professor Mutambara informed the
House that the formulation of the National Budget was a collective
Cabinet responsibility.
Hence no Minister can
disassociate himself or herself once the Budget has been passed
by Parliament. He further said that if for whatever reason Ministers
were not happy with certain aspects, the right platform to discuss
those issues was at Cabinet meetings.
Rentals
for Constituency Offices
Hon. Margaret
Zinyemba asked the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary
Affairs as to who was responsible for settling Members' rentals
for Constituencies Offices as some Members have been kicked out
of the offices by landlords due to rental arrears. The Minister
of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Advocate Eric
Matinenga informed the House that that was the responsibility of
the Clerk of Parliament, not his Ministry's.
Administration
of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF)
On a related
question, Hon. Adv. Matinenga was asked by Hon. Prosper Mutseyami
to clarify the policy regarding the administration of the CDF, in
particular whether or not military and intelligence officers were
part of the administration structure. In his response, the Minister
said there two documents that guided the administration of CDF;
namely, the CDF Constitution and the Manual. He informed the House
that those two documents only mentioned elected officials; the House
of Assembly Member of Parliament, Senator and Councilor as the administrators
of the CDF. Hence the security personnel had no business in the
administration of the CDF. He advised MPs that if they encountered
any problems with the implementation CDF programmes, they should
alert his ministry. On a supplementary question raised by Hon. Joram
Gumbo if the Minister could consider allocating Senators their own
specific portion of CDF, Hon. Adv. Matinenga said currently the
economic resources did not permit such expenditure.
Increased
number of School Dropouts
Hon. Makhosini
Hlongwane asked the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture
if there was any policy to address the plight of school dropouts
who were on the increase due to inability by parents to pay school
fees. The Minister, Senator David Coltart, said this was mainly
due to inadequate resources from the fiscus. He reminded the House
that parliament allocated $469 million to his ministry. He further
noted that out of that allocation $406 was for salaries leaving
only $63 million for operations. The Minister also informed the
House, that the cost of educating one child at a government school
was $73 per term. But currently school fees was pegged at $10 per
child per term, nobody was picking up the $63 difference. He further
noted that due to the poor economic performance many parents were
out of employment and as a result were struggling to raise school
fees for their children. The Minister said while government had
in place the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) meant to cater
for children from poor backgrounds, the challenge was that there
was overwhelming increase of orphans and vulnerable children competing
for the same meager resources provided through BEAM.
Teachers
Incentives
In response
to a related question regarding the policy on the teachers' incentives
that parents were paying to supplement the salaries of teachers,
the Minister said this was a stop-gap measure meant to keep teachers
in schools until such a time that government was able to pay teachers
decent salaries. The Minister was responding to a question posed
by Hon. Ward Nezi.
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