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Parliamentary Update - Bill Watch 15/2011
Veritas
April 01, 2011
The House
of Assembly has adjourned to Tuesday 5th April
The Senate has
adjourned to Tuesday 10th May
Roy
Bennett’s Senate Seat At Risk
Senator Bennett
has now, without the leave of the Senate, missed more than 21 sittings
of the Senate during the current Parliamentary session - Tuesday’s
sitting was the 21st. This exposes him to loss of his seat if ZANU-PF
manage to get one-half of the total membership of the Senate to
vote for a resolution that his seat should become vacant. With support
from the Senator chiefs, ZANU-PF would have the votes to achieve
this. If Mr Bennett loses his Senate seat this will provide President
Mugabe with another reason for refusing to appoint Mr Bennett as
Deputy Minister of Agriculture. [Ministers and Deputy Ministers
are required to be members of Parliament.] Filling the vacancy should
be straightforward. The seat is one of the four appointed non-constituency
Senate seats created for MDC-T by Article 20.1.9(b) of the GPA,
as incorporated into the Constitution
by Constitution
Amendment No. 19 [there were also two such seats for MDC-M].
Holders of these four seats were nominated by MDC-T in 2009 and
formally appointed by the President. According to Article 20.1.10,
if a vacancy occurs in any of these seats it must be filled by a
nominee of the party that held it before the vacancy. So it is up
to MDC-T to nominate a person qualified to be a Senator –
and it could re-nominate Mr Bennett, but he would have to negotiate
his return to take it up.
In the
House of Assembly This Week
Apart from the
swearing-in of two new ZANU-PF MPs and the election of the Speaker
on Tuesday 29th March, no business was conducted in the House of
Assembly this week. After the election the Speaker adjourned the
House until Tuesday 5th April. [See Bill
Watch 13/2011 of 31st March for details of Tuesday’s proceedings.]
In the
Senate This Week
The Senate sat
on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but only briefly – 40 minutes,
25 minutes and 15 minutes – and adjourned until Tuesday 10th
May, after the school holidays. It did not get round to the only
Bill on the Order Paper – the stalled POSA
Amendment Bill.
Two
New ZANU-PF Non-Constituency Senators Sworn In:
- Rugare Gumbo
on Tuesday 29th March
- Simon Khaya
Moyo on Thursday 31st March, following his unsuccessful bid to
become Speaker of the House of Assembly. Reports suggest Mr Moyo
is to be appointed a Minister of State for National Healing, to
take over from Vice-President Nkomo the National Healing duties
that he has continued to perform since his elevation from Minister
of State to Vice-President in December 2009.
The new Senators
fill the two ZANU-PF appointed seats left vacant by the death of
late Vice-President Joseph Msika and Vice-President Nkomo’s
recent move to the House of Assembly [see Bill Watch 13/2011 of
31st March for comment on this move].
New Senate Vacancy:
Senator David Karimanzira, Provincial Governor for Harare Metropolitan
Province, died on 24th March. As provincial governors are ex officio
Senators, this vacancy will be filled by whoever the President appoints
to succeed Mr Karimanzira. It remains to be seen whether President
Mugabe will appoint an MDC-T nominee in accordance with the agreement
on sharing governorships between the three GPA parties, reached
by the party negotiators in 2009.
Debates: On
Tuesday the chairperson of the Thematic Committee on HIV and AIDS
introduced the committee’s report on Access to Treatment.
On Wednesday Senator Mandaba introduced his motion on the effect
of economic sanctions, calling for the government to institute a
class action against the European Union in the European Court of
Justice to get EU sanctions set aside [this is the same motion originally
introduced by Deputy Minister Georgias but withdrawn by him when
the Senate President ruled that Ministers and Deputy Ministers could
not bring up such motions.] On Thursday Senator Chimbudzi spoke
about the report on Access to Treatment produced by the Thematic
Committee on HIV and AIDS.
Coming
up in the House of Assembly Next Week
Bills When the
House gets back into its normal routine on Tuesday 5th April it
will have four Bills to deal with:
- Small Enterprises
Development Corporation Amendment Bill now awaiting Committee
Stage. [Electronic version available.]
- Deposit
Protection Corporation Bill now awaiting Second Reading.
- General
Laws Amendment Bill now awaiting Second Reading. The Parliamentary
Legal Committee [PLC] agreed to give it a non-adverse report conditional
on the Minister making changes to the Bill as requested by PLC
[see Bill
Watch 10/2011 of 15th March for details]. [Electronic version
available.] Two portfolio committees – the one on Justice
and the one on Local Government – are preparing reports
on the Bill, so it may not come up until late in the week.
- National
Incomes and Pricing Commission Amendment Bill now awaiting reports
from the PLC and from the Portfolio Committee on Industry and
Commerce, which held a well-attended public hearing on the Bill.
[Electronic version of Bill available.]
Question Time
– Wednesday 6th April There are 15 written questions with
notice on the Order Paper for reply by Ministers, some dating back
to November 2010. ZANU-PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo has put down new
questions for the Minister of Local Government asking what Government’s
policy is on:
- business
licences that are “counteractive” to the Government’s
indigenisation drive
- prohibitive
rentals in Old Mutual shopping malls.
Parliamentary
Committees
Committee Meetings
Committee meetings continued as normal in spite of developments
in the Speakership saga.
Committee Reports
Electronic versions of the following reports are available:
- Thematic
Committee on Peace and Security – “The Role of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Promoting and Safeguarding Peace
and Security in Zimbabwe”.
- Portfolio
Committee on Public Works and National Housing – “Constitutionalisation
of Housing”
- Portfolio
Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology –
“The Fee Structure, Cadetship Support Scheme and Scholarship
Programmes in Institutions of Higher Learning”
- Portfolio
Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development –
“Air Zimbabwe and the Civil Aviation Authority”
- Portfolio
Committee on State Enterprises and Parastatals Management –
“Supply of Water Treatment Chemicals by Chemplex Corporation
to City of Harare”.
Update
on Legislation
Bills Passed
and Awaiting Presidential Assent and Gazetting as Acts [Electronic
versions available]
Bills in Parliament
[see above]
Bills Gazetted
and Awaiting Presentation in Parliament – None
Bills Being
Printed for Presentation in Parliament – None
Statutory Instruments
and General Notices
Government Gazette
of 25th March
Mining Sector
Indigenisation The only noteworthy instruments gazetted were GN
114/2011, setting out the minimum indigenisation requirements for
the mining sector, and SI 34/2011 containing amendments to the main
Indigenisation Regulations. Both came into effect on 25th March.
[Electronic versions of GN and SI available.]
Government Gazette
of 1st April Two SIs are worth noting, both effective from 1st April:
Commencement
of Audit Office Act SI 42/2011 brings the Audit Office Act [Act
No. 12 of 2009] into force with effect from the 1st April. The Act
establishes the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s Office as
a separate entity outside the Public Service. [Electronic version
of Act available.]
Postponement
of Commencement of Motor Vehicle Equipment Regulations SI 44/2011
postpones the commencement of SI 154/2010 [the new Road Traffic
(Construction, Equipment and Use) Regulations] until the 1st July
2011; this delays until the 1st July the enforcement of new requirements
such as all vehicles having to carry warning triangles, fire extinguishers
etc. The SI also fixes a new cut-off date, 31st October 2011, for
importation of left-hand drive vehicles. [Electronic version of
SI 44/2011 available – but not SI 154/2010.]
Requests for
available electronic versions should be emailed to veritas@yoafrica.com
Veritas
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legal responsibility for information supplied
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