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Update on Parliament, newly gazetted Acts and SADC Tribunal - Bill
Watch 20/2011
Veritas
May 23, 2011
The House
of Assembly met on 17th May and adjourned to Tuesday 14th June
The Senate is
adjourned until Tuesday 5th July
Parliamentary
Update
Senate
The Senate did
not sit last week. It last sat, briefly, on 10th May, when it adjourned
to 5th July. Business awaiting attention includes the Public
Order and Security Amendment Bill and the Small Enterprises
Development Corporation Amendment Bill, both for Second Reading.
House
of Assembly
Adjournment
to June: The House sat for less than ten minutes on 17th May without
transacting any business. Proposing the adjournment of the House
to Tuesday 14th June, the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary
Affairs said the majority of members were “involved elsewhere”,
a reference to their presence being required in the ongoing Thematic
Committees Stage of the constitution-making process.
Order Paper
for 14th June: The House agenda for 14th June will be the same as
the untouched agenda for last Tuesday, including the Second Readings
of two Bills – the Deposit
Protection Corporation Bill and the National
Incomes and Pricing Amendment Bill. See Bill
Watch 19/2011 of 12th May. The Human Rights Commission Bill,
currently being printed, could come up for its First Reading later
in the week if it is gazetted before the end of May. [Standing Orders
require that a Bill be gazetted at least fourteen days before it
is introduced.]
Committee Meetings:
Regular ordinary meetings of House of Assembly portfolio committees
and Senate thematic committees remained suspended this week. But
the Thematic Committee on MDGs is holding public hearings on social
protection programmes from 20th to 23rd May, travelling to four
rural districts. [For details see Bill Watch Parliamentary Committee
Series bulletin of 19th May.]
Committee Reports:
At least three new committee reports will be ready for tabling when
the House resumes.
Two
Acts Gazetted
General Laws
Amendment Act [No. 5/2011] [GLA Act] This was gazetted on Tuesday
17th May, coming into force immediately. [Electronic version available.]
17 Acts are
amended, including the:
- Reserve
Bank Act, to stop sales in execution of Reserve Bank property
seized on behalf of creditors who have obtained court judgments
against the Bank for payment of debts [GLA Act, section 14]. This
provision is backdated to 10th June 2010, which is the date on
which SI 115/2010 enacted a similar provision under the Presidential
Powers (Temporary Measures). Since that SI expired in mid-December
2010, creditors have had the last few months in which to take
action against the Bank, and some have done so. The effect of
the backdating on completed sales in execution remains to be seen.
- Indigenisation
and Economic Empowerment Act, to substitute the word “business”
for “company” in section 3(6) of the Act. This will
empower the Minister responsible for indigenisation and empowerment
to carry out “indigenisation and empowerment assessment
ratings”, not just for companies, but for all “businesses”
as defined in section 2 of the Act, i.e., companies, associations,
syndicates and partnerships conducted for the acquisition of gain.
[GLA Act, section 9.]
- Parks and
Wild Life Act, to provide for heavy mandatory prison sentences
of 9 or 11 years for poaching of specially protected animals,
particularly rhinoceros. [GLA Act, section 11.]
Zimbabwe National
Security Council Amendment Act [No. 2/2011] This short Act was gazetted
on Friday 20th May, coming into force immediately. It makes the
Minister responsible for prisons [currently this is the Minister
of Justice and Legal Affairs] an ex officio member of the Zimbabwe
National Security Council. [Electronic version available.]
SADC
Summit Windhoek on 20th May
An Extraordinary
Summit of Heads of State and Government met in Windhoek on 20th
May. The Summit
did not discuss the situation in Zimbabwe because South African
President Zuma, the SADC facilitator of the GPA,
was not present – he was still involved in local government
elections in South Africa. The Heads of State and Government will
now have an opportunity to discuss Zimbabwe on the sidelines of
the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Council and Summit in South Africa
on 12th June.
SADC
Tribunal
The Summit considered
the report of the Committee of Ministers of Justice and Attorneys-General
on the review of the Role, Responsibilities and Terms of Reference
of the SADC Tribunal and decided as follows:
- to mandate
the Ministers of Justice and Attorneys-General to initiate the
process of amending the relevant SADC legal instruments and submit
a progress report to the August 2011 Summit and a final report
to the August 2012 Summit
- not to reappoint
members of the Tribunal whose term of office expired in August
2010 and not to replace members of the Tribunal whose term of
office will expire on 31 October 2011
- to “reiterate”
the moratorium on the Tribunal receiving any new cases and hearing
any cases until the SADC Protocol on the Tribunal has been reviewed
and approved.
[Comment: While
this decision on the Tribunal technically falls short of the “abolition”
claimed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, its practical effect
is much the same, because the Tribunal will not be able to function
and will soon have no judges at all. The report by the Committee
of Ministers of Justice and Attorneys-General has been not been
made public, but a drastic reduction of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction
is foreshadowed by the Summit’s decision and recent statements
by Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa. It also seems inevitable
that the Summit will not be taking steps to compel Zimbabwe to accept
and act on the Tribunal’s decisions in the Campbell case and
other cases on the land question. Withholding the report of the
Committee of Ministers and AGs from public scrutiny is regrettable,
given that the independent consultants hired by SADC to advise the
Committee are reported as having rejected Zimbabwe’s contentions
that the Tribunal was not legally established.]
Update
on Acts and Bills
Acts Gazetted
[see above] [Electronic versions available.]
- Zimbabwe
National Security Council Act (No. 2/2011)
- General Laws
Amendment Act (No. 5/2011)
[Note: Acts
1, 3 and 4/2011 have not been gazetted. They are in the pipeline;
see below.]
Bills Passed
and Awaiting Presidential Assent and/or Gazetting as Acts [Electronic
versions available.]
Bills in Parliament
[Electronic versions available.]
Senate
House
of Assembly
Bills Gazetted
and Awaiting Presentation in Parliament – None
Bills Being
Printed for Presentation in Parliament [electronic versions not
available – texts not yet released]
- Human Rights
Commission Bill [to be presented by the Minister of Justice and
Legal Affairs]
- Older Persons
Bill [to be presented by the Minister of Labour and Social Services]
Bills Referred
for Drafting after Approval in Principle by Cabinet
- State Enterprises
Restructuring Agency Bill
- State Enterprises
and Parastatals Management Bill
- Zimbabwe
Investment Authority Amendment Bill.
Statutory
Instruments and General Notices
[Electronic
versions NOT available.]
Gazette
of 13th May
New Tariffs
of Fees for Deputy Sheriffs and Messengers of Court SIs 57 and 58/2011
enact new fees for services rendered to litigants by deputy sheriffs
and messengers of court respectively.
NSSA Notices
SI 59/2011 prescribes various matters under the National Social
Security Authority [NSSA] Accident Prevention and Workers Compensation
Scheme, including amounts of compensation and employers’ assessment
rates for this year. SI 60/2011 deals with rates of contributions
and benefits under the NSSA Pension and Other Benefits Scheme.
Public Health
By-laws for Norton SI 56/2011 contains Norton Town Council by-laws
covering sanitation, food premises, water pollution, keeping of
horses and other animals, nuisances, and other public health concerns.
Gazette
of 20th May
Radiation Protection
SI 62/2011 contains the Safety and Security of Radiation Sources
Regulations, made under the Radiation Protection Act. The regulations
came into force on the date of gazetting, 20th May. They will be
administered by the Radiation Protection Authority.
Government Financial
Statements Also issued with this Gazette were the Accountant-General’s
Consolidated Statements of Financial Performance for March 2011
and the first quarter of 2011. Gazetting of these statements is
required by the Public Finance Management Act.
Veritas
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