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Important
Bills on parliamentary agenda not dealt with last week - Bill Watch
26/2012
Veritas
June 18, 2012
Both
Houses of Parliament will meet again on Tuesday 19th June
In Parliament
Last Week
Although scheduled
to sit for three days, both Houses conducted business on Tuesday
and Wednesday only. There was no discussion of Bills in either House
despite important Government Bills being on the agenda – such
as the Human
Rights Commission Bill and the Electoral
Amendment Bill. The Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Hon
Chinamasa, was out of the country, which may account for the failure
to proceed with the Committee Stage of the Human Rights Commission
Bill in the House
of Assembly. The POSA
Amendment Bill has still not been restored in the Senate. Thursday
afternoon’s sittings were abandoned immediately after delayed
opening prayers because of a ZESA power failure and problems with
the back-up generator.
Senate
Motions
African Charter
on Democracy, Elections and Governance - Senator Marava of MDC-T
introduced a new motion calling on the Government to expeditiously
sign and ratify this Charter [for details see next Bill
Watch]
Prisons and
prisoners - Debate continued on the Human Rights Thematic Committee’s
report on the state of prisons and prisoners [report available from
veritas@mango.zw].
House
of Assembly
Motions
On President’s
opening speech Hon Zhuwao, the proposer of this motion, wound up
the debate, and the motion of thanks to the President was adopted
by the House. MPs had used only 8 hours of the 35 allowed for this
debate by Standing Orders
On Portfolio
Committee Report on the Public Media - Debate on this motion continued
[report available from veritas@mango.zw].
On Portfolio
Committee Report on ZUPCO - Hon Karenyi, chairperson of the Portfolio
Committee on Local Government, Rural and Urban Development presented
the committee’s report on the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company
[ZUPCO] [report available from veritas@mango.zw].
Question
Time – Wednesday 6th June
The Minister
of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs told MPs that he had
the previous week addressed Cabinet about the large backlog of outstanding
questions, identifying the Ministers concerned. Perhaps as a result,
there was a better than usual attendance by Ministers on 6th June,
and Standing Orders were waived in order to devote the whole of
the 3½ hour sitting to members’ questions [Standing
Orders allow 1 hour on Wednesday for Questions without Notice, and
the following hour for Written Questions with Notice, which appear
on the Order Paper]. Sports and Education Minister Coltart, Home
Affairs Co-Minister Makone, Water Resources Minister Nkomo and Deputy
Mines Minister Chimanikire were kept particularly busy. Subjects
raised included:
Use
of schools for political meetings
The Minister
of Education confirmed that Ministry regulations prohibit the use
of school premises to further political objectives.
Army
and Police defiance of Treasury freeze on recruitment
The Minister
of Finance that in spite of a Treasury freeze on the making of new
appointments, the Army had taken on and was paying 4 500 recruits,
and the Police 1 500, resulting in unbudgeted and unlawful payments
to the new personnel.
2012
Budget to be revised downwards
The Minister
of Finance also said that when he makes his Mid-Term Financial Statement
on 12th July he will announce a “major revision” downwards
of the $4 billion 2012
Budget. This has been necessitated by under-performance of revenue
targets, principally the receipt of only $30 million from diamond
revenue instead of a projected $240 million.
Apology for
police inaction when Parliamentary public hearing disrupted in July
2011 Co-Minister of Home Affairs Theresa Makone apologised for the
“gross dereliction of duty” by police on duty at Parliament
on the day when an unruly mob invaded Parliament, disrupting a public
committee hearing into the Human Rights Commission Bill and assaulting
legislators and journalists.
Spot
fines at police roadblocks
Co-Minister
of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi made heavy weather of replying to a
question about Government policy on spot fines. Eventually he was
asked to come back to the House at a later sitting with a properly
prepared reply.
Chiadzwa
diamonds – who is mining, dividends to Government, “leakages”
Deputy Mines
Minister Chimanikire said there are five companies
mining in Chiadzwa, not nine as suggested by the questioner,
all of them either 100% Government-owned or joint ventures between
Government and private investors. The CIO, the Prisons Service and
the Police are not, he said, involved in the companies. Dividends
to Government from the companies for January-March came to just
under $30 million. On “leakages” the Deputy Minister
claimed that smuggling to Mozambique was negligible, but conceded
that it could stem from small-scale operations at Chiadzwa, outside
the areas designated for the operations of the five companies.
Coming
up in the House of Assembly this Week
Bills
As there was
no progress last week on any Bills, the agenda for Bills remains
as outlined in Bill
Watch 25/2012 of 12th June.
Motions
Approval of
Palermo Protocol [see next Bill
Watch for details of this Protocol]
Elections and
African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance
This motion
refers to the emergence of manifestations of violence, calls for
the Government to put mechanisms in place to ensure a peaceful pre-
and post-election transition and urges SADC and the AU to ensure
member States “subscribe to the ethos” of the African
Charter on African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance
[see next Bill
Watch for details on this Charter].
Need for Government-fixed
cotton price - This motion may have been largely pre-empted by Government
action [see under Government Gazette below].
Alleged
Reserve Bank corruption
This motion,
tabled by Hon Zhanda of ZANU-PF, seconded by Hon Madzimure of MDC-T,
asks the House to express concern at alleged RBZ “corruption,
shady deals, acts of economic sabotage and poor corporate governance”
and the Anti-Corruption Commission’s apparent involvement
in the matter” and for the appointment of an ad hoc Parliamentary
committee to investigate.
Question
Time – Wednesday
Prime
Minister’s Question Time
The Prime Minister
will be answering questions on Government policy put to him by MPs
from the floor of the House. Standing Orders have been waived to
permit this deviation from the rule that PMQs are on the last Wednesday
of each month.
Questions
for Ministers
There are also
written questions on the Order Paper awaiting responses from Ministers,
all carried forward. Following last week’s marathon Question
Time the backlog of unanswered questions has shrunk to 15.
Coming
up in the Senate This Week
PLC
adverse reports on statutory instruments
The Parliamentary
Legal Committee chairperson will present adverse reports on six
SIs gazetted during March. [See Bill
Watch 24/2012 of 6th June for a list of the SIs. The adverse
reports are not yet available.]
Motions
- Approval
of Palermo Protocol
- Approval
of African Charter of Democracy, Elections and Governance
- On the Thematic
Committee reports on education in resettled areas
- On the Thematic
Committee report on the ARV therapy roll-out programme
- On assistance
to farmers in drought-stricken agricultural region 5
- For the restoration
of the POSA Amendment
Bill to the Order Paper This long-stalled motion is by Hon
Gonese
Government
Gazette 15th June
Statutory Instruments
[NOT available from Veritas unless otherwise stated]
Code of Ethics
for the Judiciary – SI 107/2012 gazettes the new Code of Ethics
for judicial officers as regulations made by the Judicial Service
Commission in terms of the Judicial
Service Act. The code is now legally binding. [For a detailed
discussion, see Court
Watch 7/2012 of 11th April.] [Code available from veritas@mango.zw]
Tariffs
for Deputy Sheriffs and Messengers of Court – SIs 109 and
110/2012.
Cotton declared
a controlled product – In SI 106A/2012, published in a Gazette
Extraordinary dated 8th June, the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation
and Irrigation Development declared seed cotton and seed cotton
products to be controlled products under the Grain Marketing Act
during the 2011/2012 growing season. This means the cotton price
will be as fixed by the Minister. The SI says that a “contract
buyer” must pay that price even if a lower price was contracted
for – or refer the grower to the Grain Marketing Board and
claim its grower’s input costs from the GMB.
Veritas
makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take
legal responsibility for information supplied
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