Letwin Mubonesi
The outgoing First Session of the Ninth Parliament has failed to meet expectations after President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced a legislative agenda of 29 Bills to be brought before Parliament for crafting, but only nine Bills were successfully crafted into law.
Leader of the House in the National Assembly, Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi last year said that it would not be business as usual in the new dispensation, but these statements have been proved wrong as some ministers were absconding from attending Wednesday’s question-and-answer sessions in the National Assembly and Thursdays in the Senate.
The 9 Bills which were crafted and enacted into law by Parliament included the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act, business oriented laws such as the Micro Finance Amendment Act, the Consumer Protection law, the Companies and other Business Enterprises Act, the Tripartite Negotiation Forum Act, 4 laws to do with passing the 2019 National Budget and the 2019 supplementary budget — the Finance No 2 Act and the Appropriation 2019 Act.
There are some laws that were in the process of being crafted and are at advanced stages of finalisation and these laws include the Education Amendment Bill, the Marriages Bill, the Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency Bill, the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Amendment Bill and the Coroner’s Office Bill and the Freedom of Information Bill.
The failure to perform to expectation by the First Session of the Ninth Parliament is more evident in that several motions that Members of Parliament said were going to move were never moved. Most of these motions were to do with relevant issues affecting the economy but they were never brought before the parliament for discussions.
About 28 new motions, which are already in the National Assembly Order Paper, were supposed to have been introduced by MPs for debate during the First Session of the Ninth Parliament, but they were never introduced. That alone pinpoints that the legislators were not even serious about debating those motions on the Order Paper.
Jacob Mudenda, who is the Speaker of the National Assembly last month announced that the motions which were not introduced will lapse though they can be recalled on the Order Paper in the incoming Second Session of the Ninth Parliament. Debates on motions which MPs managed to introduce were undermined by biased stances, characterised by too much criticism, walk-outs, and several adjournments due to lack of a quorum.
Despite the promises that ministers in the “new dispensation” would hit the ground running, on average about 10 ministers and deputies would attend question and answer sessions and clearly it shows that ministers performed dismally.
Advocate Mudenda once wrote to President Emmerson Mnangagwa twice advising him of the appalling performance of his ministers who continued to abscond from question-and-answer sessions in breach of section 107(2) of the Constitution. He added that the absentee ministers will be punished.
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