SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
With less than a week left before the end of the current parliament on June 28th, it appears business has already slowed down in both the House of Assembly and Senate.
Questions are being asked as to whether legislators will be able to deal with the pressing issues related to the forthcoming elections, as raised by regional facilitator Jacob Zuma in his report to the SADC summit on Zimbabwe in Maputo.
Zuma’s report recommended that contentious security and media laws be amended before elections, in line with the spirit of the Global Political Agreement.
Many observers have said that Zimbabwe’s lawmakers can still achieve this important aspect of the election roadmap in the few remaining days, but only if ZANU PF would allow it.
In one of its updates this week, parliamentary watchdog BillWatch observes that despite imminent elections there has been little happening in either House.
“Neither House has been really busy during the last fortnight. Many potential sitting hours have gone unused. The Senate has had very little to do.
“The House of Assembly has been more or less marking time with business that could easily have been shelved in deference to tasks of national importance, such as passing essential amendments to the Electoral Law or tackling other essential pre-election reform legislation, if only the necessary Bills had been brought before it,” the watchdog said.
On Tuesday, parliament is reported to have sat for only 15 minutes (five minutes for senators) before dispersing because Principals were still locked in ‘behind-the-scenes’ discussions of electoral amendments which MPs had expected to discuss.
On Wednesday, legislators met for about an hour and, again, nothing substantial was discussed with reports that only MDC-T members were present.
On Thursday, legislators met again, but only to discuss the money laundering Bill, with no word about when the Electoral Amendment Bill will be brought the House.
Siyabonga Ncube, MDC MP and chief whip, told SW Radio Africa Thursday that legislators will be returning to the House Wednesday, in anticipation of a result from the Principals’ discussions.
“We had hoped that President Mugabe would have reconsidered his decision to use presidential powers to by-pass a parliament that is still in existence and ensured that the electoral amendments are brought before the House for debate. But up to today (Thursday), there hasn’t been any word about what is happening.
“As MPs it is our duty to discuss these electoral amendments. But with elections around the corner, there is a lot of politicking by the Executive. We suspect the delay could be another plot to resort to presidential powers if the life of parliament ends before we can discuss these,” Ncube added.
Asked about the cost to the taxpayers of transporting and accommodating legislators, only for them to convene for just 15 minutes and return the next day, Ncube said MPs were committed to doing their duties.
“Every day in the past week we have been coming here ready to discuss the urgent issues facing the nation, but the Executive is taking its time. We are aware of the little time left, and we will keep coming to parliament until the last day if we have to so that we can discuss outstanding issues.
The legislator also revealed that the chief whips from ZANU PF, MDC-T and the MDC, had taken the decision to suspend parliamentary portfolio meetings in view of the little time left.
“The procedure with Committee business involves meeting, discussing, investigating and then notifying the House of the intention to table a report. With just one week left before parliament dissolves, there is not time for all those processes hence the decision to suspend committee meetings. There was nothing sinister at all in that.