SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
The House of Assembly will be dissolved on Saturday ending the five year ‘love affair’ of the inclusive government.
But Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga told SW Radio Africa that while the term of office of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe will come to an end this weekend, by law, the executive and judiciary will continue to function until elections are held and a new parliament and executive is put in place.
However Mugabe told a Namibian newspaper this week that the dissolution of parliament will spell the end of his partners in the inclusive government. He said: “Doomsday is coming for them on the 29th of June. How many days have we to go? It’s on Saturday . . . and then the life of Parliament comes to an end and this Parliament dies, and they die politically also.
“Those of them who are MPs … all MPs cease to be MPs and we can’t continue without a Parliament but some of them say we go on and on. Ah! What sort of people are we to suggest that we have elections August next year, or it’s this year I suppose.”
The outgoing coalition partners are currently squabbling in court over when the elections should be held. At present elections are earmarked for July 31st but the Constitutional Court is scheduled to hear multiple cases next week Thursday, calling for the delay of elections.
Meanwhile, the outgoing parliament came under attack for failing to function during its term. Parliamentary watchdog Bill Watch revealed in recent weeks that very little has happened in the House despite the imminent elections. This month especially, sometimes legislators met for under an hour or less than 15 minutes, before dispersing without discussing anything substantial.
“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.
Matinenga said: “The parliament was just like the inclusive government, hamstrung politically and hamstrung by the judiciary, after private members’ Bills were said not to be acceptable.”
He said government business was only brought to parliament if the fractious cabinet agreed, which was a very rare occurrence, and without this parliament found itself in a difficult position to legislate.
The minister said: “But this Seventh Parliament can hold its head high in having, in the past 33 years, participated in constitution making and to finally have a constitution in place.”
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