PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 14th February, 2023
The Senate met at Half-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE
VACANCY IN THE SENATE
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: I have to inform the House that on the 6th of February, 2023, I was notified by the Movement for Democratic Change that with effect from the 1st of February, 2023, Hon. Sen. Eng. Elias Mudzuri ceased to be a member of the MDC party. Accordingly, Section 129 (1) (K) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe applies, it provides that: - “A seat of a Member of Parliament becomes vacant if the Member has ceased to belong to the political party of which he or she was a member when elected to Parliament and the political party concerned, by written notice to the Speaker or the President of the Senate, as the case may be, has declared that the member has ceased to belong to it”
The necessary administrative measures will be taken to inform his Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of the existence of the vacancy in line with the Electoral Act, [Chapter 2:13].
BILLS RECEIVED FROM THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: I also have to inform the Hon. Senate that I have received the following Bills from the National Assembly: - National Security Council Bill [H. B. 2A, 2022]; The Institute of Loss Control and Private Security Managers Bill [H. B. 5A, 2022]; and the Police Amendment Bill [H. B. 1A, 2023].
MOTION
RATIFICATION OF THE STATUTORY INSTRUMENT TO REPLACE THE FIRST SCHEDULE OF THE CRIMINAL LAW (CORDIFICATION AND REFORM) ACT
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. President Sir. I rise that this House takes note that whereas subsection 5 and 6 of Section 280 of the Criminal Law Code, that is the Codification and Reform Act Chapter 9.23 provides that if the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs wishes to give effect to a Statutory Instrument to replace the first schedule that has the standard scale of fines to that Act by reason of changing the purchasing power of money or for any other reason, he must lay the draft Statutory Instrument before Parliament and that the Statutory Instrument shall not come into force unless approved by resolution of Parliament
And whereas the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has in terms of Subsection 5 of the said Section 280 made the Criminal Law Codification and Reform standard of scale fines notice 2023 on the 18th January 2023.
And whereas the said Statutory Instrument was in accordance with Subsection 5 of the said Section 280 laid before Parliament on the 18th January 2023.
Now therefore, this House resolves that the Statutory Instrument be and is hereby approved.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION FOR THE 7TH MAY 2022 BY-ELECTION
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I move the motion standing in my name that this House takes note of the Report of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for the 7th May, 2022 by-elections, presented to this House of Parliament in terms of section 241 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe as read with Section 13 (1) of the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13].
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: I move that debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. A. DUBE: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 15th February, 2023.
MOTION
PROMOTION OF DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMMES FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT
HON. SEN. S. MPOFU: I move the motion standing in my name that; MINDFUL that every person has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being;
FURTHER MINDFUL that every person has a Constitutional
right to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that prevent ecological degradation and pollution;
DISTURBED by the filthy garbage that has become an eyesore
in all our towns and cities countrywide as a result of rampant and unabated littering which seems to have become a way of life;
CONCERNED that the littering of our urban centres has been
further exacerbated by industrial waste pollution which is surely a time bomb that will explode anytime if this is not expeditiously brought under firm control;
NOW, THEREFORE, calls upon the Government to:
- come up with secure ecologically sustainable developmental programmes;
- rigorously promote conservation;
- introduce stiff penalties for all those willy-nilly littering and polluting our environment; and
- secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while at the same time promoting economic and social development.
HON. SEN. A. DUBE: I second.
HON. SEN. S. MPOFU: Thank you Mr. President Sir. Waste can be categorised as liquid, solid rubbish, organic waste, recyclable and hazardous waste. Solid waste is therefore, any type of trash, garbage, refuse or any unwanted material that is usually identified and named according to where the waste is generated, for instance municipal waste, solid waste, industrial waste, agricultural waste and hazardous waste, only to mention a few.
According to the World Health Organisation, a solid waste management system is composed of a number of processes that may include production of the waste, its collection, transportation, treatment and disposal. Waste management is therefore emerging as that elephant in the living room bedeviling most if not all local authorities in Zimbabwe. To that end, the dearth of refuse collection and waste management in general has become a perennial problem, particularly in urban local authorities in Zimbabwe that cater for over 1.7 million tonnes of solid waste generated annually.
Mr. President, the above scenario is however not strange or limited to urban centres alone but to the majority of our highways across the country. They are now littered with all sorts of waste. Literature has revealed that it is on record that the volume of waste being generated continues to increase at a faster rate than the ability of city authorities to deal decisively with the growth, mainly because of current growing population and economic activities exerting a huge pressure on technological and financial resources.
In Harare Central Business District (CBD), Fourth Street market; Copacabana; Mbare Market and Market Square among others, have been turned into dumpsites by unscrupulous individuals and companies. Currently, there is mixing of general waste with food and recyclables in most local authorities, Harare included, before disposal at various landfills which adversely increases the generation of methane and other greenhouse gases that are contributing to global warming and climate change.
Single-use plastics are a major concern to our towns and these plastics do not decompose but break into smaller particles or leak toxins into soil and waterways that have negative impact on human waste as well as animal health. The manufacture, use and distribution of these plastic packages of less than 30mm thickness which was prohibited in 2010 must be reviewed upwards. The exception on bread and food packages also ought to be reconsidered and even ponder on the total ban of single-use plastic.
According to the growing number of waste in electronic waste and commonly referred to as e-waste and can be defined as old television sets, old phones, and computers just to mention a few, which if improperly managed, can result in multiple negative impact on the health and development of people and children in particular.
Mr. President, a major source of concern is the role being played by the public which seemingly has little sensitivity to garbage around them and/or awareness of responsible waste management as well as environmental stewardship. A report compiled by the Portfolio Committee on Local Government in 2021, on Waste Management and Devolution Funds, highlighted that in Bindura, there has been an invasion of their designated dumpsite by illegal gold miners. Additionally, their bins in the town have been vandalised by the miners as they use them in their mining activities. Elsewhere in Epworth town, the cemetery is being used as a dumping site, a scenario that is very disturbing.
Contextually, regardless of 80% of waste budgetary allocations being directed towards waste collection, about 50% only of the populace receive this vital service and between 30% and 60% of solid waste remain uncollected. This inadequate waste services lead to unpleasant living conditions and a polluted, unhealthy environment that infringes on many rights and freedoms as alluded in Chapter 4 (Declaration of Rights) of the Zimbabwean Constitution.
Consequently, this unsafe and unsustainable disposal of waste has led to a plethora of persistent outbreaks of communicable diseases in the fold of cholera, dysentery and typhoid among others. Two major outbreaks of cholera have confronted Zimbabwe in the last decade, one in the 2008/2009 season which resulted in over 100 thousand cases including four thousand deaths and another in the 2018/2019 season with over 10 thousand cases including 68 deaths across the 21 cholera hotspots in the country.
Critically important, is appreciating that Zimbabwe is a signatory and party to a number of international agreements from which some of waste management legal and policy frameworks are derived. These agreements include Basel Convention on the control of trans boundary movement of hazardous waste and the disposal as well as the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants and the Minamata Convention on mercury among others.
The Environmental Management Act (Chapter 20:27) and the Urban Councils Act, Chapter 29:15, explicitly provides for the legal framework for sustainable management of waste in Zimbabwe. However, local authorities have further developed and implemented by-laws in accordance with the Councils Act to deal with solid waste management, for instance Bindura has the Anti-Litter and Refuse Removal by-laws while Harare has the Harare Waste Management by-laws, among others. Importantly, there is a gap in the framework which renders the waste management system unable to track sources, types and amounts of waste from individuals and companies for accountability purposes. While the framework seems robust, it largely lacks in implementation and enforcement. Critically, the levels of penalties imposed on offenders though varying are not deterrent enough, largely because of inflation and currency instabilities in the market among other factors.
Now therefore, this House calls upon the Government to:
- Come up with secure ecologically sustainable developmental programmes;
- Rigorously promote conservation;
- Introduce stiff penalties for all those willy-nilly littering and polluting our environment; and
- Secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while at the same time promoting economic and social development.
+HON. SEN. A. DUBE: Thank you Mr. President for this opportunity to second the motion moved by Sen. Mpofu. It is a pertinent motion which speaks about the hygiene in urban areas. Hygiene is life because where there is dirty there are diseases. This motion is pertinent indeed. If we enter into all towns including Bulawayo, Harare, you find dumpsites all over. The relevant councils leave dumpsites near houses. That causes diseases and they are generating flies which thereafter go into houses. In towns they go for days without water – those dumpsites create flies and as a result, we have diarrhoea and diseases.
Councillors should take note of that. It is important for people’s hygiene. It is a person’s right here in Zimbabwe to be in a hygienic place. If there are representatives or councillors, they should take note of those problems so as to be sure that there are no dumpsites all over. In some of these dumpsites you find pampers close to houses. Some of our youths pick up pampers, boil them and drink. It is part of a drug. That again creates diseases. Most of the children go to these dumpsites to pick up these pampers because they enjoy the drink they create from these boiled substances. If this rubbish is burned people will avoid going to these dumpsites to go and look for pampers.
Most of those things that destroy our children derive from a drink generated from pampers that they would have boiled. We therefore say most of the children who are addicted to drugs are as a result of drugs emanating from boiled pampers. In urban and rural areas, we should take note of where rubbish is dumped. There should be vehicles that collect rubbish daily or weekly to dumpsites but this is not happening and people are just dumping the rubbish.
We are grateful to our President, His Excellency, Cde. Mnangagwa for designating a national clean-up day on the first Friday of each month. We are grateful for that effort but now that rubbish should be taken to the relevant dumpsites. If the rubbish is dumped anywhere, it goes back to the people. So, there is rubbish and there is no water, flies everywhere and in townships, you find there are a lot of flies in the houses. Those flies are coming from the dumpsites.
It is important that the towns should be hygienic. Those who have been chosen to represent the people should take care of those problems to ensure that people do not live in unhygienic environments. People do not have water and the environment is dirty so diseases continue to spread. We should have potable water and representatives should make sure people have potable water. Sometimes when you open your tap, you find that the water is dirty. How can that water be drunk by people? Even though there are problems, the Government should intervene so that we have the relevant chemicals, so we do not have a lot of diseases. If Government intervenes it will be better and however indicates that someone is failing to do their job.
We cannot have a country without people and which is unhygienic. The towns are very important. We have the big towns and tourist towns which should be very clean and hygienic as they receive a lot of visitors. As a country, tourists should be aware that we value hygiene and that should be indicative of what we are. This is why the President designated a national clean up day. When tourists come, they look at our environment whether it is clean and say this place is led by people who are very diligent and who want to protect themselves from diseases.
This motion is very important because it talks about hygiene. Even local councils should have special places for dumping rubbish. In urban areas it is better because you find designated dumpsites. However, we have some illegal dumpsites in the urban areas. Thank you for giving me this opportunity and I am happy for this motion which has been moved by Hon. Mpofu. A country should be hygienic and ensure that our people are protected from diseases, which is happening in most of our townships. We should ensure that there is no cholera.
Hon. Mpofu mentioned the years in which Zimbabwe has had no cholera which means our country has developed. It means the Second Republic has brought some change. Let us also comply with what the Second Republic is saying.
HON. SEN. NKOMO: I also want to support the motion by Hon. Mpofu which is all about hygiene of the country, be it in urban centres or the rural areas. Rubbish is a disease and diseases cause death. Every area that is dirty, you find the people therein being of ill-health because of the dirt in their environment. Hon. Mpofu said in urban centres, if you look closely, most of the towns are dirty because there are a lot of illegal dumpsites. Of late, we used to have rubbish bins where rubbish could be placed but today rubbish is dumped at some illegal sites which are not collected. That is a very bad habit or conduct.
We had a report from one of our Committees which visited another country. The Committee looked at the hygiene of that country and they were impressed by the fact that some countries are able to remove rubbish. Let us also be like those nations. His Excellency, President E.D. Mnangagwa designated a day for national clean up so as to clean the environment. We as a country should actually comply with that. May that day be enacted as a law that whoever goes against that should be prosecuted; be it a person, local authority or mines. They should know that when we have that law, people will be prosecuted. Rubbish is bad.
I am talking about the rubbish you see here when going to Mbare or Highfield. We have big illegal dumpsites that are caused by big industries which pollute the air. We have diseases such as TB and so on from such gas emissions which affect the people and cause diseases. That day which was put in place by the President should be enacted as a law of the country and it should be adhered to by everyone so that the country is clean.
We move around and see a lot of dumpsites along the roads. We should have legal dumpsites and not these illegal ones so that we place our rubbish there for proper rubbish management.
We have small children who like to play wherever they want. When they find such dumpsites especially this rain season, they play there and they end up being infected. I suggest that such rubbish which causes diseases to our people should be removed quickly because under these sanctions that we are having, it is difficult to access medicines and the necessary finances to acquire medication.
Look at the situation of our children who live on the roads – we are fighting to put them in proper homes but they are addicted to drugs that are made from various things like pampers dumped at these illegal dump sites. They drink or smoke these pampers and they get drunk and get addicted. In order to prevent that, let us put in place a law which stipulates that pampers should not be thrown anywhere. Our councillors have by-laws but Central Government should come in and ensure that local authorities comply with these by-laws. Sometimes they just enact them and live them like that. Central Government should monitor compliance. It is our responsibility that our country is in a hygienic state. When tourists come into our country, they should not only see the cleanliness of Harare along Samora Machel but even Mbare should also be clean like the central business area. Our country should just be hygienic. Thank you for giving me the time to debate on this important motion.
*HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to the motion which was raised by Hon. Mpofu and is a pertinent motion to us a nation. For a country to have healthy people, wherever we are should be clean. It is painful indeed that you find dirt all over the place. The biggest challenge is that local authorities and city councils receive payments but they do not do proper service delivery because of corruption. Rate payers’ funds are not accounted for properly. No one monitors the use of the rates that are received.
Our people also do not have knowledge. We need to work hard so that people know. At our homes, we clean our yards and rooms and put litter in bins. On the streets, people throw litter everywhere. This results in death through diseases. Hon. Sen. Mpofu mentioned that this can lead to cholera and other diseases associated with dirt. The most important thing is that there should be laws which prohibit people especially motorists from littering. All motorists should have bins in their cars and buses. When driving behind a bus, you see people throwing litter through the window and this can damage other people’s windscreens. This is because of ignorance. Bus operators also should ensure that there are bins in their buses so that passengers can dispose of their litter within the bus. There should be public education pertaining to this and also culture change which should be embraced by people. People just throw litter with the assumption that council will sweep the streets and collect litter. We should know that litter should be disposed properly or else there will be disease outbreaks.
His Excellency, President E.D. Mnangagwa introduced national clean up campaign which is done on the first Friday of every month. This programme should be expedited. It should not only be on Fridays but should cascade down to the other days because there is always litter throughout the month. We need to educate people that litter should be properly disposed of on a daily basis.
There are some local authorities who have their own programmes. For instance, when you go to Mvurwi, the local people there are very much organised, they team up and clean their streets. When you visit Mvurwi, there is no dirty at all, the people there are aware that they need to keep their area clean without any litter.
The public must be aware that litter should be recycled. Recycled litter is very beneficial; some people are actually in the business of picking up plastics and resell them. Therefore, it is important that there is grading of litter and for that to happen, the local authorities should be aware of that development. There are no bins, there are no proper facilities but we need to make sure that there are bins and other amenities which are needed for service delivery.
However, some council officials do not come to pick up litter neither do they address littering issues. Most of the times when a person litters, others will follow suit, hence it is important that councils take note of this so that our sunshine city is restored in Harare. There should be restoration of the sunshine status because if you do not do that, a lot of people will die of diseases. If these local authorities do not enforce laws, everyone will be moving around dropping litter.
Mr. President, moving around with bins in cars and buses should be a law and those who do not follow that should be fined with stiffer penalties. As a nation, if we enforce such laws, it will make people to appreciate that for a nation to be a nation it should be clean.
Therefore, Hon. Senators, we have a big job of making sure that this law of people moving with bins in their buses and cars is enacted and passed by both august Houses. I want to thank Hon. Sen. Mpofu for moving this motion which makes us to be a clean people and have clean environs. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. MUPFUMIRA: I want to thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to add my voice on this motion which was moved by Hon. Sen. Mpofu. Having listened to everything that was being said and as this touches mostly on local authorities, I want to take a different route.
I want everyone to take this issue as individuals from our homes, schools, let us educate our children not to just throw litter all over the place. Even as we are here, the other source of litter is plastics, so there should bins everywhere, be it offices and everywhere.
Therefore, as Hon. Legislators in this House, it is important that we start exercising anti-littering. We just dump litter and there are no proper places to dispose of. This issue regarding plastics is quite a challenge because plastics are not bio-degradable; when we throw in rivers, it can be there for 40 years causing other problems. In Lake Chivero and other dams, there are a lot of plastics, so it is very important to look at the issue of plastics.
My belief is that if possible, there is need for a notice which withdraws the use of plastics. We use a lot of plastics in supermarkets but at one point we had resorted to using papers. In other developed and developing nations, the use of plastics has been reduced especially in the northern part of Africa.
As I have mentioned that plastics are not bio-degradable but can be recycled, so the way we handle plastics at our homes and institutions, there is no separation of litter. There is need to separate litter so that those that can be recycled and those bio-degradable litter is taken to different places. That which is bio-degradable can be used for generating bio-gas. You find that the trucks which carry litter just mix bottles, cans, tins, plastics and biodegradable matter, yet there should be separation of litter.
In the past, there were red bins for bottles; green bins for biodegradable food and white bins for something else. So we need to learn that and educate people. When we were growing up, because some of us are grown up - in the mornings we would sweep and dispose of litter. We would prepare composites since we were not using fertilizers in gardens but were using organic manure that we prepared on our own. Now you will find that people just throw away litter, hence the need for educating people on littering.
Young children should be taught from a tender age and this problem will be eliminated because it does not pertain to local authorities only; but as individuals, we are not managing litter properly. You will find that sometimes when using a bus, at our border posts, people will be keeping their litter but when they cross into Zimbabwe they will just dump litter through windows. Like what was alluded to by one Hon. Senator, people just throw bottles out of their windows. I concur with the point that public and private transport should have bins so that we dispose of litter in our cars without even mentioning public vehicles. We need to learn to dispose of litter even in our private cars and not through windows. This should be the law that every car has a bin and there are bins put in cars like plastic bags and other bins that are used for that in cars. This should be a lesson that is taught to individuals and not only car sales because we are throwing litter all over the place yet plastics can be recyclable and can be thriving business through litter.
Sometimes in our neighbourhood, you find people picking up litter, sorting it and taking plastics for resale because plastics are recyclable. We have not properly educated people that we should not throw away litter through windows especially cans and plastics. Banana peels should not be thrown on the roads but if it is thrown into the bush then it is biodegradable. The law should apply to all of us. We need to know what to say and how to educate people. We need to see more bins more than what we see at the moment because sometimes we do not know where to take that litter. So, the law should be enacted and be deterrent enough.
Indeed, we introduced the National Clean-up Campaign on the first Friday of every month. When it was launched, I was the minister responsible and it was indeed quite popular but during the first Friday, people used to leave their jobs to do that. It is important that people dedicate two or more hours to do cleanups every first Friday. We know that COVID came and it is gone but we need to resume taking the national cleanup campaign seriously. When you see His Excellency the President, Hon. E. D. Mnangagwa leading the national cleanup campaign, then we do other things, it is not proper. We need to adhere to that and we need a law that will urge people to embrace cleanliness.
I have a three year old grandchild. When they see anyone throwing litter, they will tell the person that is littering. We want that in our syllabuses; we want everyone, including our children to understand that so that wherever we go, we understand that there should not be littering. We cannot just blame local authorities, they are following what everyone else is doing. The law should be clear. There should be multi-coloured bins that sort litter by grading it into different categories. We have to separate our litter for recycling.
I want to thank Hon. Sen. Mpofu because this motion, from a personal point of view, I need to look at what I am doing. How I am contributing towards the sunshine city status. Even council officials should enforce the collection of bins because sometimes we see bins lying idle without being collected. Every week people take out their bins for collections and they are not collected. You will find that bins end up being overturned by hungry dogs and crows because they are not collected. There should be a strict schedule of bin collection.
Even in schools, schools should be empowered with education regarding anti-littering because when children learn, they take that information home to their parents. The education system should look at hygiene issues so that hygiene starts at school, home and the young children. Throwing litter through windows means that the person is ignorant and was not taught properly. We need to help each other in terms of anti-littering. When there are functions, people should understand that litter should be picked up to ensure clean homes and clean cities. I want to thank Hon. Sen. Mpofu for the pertinent motion. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. MOEKETSI: Thank you Mr. President Sir, for according me this opportunity to add a few words on the motion which was raised by Hon. Mpofu and the seconder. I want to thank you very much. You have brought a very pertinent motion considering the rainy season that we are in. Mr. President, I was thinking that as the august House, if we can agree that each and every household has a bin, I think that would help us.
Secondly, I do not know whether the community health workers are still there. I grew up in a mining compound and there were health workers; life was easy. Every Friday there were people who would come and inspect the workers’ houses. I was asking Mr. President that this august House should have a law in place. To say the truth Mr. President, there is an influx on the population of people, not talking about houses where there are tenants. I am looking at my house where I am staying. There are heaps of rubbish in the yard. I do not have anywhere to plough vegetables. If I go and ask people whether what they are doing is hygienic, they say that is your own problem, you are archaic. This is everyone’s problem.
We are not talking of where we come from, the homes where we stay, but the roads that we travel daily. There are tuckshops, people vending along the roads and we know that is how people are making a living through self-help projects but there is need for stiff laws such that if someone is found with heaps of rubbish next to where they are working, they should pay a fine. I think this would work.
Mr. President, the roads we are travelling and the homes where we come from, in the fields – we cannot even enjoy the vegetables there because there are heaps of pampers and all sorts of rubbish. They have become dumping sites. Thank you Hon. Mpofu, you have raised a pertinent motion. I can only say that God loves us because if only COVID was coming from rubbish, no-one would be here. COVID is not as a result of unhygienic practices.
In some homesteads, you are met with heaps of dumped clothes and when children are disposing diapers, they just throw them in a bin which is in front of their homestead. I think it should be mandatory that each and every household should have a bin and the council should come and collect garbage from bins and then dispose it. That is the law which should be in place. This will place our country on a better standing.
When we were in Rwanda, we did not see any rubbish in the streets but the people in Rwanda are the same as us. The people there are smart, which means there are laws. We attended their clean-up campaign and there was no movement of any cars until the campaign was over. We are pleading with this House that we should have teeth because our country is rotting due to unhygienic practices. Those health workers should be there. If they are no longer there, trainings should be conducted so that the next generation will find help. If I take the responsibility of educating people, they will think that I am being proud.
I grew my vegetables but I could not enjoy because of the rubbish which is being dumped there. We should help each other as a country so that we go forward. At households with tenants, it seems like they are competing to dump rubbish. Some roads are no longer passable because of rubbish. Since this issue has been tabled in this House where we have elderly people, there is a way forward. Thank you.
*HON. SEN. SIPANI-HUNGWE: Thank you Mr. President Sir. I just want to add a few words on the motion and thank Sen. Mpofu for this motion which is in line with health, and is like a cancerous issue which has befallen us. This motion touches on all of us where we come from. Mr. President, I want to mention that where we come from, there are no longer tarred roads. People are dumping waste in the roads because they do not have bins. Someone once said people should be given bins. We last had bins in 1999. People are paying their rates. When you look at the receipts, you will see that people are paying for bins yet there are no bins being supplied. We used to know that when you pay your rates you are also given a new bin, which means that people are supposed to put their rubbish in the bins.
Some Hon. Senators who debated before said that there should be stipulated timeframes when refuse trucks are supposed to be collecting rubbish in each and every area. Everyone should be ready for collection of their bins and place them by the roadside on the day of collection. People now do not have anywhere to dump their rubbish; that is why they are dumping them everywhere and this has resulted in the closure of many roads. The city fathers are responsible for ensuring that our streets are clean. When I clean my homestead, there should be somewhere I place my waste. Where did the bin trucks go? For the past three to four months, I have not seen a rubbish truck.
Yes, now we are aware that rubbish can give us money but I am under the leadership of a local authority and I am paying my money, so they should make sure that the bins are collected. The culprits here are the local authorities. The Central Government should cascade to see whether things are going well. They should see whether rubbish is being collected and investigate if there are any challenges. Even water supplies, we can go for a whole week without tap water.
One day I went to Town House and whilst I was standing there, I was thinking this is the first port of call for our visitors full of rubbish and dirty. This motion should unite us as the august House so that this issue is rectified. For sure, we went to visit other countries and we noticed when they call for a clean up, you do not see a car or people walking in the streets but everyone will be busy cleaning their homesteads. No work will be done for those few hours. As we were walking, we felt shy because we are incomparable with that country but they are also black people like us.
We should teach our children and grandchildren when they are still young on hygiene, as they say ‘catch them young’. What I think is that we should have bins everywhere where we can throw our litter. The issue that I stood up for is that the local authority is not doing its job. There are no bins which are being given to people and no rubbish trucks to carry the rubbish. If they are not capacitated they should approach the Central Government so that they can be given cars to collect refuse.
Even the roads that we are travelling on, the potholes are the responsibility of local authorities to repair. The local authorities should do their job. The councillors should sit down and carry out their mandate and see that we do not die of diseases. In one of the past years, there was typhoid outbreak in our towns to the extent that the President visited places like Glenview because of litter. Litter kills and where I come from, there are three to five people who died and if you visit those areas, you find that those people were staying close to dumpsites where people are throwing rubbish close to their homes. I am therefore saying we should say ‘no to litter’ in our country. I thank you for giving me this short time to contribute.
^^HON. SEN. MOHADI: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to add my voice on this motion by Hon. Sen. Mpofu seconded by Sen. Dube. People are talking about litter and our country is full of litter, especially in our towns. Let me look at the issue of pollution as the greater part of Zimbabwe is polluted because we do not follow rules. The department of EMA has set rules but we are ignorant of these rules. Looking at pollution, we realise that there is what is called water pollution whereby farmers use herbicides. When it rains, most of these chemicals are carried to rivers through runoff and they normally kill fish in the different dams that this runoff goes to.
We need to look critically into this issue. Looking at the air that we breathe, we realise that it is polluted. Air pollution makes the air that we breathe to be polluted. Once we breathe polluted air, we realise that our health keeps deteriorating. The things that we burn like tyres and so on continue to pollute our air. Air pollution mainly contributes in disturbing the ozone layer because of too much polluted smoke.
On sewerage especially in the different locations, our children are playing in areas that have sewage. Our councils are not taking their responsibility on this. They are not doing enough to curtail this issue of sewerage. The air that we breathe – most of the time it is smelling raw matter from sewage. Our councils are not collecting bins, people who own bars normally take bottle litter and throw it on the surrounding areas where people stay or areas that are not supposed to be used as dumpsites. The greater part of the surrounding areas are now dumpsites.
On growth points, they need to see to it that there are proper dumping areas. We realise that this is not done at growth points. Litter is being thrown all over. Plastic bags and other forms of litter are being thrown all over. These issues continue to disturb us in this country. Some few days ago, I bought a soft drink. After drinking it, I realised that it was written in bold ‘recycled material’. We need to see to it that each time we are done drinking our soft drinks, let us litter away in the proper way, having considered the issue of the bold print that encourages us to recycle. We need to take EMA rules seriously and make sure that we follow them accordingly. The only challenge that we are seeing is that there is no proper implementation of these rules.
The other issue we need to look into is the different gatherings like church conferences – there is need for mobile toilets if the conference is for more than a day so that we keep our toilets clean.
Most of the things have been highlighted already. I encourage our councils to have enough vehicles for garbage collection to the dumping sites. The dumping sites should be well demarcated and monitored as to how litter is supposed to be dealt with. We also need to see to it that the Minister of Environment needs to respond to this motion so that we can see how we can help each other in enforcing the laws that are there regarding litter.
With these few words, I would like to thank Hon. Sen. Mpofu for bringing up this motion which is critical in this august House to give each other views as to how best we can keep our country clean. I thank you, have a great day.
+HON. SEN. D. M. NDLOVU: I would like to thank you Hon. President of Senate for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to this motion. I would also like to thank Hon. Sen. Mpofu for the motion that you brought in here. The motion touches more on women’s hearts because it talks about litter. When she started debating this motion, I said in my heart that she is wasting our time but looking at the litter that she is talking about, we realise that it is not just litter but death to people. Banana peels that are being thrown all over are being stepped onto by people or cars and they get tripped or slip. Most people get fractures because of banana peels. This is because we do not handle our litter very well.
One Hon. Member indicated that there is need to sort litter. People are just used to throwing all litter in one bag. I started realising this yesterday when I left Harare. There were some vegetables that were planted in an area. When I looked at these vegetables, I realised that there was so much litter that was thrown there and I asked myself how people are eating these vegetables when there is all this kind of litter in there? People continue to reap these vegetables and take them to the market to sell them. When we now buy these vegetables, we do not know where these vegetables come from, you just buy and take it home for consumption. I was also shocked when I heard the issue of people who are picking up used pampers to boil them and then drain some substance from those baby diapers.
We continue to say when we hear the issue of ‘peace beginning with me, peace beginning with you’, we continue to be frustrated about the issue of living our areas littered every now and then. Although we continue to blame the local authorities, we are also drivers of litter in our country.
Looking for instance at a situation where there is a car, it can only move when there is a driver, so we should be the drivers who move these vehicles of litters to the appropriate places. We do not need to put the blame on local councils only but we need to agree to the fact that we have a part to play in making sure that we do a proper management of litter.
I can say I have never thrown litter out of a moving car but some of us have always done that. Therefore, we need to lead by example. The bins that we are talking of are not big bins; one can only use a small plastic bag where they can put their small litter in there rather than just throwing out litter through windows of moving cars. In public transport, when one throws litter out through the window and the next passenger indicates to them that it is not proper, an altercation may arise.
If you are talking of one’s life - we talk of peace when all is well; when things are not well, there is no peace. One’s rights are not there when their life is endangered because of what is happening. My proposal is that peace and security and the Human Rights Commission should look into these issues that are being highlighted here especially in Harare. All these issues are the same, although some areas have less litters compared to others but the greater part of the challenge is in children where these small plastics, whether it is plastic bags or containers, are being picked by children and they use those plastics at school and yet they will not be aware of what was initially in that plastic bottle – it is very dangerous.
Hon. Sen. Mpofu, I thank you for bringing in this motion which is highlighting the problems being brought about by litter in our country. Therefore, as we continue to ignore our lives through littering, we need to see to it that we help the people that we represent in contributing to this august House as to how best we can keep our country clean. I have therefore learnt that I need to look for different coloured bins for the different kinds of litter at my place.
When I was walking around at a certain field, I realised that there were so many bottles in there, I would even step on top of those bottles because I could not clearly see them. This is an indication that we are not taking charge and proper management of our litter. Most of these bottles are a menace to our children who might even end up failing to go to school because of the dangers associated with them stepping on these bottles.
Going forward, I will have to see to it that people continue to encourage each other about keeping their places clean. The issue of pumpkin vegetables, I will have to see to it that I discourage people from buying them.
The issues that were brought about by Hon. Members in this House were indeed critical and the submissions are supposed to be carried further so that littering can come to an end.
*HON. SEN. CHIMBUDZI: Thank you Mr. President for affording me this opportunity to add my voice to this motion which is very important, which was raised by Hon. Sen. Mpofu. This motion is very important for us as a country because in all the debates, we have seen our weaknesses as a country which should be rectified in line with hygienic issues.
Hygiene is very important. We have relatives and friends who come from abroad, and they look at how our cities look like in terms of cleanliness. So if our cities are clean, those friends will invite other friends to come to Zimbabwe for tourism business.
As citizens of Zimbabwe, we should change our mindsets especially if we visit other countries. We should not just go to Botswana then come back saying Botswana is clean yet we do not adopt what they do to make their country clean. You find that Botswana is clean because its citizens respect their laws and work for their country so that their cities remain clean, a thing which we cannot do here in Zimbabwe.
Mr. President, if you see our business communities in towns or in the rural areas, you will find that they throw litter in front of their business premises and look at that litter over years. When you take a walk in our business communities in Harare, vendors will be selling mangoes in front of shops. They will be selling groundnuts, vegetables and other wares in front of the shops. We just look at it and find it as a normal way of looking for money.
I agree with a lot of Hon. Senators that we should keep our cities clean and teach our citizens. Our councils have by-laws as has been alluded to and rural councils have by-laws as well. When councils come up with their budgets and allocate money accordingly roads, clinics, schools, all that is there but when they go for consultation, those things are not adopted by the people.
I used to admire the City of Bulawayo. It was one of the cleanest cities in Zimbabwe but I was shocked when Bulawayo was broadcast on television one of the days with sewer flowing all over. It is the duty of our city fathers because they have their own budgets to rectify those things. Our councils, both rural and urban are now greedy and there is a lot of corruption going on. They are only interested in their salaries and not in the lives of people. Let me say Mr. President, in both our councils even in rural areas, we have vending stalls and if you look at the vending stalls you will not want to buy the wares on sales because they will be dirty.
I think this motion is going to help us to rectify things so that our people exercise hygiene. These councils have money because they would not be in existence if there was no money. They are paying each other hefty salaries - that is why they are still there. We want laws in place where if a person throws litter willy-nilly and in undesignated places, they are prosecuted.
Mr. President, nowadays because of the rain season, there are a lot of fruits and people throw away mangoes. When we come from rural areas, we bring paper bags full of groundnuts and will be eating them on the way and throwing away litter through windows. We should also advocate that the vehicles that we travel on have bins. Our President Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa, when he launched the national clean-up campaign, we ignored it at first and thought it was of no importance. It was only civil servants who would participate in the clean-up campaign. Most people, including vendors, did not participate and say it was the President’s thing and his people. We should rid ourselves of such thinking because this is our country. We are educated and should keep our surroundings clean so that we fight diseases. There are a lot of water-borne diseases and most of them are caused by keeping unclean surroundings.
Coming to the rural areas Mr. President, our chiefs in the rural areas have authority; if we mandate them to look after their areas, people listen to their chiefs. It would help us for most places to be clean. We should involve our chiefs and also churches because they have a lot of followers. Possibly, we should come up with committees where people volunteer to look and encourage people to clean their areas on designated days. Yes, we are very indebted Mr. President. I think through this motion which was tabled by Hon. Sen. Mpofu, we should bring positive change and keep our cities clean so that our children grow up aware of the goodness of cleanliness. Oftentimes when we teach children to bath regularly and not two days a week, they grow up thinking that it is good. Thank you once again Mr. President for affording me this opportunity.
^HON. SEN. MALULEKE: Thank you Mr. President for awarding me this opportunity to add my voice. I want to thank Hon. Sen. Mpofu for raising this pertinent motion. I want to encourage people to venture into recycling of empty drink cans and produce three legged pots. People use these tins to make pots. Where I come from, you do not see any empty cans thrown around.
As we grew up, there were village health workers who were working with rural dwellers, inspecting each household and making sure there is a pit latrine and a toilet. Mr. President, in the rural areas, while we work with chiefs and village heads, there is a day that is set aside every week, as a sacred day where people are not allowed to go into the fields. This day is used to take care of all household chores and making sure that the environment and households are clean.
In towns Mr. President, the previous speakers spoke about the issue of councils making money but virement it to other budgets to make sure that the environment is clean. Our rural areas were once affected by Cholera. This disease started from Chiredzi Town and spread to the surrounding rural areas and many people died. Mr. President, councils should start taking seriously issues of hygiene. In rural areas, the Ministry of Health and Child Care should work with village health workers together with local leadership, including chiefs and village heads to make sure people clean their environments.
Mr. President, most of the issues have already been alluded to. I also support the point that was raised by Hon. Sen. Tongogara that it is very important for buses and car owners to put bins in their cars to reduce littering. Some time back, I travelled to South Africa and an old lady stepped on a banana peel. She hit her head on the ground and started bleeding; from that day, I learnt that littering was very dangerous. In towns, councils must put bins everywhere and make sure the environments are clean. In rural areas, village health workers must teach people on issues to do with hygiene practices.
I once travelled to China where there are no pensioners. Council employs them to work as cleaners and they are put in shifts to clean the environment 24 hours. As a country, we must emulate what our President, Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa is doing. He practices cleaning by sweeping; as leaders in this House, we must lead by example in our households and communities. I thank you.
HON. SEN. S. MPOFU: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 15th February, 2023.
MOTION
PROTECTION OF VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING
HON. SEN. A. DUBE: Mr. President, I move the motion standing in my name that this House:
APPRECIATING the noble efforts by Government to combat Human Trafficking through the following measures, among others
a) Being a State Party to the UN Convention against Transitional Organised Crime Convention for the Suppression of Trafficking in persons and of the Exploitation of the prostitution of others.
b) Signing the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and punish Trafficking in Persons.
c) Enactment of Trafficking in Persons Act.
NOTING WITH CONCERN HOWEVER the increasing incidents and cases of trafficking in persons, particularly women and children, who are easily lured for prostitution and forced labour under false promises of lucrative economic opportunities and study opportunities.
NOW THEREFORE, calls upon Government to:
- a) Step up efforts to identify and protect Victims of trafficking and to provide them with requisite psycho-social and economic support services;
- b) Rigorously raise awareness on the evil and dangerous scourge of human trafficking;
- c) Ensure the availability of State Shelters for Victims of Human Trafficking in all the ten Provinces of the Country; and
- d) Step up efforts to investigate, prosecute and severely punish perpetrators of this heinous crime.
HON. SEN. S. MPOFU: I second.
HON. SEN. A. DUBE: Thank you Mr. President for affording me this opportunity to move my motion regarding the challenges we face in our nation of the human trafficking of our citizens to other countries where they become slaves. Some of them when they get to those countries, are forced to have sexual intercourse with people without their consent and without protection. They are forced to do it because they are in a country which is not theirs. Our country gazetted a law criminalising those involved in human trafficking. We also have a law that is implementable. The statistics globally, it is estimated that there could be 800 cases of human trafficking, inclusive of Zimbabwe where humans are being trafficked daily. We noticed that most of them are women, young ladies and young men who are lured that they will earn a lot of money. They leave their nation in anticipation that they will get a lot of money from what they would have been promised. When they go outside the country without Government knowledge, they are taken by criminals who end up criminalising them.
In the past, we used to say we have got slaves and even now we can refer to them as slaves because of the human trafficking. These children are subjected to child labour and they are given a lot of work to do without payment. In most cases, you will find that what they do is not what they would have been promised initially. Girls are given men to sleep with so that they can get money. You will find that a single girl is assigned to 10 male partners to sleep with. We once had a painful workshop facilitated by Bindura University which is one of the universities that had students who survived human trafficking. These children were subjected to inhuman conditions because they will be in a closed room and they will be under surveillance from the camera in that place. Their phones will be confiscated. These survivors were saying they would wake up around 2 o’clock a.m. after having gone to bed around 12 midnight. You then get up early around 2 o’clock and you will do a lot of work.
In some cases they would be given food which may be having a lot of chilli. If these children demand to go home, they end up being killed. Some of these children are used to transport drugs by swallowing them because we know that in other countries, when you are found in possession of drugs, you are likely to be killed and sentenced to life in prison. These kids are used to doing those dirty works whilst here we will be hoping that our child will send a lot of money or when they come back, they will buy a lot of assets but at the end, you find the children will not be having any means of communication.
There are a lot of people now advertising in newspapers indicating that in certain countries there are people needed, for example to do Red Cross. We now have a lot of children who want to go and do Red Cross. It is not all of these children who are going to get jobs but they are going to be forced to have sexual intercourse with animals like dogs and they are not even supposed to complain. Once they complain, they will be beaten to death. These children are not allowed to rest. In some cases, you find that this girl sleeps with every member of the family where she is taken to. These human traffickers are the only ones who will know that these children will be subjected to inhuman treatment but because they will be given a certain amount of money, they will do the job.
Again as parents, when we hear that our children are going to UK or Iceland, we celebrate a lot but we do not investigate the places that our children will be going to. This is mainly because we do not know a lot about these other countries. If you check statistically, it is said 66% of elderly people in Zimbabwe did not attend tertiary education, which makes it difficult for them to assess where their children are going. This form of education is the one that leads to human trafficking.
We have also heard Mr. President, that these kids in some cases are told to write letters to their friends to lure them indicating that they are getting a lot of money and living lavishly. They will be monitored as they write the letters. In some cases, when one of the children wants to return home, instead of the people killing the girl, they will allow her to write letters to her friends so that she can get her friends to come, either to be persecuted or be killed.
Mr. President, this issue of human trafficking is so painful because we do not know where a number of our children are. Some just die without us knowing because they went in search of jobs. What we want to take note of is that in 2015 to 2019, the Zimbabwe National Statistic Agency said there were about 1 500 cases of human trafficking which included women and children. If we take consideration of 2019 to 2023, you realise that in 2022, there was an exodus of our children going outside the country. When parents are asked if their children have called them, they will tell you the children have not called back home but the agent is the only one communicating.
If you have heard of these survivors at Bindura University, you will realise that you no longer have that kid. Children and women have gone. It is only different when it comes to women in that you find women around the age of 50 have also gone leaving their husbands and children behind. as orphans. Zimbabwe is well-known for having strong people who are dedicated and hard workers, so every nation wants Zimbabweans, which makes our children being on high demand. If it was possible that agents that are taking our children in Iceland, USA and UK be registered by the Government so that we get to know where our children are going. If you check in 2022 how many of our children did Red Cross and went out of Zimbabwe, I am skeptical Mr. President that it cannot be true that everyone who has done Red Cross and went to UK is employed just because of that certificate. There are some chances that these people are used in criminal activities. We also take note of the children who go to South Africa. In December, we had almost 20 children who were fetched from Botswana but I do not know how it ended. These children die due to hunger and thirst, and sometimes because of breakdowns along the way. There is a lot of criminality and persecutions that happen along the way whilst back home we remain optimistic that our kids will bring something better.
We have lost a lot of life Mr. President because of this human trafficking. Some of them when they get there realise there are a lot of challenges and some children write back to the Government indicating that they are being subjected to persecution, forced labour and are expected to do everything needed, and are kept in closed houses. The kids are literally in jails.
Mr. President, the Government has brought back some of these survivors of human trafficking. Some of them end up marrying in foreign land but back home they would have been married. This brings back a lot of family disputes. When these people come back, they are even facing some challenges or are discriminated by close relatives because when they come back they bring nothing which will be against the wish and expectation of their relatives. If it was possible, it was going to be good for our children to have some skills and upgrade themselves instead of them rushing to board aeroplanes to places where they face a lot of persecution. We were also told that some were taken to another nation, for example in Dubai where they will board another aeroplane to another nation where they do not know. It was so painful Mr. President, what we heard from the survivors. It would be good for the Government to take note that when these children come back home, they need a lot of counselling and child care where they will be given places to stay for them to have freedom and also to be employed somewhere. There should be awareness that those who are doing this criminal activity of human trafficking can be sentenced to life in prison.
We once heard that some of the suspects have been arrested but in the end, we do not know where these stories end. Whereas someone who is involved in stock theft is sentenced to 30 years – we have never heard of the sentence of a stock theft dealer. There should be investigations on the offices of the agents. Government should investigate and collaborate with other nations that we get to know these agencies and they should be registered. As of now, we have not seen any registered agent for these. We have seen Cuban doctors and this was a result of Government’s bilateral engagement and this is good. That is what we expect. They should come out in the open like Rwanda which opened up for teachers to go and work there through a Government office.
This is a sad story to us mothers because we will be living in anticipation to see our children coming back with a lot of money but only to get to know that our children have been murdered in foreign land. If we do not take this into consideration, we will lose a lot of children. Some of these stories are caused because of drugs which lead them to go outside the country.
There is shortage of employment in this country which is causing our children to go outside the country. We wish there could be a lot of employment that the Government can create at least to absorb these children. As a nation, we request that the agents be registered with Government. They should be lawful. There should be a law which states that anyone who takes a child to a different nation should be sued. At the airports, we request that there be a security system which will interrogate these girls who will be coming to board the aeroplanes. They should not just be left to board the planes. We request that there be security at the airport who take statistics of how many children are leaving our country on daily basis. Even if we go to the Embassy of America or United Kingdom, they will not give us statistics of how many people have gone outside to their nations because they are benefiting from this exploitation.
With these few words, I thank you for affording me this opportunity. It was a painful motion which has seen a lot of our children going outside the country. We have even heard that some of our children have gone to America without coming back. I have my child who wanted to go to America. I had to sit her down and educate her about the disadvantages of going there. It may assist us as a nation because if all these kids go outside the country, who will remain behind? Some of these kids who are remaining are now abusing drugs and at the end, our nation will not have the young generation. We the elders are surviving on tablets – so who will remain in Zimbabwe? It shows that our children are the ones who are being targeted signifying that there is a cold war which is here and this is leaving us without our children. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: Thank you Mr. President for affording me this opportunity to add my words to this motion which was tabled by Hon. Dube.
Mr. President, we did not know much about human trafficking here. We knew that there were people who were forced to leave the county and were enslaved without food or anything. It was a thing that was just being talked about but we were not aware that it was rampant. We did not know that there was internal trafficking which was happening in this country.
Children are just being taken away after advertisements have been posted on social media that there are jobs like what happened to those who were being referred to by Hon. Dube. It is now rampant in this country, jobs are being advertised, come and work as maids, garden boys but 71% of these jobs are agricultural work. Most children are taken to farm tobacco, sugar cane, cotton, forestry and fishing. In all those areas children are being lured that there are jobs; they will then be used to spray the fields without wages.
If these labourers are children, you will find that there will be no more schooling except work. When these advertisements are posted on social media, they put conditions which are favourable yet they will be lying.
This trafficking happened during the lockdown period because of the COVID pandemic. Then poverty was rampant so when people would see such postings, they would quickly rush there. Even those who were in formal employment would look around so that they fend for their families.
Furthermore, there is child sex trafficking; children are just being taken, they are being lured and as parents, we are not verifying the details of the jobs, place and other things. We are just looking at the issue of money. I urge parents to urgently look into such things so that child trafficking will be reduced.
Children between eight and 14 years are being called to be maids and garden boys but once they get there, they will realise its all abuse and yet parents are not aware of all that. That is the trafficking which is happening in this country. It is very disappointing and it is not only happening in the agricultural sector only but also in the mining sector. You find young children being taken down the shaft and they are the ones who will be panning the gold. The owners of these mines and farms are pocketing large monies out of abusing these children. The parents of these children do not even care about their children.
Mr. President, if things are like this, as a nation we should come together and find ways to stop these challenges. If anyone is caught doing human trafficking, they should be prosecuted and be put in jail because if they are allowed to pay fines only, these things will not stop. However, if a law is enacted that anyone caught doing human trafficking should be dealt with and jailed, it will lessen the problem.
A law should be put in place that those people who call themselves employment agents, who are advertising on social media and everywhere else should be scrutinised. Human trafficking has no age limit or sex; everyone is affected, so these people should be thoroughly dealt with by the law enforcers.
Mr. President, I now want to talk about the victims of human trafficking. Once these people have been enslaved to those countries, when they come back to their own home land, they are stigmatized and also the family members, when the child comes back; they start ridiculing them that they went looking for money, now where is the money? It will then be difficult for the victims to come out of their cocoons especially with the challenges that they will be facing, they will not come out in the open. So, survivours should have access to professional counselling services and the counselling should extend to families and guardians as the victims support system. When victims receive counselling, it helps them to be accepted within the family and community as well. So I want to thank the Government Mr. President, because there are 120 women who had been lied to and were repatriated. Counselling really helped both the women and families and guardians.
Currently in Gaza, there is what is called One-Stop Crisis Centre that harbours returnees. They help them with food, clothing and everything to make them comfortable; if we could also have centres like that, they will help victims immensely to be quickly integrated into society.
Mr. President, the other thing that helps people who look after survivors is for social media to report positively so that victims are reintegrated into society. In the rural areas, using our traditional leaders will also impact positively since they are the ones who stay with people and know their subjects well so that victims are accepted in the communities. Nowadays there is Twitter; many children are always on that platform. It will also help if the right information is twitted, it will help survivours to know what to do.
Mr. President, it would help us if our ICT is functioning well and positive information is also disseminated on what Zimbabwe is doing and the steps that we are taking to curb against human trafficking. The other thing is, as different governments, we do not live in isolation and human trafficking is not only rampant in Zimbabwe but is in other regional countries. So, if governments put their heads together, because of the challenges that we are facing as neighbours, by uniting as governments of different countries, it would lower the number of human trafficking victims.
In Zimbabwe, what is happening on our local farms and mines should be seriously looked into so that the elderly and young people are removed from those dangerous places because it is against the law. These people should be rescued from those places where they are being treated as slaves. The perpetrators should also be investigated so that we come up with ways of curbing human trafficking. I thank you.
HON. SEN. DUBE: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. CHIMBUDZI: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 15th February, 2023.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
HON. SEN. MOHADI: Thank you Mr. President. I move that Order of the Day, Number 5 be stood over because we are not yet ready – we will resume tomorrow.
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
Sixth Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the
Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
HON. SEN. S. MPOFU: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 15th February, 2023.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE 145TH ASSEMBLY OF THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION AND RELATED MEETINGS
Seventh Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Report of the 145th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Related Meetings held in Kigali, Rwanda.
Question again proposed.
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: Mr. President Sir, I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. MATHUTHU: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 15th February, 2023.
MOTION
CONSTRUCTION OF SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE AND RECRUITMENT OF ECD TEACHERS
Eighth Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on challenges affecting early child learning.
Question again proposed.
HON. SEN. MABIKA: Mr. President, I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 15th February, 2023.
On the motion of HON. SEN. MUZENDA, seconded by HON. SEN. MOHADI, the House adjourned at Twenty-Three Minutes past Five o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 14th February, 2023
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. SPEAKER in the Chair)
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, this is an important day. I want to wish you all Happy Valentine’s Day – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – Order, when you celebrate, you look for champagne. Thank you. I have received requests for points of national interest.
HON. MPARIWA: On a point of national interest Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: What is your point of national interest?
HON. MPARIWA: Thank you Hon. Speaker a very good afternoon to you. I want to appreciate and thank you for the compliment on Valentine’s Day to every one of us and we are waiting for the champagne and red flowers. Thank you very much papa. Hon. Speaker, today is the 14th of February and a day indeed where the world over is celebrating love and sharing. My point of privilege is based on the fact that on the 14th February 2018, we lost an icon, the former Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Hon. Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. He, despite the problems in terms of having been in opposition politics, he shared and loved everyone. He had to actually accept to be in Cabinet and dollar for two is actually missed and celebrated in Zimbabwe because we saw things that were actually coming out as a result of the Government of National Unity.
So as we celebrate Valentine’s Day, I would want everyone else to remember Morgan Richard Tsvangirai as somebody who had love, somebody who reached out, somebody who actually accepted, somebody who apologised even to those who would have wronged him. So I hope and trust that as Zimbabweans, we will copy as well the level of acceptance and the level of tolerance for everyone in the country. I thank you Hon. Speaker. May his soul rest in eternal peace.
THE HON. SPEAKER: It goes without saying that the Late Former Prime Minister Tsvangirai played a very important role during the Government of National Unit and that is public knowledge and I think history has recorded that, we can only say may his soul rest in eternal peace.
HON. I. NYONI: On a point of national interest Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: What is your point of national interest?
HON. I. NYONI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. My point of national interest is on the state of the maternity wings of most hospitals in Zimbabwe. I will zero in on the United Bulawayo Hospitals UBH. I have had the opportunity to visit that part of the hospital and the state it is in is very sad. The infrastructure has dilapidated; the floors have potholes; in a hospital. The buildings are crowded; you will find expecting women being asked to sleep on the floor because the beds will be full. They end up being asked to bring their own blankets from home.
We are also aware that during the process of labour, a lot of blood is lost and most of the time the blood is not there. If the doctors prescribe two pints of blood, what will be available is what is given and in most cases, they will end up getting less than half of the blood that will be needed. It is my prayer therefore that the Ministry of Health looks at this issue with seriousness to ensure that there is improvement in this area. Perhaps also consider utilisation of Ekusileni Medical Centre which is currently under-utilised although it is said to be open. I thank you.
HON. MARKHAM: On a point of national interest Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: What is your point of national interest?
HON. MARKHAM: Thank you Mr. Speaker, my point of national interest is that we have created a trust called Harare Wetlands Trust, I think this is a major movement for both stakeholders, Government and donors. We have noticed that the siege of wetlands is obviously not only in Harare but we are also looking for volunteers in various areas to represent the wetlands. On areas of focus, we are looking on to start with Victoria Falls, Chimanimani, Mutare, Penhalonga area and Mavuradonha. I thank you.
HON. WATSON: Thank you Hon. Speaker. My point of national interest revolves around the continuing scourge of theft of power cables. I feel that it is time that the Ministry of Power and Energy Development, in conjunction with its Loss Control Team, organise a meeting with the security sector plus residents in order to stop what is nightly event particularly in Bulawayo; four or five incidences per night occur of cable theft. Quite often now, it is a high voltage which the power corporation seems unable to replace. I think it is now a matter of urgent need for the Ministry of Power and Energy to address through the Loss Control Department. Thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Members, I think we can also address the public in your constituencies. Encourage members to be on the look-out of such criminals and effect citizen’s arrest; that may also assist in ensuring that the general public is watching and is not amused by these thefts. I want to promise you that I will transmit your request to the Minister responsible so that he can coordinate with the security services Ministers and ensure that the problem is nipped in the bud.
MOTION
RESTORATION OF THE INSURANCE AND PENSIONS COMMISSION AMENDMENT BILL [H.B. 6, 2021] ON THE ORDER PAPER
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. CHIDUWA): I move that this House resolves that the Insurance and Pensions Commission Amendment Bill [H.B. 6, 2021] which was superseded by the end of the Fourth Session of the 9th Parliament be restored on the Order Paper at the stage which the Bill had reached in terms of Standing Order No. 71 (1) (a).
Motion put and agreed to.
CONSIDERATION STAGE
JUDICIAL LAWS AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 3A, 2022]
Amendments to Clauses 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and new Clause No. 12, Clauses 13, 14, 16 and schedule put and agreed to.
Bill, as amended, adopted.
Third Reading: With leave, forthwith.
THIRD READING
JUDICIAL LAWS AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 3A, 2022]
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker, I now move that the Bill be read the third time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the third time.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. CHIDUWA): Mr. Speaker, I move that Orders of the Day, Numbers, 2, 3, and 4 be stood over until Order Number 5 has been disposed of.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
Fifth Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
HON. WATSON: Thank you Hon. Speaker for this opportunity to debate the Address to Parliament by the President during SONA. In his speech, the President said foreign currency earnings amounted to USD7.7 billion for the eight months to the 31st August, 2022; an increase of 32.4% of the same period in the previous year. On checking, I found that this relates purely to mineral exports. Zimbabwe is a rich country with minerals yet poor and unable to provide free education for its children and to provide even the most basic medications in its healthcare facilities.
Zimbabwe reals under corruption and Zimbabwe’s wealth will never be shared with its population that benefited. There was nothing particularly in the SONA speech which spoke to dealing with issues around corruption.
The President spoke about universal health coverage. Our health system is totally underfunded to the extent that per capita spending on health has gone down from USD90 to USD48 per person, which is a huge drop in per capita spending and as a consequence, although clinics have been built, hospitals refurbished to an extent, there are no medicines and there is insufficient medical staff to cater for the needs of Zimbabweans.
In order for Zimbabwe to benefit from its wealth, it needs to have more than just rhetoric around the issues around corruption. The President urged all stakeholders to scale up programmes to end the menace and scourge of drugs and substance abuse, yet we have the laws and the security sector in Zimbabwe which are supposed to deal with those who sell and import drugs, not merely persons who are caught with them or peddling them on a small scale. This does not seem to be happening and one wonders if that is not also a facet of the deep-seated corruption.
The President also spoke of new network culture in State operated enterprises. Bulawayo would benefit hugely from the revival of the NRZ. Unfortunately yet again, there seems to be a lack of political will in order to see the revival of State operated enterprises such as the NRZ. The President spoke of the responsive social protection measures catering for the most vulnerable yet pensioners are left starving and without grants where they do not have a pension.
Orphanages and old age homes are still left without per capita grants to help them sustain themselves. When orphans turn 18 years in Zimbabwe, there is no help for them and there is nowhere for them to go.
Last year the Government failed to pay its obligations under BEAM so that this year most of those students on BEAM have been rejected because the schools have not been paid. The President said that the First Session must speedily consider legislation towards the alignment of devolution and decentralisation programmes. This has been spoken about in the last Parliament and this Parliament, why it is now incumbent and so urgent for the Fifth Session makes one wonder why we have waited thus far and long to honour that particular part of our Constitution.
It is my humble submission Hon. Speaker, that although my colleagues who have spoken before me from the other side of this House have praised the speech and have praised what they see as progress, I believe that we are sadly lacking still in terms of economy and development. I do not believe that what was in the SONA offers Zimbabweans or Zimbabwe the solution.
If we look at Bulawayo yet again and we look at the Gwayi-Shangani Dam, although the dam is 70% complete, the pipeline which will take the most desperately needed water to Bulawayo plus the pump stations, is yet to even be commenced so that on the one hand we say that is development yet on the other hand, the lack is still there. So I personally feel, and on behalf of my constituency, that we are still lacking deeply in Zimbabwe. Thank you.
*HON. T. ZHOU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to highlight the achievements made by the Government which is tangible and can be seen or witnessed by anyone in this country. I will look at clusters which point to the achievements of the 2nd Republic. Mberengwa North, Mr. Speaker Sir, in the past, we did not have a Government district hospital. We did not have it in Mberengwa District. Construction only started after President Mnangagwa assumed office. Right now it is so beautiful. In the past, we used to rely on mission hospitals that were helping Mberengwa and providing health services. When the President took office, he said we should assist and complement by building Government hospitals. So we really would like to appreciate that. Like he said, the weight of this development can be felt by everyone in the rural areas with regards to the education cluster.
In the past, the whole of Mberengwa District only had one Government school which is Mbuya Nehanda. After President Mnangagwa assumed office, we also got a Government secondary school which has since been constructed and only awaiting commissioning. That will be the second high school in the district. Those are the achievements of the President, Dr. Mnangagwa.
With regards to the roads and infrastructure cluster in Mberengwa, after he spoke during the Independence celebration last year, the Mberengwa-West Nicholson Road has since been tarred for a 15km stretch. Those are developmental achievements meant to alleviate the people’s livelihoods. Everyone in this House, including those on the other side, know that in their constituencies, President Mnangagwa is doing some incredible work with his Government. While we sit here, they run around to talk to Ministers and ask them for developmental projects in their areas. President Mnangagwa does not select whether this one belongs to the opposition party or not. He is inclusive in his developmental projects. Some may not want to accept that, but I am surprised some of the Hon. Members travel to Mutare on the highway that was developed by President Mnangagwa.
Mr. Speaker Sir, most of the times people only want to praise somebody when they are late. Let us give due appreciation when the person is alive because President Mnangagwa is doing a sterling job. Hon. Speaker Sir, you know that there are some problems that are found everywhere in the world, so we cannot expect our President to solve all the problems in one day, but let us admit that we have seen huge developments in the past five years that affect everyone in the country. That is why he says this country is built by its rightful owners. So let us all unite and be patriotic in this country. With those few words I thank you Mr. Speaker.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 15 February, 2023.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that we revert to Order Number 3 on today’s Order Paper.
Motion put and agreed to.
COMMITTEE STAGE
CHILD JUSTICE BILL [H. B. 11, 2021]
Third Order read: Committee Stage: Child Justice Bill [H. B. 11, 2021].
House in Committee
Clauses 1 to 94 put and agreed to.
Schedules 1 to 3 put and agreed to.
House resumed.
Bill reported without amendments.
Third Reading: With leave, forthwith.
THIRD READING
CHILD JUSTICE BILL, [H. B. 11, 2021]
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker Sir, I now move that the Bill be read the third time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the third time.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that Orders of the Day Nos. 6 to 12 on today’s Order Paper be stood over until Order of the Day No. 13 has been disposed of.
Motion put and agreed to.
SECOND READING
MEDICAL SERVICE AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 1, 2022]
Thirteenth Order read: Second Reading: Medical Service Amendment Bill [H. B. 1, 2022].
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HEALTH AND CHILD CARE (HON. DR. MANGWIRO): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. The Bill is about aligning the Medical Services Act with the Constitution of the Ministry of Health and Child Care in collaboration with the International Taskforce on the alignment of laws with the constitutionally identified health related provisions in the Constitution which, for operation purposes, need to be incorporated in the Medical Services Act. The Declaration of Rights in the Constitution expanded that economic, social and cultural rights now also include health related rights. Some of the health related rights are directed at the preventative aspects of health and these were incorporated in the Public Health Act [Chapter 15:09] which was aligned in 2018.
While those rights that are directed to medical care are the subject of this Medical Services Amendment Bill, Mr. Speaker Sir, the right to health care is now a fundamental right of our people and is captured in Section 76 of the Constitution as follows:
“76. Right to Healthcare
(i) Every citizen and permanent resident of Zimbabwe has the right to have access to basic healthcare services including reproductive healthcare services.
(ii) Every person living with a chronic illness has the right to have access to basic healthcare services for the illness.
(iii) No person may be refused emergency medical treatment in any health care institution
(iv) The State must take reasonable legislative and other measures within the limits of the resources available to it to achieve realisation of the rights set out in this section.”
Mr. Speaker Sir, apart from it being a constitutional provision, the rights to healthcare captured in Section 76 of the Constitution is also observed in several international treaties of which Zimbabwe is a part to especially the following:
- Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 UDHR
- Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966 ICECSCR Article 3
- Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 CRC
- Article 25 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities 2006 CRPD
- Article 5 of the Convention of the Elimination of all forms of racial discrimination 1965 ICERD and
- Article 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination of Women 1979 CEDAW.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the Bill before the House recognises the right to healthcare and basic principles of Universal Access to Health, basic healthcare services are defined and the Hon. Minister is empowered to define the basic health service packages at every level of the services platforms vis-a-vis clinic, district, general, provincial, central, research and development hospital levels. This implies that there will be best packages for clinic, a basic package for district hospital, a basic package for general provincial hospitals and a basic package for specialist services at central and district hospitals.
The Bill further defines with what constitutes reproductive healthcare services and that should be part of the basic healthcare package. The Hon. Minister is empowered to list those chronic illnesses that should be part of the basic health packages and the various service platforms.
Mr. Speaker Sir, confidentiality is a cardinal principle of healthcare professional practice and the Bill is to clear as to circumstances that may require a limitation of the right to privacy in terms of Section 57 of the Constitution leading to a possible disclosure of a medical condition. Emergency medical treatment is clearly defined in the Bill and provides for prohibition against refusal to provide emergency medical treatment by any health institution whether public or private when the service is required. A lot of lives have been lost in the past while haggling over the recovery of costs of the treatment.
Mr. Speaker, the Bill defines what constitutes medical or scientific experiment, what constitutes extraction or use of bodily tissue and has elaborated on the concept of informed consent to protect the patient’s right to personal security in terms of Section 52 of the Constitution. The Bill further provides for the treatment and care of persons under arrest, defendant or imprisonment at the expense of the State or if the person so elects at his or her own expense. This is in line with the rights of arrested and detained person provided for in Section 50 of the Constitution. In addition, the Bill provides for the general standards and practice applicable in health care delivery which includes full disclosure of information to patients, informed consent to treatment procedures, patient participation in decisions for their treatment, discharge reports, protection of health records to prevent loss of/or unauthorised access and patient complains procedures.
Mr. Speaker Sir, patients’ rights also come with duties of patients. In that regard, the Bill directs that patients are to adhere to the rules of health institutions when receiving treatment, provide accurate information of health statutes, treat health care providers with respect and to sign discharge certificates when he or she refuses to accept recommended treatment.
The Bill also provides for rights of health care personnel. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of personnel protective equipment PPE to protect health care workers against injury and disease transmission. Health care workers are also entitled to refuse treating a patient who is physically, verbally abusive or sexually harasses him or her.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the Bill provides basic health care services to special classes of people identified in the Constitution. For the health care services to children, the Bill protects children against parents or guardians who may want to prevent a child from receiving a health service which is in the best interest of the child concerned in contravention of Section 603 of the Constitution. The Minister responsible for health is empowered by this Bill to provide details through regulations for the health care services afforded to:
- Persons over the age of 70 years as provided for in Section 82 of the Constitution.
- Persons with disabilities in terms of Section 83 of the Constitution.
- Veterans of the War of Liberation in terms of Section 84 of the Constitution.
Mr. Speaker Sir, let me conclude by urging Hon. Members to pass this law to provide our nation with high quality health care delivery system of international standards and raise another milestone in the development of our country into a Middle Income Economy by 2030.
I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 15th February, 2023.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
HON. MUTAMBISI: Mr. Speaker, I move that all Orders of the Day be stood over until Order of the Day, No. 20 has been disposed of.
HON. TEKESHE: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
DELEGATION REPORT OF THE 52ND PLENARY ASSEMBLY SESSION OF THE SADC PARLIAMENTARY FORUM HELD IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
HON. NDIWENI: I move the motion standing in my name that this House takes note of the Delegation Report of the 52nd Plenary Assembly Session of the SADC-Parliamentary Forum held in the Democratic Republic of Congo from the 3rd to 11th December, 2022.
HON. MPARIWA: I second
HON. NDIWENI:
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The 52nd Plenary Assembly Session of the SADC Parliamentary Forum was hosted by the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from the 3rd to 11th December, 2022 under the theme: ‘The Role of Parliaments in Strengthening Legislative Frameworks for Peace and Security in the SADC Region’.
1.2 The Zimbabwe delegation comprised the following Members of Parliament: -
- Dought Ndiweni, Executive Committee Member, Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Democratisation, Governance and Human Rights and Head of Delegation;
- Goodlucky Kwaramba, Member of the Standing Committee on Gender Equality, Women Advancement and Youth Development and Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (ZWPC);
- Anele Ndebele, Member of the Standing Committee on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment; and,
- Paurina Mpariwa, Member of the Standing Committee on Human and Social Development and Special Programmes.
OFFICIAL OPENING CEREMONY
2.1 In her welcome remarks, the Secretary General of the SADC PF, Ms. Boemo Segkoma, lauded the Plenary Assembly as a gathering for representative democracy through universal suffrage aimed at providing efficient checks and balances by sovereign Parliaments over the Executive within the clear context of the doctrine of separation of powers.
2.1.1 Furthermore, Ms. Sekgoma implored Member States to continue advocating for the protection of human rights, including the implementation of measures that mitigate against Gender Based Violence (GBV). In this regard, the SADC PF will continue to champion the need for the Regional Parliaments to domesticate the Model Law on Gender-based Violence, among other Model Laws.
2.1.2 The Secretary General concluded by tendering credentials of the delegates to the Plenary Assembly and invited the Hon. President of SADC PF to address the Assembly.
2.2 Hon. Christophe Mboso N’kodia Pwanga, the Speaker of the Parliament of DRC and President of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, expressed gratitude to H.E Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, President of the Republic of DRC for taking time to grace the official opening programme of the SADC PF Plenary Assembly Meetings.
2.3 The Speaker of the National Assembly of the DRC reiterated the need of the international community to condemn in strongest terms the unwarranted aggression being perpetrated on the eastern border of the DRC by the M23 rebels. He further underscored the need for a peaceful environment as a pre-requisite for rapid economic growth and development.
2.4 Hon. Christophe Mboso Pwanga concluded by paying tribute to those who had died due to complications occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
2.5 Hon. Regina Esparon, Chairperson of the Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (RWPC) urged the region to move the women’s empowerment conversation beyond increasing female representation to the attainment of meaningful participation of women in all peace and security processes at all levels. This involves representation in peace missions, at international peace negotiations, in national governance structures and in local-level peace initiatives.
2.6 She stressed that one of the key strategies in achieving this was to promote women in leadership positions in order to influence the decision-making trajectory in all sectors of governance matrix.
2.7 In delivering the keynote address, the Guest of Honour, H.E. Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo noted that the meeting came at the backdrop of an unwarranted aggression towards a Member of SADC, namely the DRC by the M23 rebels in the eastern part of the DRC.
2.7.1 H.E. Tshisekedi, President of the Republic of DRC, added that the chosen theme of the 52nd Plenary Assembly Session was timely, being held at a critical moment when the region continued to face continued insecurity, particularly in the eastern part of DRC. In this region, armed groups are engaged in massacres and other atrocious acts amounting to war crimes being perpetrated against innocent civilians.
2.7.2 He thus implored the international community to condemn this unfair aggressive interference on the sovereignty of the DRC by the armed rebels which have the unfair and unfortunate consequences of retarding socio–economic development of the region.
2.7.3 H.E. President Tschisekedi lauded the support being received from SADC Member countries in defending the cause and territorial integrity of the DRC.
2.7.4 Finally, President Tshisekedi pledged his support and assistance for the Transformation of SADC-PF into a Regional Parliament. President Tshisekedi concluded his address by wishing the 52nd SADC PF Assembly constructive deliberations.
- ZIMBABWE’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE THEME AND THE KEY DELIVERABLES DURING THE SYMPOSIUM
3.1 Hon. Anele Ndebele presented a paper on the theme on behalf of the Hon. Speaker and the Zimbabwe delegation. He noted that peace and security are pre-requisites for socio-economic development of any nation or region.
3.2 Zimbabwe acknowledges that peace and security are necessary pre-conditions for socio-economic development of any country in the region. Equally, the 1992 SADC Declaration and Treaty highlights that “war and insecurity are the enemy of economic progress and social welfare”. In the same vein, Aspiration 4 of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 calls for “a peaceful and secure Africa”. Accordingly, peace and security are a sine qua non for the total fulfilment of all the Seven Aspirations of Agenda 2063, which anchor Africa’s desire of achieving its vision 2063.
3.3 SADC should be extolled for putting in place institutions, policies and strategic plans which aim at creating the necessary pre-condition for peace and security in their respective countries. Some of the institutions tasked with the responsibility of maintaining peace and security in the region include the Organ on Politics, Defense and Security Co-operation and the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Co-operation Organization as well as the SADC Regional Peace Keeping Training Centre.
3.4 All security efforts should be made to enable SADC countries to fight terrorist and banditry within the SADC region. It is common cause that the region must put in place security mechanisms that will enable SADC to effectively deal with the M23 terrorist group marauding in the eastern part of the DRC. It is trite to observe that the disturbances have compromised peace and security resulting in economic meltdown of the SADC region.
3.5 In the same vein, Zimbabwe observed that concerted measures must be put in place to fight banditry in the Cabo Delgado Region, in Northern Mozambique where the mining of gas in that region was being disturbed by terrorist groups.
3.6 It was imperative to point out that SADC security efforts as supported by the Legislative Frameworks in the SADC Parliament must focus their search for peace and security beyond the borders of SADC. This is so because there is need for SADC to assist fellow African Union countries which are experiencing terrorist attacks by the Al-Shabab in the Horn of Africa and the Boko Haram in Nigeria.
3.7 The approach is instructive to the extent that if Africa is to faithfully and successfully implement Agenda 2063 and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Africa must act in unison in fighting the terrorism scourge if it is to achieve accelerated socio-economic development.
4.0 STATEMENT BY HON. ADVOCATE JACOB FRANCIS NZWIDAMILIMO MUDENDA ON DECISIONS OF THE 145th ASSEMBLY OF THE IPU AND RELATED MEETINGS HELD IN KIGALI, RWANDA FROM 11 TO 15 OCTOBER 2022
4.1 Hon. Prof. Peter Katjavivi, Speaker of the National Assembly of Namibia, on behalf of Hon. Advocate Jacob Francis Nzwidamilimo Mudenda, Speaker of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, presented a statement on decisions by the 145th Assembly of the IPU and related Meetings held from 11th to 15th October 2022, in Kigali, Rwanda, pursuant to Rule 45 of the Rules of Procedure.
4.2 It was reported that the IPU 145th Assembly and Related Meetings was officially opened by His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, on 11th October 2022. In his welcome address, His Excellency Kagame applauded the Assembly’s theme which espoused the need for gender equality in all socio-economic sectors, more-so when the women folk form 52% of the world’s population. It was, therefore, incumbent upon Parliaments to enact laws that effectively promote gender parity. H.E. President Kagame, however cautioned that there was “no size fits all” in tackling gender equality deficiencies. To him, what was critical is the application of the political will to achieve the goal.
4.3 In their interventions on the theme of the Assembly entitled “Gender Equality and Gender Sensitive Parliaments as Drivers of Change for a more Resilient and Peaceful World”, Parliamentarians took stock of the positive steps towards achieving gender equality. Speakers unanimously concurred that it had become an imperative to include women leadership in addressing global challenges such as conflicts, pandemics and climate change. Through their legislative and oversight roles, Parliaments can play a critical role in enacting robust legislation, including quotas for women in politics and ensuring gender responsive budgeting.
4.4 Mr. Martin Chungong, Secretary General of the IPU, called for the acceleration of progress to achieve shared goals on gender equality and gender sensitive Parliaments with zero tolerance to gender violence and sexism. In addressing instability as experienced in some parts of Africa and the Russia/Ukraine conflict, among others, the Secretary General underscored the value of dialogue as articulated by the founding fathers of the IPU. He called upon Parliaments to strive for peace, equity and opportunities for all in fulfilment of their constitutional mandates of legislation, representation and oversight on the Executive.
4.4 The Plenary Assembly adopted the Kigali Declaration on “Gender Equality and Gender Sensitive Parliaments as drivers of change for a more resilient and peaceful world”. The Declaration represents a milestone in progress towards gender equality and gender-sensitive Parliaments. It encourages IPU Members to step up their efforts to promote gender equality in both the public and private sectors.
4.5 Member States were reminded that in line with the IPU Statues and Rules as well as the IPU Strategy which places emphasis on implementation of resolutions of the IPU, Parliaments will be called upon to report on action taken towards implementation of the adopted IPU resolutions. Accordingly, SADC Parliaments have been encouraged to implement resolutions and provide timely feedback to the IPU Secretary General.
5.0 ADOPTION OF THE REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND THE TREASURER’S REPORT
5.1 The Executive Committee (EXCO) tabled its report for consideration and adoption by the 52nd Plenary Assembly meeting. The EXCO of the SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) had met virtually via the zoom video conferencing platform on 18th and 19th November, 2022.
5.2 The report sought to place on record its sincere thanks to the Parliament of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, led by Hon Speaker Christophe MBOSO N’kodia Pwanga for graciously accepting to host the 52nd Plenary Assembly Session, at a short notice.
5.3 The Host Speaker, Hon Christophe Mboso N’kodia Pwanga, was further requested to convey the Plenary Assembly’s gratitude to His Excellency, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), for officially opening the 52nd Plenary Assembly session and to the Government and people of DRC for the warm hospitality enjoyed by all delegates.
5.4 The Plenary Assembly adopted the report on the national elections which took place in the Republic of Angola on the 24th August, 2022. On this occasion, a SADC PF Election Observation Mission (EOM) to Angola was deployed under the able leadership of Hon. Speaker Adv. Jacob Francis Nzwidamilimo Mudenda from 17th to 27th August, 2022.
5.4 The report also noted that Parliamentary elections also took place in the Kingdom of Lesotho in October 2022, and regrettably, the SADC PF EOM which was scheduled by the forum to participate from the 13th September to 10th October, 2022 could not take place due to lack of the requisite number of countries willing to take up the mission.
5.5 Given the foregoing, EXCO invited Plenary Assembly to note that the sporadic and inconsistent participation in EOMs by the forum may lead to an unwarranted differential treatment of countries since there are Member Parliaments which have diligently fielded delegates and contributed to nearly all EOMs. Such countries will be disadvantaged when the forum fails to deploy an EOM in their home country when elections are to take place. EXCO, therefore, invited the Plenary to encourage that all Member Parliaments participate actively in future EOMs in line with the 36th Plenary Assembly Resolution.
5.6 On the maintenance of peace and security, the Plenary Assembly noted that the SADC Summit of Heads of State and Governments endorsed the Assessment Report on the risks, threats, implications and opportunities of the ongoing conflict in Europe for the SADC region. The report urged Member States to monitor the movement of mercenaries from conflict zones and introduce legal instruments that would enable them to take measures to counter mercenary activities in line with AU Convention for the Elimination of Mercenaries in Africa of 1997, among other issues.
5.7 On the Transformation of the SADC PF into a Regional Parliament, EXCO informed Plenary Assembly that while a few SADC Member States have already signed the Agreement, the requisite number of 12 signatures out of 16 is yet to be attained for Amendment to take legal effect in accordance with Article 36 (1) of the treaty.
5.7.1 Given that the Agreement Amending the SADC Treaty has not yet been signed by the majority of Member States, EXCO recommended to the Plenary Assembly that this should remain the cardinal priority of lobby initiatives by the forum and its Member Parliaments in order to ensure that Member States that have not yet signed the Amendment do so as soon as possible so that the figure of 12 out of 16 signatures is promptly attained.
5.7.2 EXCO, therefore, recommended to the Plenary Assembly that lobby efforts be heightened through the engagement of Heads of State and Government of SADC Member States who had not yet signed the Agreement Amending the treaty to forthwith append their signatures.
5.7.3 Zimbabwe firmly remains focused on the need for the Transformation of the SADC PF into a Regional Parliament, and is satisfied with the developments at Summitry level towards this just cause. The 42nd SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Kinshasa, DRC, on 17 August 2022 approved the Agreement Amending the SADC Treaty on the Transformation of the SADC PF into a Regional Parliament during the 42nd SADC Summit. Accordingly, Hon. Ambassador F.M.M Shava, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade signed the Agreement as delegated by His Excellency Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa at the Summit.
5.8 It was noted that part-time staff secondment arrangement had proved to be unfruitful due to competing priorities of staff at national level, the absence of an adequate accountability framework, and the lack of prioritisation of SADC-PF duties which lead to considerable pressure on the SADC-PF management to perform committee related tasks. Consequently, it was not possible to renew the secondment contracts as per policy.
5.8.1 EXCO, therefore, recommended that the Plenary Assembly refers this matter to the Committee of Clerks to guide and align the secondment policy to existing functions of Programme managers and Committee Secretaries.
5.9 EXCO reported to the Plenary Assembly that due to the good ongoing work of the forum under the SRHR Project, Sweden is in the process of approving a project proposal made by the forum for the next phase which is to run from 2023-2026, a development which augurs well to assist the forum in consolidating the democratic drive in the SADC region in the years to come.
5.10 EXCO invited the Plenary Assembly to note that the forum adopted the SADC Model Law on Gender-Based Violence at its 50th Plenary Assembly Session hosted by the Kingdom of Lesotho in December 2021 and that the SADC Model Law on GBV was the first ever model law of its nature to deal with gender-related violence in all its forms, including physical, verbal, economic, psychological and even cyber violence, and thus paving the way to end GBV in Southern Africa by 2030.
5.11 EXCO noted that since there was only one candidate on the ballot, Hon. Roger Mancienne, Speaker of the Parliament of Seychelles, the Presiding Officer was, therefore, de facto designated and inaugurated as the President of the SADC PF.
6.0 MOTIONS ADOPTED DURING THE 52nd PLENARY ASSEMBLY MEETINGS
6.1 Motion on the Adoption of the Report of the Standing Committee on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment
6.1.1 Plenary Assembly adopted the submission that cross border traders, the majority of them whom are women, continued to face numerous challenges which included sexual harassment, lack of adequate information on customs procedures and information on new developments, including the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, and many other non-tariff barriers. This is despite the existence of policy frameworks at regional level.
6.1.2 Plenary Assembly adopted the need to encourage Member States to intensify the flow and exchange of information among traders in order to eliminate unnecessary delays at border posts.
6.2 Motion for the Adoption of the Report of the Standing Committee on Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources
6.2.1 The Committee noted that Africa, and the SADC region in particular, was endowed with arable land and water. The Committee acknowledged that the quality and quantity of water was a precursor to a thriving agriculture sector.
6.2.2 It is, therefore, imperative for the SADC Region to adopt sustainable agricultural practices that should be prioritised among other measures that are meant to boost agriculture in the region.
6.3 Motion for the Adoption of the Report of the Standing Committee on Human and Social Development and Special Programmes
6.3.1 The Plenary Assembly noted the lack of funding to public health care in the SADC Region. Over-reliance on donor support towards health services, coupled with low capital health expenditure contributes to low and unsustainable health financing in the SADC region.
6.3.2 The Plenary Assembly adopted the need to facilitate revision and effective execution of resource allocation frameworks including public finance management systems across the healthcare and education delivery systems. At least 20% of national budgets should be channelled to education in order to keep more girls in school.
6.4 Report of the Standing Committee on Democratisation, Governance and Human Rights
6.4.1 The Plenary Assembly adopted a motion, which noted with deep concern that the voices of the youth and children are not particularly taken into consideration, worsened by inefficient implementation of related policies, legislation, laws and structures.
6.4.2 In this regard, Plenary Assembly implored SADC Member States to adopt legislated youth quotas in institutions of governance including Parliament in order to increase youth political participation and representation in governance processes.
7.0 RESOLUTIONS AND WAY FORWARD
7.1 There is need for Member Parliaments to take stock of the legislative frameworks that promote peace and security, both at inter-State and intra-State level. In this regard, the legislative sector needs to deliberate on the role and contributions of parliamentary engagement to the peace and security discourse in the SADC region bearing in mind the complementary efforts already made by the relevant SADC organs.
7.2 There is need for Parliaments to continuously carry out in-depth research in order to build capacity in understanding the dynamics that lead to disturbances and conflict in the region. This can be done through Member States working closely with non-State actors which are responsible for capacity building initiatives within the region. Governments should stretch their tentacles to every avenue that can be used to achieve durable peace as a necessary precondition for sustainable development.
7.3 The Plenary Assembly resolved to make Parliaments centres of peace initiatives by crafting and advocating for policies that favour the inclusion of women in peace processes (peace-making/ peace-keeping and peace-building) initiatives. Parliamentarians should take peculiar initiatives that promote peace in Member States.
7.4 The Plenary Assembly resolved to formulate and sustain policies that improve all tenets of good governance and the promotion of the rule of law. The Plenary observed that the underlying causes of conflict and insecurity emanate from non-adherence to Constitutionalism, infraction of fundamental rights and freedoms, irregular holding of elections, corruption and the marginalization of ethnic groups.
7.5 There is need for the region to come up with proactive policies that promote the involvement of the youth in all programmes and actions aimed at sustainable socio-economic development of the region.
7.6 Taking note that Zimbabwe remains solidly resolute in its commitment towards establishment of the SADC Regional Parliament; and also recalling that Hon. Advocate Jacob Francis Nzwidamilimo Mudenda, Speaker of Parliament has worked tirelessly on the matter as the Chairperson of the Strategic Lobby Team on the Transformation of the SADC PF into a Regional Parliament, the Plenary Assembly pledged to redouble its efforts in engaging the outstanding countries to sign for the amendment of the treaty laying the foundation in transforming the forum into a Regional Parliament.
7.7 The 52nd Plenary Assembly Session unanimously endorsed the Angolan elections as a true reflection of the will of the people of Angola. In the same vein, the Plenary Assembly resolved to ensure that going forward, Election Observation Missions to Member States become a budgeted for mandatory activity to ensure that the region tells its own story on elections. EXCO noted that the low participation in EOMs by Member Parliaments runs counter to the spirit and the letter of the 36th Plenary Assembly Resolution that the logistics for EOMs are to be funded by participating countries which fielded their members accordingly.
7.8 Following the adoption of the SADC Model Law on Gender-Based Violence during the 50th Plenary Assembly Session hosted by the Kingdom of Lesotho in December 2021, the decision making body has proposed the post adoption strategies of the Model Law, in close collaboration with regional partners, including Civil Society Organisations. The Plenary Assembly pronounced itself strongly on the need to domesticate the Model Laws adopted by Plenary Assembly this far, in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders.
7.9 The Plenary Assembly stressed the need for Parliaments across the region to continue raising concern on the negative effects of destabilizing forces such as the conflict in the Eastern DRC as well as the banditry in Northern Mozambique.
7.10 The full dossier of the Plenary Assembly resolutions will be availed by the SADC Parliamentary Forum in due course for consideration by Portfolio and Thematic Committees of the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
8.0 CONCLUSION
8.1 The Plenary Assembly concluded by calling on Member Parliaments to continue intensifying collaborative efforts that ensure that peace and security finds home in the SADC Region and beyond.
8.2 Parliament of Zimbabwe continues to play a highly effective leading role in the Transformation Agenda of the SADC PF. The return of Hon. Advocate Jacob Francis Nzwidamilimo Mudenda, Speaker of Parliament as a substantive Member of the Executive Committee and Member of the Legal Sub- Committee, will enhance his role as the Chairperson of the Strategic Lobby Team of Hon. Speakers on the Transformation of the forum into a SADC Regional Parliament.
8.3 Parliament of Zimbabwe commits itself to the full implementation of the resolutions of the Plenary Assembly which shall be shared among all Members of Parliament to facilitate action by different Portfolio and Thematic Committees.
8.4 The 53rd Plenary Assembly of the SADC PF will be hosted by the Republic of Tanzania which has pledged to choreograph a memorable hosting arrangement in Arusha. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
(v)HON. NDEBELE: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to commend the entire Zimbabwe delegation for a well written report for the 52nd SADC Plenary. Mr. Speaker Sir, to that end, I fully associate with the contents of the report in its entirety and I would like to urge this august House to endorse and adopt this report.
Mr. Speaker Sir, in line with the theme of the 52nd Plenary Assembly, it was concluded that Member Parliaments must continue intensifying collaborative efforts that ensure that peace and security prevails in the SADC region. On that score Mr. Speaker Sir, let me thank Hon. Adv. Mudenda for condemning in the strongest terms, the continued terrorist attacks in the eastern parts of the DRC.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I will be reminisced in my secondment of the report if I did not, for the benefit of the august House, indicate that for our DRC cousins, the M23 is a creation of the Rwandan Government. The record is there and it speaks for itself. Mr. Speaker Sir, His Excellency, Tshisekedi Tshlombo said it in his opening address, similarly the Hon. Speaker in his address Christophe Mboso said the same in his opening address to the 52nd Plenary Assembly.
Mr. Speaker Sir, let me indicate to the House that in a non-precedent move, we had three full Cabinet Ministers at the 52nd Plenary. They all bemoaned the fact that the DRC, while spending most in insurgency in the east, still carries an international arms embargo. We as delegates ,Mr. Speaker Sir - Can I proceed Madam Speaker.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, please you may proceed.
HON. NDEBELE: Thank you Madam Speaker. I was just indicating to the House that as your delegates, we were put in an invidious position; we were literally hamstrung and could not, for diplomatic purposes, name Rwanda as the aggressor as well. It is important for us to put this matter before our Parliament so that an urgent recommendation for the Executive action to guarantee peace and economic prosperity in the Eastern DRC is done.
Madam Speaker the House must know the DRC Government bemoans the arms embargo and silence from their SADC brothers. They were feeling that swift action was taken regarding the disturbances in - [technical fault] - before the outbreak of disturbances in the DRC. It is also notable that – [technical fault] SADC was decisive when it comes to the Lesotho question but it seems to be in its feet when it comes to the issue of the Eastern DRC.
Madam Speaker on the theme of the 52nd SADC PF plenary on strengthening legislative, peace and security; Madam Speaker, as your delegate, I strongly feel there is need for SADC member States to come up with frameworks that clarify the manner in which member States relate with SADC and the AU regarding intervention in times of conflict. The Parliament’s role will be to ensure oversight on this and ironically this is spelt out in President Kagame’s report of 2017 on the African Union. There is also a dire need to craft laws that compel member States to work closely with infrastructures for peace. There is a lot of work happening in the community that the Government can utilise to achieve durable peace.
There is also need to formulate policies that are aimed at compelling member States to improve on matters of good governance. Most of the underlying causes of conflict and insecurity emanate from this. Issues of adherence, fundamental rights and freedom, free, fair and credible elections, corruption, marginalisation of minorities et cetera. It is also imperative to formulate laws that compel member State Governments to invest more in futuristic, pre-emptive, early war in approaches to conflict including natural disasters, the easy of violence extremism in Mozambique is a good example. This should also include investing in infrastructures that assist in lessoning election related conflict. Is it too soon for Parliament to legislate for election monitoring in member States as opposed to election observation? It is also very important to mobilise resources for prevention initiative in member States and to formulate policies that align with the SADC mediation, conflict prevention and preventative diplomacy architecture and how member States should work with them for peace of coordination and clarity of roles and responsibilities.
Finally, Madam Speaker, it is very important for our Government to enact laws that address matters that affect the youth. Parliamentarians can take their peculiar initiative that promotes peace in member States. Remember we once had the Zimbabwe parliamentarians network against all forms of violence. It is important to buy such initiative. Madam Speaker, with these few words, I second and commend the report of the 52nd SADC Plenary for adoption by this august House, I thank you.
HON. TOFFA: Thank you Madam Speaker for giving me this opportunity to debate on the report of the 52nd Plenary of the SADC Parliamentary Forum presented by Hon. Ndiweni which was held in DRC. I stand to contribute to this debate because I feel very concerned. The SADC PF was formed 26 years ago on 8th September 1997. Madam Speaker, SADC PF is the only regional body that is still operating as a forum.
Madam Speaker, all the other regions have regional parliaments and we heard in the report that this issue was discussed again at the summit. There are some technicalities on the report by Hon. Ndiweni that need to be looked into. My concern arises from the fact that all resolutions made at the SADC Parliamentary Forum by member States are not binding to any of the SADC member countries. That is why it is so important that SADC actually forms a regional parliament. My feeling and also from being a member of SADC PF as a representative of Zimbabwe Parliament in the last parliament, I am of the opinion that SADC countries do not want to form a regional parliament because they do not want to be answerable to anyone. As I listened to Hon. Ndiweni’s speech about 50:50 gender equality and also talking about peace in the region; the only way this can bear fruition or get anything tangible is for SADC to form a regional Parliament. I would like to challenge all SADC member States to take this very seriously. For SADC to actually make sure that the objective of forming SADC PF comes to fruition, otherwise Madam Speaker Ma’am, all the funding that is used by Parliamentarians to go to SADC is just a waste of resources.
I have actually stood up to zero in only on this particular point because if you look at the model on the eradication of child marriages, we cherry-picked what we wanted, whereas if we had adopted or if we were bound by the resolution that was made by SADC, we could have domesticated the model law. By doing that, the young girls would not be suffering the way they are now suffering. As I said, we cherry-picked parts of the model whereas as a country we would have benefitted from the holistic model law that is provided for young girls. That way, we would not be getting these perpetrators getting away with murder, impregnating young girls and still walking scot-free. Thank you Madam Speaker.
HON. NDUNA: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am. I just want to add my voice on the report by Hon. Ndiweni from the SADC-Parliamentary Forum which was seconded by Hon. Toffa.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, it was seconded by Hon. Ndebele.
HON. NDUNA: I am sorry, seconded by Hon. Ndebele and also supported vociferously, effectively by Hon. Toffa. What men can do, women can do better. As I sat and listened, I was wondering why with such verbose…
(v)HON. NDEBELE: On a point of order Madam Speaker. It will be misleading for Hon. Nduna to say that Hon. Toffa was in support of our report - she literally threw everything out of the window and the Hon. Member suggests that we should pull out of the SADC-Parliamentary Forum.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: You are not correct Hon. Ndebele, Hon. Toffa was supporting your report. Hon. Nduna, please may you proceed.
HON. NDUNA: Madam Speaker Ma’am, thank you for the protection. I reiterate - the report was supported eloquently, effectively and efficiently by Hon. Toffa. I am going to ride on that report and those submissions. In so doing, I will just bring to the House that this Parliamentary Forum that we speak to and about represents more than 3 500 Parliamentarians in the SADC region. It is only fair, just and right for such an august House gathering to have legislative powers to be formulated into a SADC Parliament that has fully fledged legislative powers. Madam Speaker, not only because it is humongous but also because the numbers that it represents, if you look in Zimbabwe, our numbers in terms of census and population, it is 15 million minimum. What it means if you divide that by 210 legislators, one presides over 73.4 000 people in their constituencies both voting and non-voting.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, where I come from, it is 31 004 voter population and the other 40 000 are non-registered voter population. It is not only because of the numbers in the regional board that the number of Parliamentarians that are represented there is 3 500 but it is also because of the numbers that are represented by individual SADC member countries. It is my thinking that, that number is quite huge for Members to just go on a jay walk and go and sit, eat good food and live a lavish lifestyle whilst they are debating issues of their important nations. Let this board be given legislative powers. This is the first issue that I want to put across and I have given you the reasons Madam Speaker why it is important to have legislative powers.
It can actually enhance the expeditious response to the SADC agenda of 2015 that speaks to industrialisation of our region and also to enhance the agenda 2063 of the Africa agenda. It is a 50-year agenda that speaks to beneficiation, value addition and also intra-trade, Africa trading with itself. This is only if we give powers to the SADC PF, only if we do that, we can eradicate as Hon. Toffa has adhered to. The issues of child marriages, abuse of children also give Parliamentarians, especially women their rightful place in Parliament.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, as I speak about the women, applauding that the women’s quota has further been extended by another 10 years, Zimbabwe as a country, we were always on 30% representation whereas in the SADC region, it is 20% average women representation. What men can do women can do better. It is only prudent and just that we use this pedestal and platform to seek the continental powers to give legislative powers to this SADC body so that women can take a cue from Zimbabwe in terms of 60 women proportional representation numbering 30% to grow the SADC average from 20% to go to Zimbabwe’s 30%. These would be the reasons why I think there should be legislative powers.
I now want to go to the reason why SADC PF was formulated in the first place. The aim of this forum Madam Speaker Ma’am, I would like to go point by point so that I do not lose anything. The SADC PF is a regional inter-parliamentary body composed of Members of Parliament from the SADC States that I spoke to that number 3500 and the aim of this forum is to provide a platform to support and improve regional integration through parliamentary involvement and promote best practices in the role of Parliaments in the region, integration and also in the cooperation of these nations.
The first issue is promotion of human rights and gender. I am alive to the fact that Hon. Ndiweni chairs one of these Committees that I am pointing to;
(a) The promotion of human rights, gender equality, good governance, democracy and transparency.
(b) The promotion of peace, security and stability.
(c) Hastening the pace on economic cooperation, development and integration on the basis of equality and mutual benefits.
(d) Facilitation and networking with other inter-parliamentary organisations, for instance the ACP-EU Africa Caribbean and the European Union cooperation with the same.
(e) The familiarisation with the people of SADC with the aims and objectives of SADC and;
(f) Informing SADC of the popular views on development and issues affecting the region.
So it is ripe and the time is right for that body to be given legislative powers if it can carry out its mandate effectively and efficiently.
Whilst I am still on the SADC PF, it is only fair for me to take this opportunity to appreciate the role being played by PAP and also send my hearty congratulatory messages to Hon. Sen. Chief Charumbira who has landed the post of the presidency of PAP. Whilst I call for legislative powers to be conferred on SADC PF, I in the same vein, calling for legislative powers to be conferred on the PAP so that we are not here every day talking about issues that are not being taken as resolutions.
As long as these bodies get legislative powers to legislate laws for the good order and governance of the people that they represent, we are certainly going to have a robust, resilient Africa that is going to see us being self-sufficient in terms of potable drinking water that is going to see Africa having this intra-trade in Africa that is going to also see the issue of the Yamousssoukro Declaration, the Open Skies policy taking route and also, we are more than one billion population economy as Africa.
I have already spoken about the 3500 legislators that number the sum of the members of the SADC PF. If we put our heads together in these regional bodies in Africa, we can only make sure that Africa becomes a giant instead of being plundered in the manner that it is currently being plundered by the first world countries who have become first world because of the abuse of the resources and beneficiating and value adding the resources of Africa and indeed SADC region. So my point that I stood on and stood for on this platform and pedestal was the legislative powers.
I have digressed and gone to Pan African Parliament in terms of legislative powers, but the whole import and the whole purpose is to make sure that we have energy sufficiency, potable drinking water and we also shy away from these diseases that are medieval, archaic, moribund and rudimentary and those would be typhoid and cholera to say the least because we have legislative powers and we are adhering to the ethos and values of Articles both in the AU agenda and also in the United Nations Articles, only if we are a body, one as a continent together and as a SADC region together, and also speaking of energy sufficiency, we can speak with one voice if we have that legislative power.
Inga Dam can produce more than 100 000 megawatts of power only if we can give these bodies enough legislative power in order that we get the right funding. Gone are the days where we continue to use fossil fuels depleting the ozone layer and raising the temperature by more than 0.5 degrees at the expense of our posterity. We owe it to posterity and we need to leave this planet in the right position and in the right quality for our children and our children’s children. So when it comes to Inga Dam and energy self-sufficiency, my heart is on the right side.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to vociferously, effectively and efficiently debate on the SADC PF Report presented by Hon. Ndiweni in the manner that the people of Chegutu West would have wanted me to debate – that is Chairman, Lameck Nyamarango, Sarah Chikukwa, Patricia Nyamadzawo, Marjory Ruzha and a lot of other Chairpersons that I have not mentioned here, including Charles Makoni. Thank you.
(v)HON. MOLOKELA-TSIYE: Thank you Madam Speaker. I would like to thank the Zimbabwean delegation that attended the SADC Parliamentary Forum. I would like to add a few points with regards to the report that I feel needs to be emphasised in this National Assembly. The first one is the SADC PF transitioning into a Parliament. This issue has been on the agenda for many years and it is important to note that during this recent meeting that SADC PF had, there does not seem to be any clear or direct effort to instill - [Technical fault] - there is clear minds that Southern Africa is now the only region in the whole of Africa that does not seem to have made progress in this regard. When you go to West Africa and East Africa you will find that those regions are well ahead of Southern Africa in terms of institutionalisation of Parliaments for the respective regions.
The SADC PF is anachronistic and it is something that desperately needs to be phased out in favour of a statutory body that is able to govern the Southern African region. This is very important when you consider that Africa operates as a continent. Parliamentary speaking, we have the Pan-African Parliament and for the Pan-African Parliament to grow in stature, we need to have a Southern Africa Parliament. So I urge the Parliament of Zimbabwe to increase its efforts to ensure that there is a given time line in terms of the transition of the SADC PF into the SADC Parliament. We should make sure that the rest of the content is assured that a united Parliament in Africa is strong and practical - [Technical fault]-
Secondly, I also noticed that there was a discussion and some resolution around youth representation from a democratic governance point of view. Africa is a continent and we need to acknowledge that most of the people in Africa are very youthful and we need to make sure that we include young people in terms of decision making processes, in terms of policy making processes and to that end, it is important that SADC PF and indeed all Southern African Parliaments take specific measures to ensure that there is increased youth participation in all forms of Governments.
We have to see specific strategies when we set specific time limits. We need to see constitution amendments that seek to promote young people to actively participate in governance and leadership in Southern Africa and indeed in the rest of Africa. Our young people are the future of the continent. We must not wait for tomorrow for them to get positions of responsibility in shaping the future of Africa. We must make sure that our policy framework, our legislative framework, our constitutional framework takes such serious matters that ensure that it does not end in rhetoric but we have specific deliverables when it comes to youth in proceedings. Africa is young. It is time to recognise the young people of African in terms of leadership.
I also wanted to repeat the same part with regards to gender equality. As Southern Africa, we have the charter on gender equality and the SADC PF would have - [Technical fault]-
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Molokela, we cannot hear you. I think it is because of your network which is bad.
(v)HON. MOLOKELA-TSIYE: I still believe that the number of elected women in Zimbabwe especially at council level and parliamentary level is still very low bearing in mind that our national constitutional aspiration is talking about 50% gender inclusivity or its gender representation. We still have a long way to go. So I would like to encourage our SADC PF representatives to push to ensure that there are clear guidelines and timelines and also clear strategic deliverables to ensure that in Southern Africa, we have a clear increase in terms of the percentages of women who are especially in positions of political leadership.
I think the fact that you as Madam Speaker, are our Deputy Speaker of Parliament, but how many women in Southern Africa are in such a position? How many women are recognised in business or in the judiciary? How many of them are chief justices or deputy chief justices, mayors of cities and CEOs of companies? So as Zimbabwe and the Southern Africa, we are not doing enough in terms of ensuring that women are given opportunities to lead and there is need for a clear strategy and a clear framework.
If it is necessary, SADC PF representatives must push for a clear adoption in terms of a protocol including women in positions of leadership. It is enough to talk about the need to include women but now we want to go beyond that. We want to see women being promoted. We want to see women getting more opportunities. We want to see Zimbabwe and we want to see other countries achieving 50% gender equality and inclusivity.
I also wanted to talk about funding for health care. It was also mentioned in the report that the participants spoke about the need to move beyond depending on international development partners on donor agencies to fund our healthcare. We do have a commitment in place, not just as Southern Africa but we do have a commitment as Africa. We have the Abuja Declaration of 2001 where as African heads of Governments and African Heads of State, we committed ourselves to fund at least 15% of our national budgets towards public health care.
Unfortunately, 21 years later, we have not lived up to the expectations of the Abuja Declaration and it could have been the starting point for our delegates, our representatives at the SADC PF to say that why is Southern African failing to keep the promise, why are Southern African Governments not fulfilling the expectations of the Abuja Declaration that clearly says and recommends that we should allocate 15% and that 15% comes through the budget process that comes through Parliaments in Southern Africa.
Our Parliaments across Southern Africa, including Zimbabwe, stand accused of failing to ensure that our Ministers of Finance meet the obligations that are expected under the Abuja Declaration. We must not forget that the Abuja Declaration is actually a policy document that is fully recognised and accredited under the African Union. It is not an enclosed document. It is a document that African Member States signed willingly and voluntarily in Abuja including the then Head of State for Zimbabwe, the late Cde. Robert Mugabe. So we need to see to it that all Parliaments in Southern Africa, including the Parliament of Zimbabwe, do not just talk but they must start walking the talk.
We need clear guidelines and clear frameworks. We need ways to enforce that health be funded, that at least 15% be allocated towards healthcare. Our people are suffering. A lot of our people in Southern Africa are failing to access quality healthcare because of lack of funding for healthcare. Zimbabwe, together with most other African countries and Southern African counties, have millions of people who are dying needlessly because of lack of funding for healthcare. We must stop relying on any other funding mechanism that is not African. We must start ensuring that we respect the Abuja Declaration and to that end, I encourage our SADC Parliamentary Forum representatives to make sure that clear timeframes and guidelines, clear obligations are set out to ensure that African Parliamentarians and African Parliaments approve budgets that ensure that there is at least 50% funding towards healthcare. I so move Madam Speaker. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
(v)HON. NDIWENI: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. TEKESHE: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 15th February, 2023.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
HON. MUTAMBISI: I move that the rest of the remaining Orders of the Day be stood over until Order of the Day, Number 25 has been disposed of.
HON. TEKESHE: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
DELEGATION REPORT OF THE BILATERAL VISIT TO INDIA BY A PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION LED BY HON. ADV. JACOB FRANCIS NZWIDAMILIMO MUDENDA SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT
Twenty-Fifth Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Bilateral Visit to India led by Hon. Advocate Jacob Francis Nzwidamilimo Mudenda, Speaker of Parliament from 5th to 12th December, 2022.
Question again proposed.
HON. GEN. RTD. GWANETSA: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am. I rise to add my voice to the report so tabled by Hon. Webster Shamu on the visit to India, led by the Speaker, Hon. Jacob Mudenda. The visit to India is of paramount importance in terms of our posture as Zimbabwe. I am going to look in terms of three, if not four issues of critical importance in relation to Zimbabwe and India.
First of all, I am going to look in terms of the historical synergies between the two countries. Secondly, I will look in terms of the international flare of India, where-from we can also take a leaf and probably implement. Thirdly, look in terms of the Indian industrialisation, which becomes a trajectory and which as Zimbabwe we can as well follow.
Historically, if you remember in the 15th if not 16th Century, the British-East India Company via the Cape of Good Hope went to India. So India is one of the British colonies. Therefore, in that respect, India is one of the prominent countries of the Commonwealth. The Second Republic under His Excellency, Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa, is so profound with the mantra ‘engagement and re-engagement’. Zimbabwe is in the process of finding itself back to the Commonwealth. India being one of those prominent countries, I think we get a leaf from the Indians. So the visit becomes quite important.
India is renowned for having one of the longest serving Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Dr. Hussein Shitter Ramfer. With that at the back of India, I think we can find ourselves back to the Commonwealth and therefore, fulfilling His Excellency in terms of engagement and re-engagement. It is therefore very important that we have friendship; we have communication; we have cooperation with countries of that nature.
Let me look at it in terms of international flare, India is a developing country. It is within the reams of countries within the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Relationship with those developing countries, Zimbabwe is bound to get technological advancement in terms of development. Therefore, the visit at that level led by the Speaker, put bridges that we can emulate from the Indian perspective.
India is one of those countries that have had good relationships or good pronunciations with the United Nations in all peace keeping missions worldwide; India was faring quite well. It became a member of the DPKO (Department of Peace Keeping Operations), deploying its forces in the 11 countries in the Mediterranean, all over the world India has deployed. Therefore, it is a peace loving country - so the relationship between India and Zimbabwe becomes of paramount importance. We learn quite a lot from that and we should take a leaf out of what is taking place in India.
Industrialisation, India is quite a developing country. It is well known, it is an open secret that a lot of our patients, including very high profile people have sought medication in India. Even if you check within our pharmacies, a lot of medicinal brands are also from India. Therefore, that synergic approach; that industrialisation, if it gets back to our place, if we can tap from the Indian source, it becomes of importance to us.
Another very important mantra by His Excellency is ‘ease of making business’. India is one country that has got a population of over a billion. By so doing, we are saying there is a readily available market and all this comes through industrialization. There is a lot of good agricultural practice in India. So, we find ourselves benefiting from that relationship with India. These are some of the visits which Parliament of Zimbabwe has to make do because there are so many derivatives that we get out of such visits, unlike other visits that can be taken, probably as tourism. Here, I am saying we derive a lot in terms of our trajectory, industrialisation, engagement, what we perceive and what we take in terms of our developmental prospects.
We are also saying with a billion people, it is a readily available market where we can actually have our produce, articles and whatever it is. It becomes a good trading partner. The visit was an eye opener. Visits of that nature should bear fruits where we engage with their industries and probably tap out of them the technology, opening up pharmacies, agricultural industry, et cetera. Therefore, this visit led by the Hon. Speaker was very important.
In conclusion, the delegation expresses its gratitude to the Parliament of Zimbabwe and the Government for affording the opportunity to undertake this high level bi-lateral exchange visit. In order to give credence to this visit, the delegation calls for the Parliament of Zimbabwe, through the Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, to ensure the implementation of recommendations, particularly in regards to the sustained mutually beneficial relations between India and Zimbabwe. I thank you.
HON. MUTAMBISI: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. TEKESHE: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 15th February, 2023.
On the motion of HON. MUTAMBISI, seconded by HON. TEKESHE, the House adjourned at Nine Minutes past Five o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Thursday, 9th February, 2023
Parliament met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE HON. SPEAKER
PUNCTUALITY DURING SITTINGS
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order. The two Hon. Members on my right side at the door there, I have said order! This is your House, your august House for that matter. Next time we expect all Hon. Members to be in the House by 2 o’clock p.m. If you come after prayers, you will be locked outside. Even if you have been around the premises, you will not get any allowance, even the coupons – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Yes, you have to be serious – [AN HON. MEMBER: Inaudible interjection.] – Hon. Chikwinya you were saying something.
HON. CHIKWINYA: I was saying, let us lock ourselves inside, including all of us. No one will leave the House. -[Laughter.] -
THE HON. SPEAKER: I have a request for statements on matters of national interest, two minutes each. The first one is Hon. Madzimure.
*HON. MADZIMURE: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Anything that happens in Harare affects the whole nation and many citizens will start doing the same. There is Cameroon Road that starts from town to Magaba, to Mbare Market. This road is used by many travellers. There is also Remembrance Drive, which is also mostly used when ferrying fallen Heroes. This road has been closed for almost five months.
*THE HON. SPEAKER: What happened to the road?
*HON. MADZIMURE: It has been closed - right now when you want to go to Magaba in Mbare, you find policemen at Stoddard. Also, just after fly-over when you proceed at the intersection between Cripps and Cameroon Roads, you will find police-men there. It is now five months after closure of Mupedzanhamo Market but this place is still manned by police. Teargas is thrown almost every day, serve for maybe two days a week that is Saturday and Sunday. This is not being done by council - it is the police. If you ask them who gave them authority to be there, there is no answer. There are a lot of people that stay at Magaba Hostels who are inhaling that teargas because of these activities and it is a danger to their health. This market creates informal employment for indigenous people, a lot of people have survived through selling at Mupedzanhamo. We are appealing that the Minister of Local Government would come and explain to the House why Mupedzanhamo Flea Market is guarded by police for five months now.
This is now a difficult place to reach because there will be teargas on a daily basis. So I wanted the Minister of Local Government to come and explain so that people around that place live freely, including those who sell bales. I thank you Hon. Speaker.
*THE HON. SPEAKER: The road was closed by the police right? Yesterday we had the Minister of Home Affairs in this august House, why is it that you did not ask him about this? You should have asked the Minister.
*HON. MADZIMURE: Thank you Hon. Speaker, I am appealing that the Hon. Minister of Home Affairs answers this question. Yesterday my name was on the list of speakers but I was not given the chance to ask. This matter is affecting a lot of people.
*THE HON. SPEAKER: If this matter is affecting a lot of people, you should have told your Chief Whip to put your name on the top – [AN HON. MEMBER: Vanowandirwa.] -
THE HON. SPEAKER: Dai paishandiswa unparliamentary language ndaiti ‘ibvai’.
HON. CHIKOMBO: On a matter of national importance Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: What is your matter of national importance?
HON. CHIKOMBA: My matter of national importance is to do with the meeting that took place on 2nd February between the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and His Excellency the President pertaining to the submission of the final report. This is in line with Section 239 and Section 161 of the Constitution.
THE HON. SPEAKER: In line with what?
HON. CHIKOMBO: Section 239 which gives mandate to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission on delimitation and Section 161. My issue is that post that meeting, we had varied statements that were uttered by Government functionaries which includes Mr. Mangwana and Mr. George Charamba claiming that the report that was given to the President is not final. Those statements that were uttered have caused a lot of polarization, disharmony and anxiety across the country. I would want the Justice Minister to come through to elaborate to the House what the correct position is pertaining to that.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you very much for what you said but musateerere nyaya yemuma newspaper kana social media. Dai makabvunza nezuro kuna Acting Leader of Government Business kuti muwane tsananguro yakanaka. Do not go by newspaper reports or social media reports.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: On a point of order Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: What is your point of order? Are you clarifying my ruling?
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: I am seeking clarification on your ruling - on whether to rely on media, social media or something of that sort.
THE HON. SPEAKER: So you want to seek clarification on my ruling?
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Indeed, Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: That is not allowed Hon. Member – [AN HON. MEMBER: He is challenging.] –
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: I am not challenging you Hon. Speaker, I just want to be...
THE HON. SPEAKER: No, let me help you.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Help me Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Section 161 is very clear in terms of the processes. The report is tabled here in the House in Parliament, we scrutinize it and make our observations. We then submit to the Head of State and Government in terms of Section 161. Within the specified 14 days, the Head of State must submit to ZEC, which was done. After that ZEC will start on whatever contributions or analysis that were done by the relevant stakeholders. They will look at them, make adjustment where it is possible and send those adjustments in a report to His Excellency. Within 14 days, the President must gazette. What ZEC has said and done in that report is final. So why do you want to listen to people who talk from the side shows – [AN HON. MEMBER: Including Justice.] – It does not matter, you must follow the Constitution.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Thank you Hon. Speaker for that explanation, however it did not extend to the issues that I sought your clarification. It is clear in terms of the processes that have to be done. However, the people that issued these statements are not ordinary citizens of this country. You are talking of a Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet and the Permanent Secretary in the Minister of Communication.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order Hon. Member, you are a learned friend, just follow the Constitution - that is all. Do now worry about people who speak outside the Constitution.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: It is alright Hon. Speaker, I am sure the whole country is listening that they should not worry about these other commentators. What is happening Members on my right? No issue of national interest?
HON. WATSON: Thank you Hon. Speaker for this opportunity. With all due respect to yourself and the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, the discussion yesterday was around Government’s school fees. I have raised in this House on several occasions…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order. There is some muffling here in my computer, can you start again.
HON. WATSON: With all due respect to yourself and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, I have raised in this House on several occasions the issue of school development levy which is one of the additional costs to parents in terms of the cost of educating their children. The SI still dates back to 1998. I have asked twice when the Ministry will update that piece of legislation and the previous Minister showed me it was in hand, but nothing has happened as yet and in that SI, it clearly states school development levy may not be more than 50% of Government school fees. School development levies are now considerably more than that and are a huge burden on parents who are educating their children in Zimbabwe. So, whilst we may talk about free education, if we do not discuss the issue of school development levies and its cost to parents, we are not talking about real issues. I would like a statement from the Minister. I thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: This refers mainly to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
HON. WATSON: Yes, Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: That seems to have been a very burning question. Why did you not raise this yesterday, the Minister was available here?
HON. WATSON: That is why in the beginning I said with all due respect to yourself, I tried. I wanted to raise it as a point of order but there was so much disorder, I was not given the opportunity. Thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: There was some disorder?
HON. WATSON: No, Hon. Speaker, I am not blaming you. I am actually blaming my colleagues.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Okay, I see. Tell you what Hon. Member, I also hear that there are some schools that are asking students or learners to pay some money towards the transport of teachers. The question is much broader than that. There are so many little payments that are being demanded and I suggest that perhaps you put this into a written question and see what the Hon. Minister will say about that.
HON. WHATSON: I stand guided Hon. Speaker. Thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Any matter of national interest on my right? There is nothing –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- You know why I get concerned, in our culture kana uine barika unofanira kuyenzanisa. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-
*HON. CHIKUKWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. The issue of national importance I want to raise pertains to our national army, particularly the chaplains who bury our heroes. My request is that our soldiers should be given houses so that they do not lodge because you will find them renting houses from people who abuse them verbally. It is my desire to see our chaplains living in decent accommodation.
The reason I mentioned chaplains is because they play a critical role in burying our service personnel especially in different provinces where they conduct so many burials on a daily basis coming back late at night sometimes leaving early which might not augur well with their landlords who might have set times for arriving home.
I believe that if they are given company houses, then they can discharge their duties with fortitude and without any hindrances. That is my request Mr. Speaker Sir which I believe should be addressed by the Government of Zimbabwe.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you Hon. Chikukwa. We have heard what you have said.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: VaChamisa vachagadzirisa.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Sibanda, I do not expect that from a learned friend.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: I apologise Mr. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: We will take it up with the Minister of Defence and War Veterans so that they look into the issue.
HON. CHIKUKWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
HON. NYATHI: Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that Orders of the Day, Numbers 1 to 4 on today’s Order Paper be stood over until the rest of the Orders of the Day have been disposed of.
HON. MUTSEYAMI: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
Fifth Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order this little corner here!
*HON. CHITURA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I want to thank President E. D. Mnangagwa for the State of the Nation Address (SONA). I also appreciate the President’s initiatives of programmes like Pfumvudza, which saw farmers receiving their inputs early and they did a good job in farming. Even the Zunde raMambo Programme, this is also going to benefit many people. I also want to thank his initiatives because this is really benefiting people even in urban areas, from Bulawayo to Mutare, from Harare to Beitbridge, we have good roads now. This is a big job which he is doing. The building of schools, national security and food security in schools, also the BEAM Programme, many children are going to school now. The poor who cannot afford to pay school fees are now happy because their children are going to school.
Our President is even refurbishing airports so that there is smooth flow of traffic of airplanes from Victoria Falls to different cities. Even in Manicaland, we request for an airport in Mutare. This is going to benefit tourists who will be on their way to Victoria Falls. Our President is a patient person and he is a unifier. During COVID-19, he did a good job in urging people to get vaccinated and be protected against COVID-19. We also thank him for the good job that he is doing regarding peace in the domestic environment.
Furthermore, we also urge different parties to emulate President E. D. Mnangagwa so that they might migrate from other parties because our President is a good person. I appreciate the President for the good job that he is doing in urging people to unite. During his SONA presentation he spoke about love forgiveness. He does not keep grudges, even against those who denigrate him. So there is no one like our President. We say, let us continue with our good President and let us not look for another one. I thank you.
*HON. DZUMA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I stand here to support the motion on the President’s Speech on the State of the Nation Address that was raised by Hon. Togarepi, seconded by Hon. Kwaramba. I support the President of this country; our father, His Excellency, Cde. Mnangagwa. He is doing a very great job in all the 10 provinces of this country, be it in agriculture or other sectors. Nobody would have imagined that Pfumvudza would retain moisture and lead to a very good crop yield. This country has earned a lot of money, courtesy of the Pfumvudza Programme, which he launched. We want to appreciate the great work being championed by the President, which ensures that our professionals would not leave the country looking for greener pastures. So, at the end, we would get better grades in schools.
I believe that the world over, we do not have a beautifully built Parliament building like the one that we were shown at Mount Hampden yesterday. We also have a beautiful airport, the Robert Gabriel Mugabe airport. No other country has such a beautiful airport like the one that is being championed by His Excellency President Mnangagwa. Even the world over, there is no country with united Members of Parliament like we have here between the ruling party and the opposition. Most of us have agreed, even when it comes to the monies that we receive, we all benefit regardless of the party. Many people in the country are now longing to go for elections simply because His Excellency is doing a wonderful job, especially where I come from in Manicaland; we have fruits of the works of His Excellency. We now have Marovanyati Dam and we also have lithium that we are finding very important. This is all because of the leadership of the President. If there was chaos and war in this country, we would not be accessing all these beautiful minerals. So I really want to applaud the leadership of President Mnangagwa. I wish his age would be reduced to 18 or 19 years so that he would continue leading us to where he wishes to take us. I do not have much more words, except to appreciate the God given gift that we have in the form of His Excellency, President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa. With those few words, I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
+HON. NHOWEDZA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Allow me to reiterate what the Hon. President has said before. The country is built by its owners. I come from Bulawayo, which is found in Matabeleland. For a long time, Matabeleland did not manage to have development. As at present, because of the New Dispensation and Second Republic, I would like to thank the President for what he has done for Matabeleland and Zimbabwe as a whole.
Hon. Speaker Sir, I would want to talk about the Gwayi Dam. Gwayi Dam has taken a long time to come to fruition. Right now we are happy because we can see the development that is there. The putting in place of this dam will help us a lot, particularly in Matabeleland. It will assist people in Tsholotsho, Lupane, Nyamandlovu, et cetera to be able to irrigate their land.
I would also want to look at Hwange Thermal Power Station and its expansion. It did not only bring electricity but generated employment for our people. We commend the President for that. Electricity is a backbone to our economy. Our industries will work well. I will reiterate to say, the President always says let us build our country brick by brick, stone upon stone. Let me commend the President for that. I am using his totem to commend him. I thank you.
HON. DR. MAVETERA: Thank you very much Hon. Speaker Sir, for the opportunity you have given me to also speak about the State of the Nation address. I would like to thank His Excellency, Dr. E.D. Mnangagwa for coming through and concluding on the last session of this Parliament. Indeed, it is quite prudent and everyone knows that we had a lot of Bills and we have got others which are still outstanding.
Hon. Speaker Sir, let me speak about some of the Bills that His Excellency said were quite pending and there was need for us to conclude them. Some of the Bills include the Fisheries and Aquaculture Bill, which I think is new and is for this session. Hon. Speaker Sir, fishing has become a very good business in Zimbabwe. As I stand here, being the Chairperson of the Youth Caucus, we feel that there is great need for us to find a way that we can do so that at least we have more youths benefiting, especially from the fishery projects.
We also believe that there is a lot of opportunity which is there considering that right now as a country, it is not a secret that drugs have become a scare. You will realise that there is a lot of drug abuse. You will see “vana vachiputa dombo, guka nekunwa mutoriro ne kambwa.” These are different names that are given to these drugs. Hon. Speaker Sir, what I really want to say is there is an opportunity. We have got a Bill that is coming through, which has got to do with fisheries and aquaculture. There is need for us to find a way that will make youths be able to occupy their minds with, doing self-help projects. The problem that we are having right now is that when they become idle, they probably think, “kuputa mutoriro ndokunobuda.” Hon. Speaker Sir, I am looking forward to this Bill to say we need to conclude it in this session so that at least we find a way that will also be able to incorporate young people and women.
Hon. Speaker Sir, there is also the issue of the Youth Bill. We have talked about it a lot of times. Now, when we ask the Hon. Minister Kirsty Coventry, she said we are now on the Youth Bill. My humble submission would be for us to conclude on the Youth Bill. It is not a secret that right now we have no legislation which is pro young people. We just have something which is not enforceable. What we need is something which is enforceable, which will be able to make sure that each and every Ministry will be able to look at the youth agenda.
Hon. Speaker Sir, let me congratulate ourselves as a Parliament that for the first time since 1980, we now have got a Youth Caucus in this Parliament. It will also be able to enhance youth participation and also be able to make sure that we have got more issues concerning the young people also coming on board. If we look at all the people who are here, they have got a certain daughter or son who is a youth, especially in this House. It is very surprising because you realise that a lot of these people do not even speak about the youths in this august House. It seems like nyaya dzema youths muno dzinototyisa kutaura. Ngaandiudze mumwechete akataura nezvema youths asimuke ataure. – [HON. BITI: Inaudible interjection.] – Mr. Speaker Sir, we are not talking about children, we are talking about youths. To be honest with you, the issue of the youths in this august House – I do not know. Maybe one day, you need to whip some of these Hon. Members so that they speak about youth issues in this august House. All of them have children that they are supposed to make sure they represent when they come here. Hon. Speaker Sir, I believe one of our major roles as Parliament is to represent. It is very surprising that you realise that youth issues are not spoken about, especially in this august House.
Hon. Speaker Sir, the other Bill which was talked about was the Witness Protection Bill. The reason why you see we are going back and forth when it comes to issues of corruption is because witnesses are not being protected. Today we have got an issue which is there. When the witness goes into court, they will send a lot of people there and threatening them. This is why you find that nyaya hakusisina kana kuti nyaya iya pakashaikwa evidence. The evidence will be there but the problem is that people are not being protected. When you want to go to the courts, no-one will protect you. You leave your family just because you want to report someone who will have stolen and you end up coming across so many things.
So I am very happy that His Excellency, President Mnangagwa is very clear about corruption. He says no to corruption and because of that, we also need for us as legislators to make sure that we have legislation which is there to make sure that we curb corruption. I am also part of the anti-APNAC which is another movement within this Parliament that makes sure that it talks about anti-corruption. The issue of witness protection is very important. We had a conversation with Justice Matanda-Moyo whereby she was saying that it is quite important that we conclude on this. If we are not going to be talking about us protecting witnesses, then there is no way we can speak of us saying that there is something we are doing towards corruption but in that way, at least it can go a long way.
His Excellency talked about us concluding before the end of his year making sure that we have got Hwange Unit 7 which is going to be also commissioned. On the issue of ZESA, I was at a meeting this past weekend. I am also a farmer and I realised that a lot of farmers are saying that now the inconsistent power cuts which are coming through makes them not be able to plan and because of that they sometimes run generators. At that meeting that I had, it was a meeting for Mr. Gwanzura who is a very prominent farmer but the challenge that he was saying in Seke that he thought was supposed to happen was for us to at least know the times that this electricity goes. There is need for some way that should happen so that we can plan and we do not have a lot of these power cuts especially now when we are reaping tobacco.
We are saying that we are happy that the President mentioned about this and we are happy that there are efforts which are being made to make sure that something is going to be done in terms of electricity. I still continue saying we are calling upon the Hon. Minister of Energy and Power Development, Hon. Soda to continue finding ways. I also need to be grateful and say I heard that there are a lot of transformers which came last week. We want to thank the Government because at least they are seeing that there is need for us to get more transformers so that people can also be able to access this electricity. That way it can also go a long way.
The other issue which was raised was the issue of Chimurenga Chepfungwa which was competence based curriculum which the President mentioned about. We are happy with this move. I continue saying Chimurenga Chepfungwa chakanaka. We are thankful and happy about it. Where I come from in Seke and Chikomba, we are just hoping that we will be able to at least have books coming through. We need to come and have a budget because you realise that when it comes to that examination for ZIMSEC, the examination is the same. It is not because you come from the rural areas or in urban centres but it is the same. *Hon. Speaker Sir, let me now speak in Shona so that I do not keep changing the language. With regards to ideas, we need to address all our children as one but we have to agree that our views may differ. So what it means is, the availability of resources differs but we need to look for funds through the budget in this august House to support the competence based curriculum that was alluded to by the President in the State of the Nation Address so that books can be secured and delivered to learners in the rural areas to enable them to learn and be able to be at the same level with other children.
Right now Hon. Muswere is talking about computers and the G7 pupils are sitting for examinations on ICT yet some of them may not have come across a computer. My request is; this education revolution should ensure that computers and books are availed, particularly in the rural areas. The President also spoke about lithium with regards to mining and he also referred to RADO as some of the most productive gold producers at the moment. With regards to lithium the President is saying ‘leaving no one and no place behind’, which means everyone should get access to lithium. Recently a law was passed to ban the export of unprocessed lithium but my request is, the machinery to process lithium is very expensive yet for some of us as the youth, it had come as a very good opportunity for us to get financial benefits.
So in this regard, I wish the laws and regulations would consider the women and youth so that they are able to benefit. Laws have always been amended and they should not be prohibitive. Women and youth should be able to benefit from this lithium. I also would like to applaud the efforts being done by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement. I understand they are training youth so that they can give them those permits and access to land through the mantra ‘nyika inovakwa nevene vayo’ which means everyone has a role to play in the country.
I would like to applaud the President at this moment for availing tractors to us from Belarus as well as irrigation equipment. I know there are some forums where you sit together. Please send our appreciation for the agricultural equipment. Everyone has access to that equipment including you Hon. Biti. So let us all support President Mnangagwa. I thank you.
*HON. CHIKOMBO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. May I take this opportunity to add my voice to this motion debating on the Address by His Excellency the President a few days ago. There is not much in-depth in the State of the Nation Address (SONA). I am saying this particularly looking at the erratic water supply in Zimbabwe especially in our big cities.
In an issue that was addressed by His Excellency, there was no clear solution on how water challenges were going to be solved especially in Harare. When you consider the Morton Jeffrey Water Works that was built in 1952, the residents of the city in 1952 were around two to three hundred thousand but over the years, there has been rural to urban migration that has resulted in the city growing from three hundred thousand to three million and the water source remains the same. This has resulted in water borne diseases like cholera but Government continues to announce that they have a solution to eradicate water challenges.
Currently, the challenge is that you find diseases like typhoid and cholera. In Glen Norah, Glenview and Budiriro in 2007/08, a lot of people were affected by these diseases. However, in the explanation that was given by His Excellency the President, there was no clear solution regarding the water shortages. I will be very happy if His Excellency appreciated the importance of the Kunzvi Dam and other dams like Mtshabezi so that they will be able to supply enough water to people.
The second issue pertains to roads. Our road infrastructure is not good enough, but the explanation that must be understood is that our roads are in a bad state and this is affecting even motorists. His Excellency the President has not addressed the issue on how ZINARA should act regarding the collection of money that should be collected by local authorities so that they fix urban roads. Some local authorities are allocated a lot of money, where are those huge amounts coming from.
For example, in the City of Harare; you will find that they do not receive much money from ZINARA. Harare has a lot of cars and it is important to look at the volume of traffic in Harare, Chinhoyi and other cities so that our roads are in a good state. It causes a lot of problems when roads are in a bad state including would-be investors who assess the state of roads. We need to assess the type and condition of roads. For example, when you want to open a business you need to consider the time that you are going to take accessing the Central Business District (CBD), going to the airport and to other different areas. This will affect our industry if it is not solved. So, the issue of roads should be looked into. This also was not addressed in the State of the Nation Address.
The election and democracy issue is a contentious issue in Zimbabwe. At times, you will find that there are contentions after elections. We know that elections are competitions where there should be a clear winner. The loser should concede defeat and congratulate the winner. You will find that what was presented by His Excellency during SONA did not address how future elections are going to deal with such issues. Remember Hon. Speaker, when we were deliberating on issues, we also deliberated on the role of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) through Sections 39 and 61 of the Constitution.
Looking at the issue, you will find that there are some who interfere with the operations of ZEC. What should be done? If we do not address this, then we will not have free and fair elections. What is His Excellency doing regarding this issue? At the moment, you will find that people do not know whether elections will be free and fair. So, it is important to note that His Excellency the President explains that elections are not war or antagonism – they should unite people.
The last issue is that of corruption. Corruption is now rife in the country. Those who are caught are the small fish, matemba and the big fish, the breams are never arrested because they are under protection of the courts. So, what should be done? His Excellency the President did not explain what he is going to do and the steps that are going to be taken so that those who commit crimes of corruption are prosecuted. You will find that those who will have committed petty crimes are detained and sometimes prosecuted, and those with major issues are not prosecuted. Then what kind of a country will it be when law is applied selectively? The law should not be applied selectively. I thank you.
(v)*HON. GOZHO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to this debate. Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to first address the issue of the Harare to Beitbridge Road that was recently refurbished. Mr. Speaker Sir, I think His Excellency the President was supposed to indicate when and how roads that link the rural areas to towns are going to be fixed. I believe that since independence, the opposition has never been in power but the roads are in a bad state and this is affecting motorists in rural areas.
I also want to talk about farming or agriculture which was raised by His Excellency, the President. Mr. Speaker Sir, the country has no industries; where we farm is where we get our sustenance. This is where we get money for lobola and money for taking our children to school. So, I was thinking that when people farm on their land and sell their crops, they are supposed to be paid immediately. His Excellency was supposed to clarify how farmers are going to be paid after selling their produce. This is an issue which affects us as farmers.
I want to touch on health issues. His Excellency did not really address the cancer disease which is affecting a lot of people and which has taken a lot of lives world over. He did not mention how women and other people are going to be helped in that regard. I thank you.
(v)HON. MIRANZI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I want to talk about a number of issues which were addressed by His Excellency regarding Pfumvudza. Pfumvudza is a programme which is very good and it is the President’s initiative meant to help a lot of Zimbabweans in different communities. However, it is painful to note that in the rural areas, even when they till their land, whatever they are farming is not compensated. They farm but their produce is not being paid for in time. So, my plea is that His Excellency should ensure that our farmers are given inputs in time and whatever they plant should be paid for when they sell. Right now, farmers have not yet been paid for their produce and we are facing a new season. Our farmers are really concerned but what I know is that a lot of our people survive from crops like cotton and other crops, so you would find some of them are no longer producing the same produce that they used to do because of poor payments.
We have a number of good roads which were rehabilitated but we have roads in our towns that are in bad shape; those in the rural areas are in a better state. You would find that they are a lot of contracts which are given to companies to fix roads in towns. However, after six or so months, the conditions of the road will be worse despite that there was funding for such roads to be rehabilitated. The contractors who are given these jobs are not doing a good job; some of them are misusing these funds. I thank you.
(v)HON. ZEMURA: Thank you Hon. Speaker Sir. I want to appreciate the State of the Nation Address. We appreciate the explanations that were given particularly what was said throughout the State of the Nation Address is what is happening in our nation.
When coming to Zimbabwe by road, the roads are now good especially when driving at night, there are now reflectors along the road. Such good road infrastructure markets our country. Plumtree-Mutare to the border post, the road was done very well. The Harare-Bulawayo, Hwange-Victoria Falls, of course there are potholes here and there but it is evident that the road is being resurfaced now and again.
I would also want to appreciate the road which links us to South Africa. The Harare-Beitbridge road used to be just a strip road but now it has become a very wide and good road catering for all types of vehicles. The road was excellently refurbished. A lot of roads are being rehabilitated at the moment and we applaud the Government for such good works.
I also want to talk about dams. There are a lot of dams which have brought about irrigation schemes and development. In Lupane, the Gwayi-Shangani Dam shows that it is going to cover a lot of dry areas. There are other dams which are found in Mashonaland East which were constructed and this has resulted in a number of new irrigation schemes. Some people thought irrigation was only for commercial farms but now you find that even in communal areas, there are irrigation schemes. We appreciate even the chemicals which are used to treat water. We thank our President and we appreciate that there is food security. We appreciate that in rural areas, the Pfumvudza Programme is eliminating poverty because there is no one who begs for grain from others. No one asks for food from others except those who are lazy and do not want to work. The agronomists and extension workers are teaching communal farmers on how to farm and a lot of people are busy farming. We thank the President for having the vision to look at those who live in rural areas who were facing food challenges.
We are thankful for the good rains. God favoured us by giving us plenty of rains this season, coupled with fertilizers, inputs and seed that we received from the President. We also appreciate that there was wheat shortage in the past but this year we have enough wheat. We are going to get bread throughout the year. We thank the President who urged wheat farmers to work hard. As Zimbabweans, we must work hard so that we do not have to oppose each other and to oppose good initiatives. There is food in the country and if you are lazy, we are going to sell the excess food to you. These are the issues which were addressed in the State of the Nation Address by the President so that everyone is taken on board and not left behind.
With regards to Pfumvudza Programme and how people farm their land, we must not criticise this noble idea. The President spoke about the importance of farming. We have seen tractors, combine harvesters and other machines being imported into Zimbabwe. It is important that tractors farm properly and different machines are used in farms instead of being parked in Chitungwiza in the backyard. Tractors should go to the farms and combine harvesters should be used properly. Agriculture is quite crucial. A lot of people are farming tobacco and people are interested in working hard and generating their own income. Let us not just talk but let us work hard and produce crops such as tobacco, wheat, maize and others. I would like to thank His Excellency, the President for urging us to work hard. He should continue bringing other machines but you find some people just barking.
*HON. MADZIMURE: Order Hon. Speaker, the Hon Member said some people are just barking. Barking is done by dogs and the Hon. Member should respect the people of Zimbabwe. The Hon. Member is implying that human beings are barking.
*HON. ZEMURA: Mr. Speaker Sir, I withdraw my words. People are farming whilst some are busy talking yet some are farming different crops which are improving their livelihoods. I thank our President for urging people to farm. We lost a lot of cattle and I know that the President has noted that things are not in good order because there is January disease which has affected our cattle herd. His Excellency should look at places in rural and communal areas so that tractors are deployed in those areas in order to benefit farmers in these areas.
I want to thank the President for availing tick grease to communities because ticks are affecting our livestock. We need to protect the few cattle which are there. I would also request for artificial insemination for the few cattle that we have so that we are able to boost our herd.
Lastly, I would like to appreciate the President for coining the mantra that no one should be left behind. There were a lot of projects that were availed to the people of Zimbabwe. In my community, we were doing poultry projects which are meant to better the lives of the people. The President is concerned about our welfare and I want to appreciate that. I believe what I have said has been heard. I thank you.
*HON. CHIBAGU: Since 1980, we have been working and there was no production in Mbire District. People were saying that we are not productive. We appreciate that our President is doing a good job. What he has done for our community is amazing and even for the whole of Zimbabwe, things are in order. You will find that in Bakasa-Mbire area, the President sunk a lot of boreholes. We used to fetch water from the mountains but now I appreciate that our President is working very hard. He does not discriminate anyone. He does not want to leave anyone behind. Everyone is considered to be Zimbabwean.
As I am speaking, there are a lot of irrigation schemes in Mbire. If you go to Mbire, you will discover that we have a good crop this season. People were saying we are the Doma, Bushmen or Hottentots; people say a lot of things, the situation is kumatodyachipi kufa ndiMwari. My plea is that as this august House, we need to follow the President’s example. He is a loving President, he does not choose anyone. So, you would find people are just complaining but as I am speaking, my desire is that let us be development minded. Going to Mavuradonha, you will find that there are a lot of boreholes in Kanyemba, in Mozambique, in the border areas we have abundant water. Even people who are denigrated as the Bushmen, you discover that they are enjoying the benefit of the good initiatives.
Mr. Speaker, as I am speaking, if it was possible to carry an old person like a baby I would carry His Excellency President Mnanagwa on my back because he is doing a very good job, working very hard and supporting every Zimbabwean. So what would you want? You find young people taking mutoriro, they are destroying themselves but we need to work very hard, we need to farm our land. You hear people like Kanyemba-Bhonzo who broadcast at ZBC, he comes from our area Kanyemba and this is a very good thing. In this august House, there is need for us to value development, emulating His Excellency. I will not say much but my plea is that as Zimbabweans, let us work hard and develop our nation. I thank you.
HON. CHIKWINYA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Yes, what is your point of order?
HON. CHIKWINYA: May the Hon. Member assist us with matodyachipi kufa ndiMwari, what it means in English so that Hansard Reporters can capture this properly. May the Hon. Member assist Hansard Reporters by translating that into English?
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Member, may you take your seat.
*HON. MADZIMURE: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to say a few words regarding the speech which was presented by His Excellency President Mnangagwa regarding the state of affairs in Zimbabwe. I was listening when my fellow Members were debating. What is evident is that our poverty is deepening because the Members of this august House continuously repeat about the goodness of one thing. So, it becomes clear that a peaceful country is seen by the state of its economy, the exchange rate. If you want to understand the difficulties that are faced by people in a country you just go to their money markets. The money markets demonstrate the state of affairs of any nation.
The Second Republic which we allude to means that we are running away from where we came from. Where we came from was bad and it is as if the New Dispensation is a new thing, there was no Zimbabwe; it is just starting now because where we are coming from cannot be explained.
I want to go back to my first point that the state of a nation is evident through its economy. When the New Dispensation came we had a strong economy. The US dollar was 1:1 with the local currency. Mr. Speaker, the current President even spoke about it. He was saying that US dollar is at par with the local currency, the Zimbabwe Bond then. What happened is that a lot of people lost their monies when it was alleged to be 1:1. Previous speakers spoke about inflation and when inflation rises, it means that there is no peace in a nation and the state of the economy is not alright. Zimbabwe has the highest inflation but His Excellency at one point was saying that the local Bond was stronger than the Pula but the Pula has maintained its position. No-one wants to talk about the Bond because no-one wants to know the percentage of the inflation of the Bond.
Mr. Speaker Sir, when you look at the Bond at the moment...
HON. R. NYATHI: On a point of order Mr. Speaker. I want Hon. Madzimure to withdraw his statement because Zimbabwe does not use any Bond, it uses the Zimbabwean dollar.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Madzimure, may you take the floor.
*HON. MADZIMURE: Thank you Mr. Speaker for showing the the Shurugwi North Member of Parliament that the Bond Note is the local currency. Hon. Speaker, I was alluding to the fact that comparing local currency to SADC - however, if the Hon. Member wants me to play the recording of the statement that was given by His Excellency, I have it in my phone, I can play it. He spoke about the currency clarifying then that it was stronger than other currencies in the region. When you look at the period when he spoke about the currency then in Zambia, there was His Excellency, President Edgar Lungu but as I am speaking the Zambian currency is now stronger and performing better than other currencies in the region. When the current President was sworn in, 230 000 Kwacha was around US$10 000 but now it is equivalent to about US$15 000. That currency is strong and because of its strength, it encourages business investors to come and invest because they are aware that if they bank their money they will get interest. So, it is important to know how money gains interest when it is in the bank. In Zimbabwe however, when you bank your money it will depreciate instead of gaining interest like in other countries. This is good for people who take loans knowing that their money will gain interest; it will be good for their businesses. In Zimbabwe at the moment, things are not like that. Importing something from Poland, it will land with a cheaper price than the same goods manufactured in Zimbabwe. You will find that when you manufacture goods in Zimbabwe you stand to lose a lot. I expected that to be alluded to in the SONA and His Excellency was supposed to address the issue and after the address then explain how the industry was supposed to respond to this situation.
Interest rates are exorbitant on producers and manufacturers. Then there are overheads like rates, electricity and alternative forms of energy such as diesel and for someone like myself who manufactures foam rubber, you need five chemicals and you add water but before adding water there might be a power cut or surge or load shedding which will affect the production cycle or even the product being manufactured. Even when you connect the generator you will still lose a number of seconds and at times the machinery will have lost its memory. Then you will need two days to clean that chemical because it will not have been done properly. How then can you compete with manufacturers who are outside the country? Now, for you to have new machinery, it is expensive to get money from the money market and you do not have the money anyway. When you apply for money you may get it the following year, which is counterproductive.
If we look at farming, we cannot talk about the Pfumvudza Programme yet we had embarked on farm mechanization which started during the era of the former RBZ Governor Gideon Gono. This was done because we wanted to increase the yield. You cannot increase the yield when you are using your hands to do conservation farming. There is no mutsakwanyi because all the trees have been cut. I farm in my rural area and I was called to receive my inputs for the farming season but I only got 2kg maize seed yet on the register I am said to also have received a bag of Compound D and a bag of top dressing, which I did not get. We are told in this august House that people were given inputs and all the wards benefitted. The local village heads benefitted from Pfumvunza yet the ordinary people used their own money for inputs and we do not want to lie about it. We cannot say that they benefitted.
How many people do we know who have taken people’s monies or even some politicians who have taken money from COTTCO and other companies? This is not true. Pfumvudza is not good even for our elderly. These are issues that made us go to war. We need to think about mechanizing for the benefit of the elderly, pensioners and others. When there are incessant rains, the Pfumvudza Programme is not sustainable as the ground is water-logged and the small holes dug by communal farmers cannot sustain that much rain. Can productivity and crop yield be expected to grow through Pfumvudza? No, it is not possible, and now you find companies like Sable Chemicals closing. How can you produce fertilizer at a cheaper rate? We are saying Zimbabwe should retain its bread-basket status but we need to use modern technology and not what we are doing. We are deceiving the people.
Regarding dams, these should have irrigation schemes which will benefit communities. However, we are not doing that and most of the dams do not have any plans regarding irrigation equipment and other income generating projects. The Tokwe-Mukorsi Dam for example, has no master plan. We are just wasting water. The Gwayi-Shangani Dam was supposed to have been providing water to Bulawayo by November, 2022. Progress is only evident in Cowdry Park yet all the way to Gwayi there is no progress and no pipes have been taken there. We have been working on that dam for so many years and some people have forgotten that the dam is not a new project brought about by the new dispensation. It is a project that was started during the late President Mugabe’s era.
I would like to also speak about electricity – it is important that there is electricity in industries. The Hwange Unit 7 was supposed to be completed last year and starts with a line at Manhize. Manhize has a lot of steel but no one can explain who owns this company and how Zimbabweans are going to benefit from that and for the people of Chivhu, how value addition is going to be done. When you go to Iran where they mine steel, the town has a lot of steel and local people are benefiting but here in Zimbabwe, we take all our raw steel to China then we consume finished products from China. That is not production.
On education, when looking at the 28% pass rate, this is not ideal and people are deceiving themselves. On the list of 100 best performing schools, there are only three schools which excelled in Matabeleland. What are we doing? We were supposed to set targets for our education. For example, in Matabeleland, what pass rate is expected – you can build NUST....
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): Hon. Madzimure, you have five more minutes to go.
*HON. MADZIMURE: Thank you Mr. Speaker. It is not an accident that the intake of NUST is dominated by people from other provinces; it starts from the low pass rate in that area. How can they be enrolled at NUST with two or three points? This starts at O level. The pass rate in Matabeleland is not pleasing and there is no plan to remedy that as far as SONA is concerned. I do not think those who advise the President told him about the state of affairs. You can build Gwanda Polytechnic but you will find that the lecturers and students who are dominating are from other provinces. Those from Matabeleland are not found in these colleges because we are not looking at their education. These are the issues that I believe where supposed to be addressed.
We have students who are attending lessons under a tree. We still have four to five teachers who live in the same house with four rooms. Some Hon. Members here present were supporting this but some have schools that are thatched 43 years after independence. That is not ideal.
I then turn on to peace in the country. It does not necessarily mean that if there is no war, there is peace in a country. We have people who are arrested and stay in jail for a long time, like during the time of Smith. Usually, these people did not commit a crime and they are released later on. We also have thieves who are arrested and they stay at home and only come on trial days. These would have stolen millions of dollars. I witnessed an SA Congress where there was a former Minister of Health who abused COVID funds. He thought he would become President of ANC but the people did not allow that to happen. They did not prevent him from contesting but they denied him. Here in Zimbabwe, criminals are going around scot free because they have lots of money. They are arrested and then released. Some people are building beautiful houses on top of mountains because they have a lot of money that they got through corrupt activities but we are not doing anything about corruption in this country.
On political violence.....
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Member, your time is up.
HON. MUTSEYAMI: May the Hon. Member’s time be extended by five minutes.
HON. NDUNA: I object.
HON. R. NYATHI: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. MUTSEYAMI: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 14th February, 2023.
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
RESPONSE TO QUESTION ON MOBILE REGISTRATION EXERCISE
THE MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS AND CULTURAL HERITAGE (HON. KAZEMBE): Mr. Speaker Sir, a matter was raised in this august House by Hon. Markham with regards to the Civil Registry exercise to issue documents to citizens who did not have them through a mobile registration exercise. His concern was with citizens in Hatcliffe and Borrowdale who did not have identity documents.
He indicated that over 2000 people in Hatcliffe and over 500 in Borrowdale did not have identity documents and this was of concern. I will give this august House an overall report on the conduct and achievements of the mobile registration exercise and then specifically provide statistics with regards to the exercise in Hatcliffe and Borrowdale to address Hon. Markham’s request.
Introduction
The Civil Registry Department conducted a national mobile registration exercise which commenced on 01 April and ended on 30 September 2022. The main purpose of the exercise was to reach out to all eligible Zimbabweans to obtain birth certificates, national identity documents as well as death certificates. The documents were issued at no cost with some of the registration requirements relaxed to cater for as many people as possible.
Personnel Under the Mobile Registration Exercise
A total of 229 mobile teams were deployed across the country in addition to existing static registry offices. All team leaders were from the Civil Registry Department with personnel under them drawn from other departments and ministries.
During the six months long exercise, the personnel under the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage were divided into two groups, upon which they alternated after a three-months period, with those from other ministries exchanging after a month.
Status of Payment to Participants.
Payments to personnel who participated in this programme were done in monthly batches. The last payment was for the month of July. Payments for August and September are still outstanding.
Mobile Registration Statistics as at 30th September 2022.
The Civil Registry Department has planned to issue 2 million national documents throughout the country. However, a total of 3 203 389 national documents were issued during the entire six months, thereby surpassing the initial target. This is clear testimony that the National Mobile Registration initiative succeeded in providing citizens with easier access to civil registration documents.
Documents Issued.
Documents Issued |
Quantity |
Birth Certificates |
1 804 256 |
National Identity Documents |
1 345 719 |
Death Certificates |
53 414 |
Total |
3 203 389 |
Hatcliffe and Borrowdale National Mobile Registration
The Market Square mobile teams which were under Harare Metropolitan Province itinerary covered Hatcliffe and Borrowdale as follows:-
DATES |
BIRTH CERTIFICATES |
IDENTITY CARDS |
Hatcliffe 10/07/2022 to 19/08/2022 |
1 654 |
1 226 |
Borrowdale 20/08/2022 to 26/08/2022 |
101 |
197 |
Totals |
1 755 |
1 423 |
Costs Attendant
The whole exercise called for a budget of ZWD12.1 billion. This amount included expenses for fuel, vehicle hire, as well as remuneration for the three thousand members who were part of the exercise. However, out of the six months in which the national mobile registration exercise was carried out, only costs for four months were met. Those for the last two months are still outstanding.
Mop-up National Mobile Registration Exercise
Preparations are underway to conduct a mop up national mobile registration exercise before the general elections. This is an opportunity that will be given to those who failed to obtain or replace their identity documents during the initial exercise. The dates for the mop up exercise will be announced in due course.
Conclusion
The national mobile registrations exercise which no doubt gave citizens across the country easy access to documents, dovetails with the national thrust of leaving no one and no place behind as we march towards attainment of our National Vision 2030. Mr. Speaker Sir, I submit.
HON. NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I have got three issues that I seek to get clarity on, I applaud the Hon. Minister for adhering to the ethos and the values of Section 35 to Section 43 of the Constitution that speaks to issues to do with citizenship. I really applaud them and what really occurred in my constituency in so far as it relates to issuance of birth certificates and national registration certificates, removing them from the alienship to citizenship.
I want to seek clarity from the Hon. Minister, the whole essence in particular where I come from of getting the national registration certificates, identity documents that have a citizenship tag is to make sure that those citizens register to vote. Given that the elections are upon us, would it please the Minister, have these blitz that he allude to put in place almost immediately or in tandem with the current voting process modus operanda because two days after the proclamation by His Excellency, immediately the voter registration exercise comes to a screeching halt.
Secondly, I would want to know from the Hon. Minister that even before the blitz is let out to go to mop-up exercise, is it still possible for the citizens to go to the current registration offices to embark on the same exercise that was embarked on to register themselves according to Section 43 of the Constitution? I thank you.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. Allow me to thank the Hon. Minister for the respond to Hon. Markham’s request. I will speak from experience and I will highlight the issues which I largely request. Number 1 is that the teams that are being referred to by the Hon. Minister in Kwekwe District which comprises of 5 constituencies shared one camera. So there is lack of equipment, because we are not debating, I will just lay out the major problems. So, because of lack of equipment, it meant that people would go first to get their fingerprints done. They go back home, they come back for photos, they go back home and they come back again to collect their identity documents. Can you close the gap of equipment?
Secondly, the Births and Deaths Registration Act Hon. Minister is not aligned to a High Court ruling in so far as one parent can be eligible to be an informant in terms of attainment of a birth certificate. So, we now have a court judgment that allows the father to be an informant in terms of attainment of a birth certificate. The law still allows the mother to be an informant even in the absence of the father. Can you also align that because in other cases, the mother is not there but the father is there, that child still suffers to have their birth certificates being obtained?
Thirdly, the issue of time taken between clearance of fingerprints, is taking more than 3 weeks, I pray that your Ministry, working together with the Ministry of ICT, take advantage of the digital platform so that at least fingerprints can be cleared digitally. You still have a paper based clearance system and then this makes the time to clear fingerprints too long. The time to clear fingerprints Hon. Speaker is that those individuals above the age of 26 without birth certificates or without IDs. They have to be cleared first in terms of fingerprints.
Lastly Madam Speaker, in the meantime while we are waiting for you to deploy teams and in the presence of lack of resources as you alluded to, why can we not relax the conditions currently obtaining at our district registration centres because as you said, the blitz had relaxed conditions so that at least we could register more people? Why can we not again make the same conditions relaxed at the district centres because as of today, registration is happening but it has gone back to those stringent conditions? Why can we not relax them so that at least more people can be processed while we are waiting for you to have your blitz? Thank you Hon. Minister.
HON. WATSON: Thank you Madam Speaker for this opportunity. I would just like the Minister to clarify because in the last blitz there were a lot of problems to do with the cameras to take the pictures. Hon. J. Sithole was the first Member of Parliament to request this statement in order that we find out about these issues. So can he give us an assurance that if he does his second blitz, the equipment will work because it is very frustrating for citizens to go - to be sent away, to come back to then find the photographs not taken or not there.
Secondly, were those green waiting passes with the photographs specifically only for voter registration? Those who had lost their IDs and required new identity documents for a bank or something of that nature could not use those green waiting passes. Why is that the fact? Again, they were then also told that those green waiting passes could then be taken to a district registry and changed into proper plastic IDs. I am not convinced that, that actually happened, plus the fact in Bulawayo for example, there are only two registries, the one in the centre of town and the one that is in Nketa Housing Office which deals with possibly 10 or 20 applicants per day, which makes it very difficult for a person with a green waiting pass to go and get it changed into a proper and correct plastic ID. Can the Minister clarify how ultimately he intends to resolve these issues? Thank you.
HON. CHIBAYA: Thank you Madam Speaker and thank you Hon. Minister for the report. My issue is on the speed. I will give an example. In Gweru you find that you have about 200 people in the queue waiting to take IDs but only 20 people are served. So if maybe he can try to attend to that.
On another note, I think it has been raised by Hon. Chikwinya regarding the blitz whereby your teams on the ground did not have enough equipment. So if you can also address that issue because honestly speaking, I do not think it is only Gweru but the whole country, whether it be in Masvingo or Shurugwi, the situation is the same. So many people do not have IDs especially our young people. I thank you.
HON. MUTOMBA: Thank you Madam Speaker. Thank you very much Hon. Minister for responding to Hon. Markham’s questions as well as informing this House that we are going to have a second blitz exercise. May I say to you Hon. Minister, the first blitz that you went through, we were quite surprised that you had two teams, those for ZEC and yours that were issuing birth certificates and IDs. Our surprise was that people who were supposed to be in front, that is your team, were actually following up those people who were registering the people for them to vote. So one wonders who they were registering to vote if a lot of those people who were supposed to get their IDs were not registered.
In my constituency, I actually had a discussion with your local leader in Buhera…
HON. CHIKWINYA: On a point of order Madam Speaker.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: What is your point of order?
HON. CHIKWINYA: When Hon. Mutomba was in the Chair, he ruled that there must be no debate. So you cannot have your cake and eat it. I am just trying to direct you to your own ruling.
HON. MUTOMBA: Thank you very much. I am not debating Hon. Chikwinya. I am just highlighting these points. I ended up speaking to your provincial representative asking about the arrangement of these two teams. Now Hon. Minister, may you assure this Honourable House that you are going to do first thing first, that is having the team that is supposed to register people to get IDs in front of those people who would want to get registered for elections? Thank you very much Hon. Minister.
HON. MUTSEYAMI: Thank you Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, some of the things have already been said by Hon, Chikwinya. Hon. Minister, I am going to be focusing mainly on Manicaland. When this programme of giving out IDs is taking place, we have had a situation whereby the teams deployed are not well resourced in terms of material. We had situations whereby you would have a camera then they would say they have run out of ink whilst out there on a mission. That has to be looked at.
The other problem that we have Madam Speaker, to the attention of the Minister, we have situations whereby a team which is dealing with the blitz of giving out IDs will get to a centre and then there are people who would have passed the age of 21 without IDS; they would request them to obtain clearance letters which are supposed to be sent to KG6 for clearance just to check as to whether they had IDs before. Once those papers are sent through the system of the Registrar General’s Office, by the time they come back the blitz team would have left the place. So you would find that these people who are supposed to benefit on IDs cannot manage to finance themselves to go to the next stations. So there is a problem. So my request on that one, I think there has to be an effort to quicken the process of the clearance and for the papers to come back whilst the team on the blitz will be at that centre. Thank you Madam Speaker.
HON. TOFFA: Thank you Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my point of clarification is very similar to that of Hon. Mutseyami. Hon. Minister, is this blitz going to be lenient? Remember, there was a waiver on the requirements or on the stringent measures of getting birth certificates and identity cards but in Bulawayo for instance, people are still being required or told to go to their birth places. They do not take affidavits from the Members of Parliament or the councillor. They do not do the affidavits at the actual point of registration. So, I would like to know from the Hon. Minister, what the situation is this time around. Thank you.
HON. KAZEMBE: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am. I would like to thank all the Hon. Members for their pertinent submissions. I will start with Hon. Nduna who was asking if the second round is going to be immediate and also if it is going to be in tandem with Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) registration. That is exactly what I highlighted that we will ensure that it is done before ZEC’s second round is done so that it will enable those who have then obtained Identity Documents (IDs) to be able to register.
He also asked why people cannot continue to get IDs at the static offices. I think in my report, I also highlighted that even during mobile registration, the static offices continued to operate and they have not stopped. So, yes our citizens can continue to get IDs from our district offices and provincial offices.
Then Hon. Chikwinya raised the issues to do with resources, cameras in particular, where a team was sharing one camera and when it breaks down it would mean work would stop. Point taken, this time around we will try and ensure that they do have enough equipment. We also hope and trust that – all depends on resources. We work with the budget that we are allocated and the budget that is released. As I alluded to earlier on that we did not have enough resources for the entire project but we did our utmost, given what we had. However, we will try our best to ensure that those issues are addressed. I think it is partly about the Act; apparently I want to thank him. I was not aware that there is need for that alignment but what I know for a fact is that operationally, if our people were not doing it, then we will look at it. They have already started, following that court order because I actually spoke to the Registrar General (RG) today. In fact we entertained the Committee from Namibia. That question was raised and the RG responded to that question. So, we will definitely do that and thank you for that.
Then this issue of fingerprints taking long, we will look at how best we will deal with this one. Going forward, I have spoken about the need to computerise the Police. I have spoken about the integrated solution which we are deploying as a Ministry, which includes the Police Integrated Information System which is in the Police and in the PIIS, there is computerised fingerprint solution. It is work in progress but I understand the point that he has raised. We will try and see how best we can relax that. I am not promising now because it needs approval but we should be able to do something about it.
Maybe we can try and consider allowing the people to proceed whilst the fingerprints have been taken, allow them to proceed and get their IDs. The reason why we do fingerprints is because these people have gone beyond a certain age. Some of them would have committed crimes and they deliberately want to change names and IDs, so that is why we need to check whether the person is cleanand really needs an ID or is trying to run away from his previous crimes. That is the need for that but I am sure we can find a way to say, okay let us proceed but if we then find that this person who is now called John was Peter, I am sure we will be able to track them so that we do not inconvenience them. It is something that we will consider.
You also asked if we could relax the conditions at the static offices, it is something we can also consider because the initial one was actually issued by His Excellency the President, so it had a timeframe. It was a forced blitz but we might as well consider that to see if we can increase the numbers that can register at the static offices. I will take that up and see if we can get approval.
Hon. Watson, yes problems with camera issues, I think I have responded as I responded to Hon. Chikwinya. It is the same response. There is another question on the green pass, again I will attend to that specific issue. Hon. Chibaya, speed where from 200 people only 20 being served; yes, it may be a question of also equipment but again, I can definitely look into it to see how best we can deal with it, especially now that we do not have that pressure that we had during the mobile registration. We should try and improve on that.
The equipment, I think I responded to that one. Hon. Mutomba is querying why we went after ZEC. There are two things. We have a programme but we only go when we have been given the money. So, we had to wait for the money from Treasury. We also target April for a reason - why, because most of the people that we will be targeting are in the rural areas. Normally, we hire lorries, open trucks and all the lot and we would want to reach to each and every person to the best of our ability but we try to avoid the rainy season. The rainy season ends March-April thereabout. So we try and do immediately after that so that we can reach to as many people so that the programme is not interrupted by rains. You can imagine right now, if we have to do the mobile registration with all these rains, how many people would we attend to on a daily basis. That is the whole idea.
Again, we need to be working together with ZEC so that we can go in before them. You would appreciate that ZEC is an independent Commission, so we do not really control them but for this particular exercise, I agree with you that we need to work in tandem. This time around, we will go before them so that we ensure that people register.
Hon. Mutseyami, teams not well resourced, I have responded to that. The fingerprints issue, I have responded to that and Hon. Toffa, leniency, I think it is the same issue that was raised by Hon. Chikwinya which I would look at. I would like to thank the Hon. Members. Thank you Hon. Speaker Ma’am.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. DR. MAVETERA): Let me thank you Hon. Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Hon. Kazembe for the Ministerial Statement on Mobile Registration Exercise.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
HON. R. R. NYATHI: I move that we revert to Order of the Day, Number One.
HON. NDUNA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
CONSIDERATION STAGE
POLICE AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 1A, 2023]
Amendments to Clauses 6, 9, 10, 11, New Clauses 12, 14, 16 and 18 put and agreed to.
Bill, as amended, adopted.
Third Reading: With leave, forthwith.
THIRD READING
POLICE AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 1A, 2023]
THE MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS AND CULTURAL HERITAGE (HON. KAZEMBE): Madam Speaker, I now move that the Bill be read the third time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the third time.
On the motion of HON. R. NYATHI, seconded by HON. CHIKWINYA, the House adjourned at Twelve Minutes to Five o’clock p.m. until Tuesday, 14th February, 2023.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 8th February, 2023
The National Assembly met at a Quarter past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY THE HON. SPEAKER
VISITORS IN THE SPEAKER’S GALLERY
THE HON. SPEAKER: I wish to recognise the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security from the Parliament of the Republic of Namibia, led by Hon. Lucia Witbooi, the Deputy Chairperson of the Committee. Part of the delegation is Hon. Julius Hambyuka, who is the Government Chief Whip, you are all most welcome – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
APOLOGIES RECEIVED FROM MINISTERS
THE HON. SPEAKER: I have received apologies from the following Members of the Executive: Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care – [AN HON. MEMBER: Chinyanganya!] Honourable, do not disturb my announcement. Hon. Gen. (Rtd.) Dr. C. G. D. N. Chiwenga, Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care; Hon. O. C. Z. Muchinguri-Kashiri, Minister of Defence and War Veterans Affairs; Hon. Prof. P. Mavima, Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare; Hon. Dr. A. Masuka, Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement; Hon. Prof. M. Ncube, Minister of Finance and Economic Development; Hon. W. Chitando, Minister of Mines and Mining Development; Hon. Prof. A. Murwira, Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development; Hon. J. G. Moyo, Minister of Local Government and Public Works; Hon. D. Chombo, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Public Works; Hon. Dr. S. Nzenza, Minister of Industry and Commerce; Hon. Dr. E. Ndlovu, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education; Hon. E. Moyo, Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education; and Hon. Sen. M. Mutsvangwa, Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I rise on a point of order with regards to a statement that I made during debate yesterday in reply to the Presidential Speech wherein I inferred to the Acting Chairperson that I had reached an agreement with the Speaker of Parliament, being you, in the interpretation of Standing Order Number 154 vis-a-vis 157. I have since been directed to the correct interpretation and I want to withdraw my statement which I gave during the debate and follow the advice given by the Clerk of Parliament. Thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I rise on a matter of national importance in terms of Standing Order Number 62…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Sibanda, we agreed that matters of national importance are reserved for Tuesdays and Thursdays.
HON. CHIKWIYA: I am not aware of that agreement; I am just relying on the Standing Orders.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Why not say you have a lapse of memory or you did not read the Hansard. The matters rest there.
HON. CHIKWINYA: I might have missed it, thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: So, tomorrow please be free to raise the issue.
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
HON. NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. My question is directed to the Hon. Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. What is Government policy in relationship to the 821km Plumtree/Mutare Highway which was constructed by Group 5 under the acronym Intertoll which is now Instatoll to the tune of $206 million DBSA loan financed in so far as it relates to routine and periodic maintenance of the same 821km which was enshrined in the initial agreement? What is Government policy in alignment of the current routine maintenance and period maintenance to the agreement of the Group 5 and Intertoll initial agreement? What is currently happening is that there are sections, that 821km that is not being maintained both routine and periodic modus operandi away from the initial agreement as agreed in the DBSA loan financed 821 km. So what is Government policy as it relates to alignment of the agreement...
THE HON. SPEAKER: You are repeating yourself Hon. Member; I thought you had made your point.
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Hon. Speaker Sir and I want to thank the Hon. Member Hon. Nduna for the very important question which he normal brings into the august House. This will also give me time to explain to my fellow colleagues and also to the people of Zimbabwe that yes indeed that agreement was there which covers Mutare-Plumtree Highway. I also want to apprise the House that when you enter into some of these contracts, at times you miss the very important aspects of the agreement. In this particular agreement that has been cited by my fellow colleague Hon. Nduna, apparently it did not include sections that would cover cities. So you will find that if you are moving towards the great city, the Intertoll arrangement would not give that mandate to do routine maintenance and also take any necessary charges pertaining to that stretch. That is why you have seen that such sections, just to cite Kadoma, Chegutu, Harare, when they gravitate towards the cities they were not rehabilitating.
I also want to highlight that I then engaged ZINARA to say let us revisit some of these clauses which do not make sense. If we are talking of an entire stretch, why not involve cities because that forms some of the basis of the road. This is precisely what we are doing but in the mean time, the Department of Roads under the Ministry is taking charge of those sections whilst we are arranging to have Intertoll to attend to these sections covered under cities.
Precisely, I do concur that yes it was a lacuna in that contract where we were not supposed to be having sections omitted in that particular agreement but also, I want to allay fears of the august House that the limit is no longer the 200 facility that he is talking about. ZINARA has paid almost half of that facility and they have also managed to renegotiate on the percentages in terms of the interests charged to that loan. I am happy that we are not in good books with DBSA and we are actually renegotiating on some of these very important aspects of the contract. I thank you.
HON. NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Would it please the Hon. Minister to give us the timelines in terms of aligning the said agreement to the current state of affairs, seeing as it seems that nearly a quarter of the 821km has not been taken up for rehabilitation by Group 5 or their side-kick Instatoll and Intertoll? Would it please the Minister to tell us the timelines of alignment and to say whether in retrospect, local authorities can recoup from that agreement the monies that they utilized during the subsistence of the agreement which was not aligned to the current state of affairs in terms of operation?
HON. MHONA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I want to also thank Hon. Nduna who is also my fellow learned colleague that once if you enter into a contract it will be an issue of moral suasion where you cannot release some of the clauses. In this case the contracting parties, especially from ZINARA who were sleeping on duty, they allowed some of these clauses to actually go through without them interrogating such very important pertinent clauses. Now, it is up to the indulgence of the relevant party to then comply because contractually they are not obliged to take charge of those sections and that is why we have pursued the route of moral suasion so that they revisit. In terms of aligning the contract, the contract has been aligned in terms of the funding modalities and grace period to pay since ZINARA was in default then. We have now aligned the contract and we are not paying accordingly without punitive measures in terms of interest rates. I can affirmatively say alignment has been done but the aspect of those sections highlighted by Hon. Nduna involves continuous engagement with the relevant party. I thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: For the purposes of our records, the Hon. Member is not your learned friend; he is an upcoming learned friend. Otherwise we will have a wrong record in our Hansard.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. My supplementary question to the Hon. Minister stems out of the fact that he seems to be not very clear about the contract itself. Does the contract exclude the contractor from working on the roads within cities, does it expressly state that or it is silent on it? If it is silent, what about the monetary – is the contract specific in terms of the kilometers that need to be covered by the contractor? I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Now, I can firmly say my learned colleague because this one qualifies. My learned colleague has also said I am not sure about the contract, I am very sure about this contract. The provision is very clear that whenever you go through cities they are not mandated to take routine maintenance. So it is very clear. That is why I was saying it was a bad contract in the first place where you were not supposed to then have sections that are not covered whilst we are talking of the entire stretch.
So, precisely you are very right that the sections were supposed to be included in the contract but it is very clear the contracting parties, especially from ZINARA were sleeping on duty. I will repeat that again - where they were supposed to incorporate cities so that they will now be obliging Intertoll to take routine maintenance, but as it is now Mr. Speaker Sir, it then falls under the purview of Department of Roads to take charge.
Hon. Murai having stood up.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order. The Hon. Member upstanding, take your seat.
HON. MHONA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. So I do concur with the observation as highlighted in the first place by Hon. Nduna and also as the Minister that I am pursing the matter, but in the mean time, we cannot neglect cities; we have taken charge to rehabilitate those sections. Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
HON. MARKHAM: Hon. Speaker, in the absence of the urban roads not being covered, who is responsible for national roads within the urban areas? Is it the urban council or is it the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development?
HON. MHONA: Mr. Speaker Sir, the roads that are under the purview of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development do involve trunk roads and precisely these major roads, as highlighted by Hon. Markham, fall under the purview of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development under the Department of Roads. So we will take charge of such roads and I can just cite the one that we are talking about - Samora as it gravitates towards the great city becomes the burden of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development and this is what we are doing. The other feeder roads, those that you normally see going to locations fall under the purview of local authorities.
So we are talking of trunk roads that actually come out of the cities falling under the purview of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development. Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
HON. GONESE: My supplementary question to the Hon. Minister is, if he can clarify who is responsible for the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) roads. In terms of the contract in question between the Government and Intertoll, does it also include completion of the dualisation on the road from Plumtree to Mutare?
HON. MHONA: Mr. Speaker Sir, he has raised two pertinent issues, one to do with the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme and also the Road Development Programme which involves the dualisation of our roads. I would answer the first part to say the dualisation part of the road, especially the same road that we are talking about, is not under the same agreement and we are taking the dualisation as Road Development Programme under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development.
In terms of the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme, it was a programme that was identified especially with the advent of heavy rains that we are also witnessing now to take some of the roads that fall under the local authorities. It could be a rural district council or it could be DDF which is now RIDA to take charge of such roads, but that involves relevant provinces from the Ministers of State and all other relevant structures within the province to identify such critical roads and those roads will then form part of ERRP.
So basically what we are doing as a Ministry - yes, we superintend over road authorities but there are some every important roads that we then identify and take from the local authorities, but we only take for the sake of maintaining and returning it back to the local authorities, not necessarily to take the road forever. Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
*HON. TSHUMA: My question is directed to the Minister Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement with regards to rural cotton farmers. Cotton farmers have not yet been paid for the cotton they sold last season. What is Government doing to help farmers to continue growing cotton so as to support the cotton industry because farmers have not received their money and as a result, some are failing to pay school fees for their children?
*THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. It is true that payments to cotton farmers have been delayed. What I would like inform this august House is that the Government is looking into the issue so that farmers, be they cotton farmers or wheat farmers, receive their payments. It is Government’s wish that the farmers will be paid before the next farming season. I thank you.
HON. T. MOYO: My supplementary question to the Hon. Minister is that we want to hear Government policy regarding the modalities in terms of payments for 2023. In the previous season, farmers have not been paid but we want to know whether Government is going to resort to spot cash in terms of paying those cotton farmers.
HON. ZWIZWAI: That is not a supplementary question.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Zwizwai, you are not in the Chair.
HON. MHONA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. It is the culture and tradition of Cabinet to appraise of any season before full implementation that they broadcast the relevant figures. It could be the selling price and I expect the same to happen from the Hon. Minister so that as we resume sitting as Cabinet, he is going to appraise the nation on the modalities as asked by Hon. Moyo.
HON. MADZIMURE: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister explain the other alternative arrangement that Cotton Company of Zimbabwe is using to pay farmers? The issue of giving farmers groceries and sometimes equipment to use in the fields does not auger well for farmers. When farmers deliver produce, they are expecting to get their money in cash so that they will then decide on their own what they want to use the money for, instead of them being asked to go to a shop and pick up groceries or implements
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA)): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to thank Hon. Madzimure for that very important follow-up question. I think the time when that was happening was more of voluntary programme where one would want to opt to get groceries. Of late, this is not happening. Where people were actually getting groceries in terms of payment, going forward and as it is now, Government is going to pay farmers their hard earned money and not in form of goods. Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
HON. NGWENYA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. My supplementary question concerns the payment model that has been said by the Hon. Minister. I would like to know which rate they are going to use to pay the farmers because the amount they were supposed to be paid at that particular time has been actually eroded by inflation. Right now they are still holding on to figures that were prevailing at that time. So, I would like to know whether they are going to change from that specific value because it has been affected by inflation to the new value now. I thank you.
HON. MHONA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would also want to thank Hon. Ngwenya for that very important question, which I will actually take and relay to the Hon. Minister so that we appraise the august House of the very relevant payment modalities and not to assume whether they are sticking to the date of delivery or whether they are sticking to the prevailing market rate. I will ask the Hon. Member to indulge with me so that I will also communicate to the Hon. Minister on that matter. I thank you.
*HON. MURAI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the answers that were given by the Hon. Minister. This question of disbursement of funds to farmers has been asked in this House several times. Are there any plans in place to ensure that farmers are paid their dues on time? When are we going to stop asking that question on late disbursement of funds to farmers?
HON. MHONA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like also to thank Hon. Murai for that question. Actually the farmers were paid part of their money in local currency. What now remains is the foreign currency component, which I will emphasise to my fellow Minister of Lands to look into this matter. In conclusion, noting that the Deputy Minister of Finance is now in the House, he can assist us on when the foreign currency will be disbursed to the farmers.
*THE HON. SPEAKER: The question is, this question has been asked over and over again, when are we going to stop asking the same question? That is the question.
*HON. MHONA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to humble myself, we have the Deputy Minister of Finance amongst us, may you please allow him to respond to that. I thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. CHIDUWA): Thank you very much for that pertinent question. I would like to say, indeed I agree just like what Hon. Minister Mhona said. We have been paying in two forms, the local currency as well as the foreign currency. We have since paid the local currency component. The outstanding amount is the USD28 million. Last week but one is when we agreed that in order for us to pay out that money, we are paying USD5 million per week. So, I expect that in the following week, we will be able to pay all the outstanding money in trenches of USD5 million per week.
The second part of the question - when are we going to stop asking the same question over and over again. The response is Government gives farmers land as well as inputs and we also buy maize from them. Now we are saying that is not the job of Government. What we have now started is a ZIMEX programme, it started last year. Right now we are saying, this is going forward, most of the agro products will have their price being driven by the market. So, we are calling the private sector to come on board to work with Government. All we are saying is agricultural produce should be bought on the market and the prices to be determined by the market. We want to work on the infrastructure such as irrigation so that we do not end up being on the market. I thank you.
*HON. GOZHO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. My question is directed to the Minister of Defence and War Veterans. Since the Hon. Minister is not here, I will direct it to the Leader of Government Business. In 2020, Government promised to build garrison shops in barracks so that the military personnel can buy basic commodities at low prices. Have the garrison shops since been constructed like you promised? I thank you.
*THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would want to thank Hon. Gozho for the question. The Hon. Member is so passionate about the welfare of the military and she asked whether the garrison shops have been built. What I would want to explain to the august House is, the garrison shops may not have been constructed as expected but Government has ensured that the security forces are well looked after. I think the Hon. Minister for Defence and War Veterans will explain to the august House the important aspects concerning the welfare of the forces so that we understand what has been done.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. My understanding is that there are some barracks with existing garrison shops. The Government’s promise at that time was to supply these garrison shops with subsidised commodities.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Is it your understanding or knowledge?
HON. CHIKWINYA: Knowledge. Understanding based on knowledge and I speak of 5.1 Battalion, that is Battlefields.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Where are these garrisons?
HON. CHIKWINYA: Five Brigade, Battlefields. So, they have garrison shops. The undertaking by Government was to supply these garrison shops with subsidised basic commodities so that soldiers could buy at subsidised prices. That undertaking was made by the Minister of Finance. I would want to know from the Deputy Minister of Finance here present whether the present garrison shops that are already there are supplied with subsidised basic commodities so that at least soldiers can buy at subsidised prices. Thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. CHIDUWA): Thank you so much Hon. Speaker. Thank you Hon. Member. On this issue, Ministry of Finance provides the resources but in terms of implementation, it is done by the parent Ministry. At the moment, I am not sure if they have done it, otherwise – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – I would still need to check because the provisions were approved here in Parliament, so I would need to check if there was a budget for the garrison shops.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order! The answer by the Hon. Deputy Minister is adequate. Let him go and find out what exactly the position is and come back to the august House.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. My question goes to the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. I purely understand that the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) does not fall under the purview of Primary and Secondary Education. The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is a key stakeholder and this is why I am directing my question to the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. Reports are that 5000 students had their results withdrawn because of alleged pre-exposure to examination material. I want to believe that there are students who are arguing …
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order. The matter was raised yesterday and a request was made for the Hon. Minister to bring a Ministerial Statement. I have been in conversation with the Hon. Minister. That statement is being prepared and will be presented tomorrow.
*HON. CHIKWINYA: Can I re-direct my question to another Ministry?
THE HON. SPEAKER: No. I follow your lists. You talk to your Chief Whip.
The Hon. Minister of Primary and Secondary Education having approached the Chair.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order please. Something has cropped up that affects the Hon. Minister, so she is unavailable tomorrow but next week she will be back in Harare to present that paper. There is some exigency that has arisen, otherwise she had agreed when I talked to her this morning to present tomorrow. The Hon. Deputy Minister is away on leave, otherwise we would have asked him to present that Ministerial Statement.
HON. CHINYANGANYA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for indulging me. My question is directed to the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. Towards the end of 2022, the Government promised that it was going to roll out free basic education. What has the Government done so far to implement that?
THE MINISTER OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION (HON. DR. E. NDLOVU): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to thank the Hon. Member for raising that question which is really pertinent. He has asked about the payment of free education. We wish to pay school fees and give our children free education. It is unfortunate that this House...
THE HON. SPEAKER: Just a point of order, Hon. Chikwinya hatina Amai muParliament. Hamugone kutaura kuti taurai Amai. Withdraw that statement.
HON. CHIKWINYA: It was out of pure respect because she is of the same age with my mother. I withdraw Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order tomorrow you may call me Baba.
THE MINISTER OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUATION (HON. DR. E. NDLOVU): Mr. Speaker Sir, I would like to thank the Hon. Member for asking that pertinent issue, the question of free education in Zimbabwe. At times I sit and wonder whether we can afford to pay full school fees. The truth of the matter is that we are willing and we want to pay school fees for every child in this country. We have a policy document, we have a Constitution, and we have an Act of Parliament in terms of the education sector that demands that we do exactly that.
As the National Assembly, we approved the budget. We have sat down before the end of the year with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to analyse the budget to check on the amounts that were allocated to the Ministry in terms of funding the education sector in this country. After a deep analysis of the figures, it is quite clear that we can start the implementation of the programme. However, it should be implemented in a staggered manner because we do not have enough resources to immediately implement that policy.
So this is the process that we are going through. We have the figures on the table and we are looking forward to you to approve a supplementary budget if it is possible for you Hon. Members to make sure that our children access free education. We worked together with the Deputy Minister of Finance before the end of the year. We have the figures and we have got USD6.3 million and that USD6.3 million is not enough. It is not enough but we have to start the implementation because the Constitution says so and the Education Act says so. So this is the answer ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: The Hon. Minister has thrown the ball back to us. During the budgetary debate, Vote by Vote, I think it is this House that should have queried whether the funds were enough to roll out but what you passed as a House was...
Hon. Zwizwai having stood up interrupting the Speaker
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order Hon. Zwizwai, can you apologise for interrupting my response?
HON. ZWIZWAI: Mr. Speaker Sir, I apologise - but I want to make a supplementary.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Wait for that supplementary. Thank you. My ruling is very clear. The Hon. Minister will come back to this House and ask for more funds, USD6.3 million, and this august House will be obligated to pass that supplementary budget. Thank you.
Some Hon. Members having stood up
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order Hon. Members, no supplementary, please sit down.
HON. CHITURA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. My question is directed to the Minister of Health and Child Care. What is Government policy on cancer screening for men in the public sector, especially prostate cancer?
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HEALTH AND CHILD CARE (HON. DR. MANGWIRO): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to thank the Hon. Member for the question on the policy on CA Prostate. Prostate cancer is very common in men, indeed, in men above the age of 35 years and onwards but much more common in those above 50 years old.
Government policy on all cancers is that people should get screened. These days prostate cancer can be screened in two to three ways. The first one is us putting the finger up and checking the prostate via the anal canal to check that the prostate is fine – [HON. MEMBERS: Iyo hayiite iyo!] – That is one way of doing it and a very good one…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Biti! Can you be respectful of the Hon. Minister’s response please? Please listen.
HON. DR. MANGWIRO: The next one is we use blood; we take blood samples and check for prostatic surface antigen quantities. Once those are raised, we can determine whether someone has got prostate cancer or not. So, CA Prostate is very common and we encourage all men for that matter, to get screened because if it is detected early. We can do something permanent but if we wait until it has spread it will be difficult to treat. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: The original questioner, you have no supplementary?
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I want to thank the Hon. Minister for that explanation. Hon. Speaker, my supplementary question to the Hon. Deputy Minister is that we may be screening but I see that we are facing challenges in our constituencies with that post-screening if one is found to be positive of that cancer. What is Government policy in terms of trying to treat that patient because we have so much lack of equipment in our hospitals? What is the Government doing to try and bring this equipment down to our district hospitals?
HON. DR. MANGWIRO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to thank the Hon. Member for the question on treatment. Treatment for the prostate cancer is not confined to one method – we have more than five methods. It can be radiotherapy, chemotherapy or surgical, these can be offered to anybody who will have fallen victim to this depending on the doctor. This is done in Zimbabwe in many places. We have several neurologists who can offer this service. We also have oncologists who can offer chemotherapy and radiotherapy depending on the stage of the disease. Some of the treatment is surgical.
It involves us removing the man’s testes so that the growth of the prostate cancer can be stopped because some of the disturbance that comes is from the testes. Other methods involve us putting some radiotherapy things in the prostate so that it does not grow. So, thank you very much Mr. Speaker.
HON. T. MOYO: My supplementary question to the Hon. Minister is, is there Government policy to harmonise the clinical way of testing prostate cancer with the indigenous knowledge systems of screening cancer?
THE HON. SPEAKER: Did you understand the question Hon. Minister; harmonization of testing between the usual clinical medical and the indigenous approach?
HON. DR. MANGWIRO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to thank the Hon. Member. I am sure he is trying to say traditional methods and western methods.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Yes.
HON. DR. MANGWIRO: Definitely, we know people consult faith healers and traditional healers a lot and also then get referred to the western method later on. So right now, we have a council led by a doctor who has learnt both traditional and western medicine. This council involves lawyers and all people in society that will guide people and this is going to involve registration of traditional and faith healers so that they are really clear with what they can and cannot do.
So, we will be requesting even traditional and faith healers to look at people’s vital signs and teach them the basic things that they can refer for western medicine and those that they can keep to themselves. We have a very good referral system getting down to the village health post where a person can go from the village post to a rural health centre, district hospital, provincial up to central hospital depending on the condition and stage of the disease. Definitely, we are trying to make sure that we harmonise this by making sure that we work together and educate each other in the profession. I thank you. – [HON. MURAI: Inaudible interjection.] –
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order Hon. Murai! You cannot have a question to the Hon. – [HON. MURAI: It is not a question.] – What is it? Define your intervention. – [HON. MURAI: It is a point of clarity Mr. Speaker Sir.] – Can you do it through a supplementary question? Do it through a supplementary question. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Order, order! I had recognised Hon. Madzimure, so you will come after Hon. Madzimure. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Hon. Murai! Thank you, please proceed.
HON. NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. The supplementary question that I have is; are there any plans of making prostate cancer screening free – that is the first question? The second question is; are there plans of also having a cancer levy in place pretty much along the same line as the Aids levy to alleviate the plight of the masses suffering from prostate cancer? I say this because of the 35 years age group that you spoke to and about.
HON. DR. MANGWIRO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I want to thank you Hon. Member for that suggestion. Cancer of the prostate definitely is affecting men but there are many other cancers as well, that is, breast, cervix and all that; if in this House we would agree that we lobby and say let us get this money, and do what we did with the Aids levy – it would be great Hon. Member so that we alleviate this suffering. So definitely, it would be useful for us as a House if we could push for that to have it free. I would be grateful. I thank you.
HON. MADZIMURE: Thank you Mr. Speaker. The Hon. Member who asked the original question was specific and referring to civil servants. Considering that the majority of these people …
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order, I did not quite get you there. You said people?
HON. MADZIMURE: I said the Hon. Member who asked the original question was referring to people within Government employment. Considering that those people would have attained the age of 55 and above, most of them are now pensioners who cannot afford the treatment that is required after having been diagnosed of prostate cancer.
Therefore, what is the Government plan to help those people, especially the pensioners who are no longer finding any joy with PSMS, which should be taking care of their health services after they have retired?
HON. DR. MANGWIRO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to thank the Hon. Member whose concern is about former Government workers who have attained a certain age group. I am sure he is aware that as Government, there is a policy that above 65 years of age, people get their treatment for free and those children below five years also get free medication.
However, CA Prostate in particular will not affect only those who have been working for Government. It affects everyone so there is that cut off age where people get this for free. PSMS as a Government medical aid society should definitely support this. However, they were ups and downs which are being corrected. I thank you.
*HON. MURAI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I am kindly requesting the Hon. Minister to explain again in any vernacular language, either Shona or Ndebele, the ways of testing prostate cancer that he explained well in English so that our elderly folk in the rural areas who are battling with this prostate cancer may fully understand these three methods.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Perhaps Hon. Members are not aware that as you debate here, there is automatic interpretation in the vernacular languages and the interpretation is done through the radio. So, I am sure Members are following.
In future, we are looking at translating all Government policies in the vernacular languages and these terms will be clarified. We have already started with some laws at the National Language Institute of the Midlands State University. So, it is an agreed position that all public policies will be translated in all the vernacular recognised languages so that our citizenry can follow what the policies are all about. So, it is a good observation.
HON. GONESE: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, my point of order relates to the response by the Hon. Minister to the original question. When you indicated that there were three ways of testing, I think you indicated the one way you insert the finger and the PSA but you did not explain the third method which is used to test.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Thank you Hon. Speaker for your indulgence. Hon. Speaker, there are a number of senior citizens currently who are watching Parliament debates. We have heard the Hon. Minister indicating that for senior citizens, free medication is provided. Would the Hon. Minister clarify in which health centres those senior citizens would get that free treatment? I thank you.
HON. DR. MANGWIRO: Thank you Hon. Members for the questions you have raised. The third method of testing is a biopsy where we pass an instrument through the urethra, take a piece of tissue from the prostate and test it to see whether it is cancerous or not.
About free treatment for senior citizen, I am sure if the Hon. Member has difficulties somewhere, I will be glad to be with him and approach those places where they are refusing senior citizens free treatment because – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –Mr. Speaker Sir, the general policy is that most of our Government Hospitals offer senior citizens treatment for free.
*HON. TEKESHE: On a point of order! What the Hon. Minister has said here and what is on the ground is quite different. There are no medicines in Government Hospitals. A lot of people battling with prostate cancer are relying with Karanda Mission Hospital. I personally lost my father due to prostate cancer and non-availability of medication. So, may the Hon. Minister clearly state where exactly these medications are being found in our hospitals? I thank you.
HON. BITI: I would like the esteemed Deputy Minister of Health to explain this, now that he has ventured into the subject of prostate cancer. He explained that the target group is 35, 50 and above. Can you help Hon. Members, and members of the public at large how do persons or citizens mitigate or prevent this disease? What do they need to do to prevent and anticipate this disease, prostate cancer?
HON. DR. LABODE: Sometimes there is no need for us to sanitise what is obvious. These Hon. Members live in the community and everybody knows that there are no drugs in hospitals. Everybody is buying medicine. Even an X-ray if you go to Mpilo Hospital, you are told to go to the private institution that is owned by a worker in that hospital. Let us agree that we have a problem and look for money. Donors will not come forth if we do not explain the problems that we are facing. Let us just tell the truth. Every Member of Parliament go to your clinic and ask – Hon Mathe will phone me and say what can I do there is somebody in Nkayi and this other person will phone me and it is like I am the minister. There are no drugs in hospitals and let us face that reality.
HON. DR. MANGWIRO: I want to thank the Hon. Members. Firstly, I will approach the first question which was saying how would someone have an idea that they are having a problem with their prostate? First and foremost, the prostate when it grows big or becomes cancerous, it will block the passage of urine. When people are young and energetic, the urine goes straight up there. When prostrate comes, the urine of the affected person starts pointing down even if they are pointing their penis forward. They may have difficulty pushing out the urine. It will be difficult for it to go out. They have to strain to have the urine go out and they might even end up wetting their trousers after visiting the toilet.
The most important thing is that there are many ideas that people say prevent most of this. Those men who are very sexually active, the rate of getting cancer is much lower than those who are not. There are so many ideas. Those who do it more frequently have got lower chances.
Then we go to Hon. Labode’s idea that there are no drugs in the hospitals. Everyone knows that the medicines are low but the question was where is this service offered, not to say which hospital has got medicines. Definitely, we all know that medicines are difficult to get but as Government, we are doing something and we are saying we are going to be avoiding middlemen who were bringing very expensive drugs in the country. We have groups that are going out of the country now and as Government, we are going to buy directly from manufacturers while we are propping up our local companies to start manufacturing the drugs locally like what we are doing.
I am quite aware that some instruments like open heart surgery are not functional. They are being arranged to be here. I did not say we have medicines. The question was where is the service offered? I thank you.
HON. BRIG. GEN (RTD.) MAYIHLOME: Supplementary question. I am a senior citizen.
THE HON. SPEAKER: No. May I ask Hon. Mayihlome to have a tete-a-tete with the Hon. Minister? We cannot break our own rules.
HON. KASHIRI: My question is directed to the Minister of Agriculture and in his absence, I will direct my question to the acting Leader of Government Business. I would like to know what Government policy is with regards to challenges being faced by livestock farmers especially cattle breeding farmers who have been struck by January disease and have seen the herd gone down.
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Let me thank Hon. Kashiri for that very important question. I think all these years we were actually struggling with January disease and this year Government has taken it upon itself to fight and consider it as a disaster. As we speak, various teams are actually deployed to provinces to fight this menace that has seen our cattle herd being reduced in a serious manner. I want to thank the Hon. Member, that yes January disease has actually caused havoc to the farmers and I will engage my counterpart to bring to the House and explore other channels that he has embarked on to actually reduce the effect of January disease. I thank you.
HON. KASHIRI: Supplementary! Thank you Hon. Minister for your response. You will recall that at one time Zimbabwe was a net exporter of beef to the western countries. What plans do we have as a Government to help the farmers resuscitate the herd as we go forward? I thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: May you repeat your question.
HON. KASHIRI: My question is what plans does Government have to help the farmers resuscitate the herd to what it was before. Thank you.
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): It is also very important that I will pose the same question to my fellow counterpart so that he exposes the avenues that he will bring to this august House.
(v)HON. MUDARIKWA: Thank you Madam Speaker. If we are to import dipping chemicals and all other chemicals related to the treatment of our cattle, we are paying duty, why can we not have a Statutory Instrument to say pay duty free for every dipping chemical for the cattle?
HON. MHONA: I think when it comes to the Statutory Instrument and the duty issue, the Hon. Minister of Finance is in the House, if you may indulge me so that he can respond to that one.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. DR. MAVETERA): The Hon. Minister of Finance, may you please respond.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. CHIDUWA): Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am. Under the Presidential Tick Grease Programme, we were importing tick grease which was meant to fight January disease. Then because of our import substitution programme, we then gave Chemplex Holdings to come up with a strategy where they are working with external companies to manufacture the grease here. So, the tick grease is available locally and there is no need for one to look for duty rebate. I think the issue of the duty rebate falls off. Thank you.
*HON. TSHUMA: On the issue of January disease, we are facing a big problem especially last year 2022, we saw goats being burnt because farmers were trying to bring and sell their livestock to urban areas. Is there no policy that allows those goats to be examined and if they do not have diseases they are returned to their owners rather burning them? I am saying this because it is their source of livelihoods. Thank you.
* HON. MHONA: Thank you Madam Speaker and I also want to thank the Hon. Member for that question. If the law says you cannot move livestock from one place to another, if you take your livestock to other areas, measures will be taken. That is the law but it is up to this House to amend the law if you are no longer happy with it. Thank you.
HON. SANSOLE: Thank you Madam Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. What is the basis of allocation and disbursement of ZINARA funds where some local authorities get a small fraction of what have been allocated whilst others get more than what they will have allocated?
By way of example Madam Speaker, for the year ended 31 December, 2022, Hwange Rural District Council was allocated 96 million and got $25 million dollars while Makonde Rural District Council was allocated $80 million dollars and got $81 million dollars. So one got 26% and the other one got more than 100%. On the uneven allocation, that is the reason why some roads in some parts of the country such as Bulawayo-Victoria Falls have been neglected to the extent that the road has deteriorated to the state that it is in at the moment. Thank you Madam Speaker.
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am and let me also thank Hon. Sansole for that very important mouthful question, in the sense that he started talking about the disbursements, allocation and the Victoria Falls road. Let me address the first part of the question. ZINARA disburses upon programmes and if it is a rural district council or local authority or the Department of Roads or DDF, you present your programmes of the year and after being given the fund, you acquit. The problem is for one local authority to get more and the other one not; the only problem that we have witnessed over years which is very pivotal is the issue of non-existence of engineers who are qualified to even take charge of the works within that particular local authority or rural district council. In the event that you do not acquit, you do not get another allocation.
Madam Speaker, the allocation depends on the manner in which you acquit yourself. You find that if other local authorities get funding they do not justify how they have used the disbursements. ZINARA is not mandated to further disburse if you do not acquit. So you see that others are actually utilising their allocation and others are not.
To then move to the issue that he has raised and also to appraise the House, with the advent of rains, we have seen mushrooming of potholes, whether they are trunk roads or feeder roads within the country. I am happy to advise especially people from Matabeleland and our tourists that now find comfort that Beitbridge/Bulawayo/Victoria Falls Road. We have now identified all those sections that have been affected and in the next week or so, you will see teams moving to rehabilitate damaged sections. However, going forward, we are going to reconstruct the entire stretch from Beitbridge, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls in the same manner we are rehabilitating Harare/Beitbridge. Currently, for the road to be trafficable, we are going to be attending to sections and I can cite one good example; the stretch between Hwange and Victoria Falls where we have got serious potholes.
So, you will see the teams rehabilitating, doing the outstretch overlay which could be 5km or 10kms and then attend to routine maintenance on the other stretch of the road. As we speak, not necessarily Victoria Falls Road, we have also descended on all our major roads and another one I can cite is Harare/Chirundu which was also in a similar sorry state where we are attending to very bad sections. So, this is what we are doing through the Department of Roads. Thank you Madam Speaker.
HON. CHIBAYA: Thank you very much Madam Speaker. In his response, Hon. Mhona alluded to the fact that some local authorities misappropriate funds. As a Ministry, what action have you taken to remedy the situation?
HON. MHONA: Thank you very much Hon. Chibaya for that very important question. I also want to appraise the august House that Hon. Chibaya has asked a topical question in the sense that as a legislature, you superintend over these local authorities. I will be very happy for you to summon before Parliament some of these local authorities through the relevant committees so that they account to the citizenry why they are sleeping on duty whenever they are given funding from ZINARA. Others just sit on the funding and do not do anything knowing very well that the value for money aspect will be eroded. So, we are appealing to the august House to use its oversight role. You are free to engage whoever is not taking seriously funding that is being taped from the fiscus, to appear before Parliament and answer to such charges. I thank you.
HON. T. MOYO: Madam Speaker Maam, my supplementary question to the Hon. Minister concerns roads in rural areas which are in bad shape. Potholes are the order of the day. May the Hon. Minister give us a timeframe as to when those roads will be attended to? Also, the incessant rains that the country is receiving left a number of bridges destroyed. What plans are there to rectify the problems?
HON. MHONA: Thank you Hon. Moyo for the important question. Let me say to the august House that those coming from Rural District Councils, we now have to agree because we know that a number of RDCs have got machinery, be it tippers or graders but were lacking fuel to do their work. So, I want this to be on record that we are going to be assisting the RDCs so that they now avail fuel and can take charge of these bad roads rather than to wait for the Ministry to come and do your roads. You still have your RDCs and local authorities and what we are saying precisely is that for now, make use of the idle machinery that you have within your purview. We have also established that a number of MPs were seized with the matter of fuel for those graders, so we are saying let us agree RDC by RDC on the amount of fuel needed so that we avail that fuel through ZINARA; make sure that you attend to bad roads within the rural communities. As of urban roads, we have flighted a tender for over 15 roads within the great City of Harare and other cities where we are going to take charge of routine maintenance of those roads throughout.
I also want to assure all the other provinces and my fellow Hon. colleague, Hon. Biti that we have flighted a tender which is closing this week for his favourite road, Marondera/Musami. Take comfort, we are descending on the road. I am just mentioning a few but what we have adopted is that we cannot sit and say this road belongs to rural authority or local authority. We now need a holistic approach so that we handle this disaster together as Zimbabweans. I thank you.
HON. MUTSEYAMI: Thank you Madam Speaker, good afternoon to you. My supplementary question to the esteemed Minister, Acting Leader of the House Hon. Mhona, Pastor, is that we have experienced contractors who have done work on most roads throughout the country and done the work shoddily. Some of the roads that they have done are hardly two years old but they have already been involved in serious potholes. What policy have you put in place to manage these contractors who have not been sincere to the requirements of their contracts in terms of doing good work for the good of the citizens? Now that you have this new responsibility of resurfacing these roads which have been damaged as a result of the rainfall, are you going again to involve the same contractors? I thank you.
HON. MHONA: Thank you Hon. Mutseyami for that very important question. It was prevalent in the old era where we were seeing contractors getting away with shoddy work and they were being paid but at the end of the day they did not show the value for that work. Now, we have blacklisted a number in terms of participating in the tendering system where we are not entertaining those who have performed shoddily. The other problem was emanating from failure to do proper procurement, whether from local authorities or RDCs because they lacked the expertise to do and award tenders. You would find that they would continuously engage those companies. Now, we have committees involving Provincial Road Engineers so that when they do the adjudication they can do the checks and balances to ensure that the same contractor has not failed elsewhere.
So, I want to allay the fears that those that did shoddy work and those that were being given tenders maybe through nepotism from RDCs and local authorities and to put it across in terms of corrupt tendencies, it is no longer happening. We now say if we pay now, we do not pay upfront like what used to happen. You have to get a deposit and work, and only when you produce your interim payment certificate do we pay accordingly. We retain a certain percentage so that we are assured that you complete the works. We have seen that with the advent of value for money audits we are not paying. We have seen a number of contractors complaining that Government is not paying but it is because we want them to account for your works and you have to be paid adequately on what you have performed. I also want to engage the august House as you partake in your oversight role, to keep on monitoring such projects together with the Government.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: My question is directed to the Hon. Minister of Home Affairs, my brother Kazembe Kazembe. We have experienced police stations, even at District level, that do not have a single serviceable vehicle and this has literally crippled critical operations of the police to protect our citizens. What is Government doing to equip the police and to ensure that they are able to deliver the services that they are expected of by the Constitution?
THE MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS AND CULTURAL HERITAGE (HON. KAZEMBE): I would like to thank the Hon. Member for such a very pertinent question. I do agree with him that we do need a lot of vehicles in our police stations. I would like to assure him that Government is doing something about it. In fact, we do have vehicles that are on their way. These are coming in batches and we have already received about 100 and we are expecting to receive another 200 in due course. We still need more vehicles. We hope and trust that Treasury will give us the much needed support so that we can ensure that our police have enough resources. I thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Hon. Speaker, the answer from the Hon. Minister is too general and lacks generosity in terms of specificity and facts. I will give you an example Hon. Speaker. Currently, there are problems to do with cattle rustling by cross border criminals from Zambia coming into Binga. Binga Police station, which is the major police station for the whole district, does not have a single vehicle and therefore, we would like the Hon. Minister to inform this House when exactly the nation should expect the delivery of those 100 vehicles?
What will be the priorities in terms of allocations? Will the vehicles be issued to HQ or operational area?
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. DR. MAVETERA): Hon. Sibanda, that question is a bit specific.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: It is not Hon. Speaker.....
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: It needs more detail and it is not a policy one.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: It is a policy question. Allocation of vehicles....
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: It is a specific question....
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: If I can seek your indulgence; allocation of vehicles is a policy issue. It is either as a matter of policy; Government would say we prioritise rural, administrative or urban police stations.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: No, you mentioned quite a number of issues but if you are now talking of that, then I can indulge that. You brought in quite a lot of issues which were specific....
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: I was just giving an example so that there is clarity.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: You went on and said a number of issues. He will respond to the specific one.
HON. KAZEMBE: I believe I answered the first question adequately but I will answer the follow up. For me to know exactly which vehicles will go where, in my view, it is very operational. I believe that the police have the expertise and experience to know exactly which areas to prioritise. Obviously, they will be looking at the statistics and the need per area. Given the limited resource, if we could have it our own way or if we had enough resource, we would have at least one vehicle per station or even more but given the limited resources that we have, we will do with what we have. We hope and trust that Treasury, as we go along, will avail enough resources for us. I can assure you that this is not hearsay. Government has already ordered these vehicles and it is now up to the supplier – they have already supplied because when you order a lot of vehicles at the same time, it is not very practical for them to be supplied at that very same time.
As I earlier on alluded to, we have already received 100. I am sure you have seen some vehicles with ZRP number plates but not yet branded. This is because we were now faced with a number of criminal cases towards festive season and the first batch has only been distributed but we are expecting to receive the second batch maybe end of this month or next month. That is what the supplier promised us. Government will continue to do its utmost to ensure that our police is resourced.
HON. BITI: My supplementary question to the esteemed Minister of Home Affairs is; it is not just the challenge of motor vehicles at police stations that is affecting police service delivery. Even the accommodation of our police officers, some of them are staying in archaic buildings that were built by Garfield Todd in 1952. I make reference to police and prison officers at Chikurubi and Support Unit.
My question is, can the Minister give us assurance that service delivery by the police is facilitated by adequate provision of housing, salaries, uniforms, computers and vehicles?
HON. KAZEMBE: I would like to thank Hon. Biti for a pertinent supplementary question. I do agree with him 100% that our police need to be resourced for them to be efficient and be able to perform their duties. As Government, we are aware of that. In fact, I am aware that Minister Garwe has a programme, not just for the police but for prisons also. Government is seized with that matter – we are planning to ensure that police is self sufficient.
I always talk about the electronic integrated solution, in my view that is the way to go. We have already embarked on this. It is a fact that we need to up the game. People commit offences everyday and given the system that we are using now, it is difficult to follow them up and make sure that they pay so that at least police is resourced. By introducing the electronic integrated solution, this is going to be something of the past. As I have always alluded to in my presentation in various platforms. The system that we are using, we have already started deploying this system where offences are detected electronically. If it is speeding, it is detected electronically, you are fined electronically and you are made to pay. That way, I hope and trust that our revenues will increase.
I agree with Hon. Biti that we need to do more and ensure that we resource the police in terms of ICT, vehicles and everything else. We are in the process and I have said we have started doing that, we have already ordered vehicles and we are also in the process of ordering a lot of other things to ensure that our police are well taken care of. I thank you.
Questions Without Notice were interrupted by the TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. DR. MAVETERA) in terms of Standing Order No. 68.
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITH NOTICE
DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS BY ZINARA ANNUALLY PROVINCE BY PROVINCE SINCE 2013
- HON. MARKHAM asked the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development which administers the Zimbabwe National Roads Authority (ZINARA) to inform the House:
a) how much ZINARA distributed annually province by province from all monies collected per enterprise since 2013;
b) how much money was collected by ZINARA in the City of Harare per annum since 2013 and how much was paid out to the City of Harare over that period;
c) confirm the payments to Univern or its subsidiary in terms of commissions in relation to other contracts and goods supplied; and
d) progress made with Univern in relation to
i) reducing the commission
ii) enforcing the penalty clause in the agreement to supply graders.
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Hon. Madam Speaker. I want to thank Hon. Markham for the very detailed questions. On question 10(a). Hon. Madam Speaker ZINARA was formed by an Act of Parliament, the Roads Act [Chapter 13:18]. Subject to the Act ZINARA’s first two functions are -
(a) in consultation with the Minister and the Minister responsible for finance, to fix road user charges and to collect such charges or any other revenue of the Road Fund.
(b) to allocate and disburse to road authorities’ funds from the Road Fund in accordance with rules prescribed by the Road Administration. In pursuance to these functions, below are the province –by province disbursement figures released to road authorities for the years 2013 to 2022.
Amounts in Zimbabwean dollars
|
2022 |
2021 |
2020 |
2019 |
2018 |
2017 |
2016 |
2015 |
2014 |
2013 |
Dept of Roads |
15458537015 |
4102299541 |
356508916 |
49668270 |
87912497 |
26555281 |
17825940 |
14669350 |
8771656 |
15945054 |
Dist. Dev Fund |
8123542819 |
2026243060 |
153155985 |
12000000 |
19647814 |
20249962 |
6925057 |
3498853 |
1085000 |
2277999 |
Hre Metropolitan |
1737095631 |
332008002 |
93272682 |
15970073 |
25366260 |
18529057 |
3310882 |
2360494 |
1376386 |
4764921 |
Byo Metropolitan |
266119990 |
128801008 |
16402648 |
5360761 |
1818104 |
6134058 |
889217 |
974045 |
729015 |
|
Mash East |
620022854 |
284578155 |
33521474 |
2472306 |
4154629 |
5074187 |
1386476 |
1560416 |
640369 |
2434471 |
Mash West |
976988887 |
634534036 |
48026658 |
7571547 |
7545655 |
4003365 |
2016612 |
4277962 |
4878644 |
3677085 |
Manicaland |
607589905 |
321533003 |
40824265 |
9549501 |
4178798 |
5640955 |
2035087 |
1820800 |
588212 |
2872103 |
Mash Central |
483809995 |
352031216 |
27319497 |
4491558 |
3313889 |
1955852 |
1433634 |
1418773 |
166747 |
3785241 |
Masvingo |
469742925 |
413630961 |
24397444 |
4326385 |
2730508 |
2989442 |
908474 |
1542743 |
522191 |
1426040 |
Midlands |
892455550 |
402199707 |
49205628 |
5118128 |
7184794 |
5537151 |
3139310 |
2287771 |
781865 |
1992272 |
Mat North |
422937305 |
327993857 |
218030012933699 |
3391053 |
2238272 |
3608413 |
1358736 |
2860281 |
3195536 |
1544040 |
Mat. South |
550276282 |
179145305 |
31965770 |
2933699 |
3814527 |
3913266 |
1155932 |
1471989 |
500000 |
2370263 |
Totals |
30609119157 |
9504997853 |
896403967 |
112853281 |
169905757 |
104190989 |
42385357 |
38743477 |
24672621 |
43089489 |
- b) On question 10(b), Mr. Speaker Sir ZINARA appointed ZIMPOST as the collection agent in 2010. This was followed by introducing the Zimbabwe Licensing System (ZIMLIC system) in March 2012 and ever since the collection of Vehicle Licence Fees has been through the computerised system. ZIMLIC system recognises entire collections made by ZINARA as an entity. It does not isolate collections made geographically. Effectively, Hon. Speaker Sir, the request by Hon. Markham to know how much ZINARA collected in Harare alone is therefore not possible. In addition, the Harare metropolitan province as the capital has been central in offering license fee payment convenience to the motoring public countrywide.
The collections have been through ZINARA’s own efforts aided by collection agents such as ZIMPOST and various banking and insurance institutions nationwide. As request by Hon. Markham, below are the disbursements, per the prescribed rules, to the City of Harare for the period 2013 to 2022. Let me quickly point out that disbursements allocation is derived from a scientific formula entrenched in the using road condition survey. The formula incorporates the length of road coverage and the type of road network. The formula is meant to ensure that all Road Authorities within the country benefit from the Road Fund.
The following are the disbursements that were done to the City of Harare.
Amounts in Zimbabwe dollars
|
2022 |
2021 |
2020 |
2019 |
2018 |
2017 |
2016 |
2015 |
2014 |
2013 |
City of Hre disbursements |
1431259166 |
198998388 |
86104212 |
15061193 |
23419853 |
17352482 |
2888066 |
2009823 |
202975 |
218963 |
Annual allocations |
1728489526 |
1359039142 |
86104212 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mr. Speaker Sir, kindly note that the City of Harare is part of the four Road Authorities forming the Harare Metropolitan Province, with the other local authorities being Ruwa, Epworth and Chitungwiza. For the ten years under review, the City of Harare has been averaging allocations well 70% of the Harare Metropolitan budget.
On the third question (c) Mr. Speaker in March 2012, ZINARA entered into an agreement with Univern Enterprises to manage the supply and implementation of fully computerised integrated solutions throughout Zimbabwe that included the following.
- Consolidated licencing
- Tolling; and
- Any other future software solutions required by ZINARA
For those efforts, ZINARA agreed to pay commission as follows;
- 5% of the total gross transactions value for the vehicle licence system;
- 16% on the total gross transaction value of fees collected through the tolling system.
- 77% of the total value for the transit fees.
The table below summarises what Univern has been paid in terms of commission per revenue stream and for the grader maintenance contract.
CATEGORY |
2013 (USD) |
2014 (USD) |
2015 (USD) |
2016 (USD) |
2017 (USD) |
2018 (USD) |
2019 (USD) |
2019 (ZWL) |
2020 (USD) |
2020 (ZWL) |
2021 (USD) |
2021 ZWL |
2022 (USD) |
2022 (ZWL) |
Transit |
|
466 996.74 |
2 441 298.57 |
4 789 163.10 |
4 839 076.64 |
1 287 032.35 |
4 246 134.28 |
|
4 617 848.63 |
|
4 462 099.32 |
|
3 980 531.29 |
|
Tolling |
|
2 612 395.17 |
7 378 668.78 |
2 114 472.95 |
6 589 299.52 |
4 921 442.14 |
|
15 544 305.27 |
|
97 276 245.19 |
636 762.19 |
213 497 762.58 |
2 016 309.98 |
1 749 672 951.06 |
Radio licencing |
|
130 530.86 |
256 899.56 |
71 357.95 |
432 317.36 |
453 140.44 |
|
244 876.58 |
|
3 330 622.55 |
|
12 543 841.26 |
|
177 585 846.81 |
Grader maintenance and other |
|
3 346 007.13 |
649 405.30 |
5 415 566.32 |
9 157 096.64 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vehicle licencing |
|
13 053 086.00 |
15 816 765.43 |
9 260 410.74 |
13 930 964.10 |
24 902 682.28 |
|
45 437 409.03 |
|
34 076 554.78 |
|
370 018 646.03 |
|
5 276 534 309.48 |
Total SRTC payments |
19 725 804.74 |
1 960 015.90 |
26 543 037.64 |
21 650 971.06 |
34 948 754.26 |
31 564 297.21 |
4 246 134.28 |
61 226 590.88 |
4 617 848.63 |
445 683 422.52 |
5 098 861.51 |
596 060 252.87 |
5 996 841.27 |
7 203 793 107.35 |
- The last question Hon. Markham seeks to establish progress made with Univern in relation to reducing the commission.
Madam Speaker, negotiations to review various anomalies of the Univern contract were done. The contract is now consolidated to include all systems that were supplied and are being supported by Univern under one agreement. The contract now has a specific timeline unlike the previous open ended contract. The parties are now in the second phase of reviewing the terms of the contract being commission. ZINARA shared a proposed document with Univern to reduce commission downward and engagements are underway.
- Enforcing the penalty clause in the agreement to supply graders.
Madam Speaker, ZINARA and Univern entered into a contract for the supply and delivery of motorised graders on 19 December, 2012 and a service level agreement for the maintenance of the graders on 29 July, 2013. The process of delivering and handing over graders was done in liaison with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development and ZINARA, among other stakeholders. The following processes were undertaken which extended the delivery period from what was initially envisaged;
- The inspection and validation of the suppliers technical capabilities in providing the requested equipment.
- The quality review of manufactured equipment and components.
- The in-country assembly of equipment process.
- The planning and holding of a public and ceremonial hand-over of equipment to ZINARA in the presence of various stakeholders.
After all the processes were done. Graders were handed over to road authorities in July, 2013. I thank you Madam Speaker.
HON. MARKHAM: Thank you Madam Speaker. I would just like to ask a supplementary question but I have to explain the question for point (b) on the collections.
The revenue collected is by vehicle because that vehicle can go anywhere in the country but it is collected where it is based and the reason I say that Madam Speaker, it is the traffic on the roads that is causing the destruction of the roads. Now, for the Minister to say that they cannot isolate where revenue is - it means their formula of distribution cannot be done correctly. My issue is very simple.
We go on to section (d) my second supplementary according to what the Minister has just said that the revenue collection prior to ZimPost was done by the local authorities for free. That means between 16% and 17% paid to Univern for collecting the fees was being done by all the local authorities in this country for free.
So my question was; if it was for free and it was working and you could identify how many vehicles were in each local authority, why did you change it and pay someone 17% for doing that job when it was being done for free properly? So you have taken the revenue streams away from all the provinces, all the districts, from all the rural councils. You have taken their road revenue away and given it to someone else and then you expect them to fix the road. It is impossible.
So the Minister has confirmed. I know you have taken the revenue stream, given it to someone else yet you still expect the local authorities to fix the road. I am telling the House now, they cannot. My question is; the new contract should be brought to this House and that is a separate statement which I will be asking for. I thank you.
HON. MHONA: Thank you Madam Speaker. This is not new to this august House and I wonder why Hon. Markham did not take that opportunity to interrogate issues when ZINARA appeared before this august House regarding the same issue before us and for him to now then bring back this issue through question and answer.
Madam Speaker, with your indulgence, I think if the Hon. Member was not happy with the submissions that were given by ZINARA when they were invited by Parliament you should have actually gone through and posed the same questions that were actually posed to ZINARA so that we do not engage in a debate where I will start answering for ZINARA in this august House now, but to answer him Madam Speaker, ZINARA is taking charge of all the funding of the roads, not necessarily the local authorities. So for us to say Harare, and I remember those days one would register even his or her vehicle outside the purview of Harare so that they would go and say it is cheaper to register elsewhere within the great city but you would see the same car plying the city roads.
So there were gaps also in that collection system that has been highlighted by Hon. Markham, but what I do not want to engage in this particular debate Madam Speaker, is if the Hon. Member has got questions, still it is within their powers to invite ZINARA and seek clarity further to the questions that he has raised, but precisely I was responding to the questions as they have appeared on the Order Paper and also to say that has been taken away.
Hon. Markham, the issue to do with the City of Harare in terms of maintenance, we are saying the argument that was before ZINARA and City of Harare was, even that little that you got, how did you utilise that funding, which is also another question for another day to say even if you say it is little, the two million, how are you acquitting? So there is also another issue of failure to acquit even for the meager allocation that you received. City of Harare is not accounting to that.
So Madam Speaker, I think the other issues that I have seen here and how detailed the questions are, Hon. Markham is still at liberty to further interrogate ZINARA, but for your comfort, the consolidated contract, we must remember that we did not even have an end date to the previous contracts that we all agree were not done properly and for your comfort, we also have another one that is just expiring within a few months from now which was also involving number plates and we are saying this one is now less than 24 months. Even this is very topical; we now have an end date so that we start disengaging from the contract and that we also have, for business continuity, others taking charge and we are saying we can only do it ourselves as Zimbabweans to run some of the affairs as highlighted by Hon. Markham, of which I do concur that some of these services, we can actually do it within the country and precisely this is what the Government is seized with. Thank you Madam Speaker.
HON. MARKHAM: Madam Speaker for clarity, I will be very brief. I was a Member of the Public Accounts Committee when ZINARA came to Parliament. So all these questions were asked, however ZINARA, when it came to the crunch, failed to attend and that was never followed up by the said Committee. They failed to come. In fact they refused to come to the House. So I have asked the question before and I have asked them in this House before and I will continue asking it. I thank you.
HON. CHIKWINYA: On a point of order Madam Speaker.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: What is your point of order Hon. Chikwinya?
HON. CHIKWINYA: My point of order arises from the response by the Hon. Minister to direct the Member to ask the questions to a particular parastatal which is ZINARA which falls under his jurisdiction.
As Members of Parliament, we ask the Ministers because they superintend these parastatals and because they are specific questions, the Minister had time to go and interrogate these parastatals and bring back the answers. So I think you may want to direct us because the Hon. Minister is misleading the House by directing the Hon. Member to go back to Committee Stage yet we are allowed in terms of Standing Rule 107 to ask the Minister specific questions so that he has got enough time to investigate and give us answers. Otherwise there is no point in having Questions with Notice.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, I am sure the Hon. Minister responded to the questions that Hon. Markham asked. Of course, he said maybe we can then be having a very lengthy debate of some things that we mentioned before in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Like what I heard now, the PAC also attended and I hear that the Chairperson had to submit a report in this House concerning the ZINARA Report. I thank you.
HON. BITI: Madam Speaker Ma’am, my question to the esteemed Minister, Dr. Mhona is that you recall that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) presented a report to this august House. In that report which actually was made pursuant to the 2016 Audit Report which was commissioned by yourself, in the form of Minister Joram Gumbo, the findings of the PAC report which was adopted by Parliament was that the granting of the contract to UNIVERN was not consistent with the Procurement Act and evidence was produced to show that the Procurement Board never set. One of the things that both the Audit Report raise and the PAC made a finding, was that it was unfair for ZINARA to pay these huge amounts of monies that are contained in your answer today to UNIVERN when we owned the vehicles, when we own the database for the vehicles that are moving here and when UNIVERN had not constructed a single tollgate.
So my question to the Minister is that, should we not just cancel the agreement as was accepted by Parliament as opposed to negotiating with people who have taken millions and millions of USD from our country? That was in fact accepted by Parliament. They have looted enough of our resources. If you compare the monies and I have not looked at your figures, but I am quite sure that the money that has gone to UNIVERN is more than what ZINARA had actually distributed to Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central, Matabeleland North and so forth. For what - for software, I ask that we revisit UNIVERN; they have looted enough. I thank you.
HON. MHONA: Thank you Hon. Madam Speaker Ma’am. Just also to respond to what Hon. Chikwinya said. It is still the right of this august House to summon the Minister, together with the board. When I was referring to Hon. Markham citing the Committee business, it is still relevant because if there were some gaps, they should have also invited the Minister, together with the board or the parastatal to answer to certain questions. Also to say, this was a problematic contract and we must admit that it was done in a manner that was unacceptable. The fact that it did not have an end date, we needed to have an end date to start from.
Precisely, that is what has been taken on board by Government to say we now need to agree that these contracts are going to end but we cannot do it abruptly, to say take your bags and leave. There are systems in place. We need continuity in terms of business. They cannot just shut the system and say we take over. The person who is taking over must be ready to take over and this is what we are doing as Government. We are taking over and I have cited a very good contract of number plates which is ending in August.. The sooner the locals are ready to take over, they will take over. We have started disengaging from UNIVERN. So, we cannot say we have given them a lifetime.
They were arguing to say their contracts are ending 2029/2030 but we said alas, we cannot continue with this contract which was a one pager or whatever. We need even to regularise and make sure that we are in line. We cannot wake up the following day and say we do not want them. We need to take over from them and we have done that in terms of the database, which was also another problem where the database was still within their purview. We have taken over the database and it is now within the confines of Government. What we are saying now, for us to then say they must pack their bags and leave, I think this is precisely what we are doing. We are less than 24 months for them to end their contracts. So we are basically taking over the systems.
We are saying at the end of the day, for a contract that did not have an end date; we managed to sit and say we need this to have finality in terms of the contract arrangement. Precisely, this is what the Government is doing. For us even if we say we cancel today, who is taking over tomorrow? This is a process which we cannot say we will shut down our systems. Again, the questions emanated from the Committee that was summoned before this august House and they have to justify the continuity of this contract, if you check the records. Precisely, I do concur that it was a bad contract, no one disputes that. We are now saying we are in our stages of regularising and precisely this is what we have done. I thank you.
Questions with Notice were interrupted by THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER in terms of Standing Order Number 68.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
HON. T. MOYO: I move that Orders of the Day, Numbers 1 to 5; 7 to 12 and 14 to 25, be stood over until Orders of the Day, Numbers 13 and 26 have been disposed of in that order.
HON. DR. MURIRE: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
CONSIDERATION STAGE
INSTITUTE OF LOSS CONTROL AND PRIVATE SECURITY BILL [H. B. 5A, 2022]
Amendments to Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 13, Part VI, and new Parts VII, VIII put and agreed to.
Bill, as amended, adopted.
Third Reading: With leave, forthwith.
THIRD READING
THE INSTITUTE OF LOSS CONTROL AND PRIVATE SECURITY MANAGERS BILL [H. B. 5A, 2022]
HON. DR. MURIRE: Madam Speaker, I move that the Bill be read the third time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the third time.
MOTION
DELEGATION REPORT OF THE BILATERAL VISIT TO INDIA BY A PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION LED BY HON. ADV. JACOB FRANCIS NZWIDAMILIMO MUDENDA SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT
HON. SHAMU: Thank you Madam Speaker. I move the motion standing in my name that this House takes note of the Delegation Report of the Bilateral Visit to India by a Parliamentary Delegation led by Hon. Adv. Jacob Francis Nzwidamilimo Mudenda, Speaker of Parliament from 5 to 12 December, 2022.
HON. DR. MURIRE: I second.
HON. SHAMU: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am. I rise to give a report on the bilateral visit to India.
- INTRODUCTION
Hon. Advocate Jacob Francis Nzwidamilimo Mudenda, Speaker of Parliament, undertook an official visit to India from 5-12 December 2022, at the invitation of his counterpart, Hon. Om Birla, Speaker of Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament). The Hon Speaker was accompanied by the following Members of Parliament who are also members of the Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, namely:
- Webster Shamu, Member of Parliament and Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade;
- Priscilla Moyo, Member of Parliament;
- Reuben Chikudo, Member of Parliament; and
- Support staff.
The Parliamentary delegation was received at the Indira Ghandi International (IGI) Airport, New Delhi, by the Ambassador of the Republic of Zimbabwe to India, H. E. Dr. Godfrey M. Chipare and the Joint Secretary and Chief of Protocol, Lok Sabha Secretariat, Dr. Ajay Kumar. Also present to welcome the delegation were Hon. Ravi Kushansukla, Member of Parliament for Uttra Pradesh Constituency and Hon. Sahib Sigh, Member of Parliament for Delhi.
The delegation extends its appreciation to H.E. Dr. Chipare and his able staff for facilitating the attendant logistical and administrative arrangements during the visit.
2.0 TOUR OF NEHRU PLANETARIUM, TEEN MURTI BHAWAN
The delegation’s first engagement on 6th December 2022 was the tour of Teen Murti Bhawan and Nehru’s Planetarium, a museum and library that displays the cosmological system of the galaxy and promotes astrological education. The elegant building was constructed as the official residence of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army from 1929 to 1930. With the attainment of Independence, the Teen Murti House became the first official residence of independent India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who lived there from 1948 to the time of his death in 1964. Prime Minister Nehru was passionate about science and technology education, astrology as well as the socio-economic development of India. Upon Nehru’s death, the Government of India converted the Teen Murti House into a befitting memorial that would perpetuate Prime Minister Nehru’s passion for education. The Museum ingeniously displays a series of inter-linked exhibitions depicting the different phases of colonial history as well as the epic story of the struggle for independence through contemporary photographs, photocopies of manuscripts, letters, newspapers, periodicals and other historic documentary materials. The Nehru Planet further showcases India’s cosmic heritage, the new solar system and the life story of the galaxy’s cosmological geospatial formation.
The delegation took a keen interest on how renewable energy in the form of solar power can generate electricity.
3.0 MEETING WITH THE ZIMBABWE INDIA TRADE COUNCIL BUSINESS DELEGATION
On the 7th December 2022, the delegation met with the Zimbabwe India Trade Council Business (ZITC) delegation led by its President, Dr. Asif Iqbal.
The well - attended meeting which brought together businessmen from cross cutting sectors, including health and pharmaceuticals, construction, hospitality, nutritional foods and winery was made possible through the facilitation of our Zimbabwe Ambassador to India, His Excellency, G. M. Chipare (Dr).
The Hon. Speaker addressed the business community from a legislative perspective in view of Parliament’s role in ensuring a conducive legal environment for business to thrive. In this context, he presented an overview of the investment climate and legislation in Zimbabwe, particularly the enactment of legislation creating the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA), the one – stop - shop investment services centre for ease of doing business in Zimbabwe. Additionally, he informed the business delegates of the reform of the taxation and visa regimes which spurs foreign direct investment.
Hon. Advocate Mudenda articulated Zimbabwe’s National Vision 2030 aimed at achieving an Upper-Middle Economy anchored on the Presidential mantra “Zimbabwe is Open for Business”. Accordingly, he implored the Indian business community to explore the various investment opportunities in Zimbabwe, a country with a sound constitution that respects the Bill of Rights, including the protection of property rights. Zimbabwe is also a preferred tourist destination that boasts of the Victoria Falls, one of UNESCO’s Seven Wonders of the World.
The Hon. Speaker also shared some of the Second Republic’s progressive policies such as the education 5.0 which strives to stimulate industrial growth through science and technology at the tertiary innovation hubs and industrial parks. The Hon. Speaker indicated that through Parliamentary oversight, Parliament would work closely with the Executive to ensure the execution of signed business Memoranda between India and Zimbabwe.
Speaking on behalf of the membership of the ZITC, Dr. Iqbal expressed the ZITC’s keen interest in investing in Zimbabwe. To this end, the ZITC has, in the past year, dispatched 3 delegations to Zimbabwe to explore opportunities with the intention of establishing a pharmaceutical company with the aim of producing affordable medical products for both domestic and foreign markets as well as establishing an India/SADC Millet Research Centre to be based in Zimbabwe, among other business initiatives.
4.0 COURTESY CALL ON SMT. DROUPADI MURMU, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDIA
On the 7th December 2022, the delegation paid a courtesy call on Smt. Droupadi Murmu, the 15th President of the Republic of India.
Commenting on the existing relations between Zimbabwe and India, Her Excellency, the President, Smt Droupadi Murmur, recalled the high level visits between the two countries with the latest visit from Zimbabwe being that of the First Lady of Zimbabwe, Her Excellency, Dr. Auxillia Mnangagwa, who visited India in May 2022 whereupon she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by G. D. Goenka University. Her Excellency applauded the cordial ties between the two countries with India having extended support and cooperation to Zimbabwe before and after independence. To date, the cooperation has included the extension of credit lines for investment projects and aid in the form of 75 000 doses of the COVID -19 vaccine, donation of 20 ambulances to the State and 950 sewing machines donated to the Angel of Hope Foundation led by the First Lady, Dr. A. Mnangagwa.
With regards to the internal situation in India, the President noted that India was acknowledged as the world’s oldest constitutional democracy that is truly representative of the people. In this context, she briefed the delegation on the structure and composition of the Indian Parliament.
Furthermore, the President encouraged the Parliament of Zimbabwe and the Parliament of India to foster a positive working relationship through sharing experiences and learning Parliamentary best practices.
In response, the Hon. Speaker expressed his gratitude for the excellent hospitality extended to the delegation and extended fraternal warm regards from her counterpart, His Excellency, Dr E.D. Mnangagwa. Furthermore, he expressed his gratitude for the aid and support extended to Zimbabwe in the various sectors, in particular, health and education. The Hon. Speaker assured the President that the Parliament is committed to putting in place a sound legal framework for the ease of doing business to facilitate trade and investment opportunities between Zimbabwe and India.
The Hon. Speaker noted the historical similarities in the two countries’ struggle against colonial rule highlighting that Zimbabwe’s national liberation movement had been inspired by the legendary Mahatma Gandhi, the founding father of India. That inspiration by Mahatma Gandhi was pervasive throughout the entire African continent.
The courtesy call on the President is testimony to the commitment by both Zimbabwe and India to ensuring that the long standing relations between the two sister republics continues to grow from strength to strength.
5.0 VISIT TO RAJGHAT
On 8th December 2022, the delegation visited the Rajghat to pay their respect to the iconic and legendary Mahatma Gandhi’s mausoleum. The Rajghat is a memorial garden to Mahatma Gandhi and houses his mausoleum. It features a black marble platform which marks the spot of Mahatma Gandhi’s cremation and resting place. His last words “Oh Lord” are inscribed on the marble platform. The marble platform is always adorned with flowers and there is also an eternal flame at its head.
The Hon. Speaker laid a wreath in honour of Mahatma Gandhi, founding father of the Indian nation. The delegation observed a minute of silence in honour of Mahatma Gandhi’s memory.
6.0 VISIT TO THE INDIAN PARLIAMENT
On the 8th December 2022, the delegation toured the Parliament Building, specifically the Parliament’s Reading Room as well as the Library. The Reading Room is the venue for a Joint Sittings of the two Houses used when the President addresses Parliament and the nation. The President addresses Parliament annually to set out the Legislative Agenda for the Legislature in a similar fashion to our Presidential State of the Nation Address.
The delegation toured the impressive Library which was established in 1921. The Library boasts of 1.7 million documents and literary works comprising reference books, parliamentary publications, newspapers and gazettes. It also houses the cased original copy of the Constitution of India which has been preserved in its handwritten form. The Library also has a section dedicated to books authored by sitting Members of Parliament.
Furthermore, the delegation had the privilege to observe the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) and the Lok Sabha (Lower House) in Session during oral questions. Of note is that the Members of Parliament pose concise and incisive questions relating to issues affecting their constituencies within three minutes per each Member of Parliament’s delivery. The Ministers do not respond immediately but do so in writing.
7.0 MEETING WITH THE CHAIRMAN OF THE RAJYA SABHA
The Hon. Speaker and Hon. Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar, Vice President of the Republic of India and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House) exchanged views on strengthening democracy and democratic institutions, global challenges, including climate change, the fight against COVID -19 pandemic, global peace with special reference to the need for a peaceful resolution in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and issues of equality in advancing national development.
The Chairman articulated the positive strides made by India in various areas, including sustainable health delivery and pharmaceuticals, development of ICT’s, digital connectivity from the village level, infrastructure development, provision of clean running water and rural electrification. He opined that development can only be underpinned by democratic principles.
Of particular note is that India achieved its milestone in the fight against COVID-19 from a scientific perspective wherein vaccinated citizens appeared on digital data. India also produced affordable vaccines which were accessible to all countries on a need basis.
The Hon. Speaker Mudenda acknowledged the critical role played by the iconic Mahatma Gandhi in inspiring Africa liberation movements in Africa, particularly Southern Africa. The idea of constitutional democracy was well received on the African continent. In this context, the Hon. Speaker Mudenda applauded India for its revered Constitution.
Hon. Speaker Mudenda furthermore, articulated the role of the Parliament of Zimbabwe in crafting laws for the ease of doing business and Zimbabwe’s hope of attracting investors from India. He pledged to continue supporting India’s progressive positions at the international fora as well as commending India’s assumption of the G20 leadership which it was hoped Zimbabwe’s call for the removal of sanctions and its desire to re-join the Commonwealth would be advocated by India within the G20 countries.
With regards to issues that need special attention at the international fora, the Hon. Speaker Mudenda who is a member of the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), highlighted that climate change and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine should be given prominence. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has destabilised the global economy and created grain shortages, particularly in developed countries. There is, therefore, a need for diplomatic demarches to resolve the conflict expeditiously. India’s G20 leadership is expected to play a critical role in this regard.
8.0 MEETING WITH THE SPEAKER OF THE LOK SABHA
On the 8th December 2022, the delegation met with His Excellency, Shri Om Birla, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. The two Speakers discussed possible areas of cooperation between Zimbabwe and India and explored ways of strengthening relations between the two legislatures through the exchange of best practices. It was agreed that the relations should cascade to the Members of Parliament. Accordingly, a Friendship Association between the two legislatures would be formally established in order to cement Parliamentary diplomacy between the two institutions. The two Speakers agreed to stand together in debating international issues such as climate change whenever they met at the international fora such as at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
The Hon. Speaker Mudenda congratulated India on her assumption of the leadership of the G20 and expressed confidence in India’s able stewardship of the group. Furthermore, he commended India’s impressive achievements in pharmaceuticals and her selfless efforts in distributing COVID-19 vaccines to all countries in need.
The Host Speaker briefed the delegation on India’s parliamentary system highlighting the vibrant democracy which recognises multi-party democracy and constitutionalism. In this context, the Speaker called on the two legislatures to strengthen and preserve democratic practices, constitutionalism and accountability in their respective countries.
Hon. Speaker Mudenda shared the structure and composition of the Parliament of Zimbabwe. Similar to India, the Hon. Speaker noted that Zimbabwe is a multi-party Parliamentary democracy. He emphasised that democracy is an evolving phenomenon. Accordingly, each country should come up with own tenets of democracy benchmarked by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
With regards to India’s leadership of the G20, the Host Speaker expressed national pride given the country’s mantra of ‘One earth, One family, One future’. This, therefore, calls for collective action on global issues under the banner of multilateralism.
9.0 VISIT TO HUMAYUN’S TOMB
On the 9th December 2022, the delegation toured the mausoleum of Humayun, a World Heritage monument build near River Yamuna by the Emperor Humayun’s first wife, Begum Bega, to immortalize the memory of her late husband. Humayun was a scholar with an interest in Turkish and Persian literature, philosophy, mathematics and astronomy.
Though the Emperor died in 1556, it was not until 1565 that the construction for the monument began. After seven years of construction, the tomb and the surrounding Garden were completed in 1572. Given the grandeur of the memorial, it is no surprise that the construction cost came to 1.5million rupees, which was completely borne by Begum Bega.
The mausoleum is a memorable landmark in the history of Indian architecture as it provides a synthesis of Persian and Indian imaginative geometrical architectural prism designs. The Chief architect was of Persian origin. The structure was constructed using three types of stone, sandstone, marble and quartzite.
The mausoleum is made up of several cells, with the central one containing the grave of Emperor Humayun and the other cells containing more than 150 graves of the Emperor’s close relatives, the late Mughal Emperors and their kith and kin as well as other outstanding luminaries.
Of particular interest to the delegation was how the tomb was well preserved and open to the public for guided tours. The tomb is clear testimony that it is never too late to start preserving a country’s national heritage given that it was neglected over centuries until the 20th century when the tomb’s complex was restored to its original form at the order of Lord Curzon, the tenth Viceroy of India. The delegation was impressed by India’s reverence of its cultural heritage which anchors its domestic and foreign tourism.
10.0 VISIT TO THE TAJ MAHAL
On the 10th December 2022, the delegation travelled to the city of Agra for a tour of the magnificent mausoleum of Taj Mahal. It is a recognized masterpiece of the World Heritage and one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The mausoleum was constructed by order of Shah Jahan. He was the fifth Mughal Emperor and devoted the construction of the Taj Mahal to his celebrated and much beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
The legend behind the building of the phenomenal Taj Mahal is the eternal love story between the Emperor and Mumtaz Mahal who worked as a vendor at a local market. The Indian ruler was so captivated by her exquisite beauty that he instantly married her. After 19 years of marriage, Mumtaz Mahal died while giving birth to their 14th child. The Emperor was so devastated and consequently depressed about the death of his gorgeous young wife so much that he wanted to immortalize her. He, therefore, ordered the construction of the most beautiful mausoleum in the world which took 22 years to complete under the employment of 20 000 workers.
The most remarkable and phenomenal component of the Indian Taj Mahal is the white marble dome. The walls are laid with the polished translucent marble with elements of precious stones and gems (pearls, sapphire, agate, malachite, carnelian and stones). The interior is decorated with abstract symbol sand lines from the Koran. The Taj Mahal was constructed in accordance with the Islam religious traditions.
The Taj Mahal is considered to be the pearl of Muslim art in India and the eloquent example of imposing architectural designs in Moghuls’ time. It combines Indian, Persian and Arabic unique architectural elements.
The delegation was particularly impressed by the fact that the construction of the iconic Taj Mahal was undertaken through purely geometrical imaginative visual formations in order to achieve 3D dimensional poise. There was no use of modern architectural equipment such as computers. The awe-inspiring Taj Mahal is now a world-renowned tourist destination. It attracts 10 million tourists annually, 7 million of whom are local tourists. Zimbabwe can emulate India’s experience in establishing well-groomed cultural heritage centres which can become landmarks for accelerated and enviable tourism destinations.
At this point in time of presenting my speech, may I request you to allow the ICT Department to play the interview that Adv. Mudenda did hold whilst we were on this trip. If I may ask the technical department to play the interview for Hon. Members.
Hon. Members were shown a video of the interview that Advocate Mudenda held whilst they were on the bilateral visit to India.
HON. SHAMU: I thought that Parliament should hear from the horses’ mouth what it is that we met, saw and learnt when we were in India and that these trips are not joy rides but they are serious important missions that are aimed at ensuring that we improve the economic performance of our own country.
11.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
The delegation recommends that the Minister of Energy and Power Development, Hon Zhemu Soda visits India as a matter of priority, for the purposes of benchmarking technology efficiencies and effectiveness of the power development capabilities with particular focus on both utility and off-grid renewable energy generation, including solar, hydrogen, biogas and hydro facilities.
The delegation recommends the immediate establishment of a Zimbabwe-India Friendship Association which will galvanise the relations between the two legislatures. As agreed upon during the meeting with the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, it is imperative for cooperation between the two legislatures to cascade to the Members of Parliament through exchange visits and sharing best practices in parliamentary processes for the mutual benefit of the general citizenry of the two countries.
The delegation recommends that Parliament, through the Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs and international Trade, ensures that all signed memoranda between the two sister republics be implemented expeditiously through the aegis is of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
Our Government should be encouraged to reverently preserve publicly at the new Parliament complex our original Independence Lancaster Constitution and our home grown 2013 Constitution as signed into law by the then President.
Zimbabwe boasts several cultural heritage sites which are marketed internationally. These sites should be spruced up architecturally. The Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry should spearhead the process. The time has come to introspect and encourage domestic tourism. This can be done through offering attractive and affordable packages to the local market.
Parliament of Zimbabwe together with the Government of Zimbabwe must strive to promote historical and cultural heritage of Zimbabwe in the mould of the Pan – African Liberation Museum currently under construction near the National Sports Stadium.
12.0 CONCLUSION
The delegation expresses its gratitude to the Parliament of Zimbabwe and the Government for affording it the opportunity to undertake the high-level bilateral exchange visit. In order to give credence to this visit, the delegation calls on Parliament of Zimbabwe, through the Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, to ensure the implementation of recommendations, particularly with regards to sustained and mutually beneficial relations with the India Lok Sabha. I thank you.
HON. T. MOYO: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. TEKESHE: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 9th February, 2023.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
Twenty-Six Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
HON. T. MOYO: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. L. SIBANDA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 9th February, 2023.
On the motion of HON. T. MOYO, seconded by HON. TEKESHE, the House adjourned at Twenty-Eight Minutes to Six o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 7th February, 2023
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY THE HON. SPEAKER
NON-ADVERSE REPORTS RECEIVED FROM THE PARLIAMENTARY LEGAL COMMITTEE
THE HON. SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that I have received non-adverse reports from the Parliamentary Legal Committee on the following:
- Judiciary Laws Amendment Bill [H. B. 3A, 2022]
- Institute of Chartered Loss Control and Private Security
Managers Bill [H. B. 5A, 2022]
3. Criminal Laws Codification and Reform Amendment
Bill [H. B. 15, 2022].
4, Police Amendment Bill [H. B. 1A, 2023].
PROVISIONS OF STANDING ORDER NUMBER 157
THE HON. SPEAKER: I wish to draw the attention of the House to the provisions of Standing Order Number 157 relating to time - [HON. HWENDE: Inaudible interaction] – Hon. Hwende, this is important for you- relating to the time for handing in amendments of Bills. With immediate effect, no amendments will be accepted from Hon. Members on the floor of the House.
+HON. MASUKU: Mr. Speaker Sir, I rise on a matter of national interest. May the Minister of Home Affairs come and give a Ministerial Statement on speed traps on the roads. We no longer see police officers who put speed traps on the road. There are a lot of accidents now because there are no police officers who are controlling motor vehicle speeds. There are a lot of potholes too caused by the rain and the rate of accidents has become high.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Hon. Speaker, my point of national interest arises from the fact that last Friday, ZIMSEC released the Ordinary Level 2022 results. Consequently, 28.96% pass rate was recorded. In the same vein, 5000 students are reported to have had their results withdrawn. I seek that Parliament calls upon the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education to address Parliament on:
a) What measures ZIMSEC is going to take to instill confidence and security of ‘O’ and ‘A’ level examinations because these examinations were marred by excessive leakages resulting in withdrawal.
b) What measures are going to be taken in terms of recourse for those students who believe that genuinely they did not have any pre-access to the examination papers but they have had their results withdrawn? I certainly know of schools where the entire school had particular subjects withdrawn yet some students are arguing that we never had any pre-access.
I seek leave of the House that the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education be called up to give a Ministerial Statement and Members of Parliament interact with the same Minister as they relate the problems coming from various constituencies. – [HON. MUTSEYAMI: Inaudible interjection.] –
THE HON. SPEAKER: Chief Whip, you are supposed to be whipping your members.
HON. T. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, what Hon. Chikwinya has raised is an important issue, but I do not think a Ministerial Statement is good enough. It is limited. I think the Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education should be seized with this because there is more time to do an inquiry. This is the role of the Portfolio Committee. Even in terms of the Manhize mining, the Portfolio Committee on Mines was supposed to call Manhize and find out and then they will be able to exhaust all the issues.
THE HON. SPEAKER: I thought the request was a point of departure. If the Ministerial Statement is unsatisfactory, then the inquiry will follow.
HON. T. MLISWA: On a point of national interest Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: What is your point of national interest?
HON. T. MLISWA: My point of national interest is sad because we seem to be seized with it and I know that it has a lot of unnecessary responsibility. It is about the welfare of the Members of Parliament, in particular their outstanding allowances - they have not received their outstanding allowances from September…
THE HON. SPEAKER: From September last year?
HON. T. MLISWA: Yes
THE HON. SPEAKER: So what were we waiting for Hon. Members?
HON. BITI: We have been engaging through the Chief Whips.
THE HON. SPEAKER: I am there. I have got an open door policy, I am there – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] - September, October, November, December, four months then January and now we are in February. Hon. T. Mliswa, answer that one, manga makamirira chii when I am there?
HON. T. MLISWA: Some of the Hon. Members have Chief Whips who represent them. If the Chief Whips fail to represent their people, then that is where I come in.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hazvina mhosva.
HON. T. MLISWA: Kunge zvandakuita ikozvino. I am only a messenger because some people have failed to do their jobs. I do not belong to any political party, but the Members of Parliament have approached me saying that I must convey their messages – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] –
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order Hon. T. Mliswa, sei muchidya manonoko?
HON. T. MLISWA: Tanga tati makatinzwa mukagadzirisa. I would like to thank you for the US$40 000 that we received as it is said that half a loaf is better than nothing, so I want to thank the Government for the disbursement of the US$40 000. On allowances, we did not get our monies, especially after coming from the Pre-budget Seminar. This was in November, so we actually thought that since we had Pre-budget in November, all the outstanding issues would be taken care of. We then went on a break; there are field visits that are also outstanding in terms of payments. The rate was 600 at that time and now it has gone to 1200, so we are merely getting half of what we were supposed to get – [AN HON. MEMBER: Haa Chokuda ngaadzingwe basa uyo.] – So it is really out of that and the Pre-budget Mr. Speaker Sir, also alluded to the fact that the Standing Orders Committee would sit down to come up with a way forward in terms of accommodation and allowances for the Members of Parliament for those who do not stay in hotels. That is also an outstanding issue because the Minister of Finance and Economic Development said that money has already been budgetted for. It was up to the Committee to just sit down and say from this point, people will be given their monies at the end of the month as a result of not staying in hotels.
The other issue is on the car loans that are outstanding. My fellow colleagues are going for primary elections and unfortunately havana zvekufamba nazvo: mota one iyoyo ndiyo yamai, yababa, yeconstituency. I am appealing also on the issue of duty free US$30 000 because it was agreed. Mr. Speaker, if those monies would be disbursed early because I might say farewell to some of my colleagues since some did not make it in primary elections. I do not go for primary elections but these people must leave at least with hope and have something on hand that shows they were working for Parliament - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] –
Hon. Biti having stood up
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Biti, if your want to go to the other side, you can peacefully do so. Ndotaura Shona – chekutanga, mwana asingacheme anofira mumbereko. Kechipiri, regai kudya manonoko. I am there all the time and you just come and let me know this is the situation. Now five months is not good enough, so we will take it up with the Minister of Finance and Economic Development to ensure that your outstanding allowances are paid.
Secondly, those who still do not have the vehicles as agreed with the Minister of Finance will have the funds in their Nostro accounts at the latest by next week because this is long overdue. Hon. T. Mliswa, iwe urikumirira vanhu vane mapoka avo. Dai watangisa rako boka pamwe zvinhu zvaizofamba.
HON. T. MLISWA: Renyu iroro ndiro rangu asi ndingori kunze.
HON. MARKHAM: Good afternoon Mr. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, Hon. Member Mataranyika hatitaure nyaya dzevarungu munomu – [AN HON. MEMBER: It is Hon. Zhou] - Who is it? Is it Hon. Zhou? Hon. Zhou, hatina varungu panapa, we have Members of Parliament. Thank you.
HON. MARKHAM: Thank you for your protection Hon. Speaker. I do not care what he calls me. He is irrelevant to me. Hon. Speaker, my point of national interest is very important. We are coming up to an election. We hear on social media, ZEC included, that they are going to do another round of what are called the blitz registration. I think it is important that ZEC comes clean and tell us when and where they are going to do this.
However, I relate to a point that I brought up four times already. The Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage promised us that he would go back and at your insistence, leave no one behind and register all the unregistered people left behind when he did his blitz. That was five months ago. To date, he has not come up even with a statement that he was requested to bring. You cannot register to vote without IDs.
In Hatcliffe, I have over 2000 people who have not registered. They have no IDs. In what we call makomboni kuzasi uku kuBorrowdale, we have at least 500 people who have not registered. This is disenfranchisement of the population. What is of serious concern to me is the Minister, four months after your insistence, has still not brought a statement to this House. I can only believe it is deliberate.
Mr. Speaker, finally I would just like to raise a point of national interest on four points I brought up of which I know you are aware. I asked on a point of national interest on the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement to bring a statement to this House on payments to wheat farmers - nothing. I asked the same Minister; and you were not in the Chair at the time, on a programme with the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) called ’Re-entry’ which was blocking all stop orders so farmers could sell their tobacco without stop orders being deducted. To date, we have had nothing from the Minister.
In both times, the Chief Whip was instructed to instruct the Minister to bring a statement to this House. Nothing happened. I have requested on numerous occasions for the Justice Uchena Report. To date, I have not had an answer. It must be close to 20 times I have brought this issue and I know your offices have been involved because they are the only people who have come to me with who to contact. The rest of the people have not said anything including the Minister of Justice.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Energy and Power Development told us categorically in a Question with Notice from me that by end of 2022, Hatcliffe would be electrified. The main supply line would be into Hatcliffe. I would like to tell the House that they have not even started yet. I thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you very much Hon. Markham. The Clerk is instructed immediately to ensure that the issues you raised are attended to. As for the Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage a letter has been written as evidence that he has been contacted. Now, I am going to apply Constitutional Provision Number 107 (2) to ensure that he complies this week. Thank you.
SECOND READING
CHILD JUSTICE BILL [H. B. 11, 2021]
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Second Reading of the Child Justice Bill [H. B. 11, 2021].
Question again proposed.
HON. BITI: On a point of order.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Why do you want to raise a point of order? I want debate.
HON. BITI: The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs is not in here.
THE HON. SPEAKER: I am totally aware of that. He will be connected virtually. The Hon. Minister is connected Hon. Biti, so we will proceed accordingly.
HON. BITI: Hon. Speaker Sir, there are two Bills dealing with children. So one is the Child Justice Bill which we are debating and the other one is the Children’s Amendment Bill. These Bills are very important but they are as long overdue as they are welcome.
Mr. Speaker, the issues of children and children’s rights are important. They are codified in Section 81 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. Children are the future and that is why the Constitution devotes a substantial section in the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
There are issues that have been long outstanding that we have taken long to address. The first one Mr. Speaker, as you know, is the Child Marriages Bill. In 2016, the Constitutional Court set aside a provision of the African Marriages Act that allowed and permitted child marriages but until the passage of the Marriages Act, the law had not been changed.
You are also aware Mr. Speaker Sir, that last year the Constitutional Court, in the judgment of a Diana Eunice Kawenda versus Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs issued an important judgment that increased the age of sexual consent to 18 and again, more than two years after that judgment.
As far as the Child Justice is concerned, we want to…
THE HON. SPEAKER: While you are upstanding Hon. Biti, I want to hear from the Chairman of the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, why have you not taken action since 2016? What is the problem?
HON. MATARANYIKA: We have no problem.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Stand up.
HON. MATARANYIKA: We do not have any problem Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Why did you not call the Ministry to account?
HON. MATARANYIKA: All I know is that the Minister promised to bring the Bill to Parliament and indeed he did that. That is why we are debating the Bill and it is my hope that all those issues will be addressed in this debate.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Please, can you be timeous in your intervention Hon. Chair. From 2016, it is now six years. Try to push and see that there is traction please.
HON. MATARANYIKA: Noted Mr. Speaker Sir.
HON. T. MLISWA: The National Constitutional Authority Board is still not there. How does such an entity function without a board? What has the Justice Committee done?
THE HON. SPEAKER: Can you take note Hon. Chairman. May you also look at the establishment of the board of the Law Development Commission? It has been long outstanding, which should be chaired by the Attorney-General. If you can pursue that as well?
HON. MATARANYIKA: We have actually raised that matter…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Give them timelines, Hon. Chair. You can proceed Hon. Biti. Sorry for the interruption.
HON. BITI: Yes, I hope you froze my time so that it is not eaten by your intervention Mr. Speaker Sir because I only have 20 minutes.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Please indulge my intelligence.
HON. BITI: Thank you Sir. So, you know the scourge, we have had nine-year old girls getting pregnant and the law has remained indifferent to the scourge. It is a national scourge in our society, child marriages below the age of consent of sexual activities. Compounded to these problems, you have problems that your Hon. Members are raising every week. The issue of drug abuse, particularly drug abuse in schools and the law has not been mobilised to deal with that because these children do not manufacture crystal meth. These children do not grow dagga or prepare Indian hemp. It is supplied by middlemen. It is supplied by suppliers who are known. In the Harare Avenues, people who sell drugs, who import drugs are known. It has gone so terrible that even diapers are being smoked. The old television sets are being crushed to get powder for children to smoke. So, we have a problem but I want to speak on this Bill, Child Justice.
I am concerned with the age that the Bill sets that we presume a child can commit a crime, which is 12 years. In respective submissions, we should increase that age to 14 years. A child is a child; he lacks apprehension; he lacks comprehension. Let us raise the age to 14 years and let us ensure that we have specialists that can assist with the reputability of the age at 14 years.
The second point about the Bill is about the penalties. We cannot impose custodial sentences on children because it is unconstitutional. We cannot impose whipping on children because it is unconstitutional. Our Constitutional Court has declared whipping a breach of Section 353 of the Constitution, which deals with cruel and degrading torturous treatment.
That means that rehabilitation centres; probation centres become so important but probation centres require expertise. They require children experts that will be able to work with these children towards the agenda of reformation and rehabilitation. The new philosophy of criminal justice as agreed and endorsed in our Constitution is one towards rehabilitation. It is one towards the cultivation of that individual who would have committed an offence to come back to normal life. I do not think that the law, including the current Bill that we are going to be debating in the Second Reading, is sufficiently mobilised towards the agenda of reform and rehabilitation.
We are concerned with the idea of punitive justice but you know that the old concept of an eye for an eye which makes the whole world blind is out molded. We should reform, we should rehabilitate. So, I move that we concentrate on probation and rehabilitation centres, and we concentrate also on community involvement. In African Customary Law, Criminal Law does not exist. Criminal Law does not exist because in African Customary Law, a crime is a community policy. So the whole family becomes involved. If a member of a family kills a member of another family, the whole family attends because kune chinhu chinonzi ngozi, you go and work in the field of that particular person.
I would like to see the involvement of the community and the church when it comes to criminal justice. So, there are things that we can take from African Customary Law, which does not recognise Criminal Law but recognise the principles of compensation, forgiveness and reconciliation. Those are not recognised in this Bill. There are other things that are not covered by this Bill in particular, which affect children. Why is it that 44 years after independence, in great independent Zimbabwe, a mother can still not get a passport for her child and has to wait for the father. You know that the majority of children born in this country are born out of wedlock. Therefore, the mother is not married but she has to wait for either a married man to run away from his wife to come and sign the passport in Herbert Chitepo.
She has to wait for a father who has run away to Botswana, who just donated the sperm that gave rise to that child. So, it is not good enough. Let us recognise the equality between men and women, particularly in respect of raising of the children. The High Court through Justice Zhou, has issued a very important judgment that recognises the principle of co-custody. The principle of co-custody must also be extended to the principle of co-guardianship. So, you cannot have co-custody, which is a liability because mwana anodhura ka. Pauchati manapukeni, wozoti purity, wozoti nhova, wozoti mukaka. Custody is expensive but guardianship is not expensive and pakuroorwa, murume akaita kunge imimi Speaker ndiye achiri kupiwa zvimombe mukadzi ongopihwa kamombe kehumai chete. That is not enough.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Aiwa, usandifananidze, wadii kuti akaita sewe. [HON. BITI: I took your cows so I agree.] –
HON. BITI: So, these things are not good enough. We are not sufficiently respecting women, because we are not sufficiently respecting women, we are also not then sufficiently respecting children. With women, I think it needs a standalone motion on its own. I appeal that as we debate this Bill, we recognise that children are fundamentally incapable of committing crimes and that when they do crime, we should move for rehabilitation, reconciliation, accommodation and incorporation into society. I thank you.
HON. NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I just want to add my voice, however briefly to the Child Justice Bill, in so far as it relates to alignment of that Bill and Act to the Constitution, I repeat which is sui generis, that is in a class of its own, which is the supreme law of the land Mr. Speaker Sir. In so doing, we are signatories to the United Nations Convention on Children’s Rights, which speaks to Article 2 of non-discrimination, Article 3, best interests of children, Article 6, right to life, survival and development and Article 12, the right to be heard. Mr. Speaker Sir, this is the crux of my presentation, the right to be heard.
I would recommend that we align our Constitution that recognises a child being anybody below the ages of 18. It is only prudent, just and right that we do not continue to incarcerate children that are below the age of 16 in my view. I say this because at the age of 16, you are allowed to take a drivers licence. It can only mean somebody is in their right faculties to comprehend and write a test that speaks to and about driving aptitude. It is my thinking that at the age of 16, which the Constitution also recognises, somehow a child is mature enough to comprehend. At that point, it is the age that I would think a child is recognised to have committed a crime if they are to face the music.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the issue that I also seek to ventilate concerns the reformatory places that we used to have. I grew up in Bulawayo. There was a reformatory in Luveve - you would find that children as they go to such places would be reformed and be brought back to their parents without having to face the rigours of adult life in prison set up, which actually hardens them as criminals.
Mr. Speaker Sir, as I debate this Bill, I do not know how far you heard me talk about the issue of the children’s interests. Children’s interests are also embodied with issues to do with accommodation and dwellings that protect the interests of the child and their welfare. Where I come from, in particular, N23A in Pfupajena suburb, you have three families living in a three roomed set up. The two rooms are separated by a piece of cloth, so there are 30 people living in a three room set up, 10 in one room. In such a set up, there is no copulation, procreation and conjugal rights that can be performed in the presence of the child or the glare or observation of a child. What that does Mr. Speaker Sir, it removes the child in a child. It removes the children in the set up and the mould of a child. I am hoping as I debate this Child Justice Bill, that it can also align the issue of welfare in the society of the children by optimum provision of dwellings and housing set up so that there are no child marriages and child abuse in terms of the girl child. This is because they would have matured prematurely because they have observed the adults indulging and engaging in procreation, copulation and conjugal rights. The only way we can separate …
THE HON. SPEAKER: Just a minute. They have observed adults?
HON. NDUNA: Their rights are being violated.
THE HON. SPEAKER: No, no, no. You said they have observed adults exercising their conjugal rights. Is that a correct statement?
HON. NDUNA: The children are observing adults in copulation, procreation and conjugal rights.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Where?
HON. NDUNA: N23A in particular in Pfupajena suburb in Chegutu Mr. Speaker Sir. I am hoping that we can also as we deal with child rights and child justice …
THE HON. SPEAKER: Is this through social media?
HON. NDUNA: I come from Chegutu. I am the …
THE HON. SPEAKER: I am asking, is this through social media?
HON. NDUNA: No Mr. Speaker Sir. I said N23A. It is an address. I have been there.
THE HON. SPEAKER: And the children are watching?
HON. NDUNA: The set up is three rooms and there are three families of ten each.
THE HON. SPEAKER: So explain that background.
HON. NDUNA: When I did Mr. Speaker Sir, the Clerk took your time. I have taken you back a bit because I observed you were distracted.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Congestion in accommodation?
HON. NDUNA: Exactly Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Now, I understand. Thank you.
HON. NDUNA: How do I hope that this august House which is endowed with lawmakers of note, including Yours Truly deal with this matter? It is the issue of revitalising the reformatories, instead of incarcerating the children because they have now engaged in crime, not of their making but because they have been pushed into such habits through lack of housing infrastructure development.
Where I come from, there is a place called Touch Line. For people or children to sleep in one room where there is ten of them in one family, they have to give each other time to sleep. Touch Line is like the Avenues of Harare. How do I propose that we annihilate that scourge of people going on to the Touch Line to solicit for favours, be they prostitution or otherwise? There is need to expeditiously deal with what we call the master plan of urban locality expansion in the local authorities so that there is ubiquitous amount of land in order to have the backlog of housing infrastructure dealt with. Where I come from, there are about 12 farms that need to be developed for urban expansion through the master plan. Could it please you Mr. Speaker Sir, in the same vein, to implore the Minister of Local Government to expedite in terms of master plan, adjudication and approval so that these children can be separated from adults and get optimum accommodation that speaks to the issue of Article 6 in the UN Article; the right to life, survival and development. I think those would be my submissions but I want to adhere to Common Law that our African Common law that speaks to the issue of amalgamation as a society and reformatory as a means to reforming the children who would have transgressed in the society and the age be pegged to 16 years of age as opposed to age 12 and below as observing that this is now somebody who can be incarcerated. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for giving me the opportunity to vociferously, effectively and efficiently present what the people of Chegutu West would have presented on the issue of the Child Justice Bill.
HON. MATARANYIKA: I want to raise a point of order Mr. Speaker Sir. The reason why I decided to rise now is that the information we give to the public in this august House has to be accurate. Unfortunately, Hon. Mliswa is labouring under wrong information - let me correct the position right now. In terms of General Notice of 2525 (a) of 1 June, 2022 which was gazetted in November, 2022 – the following are the board members of the National Prosecuting Authority: Mr. Mutsonziwa, Ms. Masvora, Dr. Choruma, Ms. Gukwe, Mr. Machinjike, Ms. Chibaya, Mr. Mazibuko and Mr. Makina. So indeed, there is a board for the NPA. I thank you.
Hon. Mliswa having stood up to say something
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order. When the correct information has been given, we cannot debate.
HON. T. MLISWA: I wanted to appreciate what he has said.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Yes, I have done it from the Chair on your behalf.
HON. T. MLISWA: And I think he only got the...
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, I have done it from the Chair and you are the consumer of that information.
HON. T. MLISWA: I would like to say he did not know...
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, the issue is that perhaps the Chair also suffered from some lapse of memory, so I forgive both of you.
HON. CHINYANGANYA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for giving me the opportunity to add my voice on the Child Justice Bill. I will start with the age. The Bill proposes 12 as the age of criminal responsibility and I think I agree with this age because it is being raised from the age of 7. I think 12 is a reasonable age as to the issue of having criminal responsibility. This is because if we go beyond 12 years, I think the children are mature enough to distinguish between right and wrong and 12 years is when puberty starts to set on and in terms of maturity, that is when I think the reasoning capacity at least they would not have much knowledge about distinguishing between right and wrong.
I want to welcome the proposal in the Bill which first looks at the issue of compensation and reparation when a child supposedly steals. Instead of arresting a child then the Bill is giving leeway for families to settle what would have been stolen. On the issue of incarceration – as we speak, the reformatories that we currently have are not equipped enough to allow the reformation of child offenders. I propose that all those detention centres for children should be equipped with educational, sporting and vocational facilities so that the children can be well reformed whilst they are in detention.
There is another provision which states that the age estimation should be done by a Child Protection Officer. I do not think this is proper because this can only be done by medical personnel. I propose that medical practitioners should be the ones to do age estimation. So those will be my submissions Mr. Speaker Sir. I thank you.
HON. T. MLISWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Allow me to contribute to the Child Justice Bill. I want to zero in on issues which I think are critical. Hon. Nduna mentioned the issue of 16 being the appropriate age which I certainly agree with because we already have precedence in the country that at 16 one can get a driver’s licence. I think for them to reach that age, a lot was put into it, adding salt in terms of the process and all that. I think that is something that I think would augur well with it being increased to 16.
Mr. Speaker Sir, there is also the issue on the specialised courts which are there and I think what they make is expert child psychologists, pedagogy for those who do not understand, the term is more or less education and so forth, which is quite critical. So, the issue of those experts in the specialised court does not help at all because there is a gap. When children are young, they cannot miss any process that ensures that their growth is in order. So, I would also say that what is critical is to have probation centres that are rehabilitated to suite what is expected of children at the end of the day.
As you would appreciate Mr. Speaker Sir, children are quite innocent, and as they are innocent, they cannot be punished the same way their parents are punished. They must continue with their education and activities that are meant for children, playing around with other children. You cannot have children playing around with adults; there is a total mismatch in terms of their upbringing. They then develop habits that at the end of the day, affect them in a way in ChiShona, mwana anokura asina kukura because the level of intellect and maturity that they will be dealing with has an influence on many issues.
So, the question here is, how do we separate the children from their parents who have committed a crime? What is also lacking Mr. Speaker Sir is that we do not have a particular law that says if a mother is incarcerated, their child of so many years must also accompany them in jail – there is no such law. So, we now have children going to jail with their mothers and as a result they then are unable to enjoy their childhood. What is critical is having hostels built, with kindergarten teachers for mothers and with the teachers teaching these children. They cannot be deprived of education because of their mothers. So, there is a lacuna there in terms of the age itself. At what age should the mother take the child to prison? If so, what facilities are in prison so that the child continues to grow? This is an issue that is quite important because we then see them.
I think Hon. Nduna’s point was to say that they are exposed to a lot more. In one room there are all females and it is a young boy who is growing up. He is exposed to what he is not supposed to be exposed to and I think that is what Hon. Nduna spoke about – there is no separation in terms of imprisonment. A mother is there with her son and at what point is the boy child disconnected from the mother so that they continue with their life? This is a key issue in terms of that.
The other issue that I thought was important was that of fingerprints in Zimbabwe in particular. Other countries do not allow you to take fingerprints of children. In Zimbabwe, a child’s fingerprints are taken and that becomes a record for that child. So, you cannot allow that to happen and not only that Mr. Speaker Sir, the law reports in this country also have the name of this child; so a child of that age appears in the law reports. Why should the name be there?
We must protect them and ensure that we protect them in this Bill because they have a life after that. When your name appears in these reports, it becomes difficult, and there is also the issue of society itself – society is very harsh. We also do not want a situation whereby a child whose mother leaves prison and goes out to the people - how do we deal with that? There is the aspect of stigmatization that is there which also affects the child. Other children who are playing with the child also think that the child committed a crime since they were in prison. How do we deal with that? So there is that issue; most countries seal those records and this to me is important.
Hon. Nduna also mentioned the issue of child sex. Child sex is not only for the girl child, it is also for the boy child. So, whilst they are in prison, they also are entitled to certain benefits of humankind as women. Are they not going to abuse those boys? This is the issue; are they not going to abuse those boys? How are the boys protected when the law is not clear in terms of protecting the boy child? For a long time, we have only spoken about the girl child. At nine years, the girl child is pregnant and it is a big crime but we do not talk about the boy child being abused at nine years Mr. Speaker Sir.
It is always the girl child who is abused at nine years; seven years the boy child is abused but there is no story and we do not take it seriously that at seven years there are women out there who are indulging these young boys yet it is not an issue. When it comes to the girl child, it is an issue. So, we need to be very clear as well that every child must be protected. The same law that we have for the girl child must also be there for the boy child to be protected as well. So, I think that is quite a critical issue.
There is also the aspect of drugs; the mothers are there and have different charges. They are in prison because of different crimes they have committed; others are drug handlers, murderers and so forth. So why are you mixing children with such people? What stories are they hearing that will be progressive? Mr. Speaker Sir, you know us growing up, we had our grandparents vachitiwudza ngano in the evenings. So what ngano is a child told in court when there are drug handlers, murderers and so forth? Ndakawuraya nhingi, ndikaita chakati, ndikaita chakati and this child is listening. We are now creating habitual criminals; it becomes a breeding ground for habitual criminals because he has now been exposed to all that. So, these are some of the issues that I think are critical in this report.
I think, like I have said, there is not enough expertise at the end of the day to be able to be dealing with this, from psychologists even with the prisons in this country. The psychiatrists are not even enough, so why then should we expose the innocent children to this? This will be my contribution Mr. Speaker Sir pertaining to this Bill. I thank you.
(v)HON. PHULU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to add my voice to this debate on the Child Justice Bill. I would like to indicate that I am one of those who are very happy that at long last, we are having a Bill that is talking about how a child goes through the period of Justice System.
I have a privilege to have represented children in our courts for a long time and I am aware of how much it has been a struggle to divert children’s cases from the mainstream justice system. I know that we have had policies and law officers scratching their heads at exactly how to deal with each particular situation and we have been winning it for a long time. I must applaud those in the justice system who, for a long time, have informally actually entrenched a system for dealing with children. However, because it was informal, it was very difficult to deal with circumstances which were always changing.
Perusing through the proposed Bill, I have seen the inclusion of definitions of appropriate adults to widen the number of adults who can be relied upon by the justice system in order to assist and to guide children through the system. I have seen the introduction of the innovative concepts like family conferences, taking into account what Hon. Biti was talking about that in the African system, parents and their families have always been in the rehabilitation of children and deciding how to deal with a child outside the justice system in a way that is going to be beneficial to the child. To also allow that child to reform, to be dealt with in such a way that they become a useful member of society without experiencing incarceration in the prisons which are not suitable for children for many reasons which other speakers have mentioned.
I would like to also emphasise that inasmuch as we have put this Bill into place; the second phase is going to be to ensure that we gather the appropriate expertise to ensure that each and every provision is really taken advantage of for the betterment of our society. Mr. Speaker Sir, the instances of course were thugs, gangs and rogue adults in our societies. Noting that this Bill has to pass; we will start to take advantage of that. We will start to coerce children to use them in their gangs as the people who jump through the windows knowing that of course, children will be dealt with kindly and so forth. There will be instances where you have children who have become hardened criminals.
As a matter of fact, I did not see a clause which talks about how the court has the power to deal with certain children as adults. If we do not deal with that loophole, we are going to then have a class of children who are then exploited by the hardened criminals and effectively operate as adults.
It is unfortunate of course but what do you do when you get to such a situation? You are keeping in mind that a lot of the robberies, car breakings are committed by children ranging from 16 to 17 years. Are we going to give a magistrate or the court power to deal with a particular child with certain circumstances as an adult? Children who gang rape, how are we going to deal with them? At 16 to 17 years, yes they are children but we have that dilemma now. He has gang raped once, twice or thrice, how are we going to deal with that child? Are we going to have something that allows us to deal with those children as adults?
These are going to be interesting challenges as we go into Committee Stage that we will have to debate and try to polish so that we come up with something that is going to save both the child and the community very well, that is going to ensure that our children remain protected. In fact, there should be charges for adults who deliberately and consistently corrupt children to coerce them into participating in crime. An adult who participates alongside a child should surely be punished, even more punishment.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I can go on and on but I believe fellow Members of Parliament have contributed to this debate and I am sure that this is a Bill that is going to polish and save us very well in future as an act whilst it goes through the Committee Stage. I thank you.
HON. B. DUBE: Firstly, I would like to thank the Chairperson for Justice. I want to thank the Chairperson very much for bringing this important issue before the House relating to the Child Justice Bill and the wonderful report from the Justice Committee. The issues that the Bill seeks to address are the contemporary challenges that our justice system has to deal with. The contemporary issues in the justice delivery system are firstly that there is now a very high prevalence of young people finding themselves on the wrong side of the law and therefore increasing the population of young people either in police custody, appearing in court or in prison. It becomes imperative for this House to come up with a law that addresses how to deal with this contemporary challenge of the juvenile offenders
The first issue which is usually problematic relates to age determination and assessment because of the increased number of children in the streets and who are unregistered. They do not have birth certificates and therefore, the system has had to rely on the estimations and determinations from police officers, probation officers and at times assessment and determination by the ordinary court. So, this law is seeking to give guidelines on how this can be done. As long as we still have the challenge of children in the streets who are not registered, the law is actually in the right direction in trying to empower our institutions to then come up with the relevant estimations so that you are able to tell how to deal with the children in the particular ranges.
We have powers and duties of the police officers in the arrest and detention of young offenders. It has been a serious issue where ordinarily the police officers were trained to handle the adult criminals and in the process, they then find themselves addressing and dealing with the children who also find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
What the Bill seeks to do is then to set out how to deal with this and it is a positive move. I believe that this is the most important intervention that the Ministry of Justice as well as the Justice Committee has done to make sure that there are parameters and procedures relating to how to handle children who find themselves on the wrong side of the law, how to deal with warrants of the arrest and the duties and responsibilities of guardians and custodians of the children. At times when the courts release these children on bail, they need to release them in the hands of a responsible person. At times the challenges that have been there are that with children in the streets, it is very difficult to then find the guardians and courts have had headaches on how to deal with this. As a result, the majority of these juveniles then had to find themselves being detained in custody because there is no other option. No one is there to accept and receive them whilst they are waiting for their trials and also because of the first point that I talked about on identity, these children will be very difficult to trace.
So, I believe that it is a very good proposal to then have a law that deals with pre-trial and trial procedures as well as post trial procedures.
Then there is an issue relating to the aspects on fingerprints and other identification materials. I agree with what Hon. Mliswa said, possibly relating to them concealing that but there is no other way to identify a person for purposes of checking the records because what we want to do as the justice system is to make sure that we then also have a tracking system because people usually have a particular pattern. If you find a kid who has a propensity to have violations of a sexual nature - possibly starting at 7 years, you may find even at 30 or 40 years, they are still following that pattern. Those who are on the theft pattern will still do the same. Those who are on violence they will still do the same
The justice system must also be able to come up with identification methods that will be able to help you to trace and monitor those people, whether they have been reformed, rehabilitated or they have been made worse so that the law enforcement systems are able to quickly deal with issues. In terms of the criminal investigations, at times you have to follow patterns and fingerprints to be able to then track because human beings usually have a tendency that is permanent in them. It will be very difficult to ignore and avoid the issues relating to fingerprints and other identifications because we need to follow and check whether or not our justice system has actually done well. Those kids that were taken to the child justice system - have they reformed, are they now better than what they were before, if they were into drugs are they now good and honest people in the areas that they now live?
Detention and release of children, treatment and rights of children in detention in police custody prior to committal has always been very problematic because our cells were never designed in such a way that they would be cells for juveniles and cells for adults. The new law is trying to say there must be mechanisms that make sure that there is a separation between the young offenders and the old offenders so that there is contamination. We believe that young people have a chance to be reformed and therefore we want to come up with a system. The duties of the police relating to children in detention must have a clear register and treat them as children because they remain our children. So procedure before appearance of these children in court must be such that they are treated as children and they are given the necessary courtesy and attention that is necessary and required for purposes of making sure that we do not make them worse than they are already.
On principles relating to release of children from detention, the law is actually coming up with the new mechanisms to make sure that these conditions are relaxed so that we minimise the number of them that may end up at Whawha, Chikurubi, Harare Central Remand because in terms of our prison visits, we realise that the conditions there are not good. They are not good for adults, which mean they are worse off for our children. In terms of the release of these children, there are some who would have committed some more serious offences that makes it very difficult for them to be released because they would have actually presented a danger even to the family but at the same time, the law is trying to say what do we do even to these people even if we are to take them into detention, how do we make sure that they are protected? If they are to be released in the custody of responsible persons, what are the conditions thereon?
There must be continuous assessment and the law is actually coming up with mechanism to say how do we attend to an assessment of the children to make sure that they now fit into a particular category of safety for them to be to be released? I believe that this idea of diversion of justice to make sure that justice relating to children is specifically addressed on its own is very good.
We also have noted that for a long time, we have only been concentrating on the child offenders and the law has been very silent on the aspect relating to restorative justice. Victim-offender mediation has not been prioritised in Zimbabwe. This new law is coming up with these mechanisms to say this victim is also supposed to be attended to and the child who is the offender and victim must be reconciled so that we are able to put together the family. Usually children commit offences within and around their families or surroundings. It becomes very important because even if you release them from custody and you have not done the restorative justice mechanism, they will not be accepted by their communities. This Bill is coming up with a mechanism to say how do we reconcile the offender and the offended and make sure that we restore family confidence, we make family group conferences which are intended to benefit and reconcile the children who would have offended, their communities and parents so that at the end of the day, we are able to put together the most important fundamental God creation which is a family. In the human creation, what God established was that there must be a family whose fabrics must be able to mould, correct and also cause harmony. This harmony is usually violated as a result of possibly some children violating the law.
I like the Bill in the sense that it is coming up with restorative justice where it is saying we must be able to reconcile those who violate us. We must not over emphasise on the offender only but we must make sure that even those that have been offended are taken into account such that we are able, through the law, to facilitate the meetings between the violator and the violated and allow for apologies and reconciliation to happen. This is very important. Issues relating to legal representation, pro deo and pro bono mechanisms within our court systems, we intend that these be escalated so that these young offenders are able to get proper justice because at times they may admit to offences but with limited understandings. Those that are called limited pleas where a child is admitting to have done something, but they did not really understand the consequences of their actions as particularly relating to the particular offence. The law is saying relating to these young offenders, there must be a mechanism to allow them to get free legal services so that there is proper justice.
We know in Zimbabwe all those adults who are charged of murder, they are represented by lawyers for free at Government’s expense. What the Bill is coming up with is that for all our children who might find themselves on the wrong side of the law, they must be able to also get that pro deo facility where they will be able to get free legal representation at the expense of the State because if we have managed to give this facility to every murderer, why can we not give it to every child who find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
In terms of the court, our court system was designed without an intention of addressing the child. It was assumed that only adults would come and appear before the courts and now we realise that we have a lot of our children who may find themselves appearing in court. The law is now saying we must come up with a justice friendly system, a court system that is specifically designed for the children, that is friendly not only to the victim but what we have currently is a victim friend court where the witness is given comfort and is allowed to testify from the camera. We are saying we need the same for the juvenile offender where we need that offender to be protected from the public and be allowed to still have the treatment of a child so that they do not get the embarrassment. If convicted also, we are saying our prison systems need to be reformed for those children who the law has found that there is no other place to place them, they cannot go back home, they cannot do any other form of punishment except to be detained; our prisons must have the facilities for children; which means our prisons must be schools like. We must be able to have proper facilities for schooling for these children, both primary and secondary. That allows them whilst they are in detention to be able to have a life because the life that is experienced in prison, we are saying it is a correctional service. Whilst they are being corrected, they must not miss out a lot in terms of their schooling because they will come out being worse. Our prisons must also have facilities that allow for rehabilitation. The law is also good in that it is proposing the postponement or suspension of sentences for those offenders that we believe will have committed some offences which are serious but we realise that this child is still capable of being reformed. The law is saying the court must have the power to postpone a sentence. To say you have done badly to the society, you did one, two, three, four and five things and I am sentencing you to five years imprisonment but because you are 13 years of age, I am going to suspend your sentence; we believe that you will learn from this mistake, in the event that you misbehave, we will then remove the suspension at any given time and you will serve. This is a wonderful way of actually making sure that someone always has the axe on the back which gives them direction in every step because that person will be aware that in the event that I misstep, there is already a punishment that is behind me.
In conclusion, I would say, subject to various inputs that this House may put in place, I would conclude by saying that this is one of the most progressive and fundamental Bills that this House has championed. I am proud to be part of the group that has made sure that it is possible to have a Child Justice Bill in our lifetime. Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]-
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. Perhaps Hon. Speaker if I may take advantage of me being on the floor. You saw me at some time approaching the Chair, the Hon. Speaker, Hon. Mudenda to seek clarity on the ruling that he had made in terms of Section 157 with regards to amendments. I am saying this because we are currently at a phase where we are dealing with Bills and we need to expunge them. Section 157 says if I need to bring an amendment, I am supposed to do it in writing as the Speaker ruled. I then sought clarity as to what then the provision of Section 154 which deals with amendments at Committee Stage says. If Members had understood the way I had understood, it was like we are no longer allowed to bring any amendments unless if they are in writing but Section 154 Hon. Speaker, gives us leeway at Committee Stage. If I convince the Hon. Minister responsible for that particular Bill to say Clause number 17, I propose that it stands in this manner, Order number 154 allows us to do that and the Speaker was in agreement. I brought this as a point of clarity so that at least we are not handicapped at Committee State - perhaps the Clerk may also advise you accordingly. I had understood as if there are no longer amendments that are allowed during debate but 157 says if you want a fundamental amendment, you bring it in writing but if it is an amendment where I can convince the Minister at Committee Stage, I can still move for that. Thank you Hon. Speaker.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): So in other words, Hon. Chikwinya you are not debating on this?
HON. CHIKWINYA: No, I am debating, I am now moving on to debate; I said I am taking advantage of being on the floor. I am now proceeding to debate the Child Justice Bill. With regards to the Child Justice Bill, I think I would want to depart from the majority of my colleagues who are moving for the extension of liability in terms of age where the Bill proposes 12 and the majority of Members are saying let it be 16.
Hon. Speaker, I come from a constituency where I have seen a majority of these children, some of them at the age of nine are committing crimes, including murder. Whilst I understand that perhaps the capacity or the knowledge to say what we are doing is criminal, but I see we are beginning to build a society that may become tolerant to children committing crime. Can we have a law, because to put a law in place does not mean that we are pointing a particular finger to an individual? A father should be able to sit with his children and say ‘my dear children you are now 12 years old, if you commit such crimes you will go to jail’. However, for you to say ‘my children even if you go to 15 years you will not go to jail’, we are beginning to create a society that has criminals at a very tender age.
Hon. Speaker, we are the same Members of Parliament who are standing on this floor trying to deal with the issue of drug abuse. First of all, we are blaming people who are manufacturing and peddling the drugs. Definitely they are adults but we must also be able to deal with the consumer who is the child. We should say, for you to partake in drugs is a crime. These drugs are being taken by people at the age of nine or ten.
We were discussing the issue of drugs during lunch after we had seen an incident of a man who attempted to commit suicide just outside Parliament. He fell, luckily he did not die. I point that to drugs. We as a society are busy trying to deal with the issue of drugs but if we allow our children to be criminals and then to say but you are still young enough, we are creating a society of criminals. We made a mistake; it was also supported by the courts where we were told that we must not spank our children. So teachers must not spank children, but look at the quality of children that we are beginning to raise. A child now tells you that if you spank me, I will report you to police. At the back of it, he is coming home around 12 o’clock p.m. You are worried but at the same time you cannot do anything to him because you cannot beat him.
I grew up within a generation whereby if you misbehave you will be beaten by chitorobho. I believe that I had managed to become a Member of Parliament because I grew up in a system that allowed for the creation and molding of leaders who now find themselves in Parliament. Certainly, if we are going to be too merciful to these young people - including our children, we will never find a generation which will come to Parliament even at the age of 25, yet the Constitution allows MPs to be at the age of 21. We will be having drunkards in the streets and these drunkards will not be helpful because you are saying you are too young, but being criminals.
Mr. Speaker, it will become too difficult to rehabilitate them at 16 when they have started to be criminals at 12. Our neighbouring country South Africa, having realised that it was facing this scourge of young criminals, they have put the age of liability at 11. Together with that, they have now put correctional facilities. I actually have a friend who is from Kwekwe, who is a Mathematics teacher who is teaching at a correctional service prison in Durban. They have a primary and secondary school there. Let us tell our children that you can be criminals and go to jail at 12 but they do not go to the jail which adults go to like at Chikurubi or Harare Central. They go to a correctional facility with educational facilities where they are corrected and they become adults as soon as they complete their educational qualifications or their prison life.
Hon. Speaker, we must be able to deal with juxtaposing this particular law with what it is then that must happen to this child once they have been convicted of a particular crime. I believe that our prison systems were not designed to take care of children perhaps largely because they were built during the colonial era where the prison was largely meant for political prisoners and hard core criminals. As we pass this law, we must be able to envisage a situation whereby we have got 1 000 children that have been convicted and they are supposed to go for prison sentence. Where are they going to go because you have set up a law that defines them as criminals. That takes them through a child justice system with a possibility of conviction and be given prison time. However, is it the prison that we want them to go to and they meet with the hard core criminals like Muvevi and other such criminals? I do not think that is the intention. Hon. Speaker, please allow me to differ and agree with the Minister that the 12 years must remain as such in the Bill.
I will move over to the issue of the police and detention which in the Bill are referred to as the child protection officers and diversion officers. I will largely focus on the police as they handle these children’s cases. I think last Friday we were battling to have MPs adapt to the new constitutional format of having our police being a service. The majority of us were referring to the police as a force. I happened to be in court yesterday as a witness to a particular case. The word ‘force’ is still being used in our courts. The magistrates and lawyers asked when the police officer joined the force instead of saying since when did you join the service. The witness was saying ‘my force number’ instead of saying ‘my service number’. So, we have not yet done enough as a society to have a paradigm shift and tell ourselves that this is supposed to be a ‘service’ and not a ‘force’.
As it relates to children’s justice now, we have within the police service system, a section of police officers who we call ndini ndamubata because these officers are very rough. If they arrest you Hon. Speaker today, you would not want to be arrested again in Zimbabwe. They enjoy trampling on your rights and handling you roughly. If they are going to apply that mindset to children, we are developing hardened criminals. We are not moving with the spirit and context of the child justice delivery system that we want. So, it must be taken into the police service that you are now dealing with this age group that requires your leniency whilst you are carrying out all the steps of justice. But, you must be able to tell the child his rights and afford him every right afforded in the Constitution. He is still a child and needs to be nurtured.
So, I propose that once the Bill has been passed and assented to as an Act, follow up trainings with our police service must be done. Follow up advocacy with our systems that will be carrying out this child justice system must be done, so at least the intended child justice delivery system that has been enshrined in the Bill and described as one of the most progressive Bills lives up to its expectation. You do not want to be seen to be handling children, handcuffing them and putting two leg irons as if you are handling Muvevi. I do not think that is the intention of this Bill. So, I also commend the Ministry of Justice for coming up with this Bill, which I think is progressive and as alluded to by other MPs, let us deal with it in a holistic manner.
I want to believe that the Prisons Amendment Bill is before us. When we get to that stage we must be able to deal with the correctional facility mechanisms in terms of supporting this Bill. Perhaps it is contained in the Prisons Amendment Bill and not necessarily here. Members of Parliament must keep it in their mind that we have set up a Bill with a possibility of convicting a child. Once we convict that child, where do we want him to go? We will deal with that when we come to the Prisons Amendment Act. I, so move Hon. Speaker. I thank you very much.
HON. MUNETSI: Good afternoon Hon. Speaker Sir. I want to add a few words to this Bill but I am going to change a few things after hearing Hon. Chikwinya’s debate. I wondered where that child would be if he will be in the same prison with Hon. Madzimure. What issues will they be discussing? It came to my mind that we will be creating harder than hard core criminals that we see today. Nevertheless, I still believe that children need to be protected and laws that protect them must be formulated. These laws should mould their character, codify their conduct and safeguard them in the way they live. I believe we should separate laws meant for old people from laws for young people. They are still at a very tender age and most of the things that our children do are experimental as they want to see how it goes. If we then go hard on them as if we are giving judgment to an old and mature person, I think we will not be doing good to the child. Children should not mix with those hard core criminals lest they are taught other ways of becoming criminals.
One other thing that I discovered and should try to apply is to separate the dress code of children from that of the elderly prisoners. We should separate the dress code. Just the dressing tells you I am in this situation. I am not so sure about the type of food that these children get when they are in custody. Do they scrounge for food like the elderly? Some laws need to be formulated so that they are separated completely when in custody. I believe when these children are arrested, some form of schooling should be given to them so as to occupy them maybe with books. Also, different people from the prison guards should go and address them in custody. What type of person are we breeding if we give hard sentences to those children? The State and us Parliamentarians must actually look closely and find out how we can assist this child to come out there when he or she is still in good state of mind. I so submit.
HON. TOGAREPI: Thank you Mr. Speaker, I also want to contribute to this very important debate. I had a very different approach when we started debating this. Hon. Chikwinya played a very big role in my change of mind. When he said if we do not deal with these young people at an early age, we will then breed a country of criminals. I looked around in our country today and saw that the majority of people who are committing crime are young. We really need to do something very early; they say catch them young.
If we really want to rehabilitate those youths, it is better we do it early by showing them the right way and by arresting those who have committed crime at whatever age. I agree with the Hon. Minister when he said let it be 12 years. I think it is very conservative and it is a period when somebody is beginning to learn. If we take that person into custody and try to model that person, to clear the mind of that person at that stage, we can come up with a future responsible person. Mr. Speaker, after having said that, I think what is critical now, what we should recommend to Government is to quickly come up with these correctional environments.
My thinking is for us to come up with separate correctional centres, adequate and appropriate infrastructure to assist these young offenders. The issue of taking them in at 12, from the debate that we are doing here, I think it is the best thing to do. We need to model them back into society and to come up with different expertise; psychologists, sociologists et cetera, those people who can help the children reform and come back into the society reformed.
Hon. Speaker, if you look around in our country today; on the issue of drug abuse, yes we have older people who are also involved in mutoriro but most of them are taking this to the young. If we do not come up with laws that deal with the consumers of those drugs and if we leave them without rehabilitation, they will even travel outside Zimbabwe to buy these drugs. If we can take them in and use the expertise that can come from international organisations, we can stop our children from being criminals. Because of the social set ups that we find ourselves in, if you go to urban areas like what my other colleague debated, children are sharing bedrooms with their parents. When you go to schools today, there is sexual education and children will then start wishing to experiment.
If we do not take measures, you will see young people raping each other and if there is nothing to stop them from committing all these crimes, you will see them doing that. They will end up being thieves because they want to buy mutoriro and they do not have money to buy drugs. They will be forced into criminality and go and steal in order to access these drugs. This law, in my view, is going to assist us arrest these occurrences of our young people. It is world over and Zimbabwe is not excluded, so having this law is going to see us assisted and correcting our young ones before they even go to the level of this recent criminal who was shooting everybody. With the video and television, they see if they access guns, they will be shooting everybody because they know that because of their age, they will not go to jail. So, I really support this Bill that let us take it at 12. What can we encourage Government to do with these arrested young people? Are we going to really send them to hard labour? Are we going to rehabilitate them to well-structured correctional services or we just look at them as criminals? When they come back, what have we done to deal with the stigma in these young offenders that they will take back to the community.
Those are the things that we want to fine-tune but as for taking these young children to prison, whether we are going to call them prisons or correctional centres, I think it is the ideal thing. I thank you.
*HON. MADZIMURE: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I want to contribute on this very important motion. I am of the opinion that the incarcerated children must be taught skills that will help them after they come out of prison. They must be rehabilitated so that they will not commit crimes in future. Before we conclude on sending our children to prisons, we must look at why our children are coming crimes and also what should be done so that we have laws which deter children from committing crimes. However, if that is not done, then we would find children committing more crimes. We need a progressive law and we need to figure out why this is happening.
Mr. Speaker Sir, when you look at this issue, you would find that where our children are coming from - the home environment is not good. There are a lot of issues which force children into committing crimes. Sometimes they might be very young knowing fully well that they are committing crimes, but their homes are not conducive. We have a problem where we find grandparents taking care of their grandchildren. Some parents are going to the diaspora to work and some grandparents are left with grandchildren whilst they are not ready to look after them. You would find that some parents leave their children with their grandparents without empowering them and families are being destroyed.
Mr. Speaker Sir, if we do not look into this issue, we will continue having children committing crimes and going to jail. As you know, there are more children than adults. So we would find ourselves facing this challenge. However, we need to look at the sociological aspect of the issues, looking at how we are bringing up our children whether at school or at home.
Mr. Speaker Sir, we were talking about this last year that our children might go to school for free. This was exciting for many people because our children knew that they would wake up and go to school. Some even assumed that uniforms would be given for free. If a child is given the opportunity to go to school, Mr. Speaker Sir, that child is given a chance to be in a different environment, to forget about the depressing home or domestic environment. In 10 children who might be coming from such families, 7 out of the 10 would perform well because they were given an opportunity. So if we do not have such welfare being targeted at children who have a bright future, then we will not be fixing anything.
You would find that in other families, there are children who are being brought up by their grandmothers because they do not have parents. We need to empower such grandparents so that they can empower their children. If a parent cannot provide for their children, then it is difficult for them to determine the future of their children because some children are making a living on their own, some at 10 years of age are picking pockets. When you leave something, some take because they do not have enough. So if we fail to address issues like poverty and lack of food in families, we will not be solving anything and you will find children committing crimes but despite the difficult environment, if a child commits a crime, then something should be done so that they are restored and rehabilitated.
Mr. Speaker Sir, we have a big problem because the challenge is that at first, the issue of beating up children was outlawed but we need to come up with laws which speak to that. Even for black children, we know that we only use a small stick to beat up the children. Now we are going to a stage where children are being arrested. We need to address the core issue, the issue of bringing up children in a proper way so that they have basic ethics whether they are going to school, whether they live with other children having enough food and basics. At school they could be given porridge and other food supplements and they will continue going to school, but we are not doing that. On free education for children, elementary education should be free and this is a big step which would help our children.
Then we need to look at what should be done when arresting children. I remember when I was growing up in Highfield, there were some houses like the Matambanadzo Houses. We know that it was called probation where juvenile offenders were taken. They would have committed several crimes. We know that such children were taken to that place because there were buildings which were there which housed children who committed crimes. Now you will discover that in Mutare and other places, you will not find such places of rehabilitation.
You find that when a child meets with an adult in jail, sometimes it is very difficult to determine what should be done. It is important to know what crime a child has committed in the jails that we have. There should be jails for children and adults. I went to Sweden in 2002. In Sweden Mr. Speaker Sir, when you are arrested, whether you are a juvenile or an adult, you are taken to a certain house where you are interviewed where you are asked what you were doing whilst you were out, what crime you committed and what you wanted to do whilst in jail. They continue going to school even when they are in jail. Some are taken to different places and they are graded according to ages and what they will be doing. In Zimbabwe, there are no interviews. When you are in jail, it is like you are incarcerated in a kraal. No one cares where you sleep, how you sleep even juvenile offenders. You would find that even boys are called ‘ladies’ in jail. If a small boy goes to jail, then he is taken as such. This is what is happening.
When our children are mixed with adults in jail, when they come back, they will be animals. So as we are sitting here, we need to think what Hon. Ziyambi should do so that our children are not mixed with adults in jail so that they are not mixed with hard core criminals because you find that some are even abused in jail. There are some seniour prisoners who abuse juniors sexually and this is taken as the norm. So we need to create safe places where we keep juvenile offenders even when four years are suspended from their prison term, you would find that the question is, the home environment is different when they come back.
Some might think that the child is naughty but we might say that this child is naughty but maybe the environment has not changed. After the judgement, I have never heard that someone sat down with the child, maybe a social worker or counselor discussing with the child how this happened so that the child is help. We do not have such facilities in Zimbabwe. We need to create a structure which looks at child offenders so that they are profiled and it is known what they did as well as what they are doing. Such children should be assisted. There should be structures which deal with such.
In courts there should be advisors who sit down with children and counsel them so that before they go back to society they get proper counseling. Also, those who live with that child should be present during counseling so that they understand the challenges identified after profiling has been done. After this is done, juvenile justice system will be efficient. I thank you.
HON. GEN. RTD. MAYIHLOME: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. May I add my voice or buttress the points that have been raised on this Child Justice Bill. I will just emphasise a few critical areas. The first one is the issue of the content of correctional services. We have heard several Hon. Members saying that we have to move from imprisonment to correctional services. Correctional services or rehabilitation, what do we really mean as a country. When we do correctional services, what do we have in mind? What are we going to be teaching these children? This is critical; this is what I want to talk about.
Why is it that we are so worried about our own African children? We are not talking mainly about the Asian children in Zimbabwe. We are not talking about Jewish children in this country. We are not talking about talking about European children in this country. We are talking about our own children because we have lost it in terms of our culture. We have been chasing too many cultures that we do not understand. We have failed in the home. That is the point of departure that I emphasise that the homes have failed. We have created this monster. We supported these cross-cutting Bills or laws that have spoiled our children. We took away the cane; the teachers lost control of schools; the parents lost control because children are now on the streets.
We want to make sure that we bring back sanity. The sanity that I am proposing is that older generation of children that are mainly found in the streets should be in the National Service. These children should be doing farming, growing fruit trees all over the country. Our country should be having commercial plantations of food that this nation is going to be consuming and take off the streets of Mbare, Makokoba, Sakubva, Dangamvura and everywhere. Take them to the farms. Let them do national service. There are so many redundant soldiers and policemen who can be instructors and can change these children. It happened in Israel; they have turned the country because they have this system and they take these youngsters to the farms to do national service.
In National Service, they also teach them skills [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Chikwinya, please give him the floor, listen to what he is saying. Hon. Members….
HON. BRIG. GEN. (RTD) MAYIHLOME: I am not talking of 12 years, but I am talking of elderly so that they are exemplary to these young ones. You should listen because I was listening when you were debating. I am saying the older generation. These 17/18 year old should be pre-occupied because the younger ones are copying from the elder ones. They are the ones who give them mutoriro. So, once we deal with that older generation then we can come back to these 12 year olds that are being allowed to watch social media, television at home that teaches them cultures that are alien to our land. They are not getting proper indoctrination.
Even the schools, when we took away the cane, the headmasters lost control. Let us re-introduce things like military cadet at schools. Go to military camp schools, you will find that all the children match; they drill and they are disciplined. During our time we used to have boys scouts and girls guides. That was a way of making sure that these youngsters are kept in check, they are being groomed to be responsible citizens. We need to change the mindset. Social media environment, what are they accessing?
There is a Bill on Data Security. When we passed this Bill, we did not put sufficient safeguards to ensure that our children do not access things that are alien to our culture. So we need to revise those things and see where we missed it so that these children in the home - if you go to any country in the world, a Jewish child will never follow behaviours that they see in the streets, they will follow what the parents do in the home. An Asian child does the same; this is why they do not lose their languages when they go abroad.
Teachers must be allowed to reclaim the schools; I think bringing the claim would not be something out of this world. They must be able, with proper hearing, to decide on when a claim should be applied. Churches and homes must also be institutions where we mould characters. What are the churches doing about drug abuse; what are churches doing about changing the mindset of our children? What are the churches doing about shaping generations to be productive? If you read Webber, when he talks about how capitalism developed in America, he said the churches took the lead. If you were not for that you would not be getting anything, you will not go to heaven. Let the churches practice such things to say if you are not a responsible citizen, you will never smell the Kingdom of God.
All I am saying is, when we are talking of the content, let us emphasise what it is that we want to change. Let us have that discourse as a country; what is it that we want to do? I have mentioned a few, girl guides, boys’ scouts and military cadet in schools and national service for the older generation so that we produce responsible generation. Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
(v) THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I want to thank the Hon. Members for the robust debate. I am encouraged that by and large all the Hon. Members are in support of the Child Justice Bill with a few amendments here and there. The general feeling that I got is, Hon. Members are in support that we need a child justice system that is separate from an adult justice system.
I would like to thank Hon. Biti for his contribution. He spoke about child drug abuse and his main issue was, let us raise the age of sexual consent to 18. Mr. Speaker, we are talking about children who are in contact with the law and not victims here. So, I believe that the generality of Members are in agreement with our views that the age of criminal liability should remain at 12 years. We will deal with issues of sexual consent in other Bills.
Also, Hon. Biti spoke about rehabilitation centres that they are important and require expertise and we agree with that. Once the Bill comes into force, we need to ensure that we create more rehabilitation and restorative centres that will rehabilitate our children. I cannot agree with him any better.
Hon. Nduna was also concerned that children below 16 years should not be incarcerated. We believe that we should maintain it at 16 years and I am in agreement with what other Hon. Members have been saying. Hon. Chinyanganya spoke about 12 years as age of criminal responsibility. His main thrust was, we must have information of child offenders, which is the thrust of this particular Bill.
Hon. Speaker, I was also encouraged by the robust debate by Hon. Phulu, wherein he was supporting the Bill but raised pertinent issues that we need to address within the Child Justice Bill. Some of the issues, I will be addressing them when we go to the Committee Stage. I also want to thank Hon. Chikwinya and Hon. Togarepi for their contributions.
Mr. Speaker Sir, this is an important landmark Bill. We have never had a Child Justice Act in our laws and we are starting by having this. So, we will learn a lot as we implement the Bill but by and large, I want to urge Hon. Members that let us proceed and pass a law that will ensure that we separate young offenders from adult offenders. We should come up with a Bill that will now define our child offenders criminal justice system separate from the old people. I thank you Hon. Speaker.
I think those are the issues that were at play this afternoon. I listened attentively from the time we started this debate. I want to thank the Hon. Members and I will indicate to them that when we come to the Committee Stage, some of the issues, we are going to discuss them and ensure that they are addressed. Having said that Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that the Child Justice Bill [H. B. 11, 2021] be now read a second time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read a second time.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that we do consideration of the Bills that came from the Parliamentary Legal Committee with your guidance.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): It is not possible today because they have to appear on the Order Paper tomorrow.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
HON. TOGAREPI: Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that Orders of the Day, Numbers 1 to 10 on today’s Order Paper be stood over until Order of the Day, Number 11 has been disposed of.
HON. TEKESHE: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
Eleventh Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
+HON. NKOMO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I want to add my voice on the Presidential Speech. He highlighted on the issue of water problems which have significantly improved especially in schools. There are some provinces that now have dams which are of help when it comes to irrigation. Such development came with the Second Republic. The road infrastructure for example, the Chirundu Highway Road is one of the roads that is under the development that came with the Second Republic.
There are so many districts with new hospitals that benefited under the new dispensation. Shangani/Gwayi Dam is also one of the projects that were done under the Second Republic. So many people in that community are going to benefit from that project. I want to thank the President for the projects that he has done and the new developments that he has introduced. The girl-child was being prejudiced on going to school and for so many times, they were supposed to be doing household chores at home.
On sanitary wear, the President emphasised that there was need for us as leaders to go back to our community and assist those girls on the issue of sanitary wear. The road from Beitbridge to Victoria Falls which is under construction – a lot still needs to be done on that road but we want to thank the President for undertaking such a project. It is one of the major roads for so many tourists who visit Victoria Falls. I thank you.
+HON. ESTHER NYATHI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, for affording me this opportunity. I want to add my voice on the Presidential Speech which was presented during the State of the Nation Address. The President of the State emphasised on the issue of unity. He emphasised that we are not supposed to be racists, but we are supposed to pull together. He also touched on the issue of drought that is in the country and he said that there is no need for one to suffer because of drought. He also spoke about Pfumvudza Programme and we realised a lot of people benefited under this programme.
Inasmuch as there was a problem with rainfall, I believe in some parts of the country there are people who managed to do their farming. In Matabeleland South Province, we have an irrigation called Silalatshani. The President gave us wheat and we were able to do our farming and we took the proceeds to GMB. Farmers from Silalatshani are thankful of what the President did. I also touch on Insiza North Constituency in Matabeleland South. There is still a problem of rural electrification especially in schools. There are schools that do not have electricity. We are therefore pleading with the Government to assist on rural electrification especially in those schools.
There is need to build schools for there are students who still walk long distances when they are going to school. I want to thank the President for the programme that he did on cattle ranching in Matabeleland South. Our President is a people person and he loves the people that he leads. When there was an outbreak of cattle disease, he managed to avail medication that was given to our cattle and that was of much help to the people of that area. I thank you.
HON. CHINGOSHO: Mr. Speaker Sir, I would like to add my voice to the Presidential Speech. In his address, His Excellency, the President assured the nation that there will be some presidential inputs and we have seen the Zunde raMambo Programme benefitting on the presidential inputs as well as about 3 million farmers who were assured of benefitting and they are in the process of benefitting. This has enhanced production of cereals, oil seeds and leguminous plants. The President also assured the nation that the Harare/Beitbridge Road construction will continue and we can see that at this stage, phase one of that road has been completed.
This road was a black spot in the nation where accidents were taking place time and again. The construction of the Mbudzi interchange is underway. Local companies are engaged on this road and this has created jobs helping the unemployed. Zimbabwe recently launched our first satellite Zimstat 1 into space. This will have far reaching impacts on all sectors of the economy including agriculture, mining as well as weather and land management systems. So, we would like to thank His Excellency the President for what he is doing to the nation which is improving the nation and even the economy is also improving. Thank you.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I think you may want to first of all acknowledge that Members to your left were not debating this speech before but we saw it necessary to move from a position of opposition to a position of being the alternative as we prepare to become the Government in 2023 – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - So, Hon. Speaker, I will indulge the Presidential Speech in the following manner.
First of all, the Presidential Speech was held historically at the new Parliament in Mount Hampden. In my view Hon. Speaker, that whole parliamentary project is in contravention of Section 315 (2) of the Constitution, (2) (b) to be precise, which states that and I want to blame us as Parliament as I quote this section because the Constitution directs us to say, “(2) An Act of Parliament must provide for the negotiation and performance of the following State contracts” and (2) (b) says, “contracts for the construction and operation of infrastructure and facilities”.
I want to believe Hon. Speaker that the new Parliament is an infrastructure and is a facility for housing law makers and the legislature. We, as Parliament, were never involved in the negotiation of that contract. We hear through media that it is a donation; we hear through media of various versions of how it landed in Mount Hampden from the Chinese Government but we, as Parliament, were empowered in terms of Section 315 (2)(b) to be part of the negotiation of that contract because we do not want to expose ourselves to mortgaging our country for future generations in a manner where we are unable to pay if we are going to pay; if it is a donation, we must be able to direct the type of donation that we want.
Right now we have a USD$400 million infrastructure where we simply lack dialysis machines at Parirenyatwa Hospital; where we simply lack cancer machines at Parirenyatwa Hospital; where we simply lack dialysis machines in Gweru and Bulawayo, people are dying on daily basis yet we are directing USD400million to build a Parliament building that we still have.
Besides that, as Parliamentarians and as a nation, we have lacked the sense of sovereignty. We were supposed to be proud to build our own Parliament. We were supposed to build our own institution; we have enough resources and debates have been presented in Parliament to the extent we have 63 minerals. We must be embarrassed enough to our children and grandchildren that we have failed to domestically mobilise resources to build our own Parliament. We stand here today guided by principles of a Westminster Parliament, a British-built Parliament and we are moving from a British-built Parliament to a Chinese-built Parliament. What have we, for us, to be proud of? We have nothing.
Our minerals are being plundered on daily basis yet we were supposed to channel those for domestic resource mobilisation to build our own Parliament. So, to me Hon. Speaker, the new Mount Hampden Parliament is a misplaced priority. We accept donations, contracts from foreigners, and we need foreign direct investment but as Parliament, as guided by Section 315 (2) (b), we must be involved in the negotiation of these contracts.
The second issue Hon. Speaker is the issue of gold coins. Last year, a new creature in the Monetary Policy called gold coins was introduced. It has been celebrated by some but I, at the relevant time, am going to ask the Minister of Finance and Economic Development to publish. In fact, that is supposed to be the norm. Who benefited? Who took all the gold coins because currently, they are not there? If you have your own RTGS and want to buy gold coins, they are not there. Various proposals have been made to have smaller denominations so that people can access them but this was another way of plundering and looting our reserves in terms of gold.
People are mistaking one fundamental aspect; the street rate of the RTGS to the USD stabilised at the same time that the gold coins were introduced. I do not attribute that to the gold coins, I attribute that to the non-payment of Government contractors largely through the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Number Two Programme (ERRP2). So, the time when the gold coins were introduced, was the same week that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development said we are now going to halt payments of contractors who have business with Government because they are being given RTGS money, offloading it onto the streets and therefore raising the street value of the RTGS or devaluing the RTGS so to say.
So, we must not celebrate the gold coins; we must actually be worried that in each and every one of our constituencies, there is a road that has been constructed halfway; not only one, in Mbizo I have more than 19 roads that have been done halfway. Some have not been done and others have been made worse because the contractors that had been engaged have not been paid and have abandoned the project. So, it is the lack of payment of the road contractors under ERRP2 programme that made the RTGS stabilise between September, October and November. As they began to be paid in January, look at what happened.
In December the RTGS to the USD was 1:600 and now that we are in February, it is now at 1:1400 because the same contractors are being given money without measures being put on how they are going to handle the RTGS which, if they get through RBZ; offload it to the street market actually devalues our RTGS and increases the nominal value of the RTGS. So, in the absence of a clear strategy on if we are going to continue to pay contractors in RTGS, we are going to get to general elections in July or August; our Zimbabwe Dollar trading at 1:5000 or 1:10 000 to the United States Dollar. We must be thinking of what do we do with contractors because we need the roads and the contractors need to be paid. The materials that they use are bought in USD; the equipment that they use, they buy in USD; the salaries that they pay are paid in USD and partly in RTGS. So, if you give them whole RTGS quantum, what is it that you think they are going to do despite offloading the same at the black market?
I will move over Hon. Speaker to the Presidential Input Scheme celebrated by the majority of members to your right. Hon. Speaker, I want you to take a visit to any of the constituencies where the Presidential Input Scheme is being handed out. The scheme has been purely politicised. So, here is tax payer’s money that we approve jointly approve as Parliament because the budget is apolitical. When we pass the budget as presented by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development; we pass it as a whole House – ZANU PF included; triple ‘C’ and MDC T included but when it gets to the rural areas and village 25 in Nembudziya, the inputs are given only to members of one political party – so we cannot be celebrating that – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
(V)HON. T. MOYO: On a point of order Hon. Speaker! The Hon. Member is exaggerating on the issue of input schemes. This has never been politicised. People receive inputs regardless of political affiliation so the Hon. Member needs to be factual in his presentation…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): Thank you very much. I think you need to stand guided. I am also in support of his views because what you are saying is not happening in all the constituencies. If it is happening in your constituency, I think you need to deal with the leaders within your constituency. In my constituency, there is no politicisation of inputs. Sorry about that, stand guided please.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. One of the weaknesses of our parliamentary system is that the Speaker of Parliament is also a politician and a Member of Parliament so you have to defend yourself and I understand you from that perspective but if you did not have a constituency, you were going to rule otherwise. Presidential inputs and there are videos that if you want us to upload here, there are videos where people are being denied food on partisan politics. So, let us face the facts – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Let us face it.
Hon. Speaker, the other critical point on Presidential Input Scheme is that of non-disbursing. The Presidential Inputs came mid-November, yet our farming season begins late September/early October.
So we must be able to deal with that from a Parliamentary perspective, we cannot allow and celebrate things that we know are not practical. The matter was raised in this House and it was also raised in the Presidential Speech itself that we are going to respond to inputs that favour a particular region. So regions that can accommodate small grains are supposed to get small grains; regions that are supposed to receive large grains will receive large grains but it is not happening. Everyone is being given maize, even people from Gwanda are being given maize.
Hon. Speaker, we must be able to direct the President to be factual because we are the Members of Parliament who come from constituencies. On that point Mr. Speaker, instead of us answering to each other as Members of Parliament, let us be guided by Section 140 (3) of the Constitution. Section 140 (3) of the Constitution directs as such - ‘The President may attend Parliament to answer questions on any issues as may be provided in the Standing Orders’. I challenge the Hon. President that he must take time to come and interact with us so that we tell him that in Gokwe–Mapfungautsi, Ward 25, this is what is happening and then he can answer because the Constitution allows for it. I am not saying he ‘must’ like Ministers but he ‘may’ and if he is responsive enough, he must be able to direct himself to the provision of Section 140 (3) which Hon. Munetsi did not know.
On the electricity part, recently there is debate in South Africa Mr. Speaker to the extent that the South African President, His Excellency Cyril Ramaphosa is being persuaded to resign because of the electricity crisis in South African. Deliberations are happening in Parliament where Members of Parliament are presenting factual findings in their constituencies.
In my constituency Hon. Speaker, I have areas that did not receive power for three days. So you cannot buy meat that can last you for three days because it will be bad due to lack of refrigeration. We have an electricity crisis but because we are burying our heads in the sand, we are blaming the electricity crisis and as contained in the Presidential Speech, we are burying our heads to the extent that we are blaming a booming industrialization for the lack of electricity. So we are telling ourselves that industry is booming so much that there is so much demand for electricity and therefore, our generation cannot meet the demand - that is a lie. I come from Kwekwe; ZIMASCO was closed recently and only opened a week ago. Lancashire Steel, Haggie Rand Steel, ZISCO Steel is, Sable Chemicals are down and these are high, huge consuming power industries which were operating in the early 2000s and in the First Republic but now they are not operating.
How do we pride ourselves to the extent that because a museyamwa has opened dovi making project, therefore our industry is now booming? Let us face the facts; Hwange is not performing, Kariba is not performing. We must not bury our heads in the sand, let us face the crisis and take the route of South Africa where Members of Parliament gather and tell their President that Mr. President you must resign as long as we have this electricity crisis. He must be able to face that and we must be able to do that in his presence in terms of Section 140 (3).
The manufacturing industry Mr. Speaker, the contradiction in the Presidential Speech is that we are saying there is an electricity crisis because of a booming industry. We also again acknowledge that our manufacturing is not doing well that is why we have maintained the import licence scheme as superintended by the Ministry of industry. So, we have a list of goods; you can import cooking oil, margarine, pads, tooth picks, it is because we have a non-functional manufacturing industry. We must be able to capacitate these industries and then we localise.
When Ian Smith was under sanctions, he made sure that ZISCO Steel was functional. He made Jade, he made that German soap which Mbuya Chibagu and others are now calling Jerimani soap. He made products in-house, he constructed ZISCO steal, Sable Chemicals for the manufacturing of fertilizer. This shows the ingénuity of a leader at the helm of the highest office in the land but if you are not genuine enough, you begin to point fingers at the Members who sit to your left Hon. Speaker.
I move over in respect of time. Let me go straight to harmonised elections. I believe that the President lost an opportunity to speak authoritatively on the issue of peaceful free and fair elections. He did not do enough to emphasise that Zimbabweans have suffered enough in a cycle of disputed elections.
He did not commit enough to the Electoral Amendment Bill, he did not do enough to set the conditions because as he was speaking about the SONA, things were happening in Murehwa where Hon. Garwe and I have mentioned him by name because he can respond. He was sending his own party vehicle to go and assault 82 year old people in village 16 in Murehwa – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – So, if we are going to allow violence by Members against fellow opposition people, then we are not respecting the same Presidential Speech, if you believe that it happened, that he talked about free and fair elections in a peaceful manner.
If you believe that they are free and fair elections in a peaceful manner, do not be violent in your own constituencies. Expose yourselves to free and fair, transparent systems of canvassing for elections and you are re-elected like you did for the first time. Why are you afraid to the extent that you are going about instilling fear into the citizens of Zimbabweans?
Right now, a senior ZANU PF official is on record to say all opposition identity particulars must be taken away so that they do not vote. What type of an election is that? -[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- I am responding to issues of free and fair elections which are inherent in the SONA. So, if you were given your 20 minutes…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Chikwinya!
HON. NYATHI: Hon. Speaker Sir, I just want to correct one notion by the Hon. Member who was debating here. I think that if you look at all speeches that have been given by the President of this great country Zimbabwe, almost in every speech that he gives publicly, he completely denounces violence and he actually says PEACE all the time – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – So, you must withdraw. He must withdraw.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Chikwinya, you are debating the SONA that was presented by the President. The two examples that you raised in this House do not relate at all to what the President said within the SONA presentation. So please, do not distort what is happening outside and what transpired on the delivery of SONA. Stand guided.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Your time is up!
HON. L. SIBANDA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I move that time for Hon. Chikwinya to debate be extended with five minutes.
HON. CHIKUKWA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Mr. Speaker Sir, opportunity is not lost because we have the Electoral Amendment Bill before us. I want to believe that we must approach this particular Bill with all the soberness that is expected of this august House. All views of all political parties and stakeholders must be taken on board so that we create a condition that whoever is going to win the next general elections, is congratulated by those who would not have managed to make it. We can only do so if we go to an election that is non-violent, that has got no hate speech, where members of all political parties contesting are given free and fair time on all media platforms established in our country. All those issues must be incorporated in the Electoral Amendment Bill so that we give Zimbabweans a chance to regain all the lost time they have been losing because of disputed elections.
We must not get to a situation whereby Zimbabweans blame the electoral legislation for not being able to provide free and fair elections, yet we are the lawmakers who are supposed to provide for a legislation that directs the electoral management body on what to do. You saw what happened with the delimitation process. The delimitation process ended up in dispute and is currently in court because we have no Act of Parliament that directs ZEC on what steps to do when they are going through a delimitation process. We must learn from experience and the next delimitation process, ten years from now, must be guided by a particular piece of legislation tapping from the Constitution, respecting all constitutional provisions but giving a vehicle to what should be done by ZEC from what point to what point until the delimitation report is gazetted into public domain.
As I finish, we are the Citizens Coalition for Change, we are the next Government, post elections. We do not want to win because of a flawed legislation. We want to win because the conditions are free and fair. To win, we are going to do. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. Zikomo kwambili.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: This is an honourable House. We are here to debate and not to campaign. This is not a campaigning floor. Sorry about that.
*HON. PRISCILLA MOYO: I rise to add my voice to the President’s State of the Nation Address. We observe that this country is developing and good things are happening in the country. If we look at the road infrastructure, it was in a bad state because there was no development but because of the President’s vision, His Excellency E. D. Mnangagwa, the roads are being reconstructed. We are marveling at the works that are happening along the Harare-Beitbridge-Chirundu Road. Recently, I travelled along it and it is being constructed to world class standards.
I also want to talk about the Beitbridge Border Post. Vehicular transport and pedestrians now use different entry and exit points to the border post. This is as a result of the astute leadership of His Excellency, President Mnangagwa. We also have a lot of dams that are being constructed like Gwayi Dam which we visited in Matabeleland North. I am one of the people who toured there with the Portfolio Committee. We were able to marvel at the work that is being done. The dam is almost complete and it is filling up. This is something that is tangible. If anyone is in opposition for opposition sake, they will be able to concede that the President has a vision and is delivering.
Our chiefs are now marriage officers. In the past, people were not having their marriages solemnised but they are now aware that the chiefs can solemnise their marriages and that these marriages are recognised at law. This is what is transpiring in the communal lands. We are so grateful for the Pfumvudza Programme. Those that come from communal lands will bear witness because people are heavily involved in farming. They no longer have challenges with inputs even if they do not have draught power in the form of cattle. Mwenezi is a dry place and people are harvesting maize. They also grow finger millet and sorghum. We are being given all these seeds so that we can plant them and this is as a result of the President’s vision. He is a capable leader, His Excellency, Cde E. D. Mnangawa. If the people of Mwenezi can hear me, let us remain united and vote very strongly for him. I support the President’s vision and what he is doing in this country and the marvels that he is performing.
He is not just dealing with the major roads but in places like Kuwadzana, the roads have been repaired. Chitungwiza Road was attended to and that is as a result of the astute leadership of His Excellency the President. In Masvingo where I come from, the inner roads are being attended to. This never used to happen in the past. This is tangible. Anyone can see what is transpiring in this country; it is developing because of the able stewardship of His Excellency the President.
The universities are now producing commodities like gas. Because of sanctions we did not have money. Some people only hear of sanctions but they have not experienced them because they have not travelled outside the country. They have not observed why sanctions are hitting us hard. Because of the President’s vision, he said universities should now be in a position to manufacture gas. When we had COVID-19, a lot of hospitals managed to get oxygen easily because our universities were manufacturing oxygen, sanitisers and other ancillary items that are required in fighting COVID-19. These are tangible items that came about as a result of the capable leadership of His Excellency E. D. Mnangawa. We praise him highly because of his vision in this country.
On airports, let me turn to the Robert Mugabe International Airport, it is now being attended to. Some may not know it because they do not fly, so, you have not been there and you may not appreciate the magnificent work that is being done at the international airport. A lot of planes are now coming to Zimbabwe. They are now coming here on a regular basis. Air traffic had gone down but it is now up.
I urge you to go and visit the projects that are being carried out by His Excellency at the airport. All countries are aware of this development, hence they have positively responded by flying to this region. A lot of visitors are now flying direct to Victoria Falls without any hustles and as a result, the country is earning foreign currency. A lot of issues have already been referred to by previous speakers but the issues that I have raised now show the good work that His Excellency the President is doing and I support him. In so doing, I thank you – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]
^^HON. MUDAU: Thank you Mr. Speaker. We want to thank our President; we now have a border of international standards. When people arrive at Beitbridge Border Post, they feel like they are crossing through a border which is different from all the other borders that are within the region. This is through the vision of His Excellency the President.
Mr. Speaker, in Matabeleland South, we did not have a passport office. As of now, we have quite a number of passport offices. People no longer spend nights queuing for passports. You just go to Beitbridge and you are issued with your passport and proceed to South Africa within the same day. This is taking place in Matabeleland South. We also have a place where agriculture which was being practiced did not have enough equipment, the President widened this project to become part of ARDA. Now, we are practicing cultivation and we are feeding the whole province.
Government opened large factories and business opportunities, some of which are attending the road rehabilitation programme for example Exodus and Bitumen contractors. There are various contractors who are engaged in the rehabilitation project. The Gwanda Road has been widened and there is progress on the rehabilitation process.
We trust our President because he has got an ear to listen to orphans and others who are not orphans. The President who has been on the throne for only four years, we thank him a lot for what he has already done. The President rehabilitated rural roads and they are now accessible. The President has done a lot of good things. I thank you.
*HON. CHIKUKWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker, I rise to add my voice on a motion raised by our Chief Whip and seconded by Hon. Kwaramba. A lot of issues have already been raised by previous speakers. I am going to confine myself to what I have observed on the ground. I am quite happy about the issue of education and the use of technology. I am happy that His Excellency the President has taken the stance and I urge all other institutions and agents to support the President’s vision in that regard.
I am also going to deal with the issue of CALA which was recently introduced. This is a good development whose objectives are very noble but the Ministry of Education should have funds that are set aside to enable vulnerable children to have the means to photocopy, do research and meet all the requirements of CALA. The parents or guardians may not have sufficient funds to provide for their children.
One day I was caught unaware when a child requested for funding to embark on the CALA project and at that time, I did not understand what that meant. I am advocating for this position because I am mindful of children that are funded under the BEAM Scheme. Schools should also be providing them with the photocopiers so that the children can easily access photocopying at schools.
I am also grateful that the President mentioned the issue of personal identification documents which are now readily available through e-governance. I urge the Government to ensure that there is adequate equipment once the scheme has decentralised to provincial centres.
In terms of what is happening there should be a budget to assist the children so that the parents can be assisted. They do a lot of photocopying as they engage in the CALA projects. Furthermore, I am also glad that the President mentioned the issue of identification documents, licenses et cetera. These personal documents are now easily accessible through E-Governance. This is a good development and I believe that once this has been put in place, it must be decentralised into provinces and that the necessary equipment is readily available at provincial offices. This is a good project that our father, President Mnangagwa came up with. There is also the issue of the engagement and re-engagement by Zimbabwe. We are a friend to all and an enemy of none. Still on that issue, as Parliament, you should come up with other programmes to also further support His Excellency’s vision.
We are hated by people who impose sanctions on us but it is never our intention to want to have an argument with them. As Parliament, we should have programmes. The composition of Parliament is diverse on political basis. We could, as Parliament, go and engage other countries so that they observe that as a nation, we are not an enemy of anyone but a friend to everyone.
Lastly, I would want to talk about the issue of Harare. I heard people saying that no road rehabilitation has taken place in Harare but George Road in Hatfield was repaired through the President’s scheme together with the Masotsha Ndlovu and Airport Roads. The President’s efforts enabled the rehabilitation of these roads to take place. There is also a road that leads to Belvedere that leads to the Harare Institute of Technology and many other roads that were repaired. This is what is tangible in Harare.
There are roads that were supposed to be repaired by the city fathers but they did not. We urge them to repair those roads. It was after all the roads had been declared a national disaster that the President came on board to repair these roads. I thank you.
HON. MUTAMBISI: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. L. SIBANDA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 8th February, 2023.
On the motion of HON MUTAMBISI, seconded by HON. L. SIBANDA the House adjourned at Twenty Minutes to Six o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Friday, 3rd February, 2023
The National Assembly met at a Half-past Nine o’clock a.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE HON. SPEAKER
NON-ADVERSE REPORT RECEIVED FROM THE PARLIAMENTARY LEGAL COMMITTEE
THE HON. SPEAKER: I have received from the Parliamentary Legal Committee a Non-Adverse Report on the Police Amendment Bill [H. B. 1, 2023].
Second Reading: With leave, forthwith.
SECOND READING
POLICE AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 1, 2023]
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I am just going to recap for the benefit of Hon. Members but with the indulgence of the Hon. Members, I will not repeat the speech because it is a technical issue. The Bill was before Parliament but it lapsed. It had lapsed twice; therefore we had to restart again. We had already done the other processes. We did not alter anything on the Bill, so I will just recap using the memorandum so that Hon. Members can refresh their memories. The debate had already been done on my actual Second Reading speech. So I will indulge Hon. Members and just refresh their memories.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the purpose of this Bill is to amend the Police Act to achieve the following objectives; that is to ensure we align the Police Act with the Constitution and ensure that as the Constitution provides, the Commissioner General will be appointed by the President in consultation with the relevant Minister in terms of Section 221 (1) of the Constitution.
The other issue is also to align the tenure of the Commissioner General of Police with the Constitution and also to align sections of the Police Act to Section 243 (2), Section 255 (2) and Section 259 (11) of the Constitution. I will just speak on some of the clauses.
Clause 1 is the Short Title. Clause 2 amends the definition of Commissioner General and replaces the term ‘Police Force’ with ‘Police Service’.
Clause 3 speaks about the appointment of the Commissioner General by the President as provided in the Constitution.
Clause 4 sets out terms and conditions of the Commissioner General as provided in the Constitution.
Mr. Speaker, Clause 5 places the duty on the Commissioner General of Police to act in accordance with any written policy directives that is given by the Minister.
Clause 8 provides that the Commissioner General must comply again with any directives given to him or by her by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission in terms of Section 243 (2) of the Constitution and directives given by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
Clause 14 repeals Section 32 of the Act which gives a right to trial before a magistrate court. All the disciplinary trials, even of commissioned officers should be conducted by a body of officers only.
Clause 18 provides for delegation of functions of Police Service Commission to the Commissioner General.
Clause 19 provides for alignment of Section 67 of the principal Act to the Constitution.
Mr. Speaker, we are bringing this Act to Parliament to align the Police Act with the Constitution of 2013 and like I indicated, this is a technical compliance that we redo because the Bill lapsed twice. The Committee has already done its work and Parliament had already debated on my actual Second Reading speech which had not changed and is on record in the Hansard. Therefore Mr. Speaker, I move that the Bill be read a second time.
Hon. Gonese having stood up to debate
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Gonese, when the Bill had been presented previously, did you not debate?
HON. GONESE: I did not debate. It had lapsed at the Second Reading stage. Mr. Speaker Sir, I just want to make few comments regarding the alignment of the current Police Act to the Constitution. In this regard Mr. Speaker, I want to say that firstly, there is the change of the nomenclature from force to service. I believe that when this happens, we must have a paradigm shift. You will find that when we came up with the new Constitution in 2013, we were very clear that we must move away from the past.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Move away from what?
HON. GONESE: From the past. Before independence Mr. Speaker Sir, we had the BSAP, because of their brutality they used to be called Baba Satan ari pano. So the mentality of the BSAP is not supposed to be what we should have in an independent Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker Sir, this is not what has actually transpired in the sense that we still have members of the police service behaving as a force. I believe that when we are aligning the Act through this Amendment Bill to the Constitution, you must have that transformation whereby the rights of the citizens of Zimbabwe are upheld by the police. They have got a motto - pro-lege, pro-patria, pro-populo which is a latin phrase with the ZRP which means; for the law, for the country and for the people. I think this is what we will be expecting.
I would also want to make some comments relating to the rights of accused persons which are enshrined in Section 50 of our Constitution and I will make a proposal when it comes to the Committee stage. I know that I might not have drafted the appropriate amendments but if the Hon. Minister is to be amenable because it adds value. It enhances the process so that we can have some of those critical provisions which relate to the rights of accused persons, arrested persons and so on where members of the police service are required to advise people of their rights. At the time of arrests, an accused person is to be informed of the right to contact a legal practitioner of their choice, to contact a medical practitioner where applicable and where appropriate. Instead Mr. Speaker Sir, as I have already indicated, the police in the past, under the Rhodesian regime trampled under the rights of the people in this regards. Unfortunately, this is still happening and I believe that it will be an improvement on the Bill if we can have those provisions incorporated into the current Police Act so that it is made clear that at the time of arrest, the police must advise the accused persons of their rights, advise them that they are entitled to consult a legal practitioner of their own choice and if they have got any medical ailments, they are supposed to contact a medical practitioner as well.
Those will be my brief submissions on the Bill, otherwise I am in support of the Bill but I am just pointing out that it is also important to have not just an amendment to the Act, but also a paradigm shift of doing things. After all, we have been told times without number that we are supposed to be in a new dispensation so that we will have a difference in the way that we operate. I thank you.
HON. NDUNA: I just want to applaud the Minister on two issues in his endevour to align the Police Act with the Constitution which is sui generis:, in a class of its own, which is the supreme law of the land; in particular Clause 8 which deals with compliance with the Zimbabwe Anti-corruption Commission and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission. Mr. Speaker Sir, the Hon. Member that spoke before me took words out of my mouth in terms of compliance with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission but in particular, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption …
THE HON. SPEAEKR: The Standing Orders are very clear; do not repeat what has been stated already,
HON. NDUNA: I will not repeat Mr. Speaker Sir. I will just touch on the Zimbabwe Anti-corruption Commission, in particular where the current status is that they did not have arresting powers. So, this is very progressive where the Zimbabwe Republic Police has to comply with the arrest or with the statements, in particular, those that would have been recorded by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission so that the Police, together with the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission bring the perpetrators to injustice before the courts of law.
Clause 14 that repeals the Act in-so-far as it relates to disciplinary of the Police Service being brought before the Magistrate Court as a first port of call – that is very progressive.
The Defence Act in the Army directs that anyone who is delinquent in their operation in the force is brought before either the Supreme Court orders or the court martial. I think the Police Force is now being aligned, not only to the Constitution but to a number of other Acts in the force. This is very progressive because the current situation is quite confusing. Now, if the Act starts directing to a disciplinary commission within the force, it is quite progressive and it is in sync with the Constitution. I thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Members, let it be brought to your attention; Standing Order 157 - “Members who wish to propose amendments to Bills must submit such amendments in writing and in proper form to the Clerk during the business hours of Parliament for that day, on the day before that on which they are to appear. Subsection (2) - Amendments may be handed to the Clerk at any time after the First Reading of a Bill”.
So, Hon. Minister, do not belabor yourself on some of the suggested amendments, we must follow procedure.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. Speaker for your guidance and I thank the two Hon. Members who debated. Hon. Gonese largely is supporting the Bill but his main worry is, let us stick to the letter and spirit of the Constitution in terms of professionalism by our Police Service and ensure that the rights of the accused are upheld. I agree and we believe that we need to finalise the Bill and ensure that the necessary legislative framework is there. The Police will work to ensure that they comply with that but by and large; even now the police have been trying their level best to ensure that they uphold the rights of everyone, be it accused or the citizenry.
Having said that, I move that the Bill be now read a second time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read a second time.
Committee Stage: With leave, forthwith.
COMMITTEE STAGE
POLICE AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 1, 2023]
House in Committee.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON ZIYAMBI): I move the amendment standing in my name that: In the Preamble on page 2 of the Bill, insert after line 39 (before the enacting formula) the following:
“(4) An Act of Parliament must provide for the organisation, structure, management, regulation, discipline and, subject to section 223, the conditions of service of members of the Police Service.” …
221 Commissioner-General of Police
(1) The Police Service is under the command of a Commissioner-General of Police appointed by the President after consultation with the Minister responsible for the police.
(2) The Commissioner-General of Police is appointed for a five-year term which may be renewed once.
(3) A person who has served as Commissioner-General of Police may not be appointed to the command of any other security service.
(4) The Commissioner-General of Police must exercise his or her command in accordance with any general written policy directives given by the Minister responsible for the police acting under the authority of the President.”
HON. HWENDE: I have a minor suggestion on the Preamble. I have seen that we have added Sections 219, 221 and 223. Is it not possible to add Section 207 which states that: Security forces including the Police Service are subject to the authority of the Constitution and the Executive and are subject to parliamentary oversight?
HON. ZIYAMBI: I agree and propose this amendment to say on the Preamble right at the start so as to read: Whereas sections - we start with 207 now and then we go to 219 and 222. We indicate what 207 says in the Constitution and the additional amendment would be 221 in line 39 that I have already indicated. I submit.
Amendment to Preamble put and agreed to.
Preamble, as amended, put and agreed to.
Clauses 1 to 5 put and agreed to.
On Clause 6:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON ZIYAMBI): I move the amendment standing in my name that: On page 3 of the Bill in Clause 6, the substituted new section 9 (“Standing Orders”), delete subsection (1) between lines 37 and 39 and substitute the following:
“(1) Subject to this Act, in consultation with the Police Service Commission and with the approval of the Minister, the Commissioner-General may make Standing Orders with respect to the discipline, regulation and orderly conduct of the affairs of the Police Force.”
Amendment to Clause 6 put and agreed to.
Clause 6, as amended, put and agreed to.
Clauses 7 and 8 put and agreed to.
On Clause 9:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I move the amendments standing in my name that on page 4 of the Bill, delete Clause 9 between lines 19 and 26 and renumber the subsequent clauses accordingly.
Amendment to Clause 9 put and agreed to.
Clause 9, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 10:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Chair, I move the amendments standing in my name that on page 4 of the Bill, delete Clause 10 between lines 27 and 30 and substitute the following clause:
“10 Amendment of section 16 of Chapter 11:10,
Section 10 (“Promotion of non-commissioned members”) of the principal Act is amended by the repeal of subsection (1) and the substitution of—
“(1) Subject to subsection (2), the Commissioner-General, with the approval of the Police Service Commission, may promote any member to any rank other than a commissioned rank.”
Amendment to Clause 10 put and agreed to.
Clause 10, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 11:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I move the amendment standing in my name that on page 4 of the Bill, delete Clause 11 between lines 31 and 33 and substitute the following clause:
“11 Amendment of section 18 of Chapter 11:10,
Section 18 (“Reappointments and acting ranks”) of the principal Act is amended by the repeal of subsection (1) and the substitution of—
“(1) The Police Service Commission, on the advice of the Commissioner-General given after consultation with the Minister, may reappoint to the regular force for a specified period or specified periods a person who has retired in terms of this Act, and in that event the person concerned shall be reappointed with such rank, not being higher than the rank held by him or her immediately before he or she so retired, as may be specified by the Commissioner-General.”
Amendment to Clause 11 put and agreed to.
Clause 11, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 12:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I move the amendments standing in my name to Clause 12 which is now Clause 11, that on page 4 of the Bill, delete Clause 12 between lines 34 and 41 and renumber the subsequent clauses accordingly.
Amendment to Clause 12 put and agreed to.
Clause 12, as amended, put and agreed to.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON
VISITORS IN THE SPEAKER’S GALLERY
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (HON. DR. MAVETERA): Order, I wish to recognise the presence of Gateway Primary School in the Speaker’s Gallery. They are Grade Sevens. You are welcome – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: We are now on Clause 13.
Clause 13 put and agreed to.
On Clause 14:
HON. GONESE: Thank you very much Madam Chair Ma’am. This clause Hon. Minister, seeks to oust the rights of members of the Police Service from opting to be charged by the Magistrates Court and if this Bill were to be passed, it would then repeal the current Section 32 in the Act. This section allows members of the Police Service to elect or choose to be tried in a Magistrates Court for disciplinary offences under the Act rather than by a board of officers.
My submission Madam Chair is that this will take away the rights of members of the Police Service. I believe that, that right, although it is constitutional - yes, you can take it away but I do not think that it is appropriate. Let us have a situation where a member may decide that look, I will not get a fair trial by a board of officers. Being a practicing legal practitioner, I know that a lot or some of these trials have not been handled in a very professional manner and some have been set aside on review or appeal. I submit that this right of members to opt that they want to be tried by an impartial court remains.
I know the Hon. Minister is consulting his officials however, I want to make an important point which requires the Hon. Minister’s attention. This is to the fact that Section 29 (a) of the current Act has not actually been repealed. This is the section that gives both the High Court and the Magistrate Court jurisdiction to try disciplinary offences. What it means effectively Madam Chair and Hon. Minister, is that even if you were to remove Section 32 and leave Section 29 (a) intact; you will then have inconsistency because Section 29 will still remain as part of the Act. It allows both the High Court and the Magistrate Court to try cases but, which cases are they going to try when we pass this Bill that removes Section 32?
Apart from that inconsistency, I think the more important point is to uphold the rights of members to choose and say, ‘look, I am not sure that I will get a fair trial’. I know that there will be rights of appeal and so on but why get to that stage? Why not just get the Magistrates Courts to have that jurisdiction so that a member can choose? After all, the Magistrates Courts are presided over by judicial officers who are trained and so on and if the member who is being tried is guilty of any offence, I am sure that the impartial judicial officer will be able to make an appropriate finding and for those reasons, I would submit that this clause should be deleted so that the provisions of Section 32 continue to apply.
I hope Hon. Minister that you will understand and appreciate the logic and gist of my reasoning so that rights of police officers are still protected. They will still be tried anyway.
*HON. CHINOTIMBA: Madam Speaker Ma’am, I want to contribute by saying that the law that applies to civilians and the law that applies to the police, soldiers and other trained people is different. Civilians do not take an oath of loyalty to behave in a certain manner. In both the Police Service and Army, there are oaths that are taken by officers that bind them to certain behaviours.
So for a police officer who has committed an offence, needs no request to be tried in a Magistrates Court that is meant for civilians whilst knowing that they took the oath of being a police officer and knowing fully what is expected of them. So, the issue of taking a trained police officer to a civilian court, in my opinion, does not apply - [HON. ZWIZWAI: Ko Muvevi?] – Ndosaka muri mumajeri, hamuteereri! I am saying that the section that was alluded to should continue being applied so that police officers are not tried in civilian courts but are tried in their own courts. I thank you.
HON. NDUNA: Thank you Hon. Chair on behalf of the people of Chegutu West Constituency. On Clause 14, these institutions that we are talking about are independent. This is not the Salvation Army; it is not church - these people, before they get the tag Zimbabwe Republic Police – it is not a Scouts movement or a Girl Guides. You are moulded and before that you are attested into that force; if you have a flat-foot you do not go there; if you have varicose veins, you may even die during the training process.
My point is, there should be disciplinary mechanisms to deal with delinquent behaviour, including water-boarding. There should be pain inducing measures that are understood by the Police Service and the military. However, all is not lost on the Magistrate Court or the High Court because outside the courts - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Madam Chair, outside the Police Force, if a member of the military or of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) commits a crime, they are charged according to the societal tendencies, norms and such like. All is not lost on those who want to criminalise those who are in the police.
We have seen members of the Police Force committing crimes, armed robberies and such like – they are tried in both the Magistrates Court and the High Court respectively. So, if we ask that they be tried in their own enclave for issues committed within the Police Force, it is for the reason that they have been attested into that service or Police Force but if they then commit crimes that are outside the police force. They will still be tried according to the law. So I am alive to the fact that after a Court Martial in the Defence Act, you are able to appeal to the High Court and you go to the highest court of appeal, which is the Supreme Court after which you are bound by the decision of the court.
So it is my thinking that let us leave the police force different from the Salvation Army and Methodist and such like. I say so because I am not a half-baked military person. I should be different from the people that are not military and I should be disciplined according to the ethos, the values, what I appended my signature to. I did not join Parliament, I joined the services and I should be disciplined according to the norms of those services. Those will be my submissions on Clause 14 Madam Chair.
*HON. SEWERA: Thank you Madam Chair. I want to add my voice supporting the previous speakers that this law should be left like that because I was a once a police officer. On this issue, I see that the police have an advantage because they can be tried where they work as well as the Magistrate Office, but when one is being recruited into the police force they take an oath as well as in the army. It is like when you are recruited into the police force and you run away before completion of the training after giving an oath. That is why you are charged for deserting. It applies in the army as well. You do not approach the Magistrate Court. They have their own unique laws because you are not forced to join. If you do not agree with those laws, you should not join because a lot of discipline is demanded in those jobs.
So, for our police officers to be disciplined they should follow the laws of the Police Service Act. These days there are a lot of crimes that are being committed by police officers. It is all because of indiscipline which is not wanted in the police force. So discipline is very vital in the police force. We cannot tamper with that part because we will not be able to control them. They first should be tried under the Police Service Act then if they feel that they have not been tried fairly then they can appeal at the Magistrate Court. Thank you Madam Chair.
*HON. MADZIMURE: Thank you Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker there are a lot of issues concerning discipline which are happening in the police force. Right now as we are speaking, the police officers are going through refresher courses. Some are refusing to do that and they are being charged for indiscipline because they do not agree to what they are being taught because it is against the oath they took of upholding the Constitution.
What I am saying Madam Speaker is that there is nothing wrong for a police officer to say I want to be tried before a board because of sour relations. People are just people. A person can join the police because they want to do what the Constitution demands which helps the country. So you cannot force them to be tried by the Police Service Act when they know that they will not receive a fair judgment.
I do not see any challenge when a police officer chooses to approach the Magistrate Court or the board. If the magistrate presides well that is okay. Humans do not operate like animals. You cannot force them to do things which are contrary. They should go to work not as slaves but as free people. If you are a police officer that does not mean that you have to agree to everything that you are told to do. If you dispute, then you are sent for the court marshal and without an option to choose whether what you have committed as a crime can be tried by the magistrate or the board.
So my issue Madam Speaker is that let us leave it open like that. You can approach the Magistrate Court with your crime or you approach the board. There are other crimes that are committed by police which are purely criminal which should be tried by the courts. If you are told to go and arrest a suspect and you do your own thing that is different but one should have a choice because we are all people who should be given an opportunity to be tried fairly.
As this august House, our mandate is to make laws which are good for everyone not what we think we want them to do. These people do not have representation here. It is us who should make laws that apply to everyone because we work for all the people. Those are my submissions. They should be given an opportunity to choose.
HON. NGULUVHE: I just want to give a comment. I think we must also understand that a police force or a police service is a trend more or less quasi military and these people rely on discipline. In any force if there is no discipline you cannot control that force. Discipline counts. We cannot rely and say we go to the courts otherwise you give them order to say let us go to the courts first to see whether we can go and fight or not.
So we should understand that a force or a service like police...
HON. HAMAUSWA: On a point of order Madam Chair.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Yes, what is your point of order?
HON. HAMAUSWA: I encourage the Hon. Member to speak of the police services and not the police force. The Police Service and the Police Force are two different things. The force reminds us of the Smith regime –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-
*HON. NGULUVHE: Noted, I withdraw. I am talking of the services. All I am trying to say is that the service – [AN HON. MEMBER: Inaudible interjection.]- We are not talking about the war. You did not fight in the liberation struggle, you were still a child.
What I am saying is that when we are referring to a service that is under command, we cannot say that we want to rush to the courts because we do not agree with the order that you have been given whether it is lawful or not. What is happening is that when you are in the service and you are given an order and you feel that you have not been tried fairly you are first tried by that service. Then you go through the system but if you are not happy with the judgement and you believe that you have not been judged rightfully or lawfully, you have the right to appeal. The law must say the service would use the law of the force. If you are not happy with the judgement, you can go outside, not that you should be given the leeway to choose. If we do that, it will not work. Let us not think that way but if we want your service to be effective, then we need to consider that. That is my comment. I thank you.
*HON. HWENDE: Thank you Madam Chair. The problem that we are facing is that we do not understand what the Constitution says and the Constitution was changed from the Police Force to the Police Service. It is important that we understand and not be confused. We need to expand the rights of the Police Service instead of limiting our police – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Order Hon. Members, may you please lower your voices.
*HON. HWENDE: If we change Section 32, whilst leaving Section 29 (a) of the same Act – well, I think it is okay if the Minister agrees. We have reached an agreement with the Minister. I thank you.
HON. NDUNA: Thank you Madam Chair. The Constitution, which has ushered in the Police Service Commission and also in Section 193 of the Criminal Jurisdiction of Courts states unequivocally clearly without any shadow of doubt that in subsection (a), the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the High Court and the Magistrate Court, in subsection (b) of the same section, a court or tribunal deals with cases under disciplinary hearing to the extent that the jurisdiction is necessary for the enforcement of discipline in the disciplined forces concerned.
You cannot come from DRC and seek to come to Mbare Magistrate Court when in the line of fire or in the forefront you have been delinquent in your way of operation. I tell you to fire and you tell me your finger is sore and you elect to come to Mbare Magistrate Court, how ridiculous can that be? If you do not agree with the law, you do not try and pilfer or smuggle something nocturnally through the back door. You change the law. If Members feel strongly about what the Constitution says, which is sui-generis - in a class of its own, which is the supreme law of the land, then they need to change the law. There are ways of changing the law but whilst we have this provision here.
Hon. Minister, I completely applaud your stance in terms of aligning with the law. Do not - I pray, bring somebody from the front line to Mbare Magistrate Court. Go ahead and include that section in the Act that deals with disciplinary hearing because it was aligned with the Constitution. In the Eighth Parliament, we had the General Laws Amendment Bill that consequentially aligned to the Constitution about 122 pieces of legislation. So this process should not be hampered because of ignorance of the law. It is no defence. I have said time without number, let us say what the law says. What is it saying and we should not be frivolous and vexatious, saying anything that is ultra vires the law. I agree with you Hon. Minister. Go ahead, yes, and align the Police Service to the Constitution.
HON. R. NYATHI: I just wanted to say when you are in the army there is what we call a Defence Act, which determines the cases or the state of a person who has wronged. In normal circumstances, all people who are in the Defence Force are also judged in terms of the Defence Act. Yes, we have the Police Service but they also have their own Act through which their members are judged whenever they do wrong. So, I concur with the opinion of the Minister of Justice that we keep it as it is because it is proper. It is also in consistence with the Constitution of the land. I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Hon. Chair. I would like to thank the Hon. Members. I want to start by thanking Hon. Gonese for highlighting an error that he picked up that there were inconsistencies between Section 29 and the proposed deletion of this clause will create an inconsistence. I do not agree with him on the fact that at the first instance, discipline of members of the Police Service should be given a leeway to say I do not want to be disciplined within the force but by a magistrate.
Hon. Chair, we are talking about a disciplined force whose members like what the other Hon. Members have alluded to, when you join the Police Force or the army, you become aware that you are supposed to be a member of a disciplined force and there is a certain level of discipline that you are supposed to uphold. It is like you join a football team, you do not then after the football match go and report that I was kicked or assaulted. You were fully aware that once I go into that field of play I may be kicked, my leg may be broken but you do not go and report grievous bodily harm because of a tackle in a field of play. Likewise, you follow the procedures and the rules of that game.
So, if you decide that you want to go and join the Police Service, you must allow yourself to be subjected to the disciplinary procedures that ensure that we have a disciplined force. I believe that at the first instance, the members must be subjected to the discipline within the force. It will increase the discipline that particular force will have. So in that regard, I disagree with Hon. Gonese but I want to thank him because he made me become aware that there were some inconsistencies.
I would then propose an amendment that we insert the following new clause after the existing Clause 13 and this becomes new Clause 14: Amendment of Section 29 (a) that is trial of a member for an offence and jurisdiction of court or tribunal. That Section 29 (a) is amended in subsection (1) by the repeal of paragraph 6 and it then becomes consistent. I owe it to Hon. Gonese for being very alert and Hon. Hwende also, but I do not agree that if you are a football player, you then say I want to go and report you to the police for breaking my leg. If you are within the Army, you can actually be killed in a battle. It is not murder, you subscribed to it.
Hon. Chair, correction. Let me re-read it so that you can capture it correctly. I am proposing that we insert the following new clause after the existing Clause 13 and it becomes Clause 14. “Amendment of Section 29 (a), trial of a member for an offence and jurisdiction of a court or tribunal - Section 29 (a) is amended in subsection (1) by the repeal of paragraphs (a) and (b). Then you can appeal later”. So, we leave board of officers and an officer in terms of Section 34.
HON. GONESE: I firstly wish to acknowledge the appreciation from the Hon. Minister and expression of his gratitude that I had pointed out the omission or error on the Bill. Be that as it may, I do appreciate that the clause in question is constitutional although from the bottom of my heart I would have wanted a situation where police officers remain with a choice as to where to be tried. With a heavy heart, I will accept what they are saying because at least it is in line with the Constitution. I cannot belabor the point. I have made my point that it would be fair to allow people to choose. I also want to point out that in fact the Army can actually be tried by a civilian court in terms of the Defence Act. There is that choice. Thank you.
Amendment to Clause 14 put and agreed to.
Clause 14, as amended, put and agreed to.
Clause 15 put and agreed to.
On Clause 16:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Hon. Chair. I propose another amendment in my name to Clause 16. I am proposing deletion of Clause 16. On page 5 of the Bill, delete Clause 16 between lines 9 and 12 and renumber the subsequent clauses accordingly. I thank you.
Amendment to Clause 16 put and agreed to.
Clause 16, as amended, put and agreed to.
Clause 17 put and agreed to.
On Clause 18, now Clause 17:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Hon. Chair. I am proposing amendment in my name, the insertion of a new clause after Clause 18.
On page 5 of the Bill, insert after Clause 18 (now clause 17) Clause 6, the following:
“18 New section inserted in Cap. 11:10
principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 61 —
“61 Protection of Police Property
(1) In this section—
“notified mark” means any mark, marks or insignia notified for the purposes of subsection (2).
“(1) The Minister may, by notice in a statutory instrument, declare and make known what mark, marks or insignia shall denote that an item on which it appears (including any arms, clothing, equipment, animal, vehicle, aircraft or boat used by the Police Service on duty) is the property of the Police Service.
(3) Any person who—
(a) applies to any arms, clothing, equipment, animal, vehicle, aircraft or boat or other thing whatsoever any notified mark with the intent that it should be mistaken for being the property of the Police Service on duty; or
(b) defaces or conceals any notified mark with the intent that it should be not be identified as being the property of the Police Service; or
(c) without the leave in writing of the Commissioner-General unlawfully receives, possesses, advertises, delivers or otherwise deals with anything whatsoever bearing the notified mark that is used by the Police Service on duty, including any arms, clothing, equipment, animal, vehicle, aircraft or boat;
Shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 6 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such fine and such imprisonment.”
“19 Substitution of section 66 in Cap. 11:10
Section 66 of the principal Act is repealed and substituted by —
“66 Wearing of uniforms, badges, etc of Police Service
(1) In this section—
“uniform” means any article or apparel, including a badge, button, braid or insignia worn with any particular items of clothing, designed for the use of the Police Service.
(2) No person shall be allowed to be in possession of, manufacture, trade, sale, exchange or dispose of or wear any uniform, badge, button, braid or insignia designed for the Police Service or anything which might reasonably be mistaken for any such uniform, badge, button, braid or insignia unless the person—
(a) is a member of the Police Service entitled by reason of his or her appointment, rank or designation to wear such uniform, badge, button, braid or insignia; and
(b) is a manufacturer or trader of the items in question lawfully contracted by the Police Service to make the items in question on behalf of, or supply or sell them to the Police Service alone;
(c) is an entertainer or agent of an entertainer who is permitted in writing by the Commissioner-General of Police to wear the items in question or avail them to be worn by his or her principals, colleagues, associates or employees on specified occasions and places and for a specified time.
(3) Any person who contravenes subsection (3) shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 6 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such fine and such imprisonment.”
Amendment to Clause 18, now Clause 17, put and agreed to.
Clause 18, now Clause 17, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 19:
HON. HWENDE: I want to ask the Hon. Minister if he has seen that this might be inconsistent with the Constitution particularly Section 50 (9), of the Constitution which says ‘Any person who has been illegally arrested or detained is entitled to compensation from the person responsible for the arrest or detention, but a law may protect the following persons from liability under this Section.
(a) A judicial officer acting in a judicial capacity reasonably and in good faith;
(b) Any other public officer acting reasonably and in good faith and without culpable ignorance or negligence. I want to ask the Minister if he has seen that this might actually be inconsistent with the Constitution. Thank you.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): We are not removing that one, it is remaining but we are removing the rest.
Clause 19 put and agreed to.
On Clause 20:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Hon. Chair. I propose amendments in my name, a new Clause substituted for Clause 20. We will renumber accordingly. On page 5 of the Bill, delete Clause 20 at the end of the Bill and substitute the following:
Clause 20, Amendment of Section 72 of Cap. 11:10
Section 72 (“Regulations”) of the Principal Act is amended-
- by the repeal of subsection (1) and the substitution of-
“(1) Subject to this Act and Section 223 (2) of the Constitution, the Police Service Commission, in consultation with the Commissioner General and with the approval of Minister, may make regulations providing for all matters which in terms of this Act are required or permitted to be prescribed or which, in his opinion, are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act.
(b) in subsection (2) by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (n)-
(o) the grievance procedure to be followed by members, including the manner of lodging, processing or settling and grievance arising from a policy, directive or standing order of the Commissioner General in the discharge of the Commissioner General’s office”.
Amendment to new Clause 20 put and agreed to.
New Clause 20, as amended, put and agreed to.
House resumed.
Progress reported.
Bill reported with amendments.
Bill referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. KHUMALO): Order Hon. Members.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I want to thank the Hon. Members who have dedicated their time this Friday so that we can deal with our outstanding Bills, more specifically the Police Amendment Bill. I want to thank them for the enriching contributions that will ensure that our laws will be for the good governance of our people. Having said that, I now move that the House do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI), the House adjourned at Four Minutes to Eleven o’clock p.m. until Tuesday, 7th February, 2023.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Thursday, 2nd February, 2023
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY THE HON. SPEAKER
PETITION RECEIVED FROM ZIMBABWE NATIONAL RESOURCES COUNCIL
THE HON. SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that on Friday, 16th December 2022, Parliament of Zimbabwe received a petition from the Zimbabwe National Resources Council beseeching Parliament to, among other things, exercise its oversight role and hold the ministries of Mines and Mining Development; Environment, Climate Change, Tourism and Hospitality Industry and the Environmental Management Agency accountable and ensure the destruction of Mutare River is stopped.
The petition has since been referred to the Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development.
NON-ADVERSE REPORTS RECEIVED FROM THE PARLIAMENTARY LEGAL COMMITTEE
THE HON. SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that I have received non adverse reports from the Parliamentary Legal Committee on the following Bills and Statutory Instruments:
- The National Security Council Bill H.B. 2A, 2022.
- Statutory Instruments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 published
in the Government Gazette during the month of January 2023.
CONSIDERATION STAGE
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL BILL [H. B. 2A, 2022]
Amendment to Clause 3 put and agreed to.
Bill, as amended, adopted.
Third Reading: With leave, forthwith.
THIRD READING
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL BILL [H. B. 2A, 2022]
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGALAND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker Sir, I now move that the Bill be read the third time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the third time.
HON. CHIKWINYA: On a point of clarification Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Point of clarification on the motion?
HON. CHIKWINYA: No, it is on a ruling made by the Speaker yesterday.
THE HON. SPEAKER: You should have sought that point of clarification yesterday.
HON. CHIKWINYA: We tried Mr. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: I will not allow it because we do not work in reverse gear in terms of our procedures.
HON. CHIKWINYA: I purely understand Mr. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: That is the ruling. You should have dispensed that yesterday.
HON. CHIKWINYA: It is just a clarification from your...
THE HON. SPEAKER: Kindly sit down please.
COMMITTEE STAGE
JUDICIAL LAWS AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 3, 2022]
First Order read: Resumption of Committee Stage: Judicial Laws Amendment Bill [H. B. 3, 2022].
House in Committee.
On Clause 3;
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Chair, I propose the amendments standing in my name that we delete Part II of the Bill on page 2 and substitute it with the following and the subsequent clauses will be renumbered accordingly.
I am proposing to make amendments to the Constitutional Court Act and substitution of Section 5 Cap 7 (2.2). Section 5 of Principal Act is repealed and substituted by;
Part II
AMENDMENTS TO CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ACT [CHAPTER 7:22]
2.Substitution of section 5 of Cap 7:22
Section 5 of the principal Act is repealed and substituted by¾
“5 Decisions of court
(1) The decision of the court shall be the decision of the majority of the judges. In other words, I am repealing that section and indicating that the decisions of the Constitutional Court must be the decisions of the majority of the judges.
(2) The court shall not be bound by any of its own judgments, rulings or opinions, nor by the judgments or opinions of its predecessors” that becomes the new Clause 3.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (HON. KHUMALO): Order Hon. Minister, we understand the amendments were circulated to Members – [HON. ZIYAMBI: Yes!] – Why are you repeating them?
HON. ZIYAMBI: Oh, for emphasis, you want me to simply say as it fully appears in the Order Paper. Let me just continue –
The new Clause 4;
- New section inserted in Cap 7:22
The principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 9¾
“9A Friend of the court
(1) The court may allow a person with expertise in a particular matter which is before the court to appear as a friend of the court.
(2) Leave to appear as a friend of the court may be granted to a person on application orally or in writing.
(3) The court may, on its own motion, request a person with expertise to appear as friend of the court in a matter before it.
Then the new Clause 5; this is the one which is in the Order Paper which is in the Bill now. Section 10 and it includes the amendments that we proposed yesterday. Section 10; sittings and vacation of the principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following subsection: - the existing section becoming subsection (1). Subject to subsection (3), rules may provide for the sittings of the court and of judges of the court, whether sitting in court or in Chambers to be conducted by the use of any electronic or any other means of communication by which all parties to the proceedings at the sitting can hear, be heard and be seen at the same time without being physically present together here-in-after referred to as virtual sittings.
- The parties concerned must consent to their proceedings being conducted by way of a virtual sitting, but in the event that only one of the parties to a proposed virtual sitting does not consent to the virtual sitting, the court shall have discretion to determine whether or not the sitting shall be held virtually. So we have incorporated the amendment that was proposed yesterday.
Hon. Chair, sub clause 4 rules shall make provision for the public to have access to virtual sittings;
- Any party who participated in a virtual sitting for which provision is made in the rules is deemed for all purposes to have been present at the sitting. I thank you.
HON. GONESE: I think those amendments which were read by the Hon. Minister are not on the Order Paper. It is just a question of clarification. I know you had said you would say it only once but we were trying to digest and grasp whilst I thought they were on the Order Paper , then I was going to read them at my leisure but they are not there.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Chair, the first amendment that we have inserted there pertains to the amendment to the Constitutional Court Act where the proposal is that we must indicate in the Act that decisions of the Constitutional Court shall be the decision of the majority of the judges. The second one just indicates that the Constitutional Court is not bound by any of its own judgments or rulings or opinions. It is just that we wanted to put it there for clarity’s sake. So those are the two new ones and the other one is about the friends of the court to say that somebody can make an oral application to become a friend of the court or the Constitutional Court can invite anyone with expertise. So those are the only ones that we have added there.
*HON. CHIDZIVA: Hon. Minister, I would like to seek clarification on virtual sittings whereby there shall be some witnesses who are not supposed to be following the court proceedings but are to be called at a later stage. What are we going to do with such a scenario?
HON. ZIYAMBI: Hon. Chair, we excluded criminal trials from this, we simply put in bail hearings, routine remand.
(v)HON. MOLOKELA-TSIYE: Chapter 7:22 (3) where it says ‘the court may on its own motion request a person to appear’- I think the Hon. Minister should change the word ‘on its own motion’, to ‘on its own volition’ that is the correct English.
HON. BITI: We have no problem with the amendment in (4) because we agreed on that. My only problem is on what the Minister is trying to insert today which was not in the original Bill. Remember, the Bill was just dealing with virtual court hearings. I have no problem with the provision dealing with amicus curiae. What I simply want to say is, I would have preferred the issue to be dealt with in terms of the rules of the Constitutional Court. So, maybe we can add that the rules of court can provide the details. For instance, you speak of an application, does it have to be a normal court application or does it have to be a Chamber application, so the rules must deal with that.
My more substantive point is to do with Section 5 (2), ‘the court shall not be bound by any of its own judgment, rulings or opinions nor by the judgments or opinions of its predecessors. I do not know why you put it because it is an Apex court. So, the court does not need this to be reminded. If you put it, it is almost like you are giving them a licence to just willy-nilly change and reverse their judgments. Law needs to be certain and if you follow our Constitution, it says the law that applies in Zimbabwe is the law as it stood at the Cape in 18 something. So, we follow Roman Dutch Law, Hon. Dexter Nduna will tell you and other lawyers that we are bound by the principle of stare decisis, the principle of precedent - so the law needs to be certain. Therefore, on this provision, you are almost inviting them to be chaotic, change their rules, and just remove it because it does not change the fact that they have powers to reverse judgments on good reason. It is not adding any value but it is adding mischief. My appeal to you is that there is no benefit at all that you are deriving from this thing other than mischief. Let the law remain as it is - dry, old, lackadaisical, indifferent and conservative. My proposal is that just take out (2). If you put it there now, you are not deriving any benefit from it. Mr. Dias you are there, why are you putting it? There is no value. Give Mr. Dias the microphone. Hon. Nduna, you are a law student, tell them. It is a conservative profession and that is why we are still putting wigs and black gowns 44 years after Independence.
HON. ZIYAMBI: I agree to remove sub-clause 2 which speaks about the judgments. We can expunge that from my amendment. On the question by Hon. Molokela to say “on its own motion” that is correct English. I can privately school him so that he can appreciate that it is used frequently like that.
HON. GONESE: Just a point of order on a procedural issue, not on the Bill. It is about how we conduct our proceedings. I have noticed that when people are on virtual - unless you are connected on your own gadget but sometimes we have got these gadgets but the audio is not coming out clearly, I believe it is something that ICT should attend to. When you are in the House – if we all connect, it may mean that there will be a lot of disturbances. My point of order relates to those on virtual so that we can all hear from the speakers because we have the screens. When you are in a hybrid meeting, there are usually speakers which enable you all to hear the person on virtual but here, the way we are operating, you can hardly hear the person unless you connect your own gadget and put on the volume. We in the House should be able to hear those on virtual, otherwise it defeats the whole purpose of having those screens. You can see them on the screen but if you have not connected yourself, you are not able to hear them. I think it is an issue which should be addressed.
Amendments to Clauses 3, 4 and 5 put and agreed to.
Clauses 3, 4 and 5, as amended, put and agreed to.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON ZIYAMBI) I move the amendment standing in my name that Amendment of Section 16 of Chapter 7:22, Section 16 Appointment of Registrar and Officers of the court of the principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (2); (3) the Registrar and other officers of the court shall perform such functions and exercise such powers as may be conferred upon them by this Act and the rules.
Amendment to Clause 6 put and agreed to.
Clause 6, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 7:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON ZIYAMBI): I move the amendment standing in my name that: New Clause 4 by substitution of section 22 of Chapter 7:22 of the principal Act is repealed and substituted by procedure for invalidation of law,
- The rules may prescribe the procedure for confirmation of any order of constitutional invalidity made by another court that has the effect of invalidating an Act of Parliament or any conduct of the President or Parliament;
- The Attorney General shall be entitled to be heard by the court on the question of whether an Act of Parliament or any conduct of the President or Parliament is in contravention of the Constitution, whether or not the Attorney General was a party to the proceedings in which any order of constitutional invalidity affecting such Act or conduct was made by another court.
HON. BITI: Firstly, to say that the rules now as they stand actually already provide for the procedure of the confirmation, because the procedure for the confirmation Hon. Chair, is provided by Section 175 (4) of the Constitution. Section 175 of the Constitution already says where a court has made an order for Constitutional invalidity, the Constitutional Court must confirm – [THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: Dzokorora] – I am saying this provision, strictly speaking, is not necessary because the rules as they stand now already provide for a situation where a lower court has declared unconstitutional or invalid a section. This rule however is necessary because the Constitution in Section 175 is badly worded now in respect of a situation where a lower court refuses to invalidate a section. So the rules and the judgement of the Hon. Justice Garwe says even where a lower court has refused to declare a section invalid, the Constitutional Court must consider whether that decision was correct. So do deal with that lacuna, I propose that sub-section (1) should say ‘the rules may prescribe the procedure for the confirmation or non-confirmation of an order.’ Already they are doing that, based on interpretation by the esteemed Hon. Justice Garwe. To deal with that lacuna, please add a non-confirmation. Thank you very much.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Hon. Chair, I want to thank Hon. Biti but with all respect, if people go and make applications for Constitution invalidity and the court dismisses them to then say those judgements must proceed to the Constitutional Court for confirmation or not to be confirmed, we will overburden the Constitutional Court with useless applications. People can just wake up and decide to make a useless application to the High Court to say that I want this section invalidated and then you end up with a lot of referrals to the Constitutional Court. I respectfully submit that where an order of constitutional invalidity has been issued, then that must go to the Constitutional Court but if somebody is aggrieved, they can pursue it on their own to say ‘I am aggrieved by this judgement’ and then they can give reasons and approach the Constitutional Court, I submit.
HON. BITI: Hon. Chair, there is already a judgement by Hon. Justice Garwe. There is already a provision in the Constitutional Court providing for reference where there has been refusal to declare invalid. I am not talking about the things that are academic. So, once you add that you will follow them.
HON. GONESE: The argument or a submission advanced by the Hon. Minister is that the Constitutional Court will get too much work and I believe that, that is not a sound submission. The Hon. Minister has already brought in amendments to bring clarity. I believe that in the same vein, in the context of there being a judgement to that effect, in light of what is already there in the Constitution, there is no harm Hon. Minister in inserting that clause. It is already in conformity with not only the provisions of the Constitution but also a ruling of a Judge of the honourable court. I believe that we lose nothing by having the amendment proposed by Hon. Biti becoming part of the Bill because at the end of the day the amendments which have already preceded this one are in fact intended to bring clarity and that is the same rational and the same reasoning which we are advancing.
HON. BITI: Hon. Chair, Section 175 (3), so you have two situations, the one where a court says a section is invalid, so section 2 (2) of the Emergency Powers Temporal Measures Act can be declared unconstitutional. This is the one that allows the President to make statutory instruments. If that happens, the Constitutional Court has to confirm the invalidity but you have another situation where the High Court refuses to say Section 2 (2) is invalid, in other words, the High Court says it is valid. Now that section is dealt with by section 175 (3) which says, “any person with a sufficient interest may appeal or apply directly to the Constitutional Court to confirm or vary an order concerning constitutional validity by a court in terms of subsection (1)”. So the Constitution is taking into account two situation validity and invalidity. Now a proposed section right now is only envisaging one situation constitutional invalidity but you have to take into account both invalidity and validity. You take that into account by simply saying the rules may prescribe the procedure for the confirmation or non-confirmation of an order, mabva mapedza nyaya, quod erat demonstrandum....
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Chair, I propose to expunge from this clause, the procedure for invalidation of law, and only leave the sub clause pertaining to the Attorney General. I thank you. – [HON. BITI: Thank you. God bless you.] –
Amendment to new Clause 7 put and agreed to.
New Clause 7, as amended, put and agreed to.
On new Clause 8:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Chair, I am proposing a new Clause 8 pertaining to minor amendments that will be done to the Schedule.
Hon. Chair, I propose amendments to the current Clause 4 which becomes Clause 9. Clause 4 of the Bill is amended on page 2, in line 27, by the deletion of ‘hear and be ‘heard’, and the substitution of ‘hear, be heard, see and be seen’, and in lines 30 and 31, by the deletion of the proviso to sub clause 2, and the substitution of the following new sub clause 3; The parties concerned must consent to the proceedings being conducted by way of a virtual sitting but in the event that any one of the parties to a proposed virtual sitting does not consent to the virtual sitting, the court shall have the discretion to determine whether or not the sitting shall be heard virtually and the subsequent clauses shall also be renumbered accordingly.
Then in line 33, by the insertion of a new sub clause as follows:-
- Rules shall make provisions for the public to have access to virtual sittings, and then we renumber the clauses accordingly. Thank you Hon. Chair.
Amendment to Clause 4, now Clause 9 put and agreed to.
New Clause 9, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 5, now Clause10:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Chair, I propose amendments standing in my name; that Clause 5 of the Bill is deleted and substituted by the following new clause and you renumber accordingly;
“5. Amendment of Section 2 of Cap 7:06
Section 2 (“Interpretation”) of the principal Act is amended by the insertion after the definition of “civil case” of the following definition—
“Deputy Judge President” means the Deputy Judge President of the High Court;”. I thank you. Then it becomes a new clause, let us end there.
HON. BITI: We just want to acknowledge the Hon. Minister
listening to us that the original Clause 5, as it stood, was terrible. So we want to thank you for removing the terrible provision.
Amendments to Clause 5 now Clause 10 put and agreed to.
New Clause 10, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 6, now Clause 11:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Chair, I am proposing amendments in my name. I want to insert a new clause in the Bill on page 3, in line 4, by the insertion of a new clause there which you will renumber accordingly.
Amendments to Clause 6 now Clause 11 put and agreed to.
Clause 6 now Clause 11, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 7 now Clause 12:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Chairman, I propose amendments in my name. A new Clause before the current Clause 7 so that it becomes the current Clause 7:
INSERTION OF NEW CLAUSE
The Bill is amended on page 3, in line 4 by the insertion of a new Clause 7 as follows—
“7. Insertion of new section to Cap 7:06
The principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 3—
“ 3 A. Deputy Judge President
(1) The Deputy Judge President of the High Court shall be appointed by the President in accordance with this section.
(2) Whenever it is necessary to appoint a Deputy Judge President, the Judicial Service Commission must—
- advertise the position;
- invite the President and the public to make nominations;
- conduct public interviews of prospective candidates;
- prepare a list of three qualified persons as nominees for the office; and
- submit the list to the President;
whereupon, subject to subsection (3), the President must appoint one of the nominees to the office concerned.
(3) If the President considers that none of the persons on the list submitted to him or her in terms of subsection (2) (e) are suitable for appointment to the office, he or she must require the Judicial Service Commission to submit a further list of three qualified persons, whereupon the President must appoint one of the nominees to the office concerned.
(4) The Deputy Judge President shall assist the Judge President in the exercise of his or her functions, and shall perform other functions as the Judge President may assign to him or her.
(5) The President must cause notice of the appointment of the Deputy Judge President to be published in the Gazette” and the subsequent clauses shall accordingly be renumbered.
Amendment to Clause 7, now 12, put and agreed to.
Clause 7, now 12, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 7, now 13:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARYAFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Chairman, I propose amendments in my name:
DELETION AND SUBSTITUTION OF CLAUSE 7
Clause 7 of the Bill is deleted and substituted by the following—
“ 7. Amendment of section 2 of Cap 7:06
Section 47 (“Sittings of the High Court”) of the principal Act is amended by the repeal of subsection (3) and the substitution of the following sub-sections—
“(3) Rules of court for virtual sittings shall apply to both civil and criminal proceedings.
(4) Rules shall make provision for the public to have access to virtual sittings.”.
HON. GONESE: For the sake of clarity Mr. Chairman, during the course of the debate yesterday, the Hon. Minister made it abundantly clear that trials are excluded. By this I understand him to mean both civil and criminal trials in that virtual sittings will be confined firstly to applications and other processes which are not trials like bails, remands, appeals and so on. I believe that for the sake of clarity, it would be a good practice to specify that and my proposal would be that rules of court for virtual sittings shall apply to both civil and criminal proceedings with the exception of civil and criminal trials. I think that would make it clear so that there is no abuse of processes. It will be clear that the proceedings which are referred to will be exclusive of trials – criminal trials and civil trials. We need witnesses and so forth. I think if that is done, that will do justice to the intention of the legislature to exclude those.
Amendments to Clause 7, now Clause 13, put and agreed to.
Clause 7, now Clause 13, as amended, put and agreed to.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARYAFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Chairman, I want to recommit the previous clause. In the current, I said the procedure is like what it is currently but I notice that in the Bill they speak of advertising. The Judge President’s position is not advertised. So I want to recommit so that I make it clear. I want to expunge what is there and substitute to indicate that the same procedure like what is done to appoint the Judge President will be used. I seek your indulgence to recommit the previous clause. It is a new Clause 7 which is Clause 13. In the Order Paper, it says a new 7 but after renumbering it becomes Clause 13. I want to recommit that one with your indulgence.
New Clause 7, now Clause 13 recommitted:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARYAFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Chairman, the new sub clause is about the principal Act.
The principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 3—
“ 3 A. Deputy Judge President
I will amend it to say, there shall be a Deputy Judge President who will be appointed in the same way that the Judge President is appointed in terms of Section 180 (2) of the Constitution. I propose that on the new sub-clause 7 on my notice of amendment that:
“7. Insertion of new section to Cap 7:06
The principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 3—
“ 3A. Deputy Judge President
- The Deputy Judge President of the High Court shall be appointed by the President in accordance with this section (in the same way that the Judge President is appointed in terms of Section 180 (2) of the Constitution).
- Whenever it is necessary to appoint a Deputy Judge President, the Judicial Service Commission must—
(a) advertise the position;
- invite the President and the public to make nominations;
- conduct public interviews of prospective candidates;
- prepare a list of three qualified persons as nominees for the office; and
- submit the list to the President; whereupon, subject to subsection (3), the President must appoint one of the nominees to the office concerned.
- If the President considers that none of the persons on the list submitted to him or her in terms of subsection (2) (e) are suitable for appointment to the office, he or she must require the Judicial Service Commission to submit a further list of three qualified persons, whereupon the President must appoint one of the nominees to the office concerned.
- The Deputy Judge President shall assist the Judge President in the exercise of his or her functions, and shall perform other functions as the Judge President may assign to him or her.
- The President must cause notice of the appointment of the Deputy Judge President to be published in the Gazette.”
and the subsequent clauses shall accordingly be renumbered.
Amendment to new Clause 7, now Clause 12 put and agreed to.
New Clause 7, now Clause 12 as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 7, now Clause 13:
HON. GONESE: I am now going to remake my submission. The submission which I am making is that in the context of the deliberations that we had yesterday and even today, it was made very clear that the intention is to have virtual sittings apply to proceedings other than trials. Here we are talking of applications, remands, appeals and other processes. I believe that for the sake of clarity, it will be prudent for us to amend the current formulation in the new Clause 13 so that we make it explicit that criminal and civil trials are actually excluded. I therefore propose the following proviso to be put after the clause as it stands so that it will read as follows;
“Rules of Court for virtual sittings shall apply to both civil and criminal proceedings with the exception of criminal and civil trials.” I think that proviso will then make it abundantly clear that the intention of the legislature is to have virtual sittings only apply to those proceedings which are not trials. – [HON. NDUNA: Which are not?] – trials, civil and criminal trials because in civil and criminal trials you actually have the leading of evidence, cross examination of witnesses and so on. Issues of administration are very important when a judicial officer is assessing the credibility of the evidence which would have been given by a witness.
HON. NDUNA: I think earlier when we debated the same clause, there was concession that only criminal trials be set aside on virtual. I am inclined to think different that even if it is a civil trial, as long it has witnesses, we might defile the process if it is held anywhere else outside the precincts of the court because we are not in control of the witnesses. I am actually in sync or agreement with Hon. Gonese that both these trials, it becomes very ambiguous for the court to adjudicate because they are not in control. We might have a situation where the courts are compromised by witnesses who are errant or outside the precincts of the court, which the court is not in control of. The court is the interpreter of statutes; so in the absence of those people credibly before the courts, the court is not in control of its own process. So I am bound to agree with my learned friend that we need to actually leave the court to make sure that they are not impeded in the processes by allowing the court process to go through with them in control.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Chair, my understanding is that the court rules as they are currently couched allow this. So it is not something that is not there. It is being practiced currently and I think it is only progressively, we cannot avoid technology, so we must embrace it. It is happening everywhere in the world. Our rules permit it, even how witnesses are handled. So my prayer is that let us pass it because we cannot run away from technology. The overriding factor is, both parties will agree and where consent has not been given rationally, the court will make a decision but all the mechanisms in the rules are there to ensure that everything will be done fairly.
HON. GONESE: Firstly, I have heard the Hon. Minister but I want to point out that the Hon. Minister is contradicting himself. It was very clear in our debate, deliberations and engagements that the Hon. Minister himself with his own mouth and words indicated that it was not intended to have these proceedings apply to trials and I want also to highlight the dangers in question. During the Second Reading and also in view of the submissions made by the profession yesterday when I made my remarks, I paraphrased them by saying that the Law Society which represents the legal profession in the country made submissions to the Portfolio Committee and those submissions were well articulated by our Hon. Chair.
The point was made very clear that there are so many dangers related to the challenges which we are facing. Yes, in other jurisdictions they have been able to have provisions which allow some of the dangers I am going to explain to be eliminated. In our situation, notwithstanding the issue of consent, at the present moment we have remand proceedings being conducted in Court 6 and invariably, some of those cases, the accused persons are not given a choice. A decision has been made that the prisons do not have transport; they are not able to take them to court. My fear firstly is that some of these provisions may be abused but more importantly, you will find that what it entails is that firstly you have got to establish a link with applications but with a trial if you are going to have a legal practitioner at a different place from the accused person and that legal practitioner is representing the accused person, there is no link and there is no provision to ensure that confidential communication is held between the legal practitioner and the client.
Even in civil trials, if you are going to have trials proceeding on virtual basis, you can then have a scenario where witnesses are at a different place or even litigants are at a different place from the legal practitioners representing them and that presents insurmountable dangers. I believe that because these are provisions in the rules of court as at a time when as a country we are technologically advanced to the extent that some of the dangers which I am explaining are eliminated, then those rules of court can be changed. For now, I believe it is fair, just and proper to limit the virtual proceedings to the other proceedings which I have already mentioned and for the sake of clarity, I will repeat. You can have your applications, appeals which do not entail the leading of evidence because by their very nature they are based on the papers before the court. The judicial officer will just be basically listening to submissions being made by the legal practitioners.
When it comes to peculiar trials, you are going to have situations relating to unrepresented accused persons even where the accused persons maybe represented, the fact still remains that you still need to maintain that confidential information and I believe that we are not yet at that stage. In the Second Reading, we were very clear that these proceedings should be more of an exception rather than the rule. We do not want to have a situation where our trials are reduced to Chamber processes. The last point I want to make is that when you are dealing with these situations of criminal and civil trials, it is very critical and very important to also have access to those courts. When a trial of public interest is being conducted, we do not want to have all those difficulties in providing the virtual link for members of the public. As long as it is physical, you can then have the situation where interested parties are able to have access to those proceedings where they are able to follow and these are principles which are enshrined in our Constitution. Once we are talking of a public trial, what it entails is that people have access to ensure that justice is not only done but is also seen to be done.
It is also looking at issues of demeanor which I alluded to earlier, when you are appearing in person before a judicial officer, the judicial falls in a better position to access your body language, the way you are answering questions and so on and that will not be the same as in virtual proceedings. So, these are some of the reasons why I believe that the Hon. Minister should really concede and accept that let us have virtual proceedings confined to all the other processes which are not criminal and civil trials.
(v)HON. MOLOKELA-TSIYE: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I just want to speak in support of an exception to say that on trials, we cannot trust the system especially from a technology point of view because the criminals have the ability to pay a lot of money to IT experts to sabotage the trial proceedings. An interested party can buy someone who is an ICT expert and they can disrupt easily a virtual sitting. So, let us not trust that everyone will attend trials in good faith. So, the Minister, whilst he has a good intention, he has not taken into serious consideration, the ability of hackers to hack any court system in this country. I want to emphasize that there is need that when it comes to trials they be excluded from virtual sittings and that as much as possible there be physical sittings. I thank you.
(v)HON. PHULU: I also wanted to suggest perhaps that one of the things that the Hon. Minister ought to consider is that in a criminal trial an accused person has s right to a trial in a public place. So, if a trial is public, how are they going to adapt the system to ensure that those proceedings that are held on virtual are accessible to members of the public? So, I think that is one of the hitches that they might have to consider. I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Hon. Chair. Yesterday, we did a lot of things that were not correct. So if I said something that was not correct, we are doing the correct thing today.
Hon. Chair, in court, the current scenario decorum requires that where a legal practitioner intends to confer privately with a client during a court hearing, he or she will advise the court and make an application for an adjournment. So you do not converse with your client in court. So, whether virtual or you are sitting in court, the processes will be the same, you will still make an application so that you converse. Hon. Gonese’s argument does not apply and he went on to argue that we want to ensure that everyone is seen, heard and we accommodated that. Whatever is needed, we have accommodated and my plea is, let us not be shy to accept technology because what is happening now is, we are just used to our comfort zone and we do not want to come out of that comfort zone and use modern technology. We tried it during COVID; we have not had any difficulties when we did the remands using the virtual platform. I believe we can still continue to explore and do even trials on a virtual trial. So I propose that the clause stays as it is.
I thank you.
Amendments to Clauses 8 and 9 put and agreed to.
Clauses 8 and 9, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 10:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON ZIYAMBI): The other amendments on virtual sittings apply also here as they fully appear on the notice of my amendments.
Amendments to Clause 10 put and agreed to.
Clause 10, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 11:
HON. BITI: I have a small problem which needs clarification. The Labour Court is now executing and has its own Messenger of Court. I am not seeing the provision that now makes them an executing court - because I remember the provision that says you register judgment of the Labour Court with the appropriate jurisdiction. I want clarification of the provision that now allows them to be an executive court.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): This amendment is amending the Labour Act so that it removes the need to register and we then insert this. So, at a date when I fix tax effect and then the Messenger of Court will be executed without registering.
HON. BITI: The Labour Court is not a self executing court at the present moment as we speak. If you want to execute Labour Court judgment you have to register with the court of appropriate jurisdiction, normally the High Court because a person will have been given arrear back pay and so forth. We cannot give the power and amend the law to give the Minister the power to appoint the Messenger of Court for the Labour Court when we have not amended the Labour Act so that the Labour Court becomes a self executing court.
What the Minister is saying that we amend the Labour Act when we come to the labour amendment, I suggest that you suspend this provision and just take it and insert it in the Labour Amendment which is already part of the Bill which we are going to discuss either tomorrow or next week. That would be my proposal because you cannot put the cart before the horse; you put the horse before the cart. I can see the officer shaking her head but you cannot change the law my sister. The Labour Court is not self executing, so you cannot have a Messenger making self executing, then it has chikonzi, you cannot put a chikonzi when the court does not have powers rekutema, give it the powers and then put a Messenger. You repeal the provision of the Labour Act that says judgements of the Labour Court need to be registered. Then you say the Clerk of the Court of the Labour Court has got powers of issuing execution, which is what happens in the High Court and the Magistrate Court. The Clerk of Court has got the power and it is issued under the Chief Magistrate or the Chief Justice, and once you do that then you can appoint a messenger. At the present moment, the Labour Court does not have that power. So workers register judgements in the High Court or in the Magistrate Court.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Chair, I propose amendments in my name to expunge the old clause, now Clause 16.
Amendments to Clause 16 put and agreed to.
Clause 16, as amended, put and agreed to.
Clause 12, now Clause 17 and Clause 13 now Clause 18 put and agreed to.
On Clause 14 now Clause 19:
HON. BITI: In the Magistrate Court, you have got special victims court for children, I am not sure that those should be on virtual, I seek clarification. You have the provision that is applying to everyone, I think let us make an exception for special victims’ courts.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): They are already heard in camera.
Clause 14, now Clause 19 put and agreed.
Clause 15, now Clause 20 put and agreed to.
On Clause 16, now Clause 21:
HON. BITI: I propose that we leave the law as it currently stands. Giving review powers for two years, let us leave it as it currently stands. You can resolve your problem by just increasing the number of Judges and making them work hard and paying them better. We are aware of the shenanigans that are taking place there on a day to day basis.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Madam Speaker, I propose that Clause 16, now Clause 21 and Clause 17, now Clause 22 be expunged. Clauses 16 and 17 – [HON. BITI: Thank you!] – Yatobva, yatobva.
Hon. Chair, I need recommittal of the current Clause 16, if we go to the Explanatory Memorandum. Hon. Chair, this clause is amending Section 57 of the Magistrates Act. Listen very carefully Hon. Biti, I will say this only once. Presently, prison sentences of 12 months or more imposed by magistrates are automatically reviewable by a High Court judge to check whether they are in accordance with real and substantial justice.
Given the case load of High Court judges which is very burdensome, we have given the magistrates review power. So, once we give magistrates for those who are 12 months, we need to automatically up the others; that is exactly what we are doing. Otherwise we would have given review power what type of sentences. So this is exactly what this clause is doing to say senior magistrate … - [HON. GONESE: So are you no longer expunging it?] – No, I am no longer expunging it. You understand it? – [HON. BITI: I understand but am still objecting.] – Why are you objecting?
HON. GONESE: With due respect Mr. Chairman, with due respect to the Hon. Minister, the explanation given is that they want to lessen the workload of the judges. When we look at the provisions of Section 171 of our Constitution, the High Court has inherent jurisdiction. Then the second part, the High Court has got review powers and magistrates do not have review powers. What they have is scrutiny, they have power to scrutinize judgments or 12 months or less and once they scrutinize, if the regional magistrate or the senior magistrate is of the view that the junior magistrate has erred then the matter is sent on review – I just wanted to correct the Hon. Minister, that is the procedure.
When you are referring to review powers, they are in the Constitution and when we look at the provisions of the Constitution, they do not refer to the Magistrates Court having any review powers. So that point has got to be clarified first before we can then debate as to the merits or demerits of the clause. I believe I am correct; look at the Constitution, Section 171; the first part of that section talks of the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court. The second Part B refers to the review powers of the High Court.
When we look at the powers of subordinate courts, that is, the Magistrates Court, the Constitution provides that an Act of Parliament…
HON. ZIYAMBI: Hon. Chair, the amendment that we are proposing is to Section 57 (1) of the Magistrates Court Act and here it says ‘review’. ‘When any court sentences any person (a) to be imprisoned to a period exceeding 12 months or to pay a fine exceeding level six, the Clerk of Court shall forward to the Registrar not later than one week next after the determination of the case/record of the proceedings in the case together with remarks, if any, as the magistrate may desire to append.’
So this is automatic review to the High Court, all we are simply saying is to change from 12 months and if it is automatic, to two… – [HON. GONESE: Inaudible interjection.] – Hold on, hold on. We are saying we are giving the magistrate review power. It is not discounted in the Constitution. The magistrates will do review of those that are under – [AN HON. MEMBER: Inaudible interjection.] – We have already done that in this amendment. We did that. I thought I read something like that. Let me check.
*HON. BITI: Let us appoint many judges tosiya zvakadaro. Mai vari kungosheka avo.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Mr. Chairman, I will expunge the current Clause 16, now Clause 21.
Clause 16 now Clause 21 expunged
On Clause 17, now Clause 22:
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Chairman, I move that we expunge the current Clause 17.
Clause 17 expunged
Clause 18, now Clause 22 to Clause 20, now Clause 25 put and agreed to.
On the Schedule (Section 6):
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I propose the following amendments to be inserted in the Schedule at the end of the Bill:
schedule (section 6)
MINOR AMENDMENTS TO CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ACT [CHAPTER 7:22] (NO. 5 OF 2022)
Provision Extent of Amendment
Section 16 (1) By the deletion of “Commission whose”.
and the substitution of “Commission and whose"
Section 19 (3) By the deletion of “in rules of Court” and substitution of “the rules”.
Section 22 (4), By the deletion of “The court” and the and
24 (1) and (2) substitution with “The Court”.
Section 25 By the deletion of “his duties” and the
Substitution of “his or her duties”.
Section 26 (1) (p) By the deletion of “for purpose of delay” and the substitution of “for the purpose of delay”.
Sections 27 |
By the deletion of “may issue practice directives” and the substitution of “may, after consultation with the committee referred to in section 26 (1), issue practice directions” |
Amendment to Schedule put and agreed to.
Schedule, as amended, put and agreed to.
House resumed.
Bill reported with amendments.
Bill referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I move that Order of the Day, Number 2 be stood over until Order of the Day, Number 3 is disposed of.
Motion put and agreed to.
SECOND READING
ELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILL [H.B. 11, 2022]
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Allow me to present my Second Reading Speech for the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill. The Bill seeks to amend the Electoral Act Chapter 2.13. The Bill seeks to align our Electoral Act with international norms and standards, and the Constitution of Zimbabwe so as to achieve free and fair elections – [Laughter by Hon. Gonese] – Madam Speaker, you must reprimand Gonese for laughing. It is unparliamentarian. The Bill shall amend the definition section of the Electoral Act to include the following:
It is proposed that the definition section of the Electoral Act be amended so that a driver’s licence is removed as one of the documents to be used as proof of identity for electoral purposes as some do not reflect citizenry on the face of it. In terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, one has to be a citizen in order to qualify as a voter. Accordingly, only a valid passport or national identity will be required as proof.
The Bill also seeks to align Sections 49 and 126 with Section 107 of the same Act so that they include the withdrawal of parliamentary and local authority candidature within 21 days before elections. While the law is clear on the timeframe regarding withdrawal of candidature for a presidential election, it is however silent with regards to parliamentary and local authority elections.
Section 107 (1) of the Electoral Act provides that a presidential candidate can withdraw his/her candidature 21 days before polling in order to afford sufficient time for the election management body to make changes to the design of the ballot and to advise the electorate of any changes to the candidature of that election. Thus, the Bill seeks to apply the same law with the parliamentary and local authority elections.
The Bill also seeks to expand the role of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to include promotional research into electoral matters, development of expertise and use of technology. This will enable the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to play a coordination role between Government, political parties and civic society organisations in regards to elections as well as ensuring gender mainstreaming in electoral processes.
The Bill also seeks to amend Section 160 (b) of the Electoral Act to allow the establishment of the Multi-party Liaison Committee throughout the electoral circle. Section 160 (b) of the Electoral Act provides for the establishment of the Multi-Party Liaison Committees at national, constituency and local authority level while a National Multi-Party Liaison Committee can be set up to six months prior to the general election. This period is considered too close to the general election and an insufficient period to deal with any matters that may have arisen during the pre-election period. It is recommended that Section 160 B be amended so as to allow the multi-party liaison committees to sit throughout the electoral cycle for purposes of resolving any disputes that may arise.
The Bill seeks to further amend Section 160 B to allow for the establishment of provincial and district multi-party liaison committees so that election disputes may be resolved from the grassroots.
The Bill seeks to align the electoral legal framework with the Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013) which provides for 30% women representation in local authorities. This is also in line with SADC Protocol on Gender Development of 2008. The current Electoral Act has not made provisions on how the women’s quota should be filled for local authorities. To comply with the Constitution and the SADC Protocol, it is proposed to review the political and social environment and develop strong administrative mechanisms to encourage and support the adoption of women as candidates with a view to achieving gender parity in positions of political leadership.
The Electoral Act seeks to provide for quotas for women candidates nominees and the Electoral Code of Conduct must impose clear responsibilities and obligation on political parties conducive to promoting gender equality in politics.
The Bill further seeks to encompass the additional 10% youth quota. This will allow the youth to be fully represented in Parliament. Madam Speaker, the proposed law will also provide for comprehensive training for its officials on disability conflict resolution and inclusion to ensure greater consistent in the application of electoral procedures through strengthening and lengthening the duration of the training for polling officers is recommended, thus it is proposed that all seconded personnel to the Commission should be trained on disability, conflict resolution and gender inclusion.
Madam Speaker Maam, I urge Hon. Members to support and pass the Bill. I move that the Bill be now read a second time.
HON. MATARANYIKA:
1.0. INTRODUCTION
1.1. The Electoral Amendment Bill [H.B. 11, 2022] was gazetted on 18th November 2022, with a view to address stakeholder requirements, as well as to align the Electoral Act to the Constitution.
1.2. Constitution Amendment (No 2) of 2021 extended the provision for proportional representation of women members of the National Assembly by another ten years, and made provision for the addition of a proportional representation of youths in the National Assembly.
1.3. This Bill, therefore, seeks to align the Electoral Act to the Constitution as well as to include other matters relating to elections in the Act.
2.0. METHODOLOGY
2.1. To gather views from the public in line with section 141 of the Constitution, the Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs conducted virtual public hearings on National FM and Star FM radio stations on the 30th of January 2023.
2.2. The Committee further conducted a Zoom Public Hearing on the 31st of January 2023.
2.3. This report, therefore, summarises the input received from the people of Zimbabwe, local and abroad concerning the Electoral Amendment Bill [H.B. 11, 2022].
3.0. OVERVIEW OF THE HEARINGS
3.1. The Committee managed to reach out to a large number of people with National FM and Star FM radio stations having frequencies nationwide and Star FM had an average of approximately 2.1 million listeners tuned on.
3.2. The Zoom platform was accessible and open for everyone. Approximately 860 participants connected.
3.3. Some participants managed to connect and contribute from as far as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
3.4. However, some members of the public expressed their concerns over how the public hearings were conducted by use of radio stations and Zoom platform only, arguing that it excluded some people from participation due to the ongoing power cuts, unaffordability of data and connectivity challenges.
4.0. SUBMISSIONS ON THE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS
4.1. Clause 1 (Short title of the Bill): This clause sets out the short title of the Bill and there were no objections raised concerning the short title of the Bill.
4.2. Clause 2: This clause amends the definition in section 4 of the Electoral Act by inserting the definition of a “disqualifying offence” in relation to the disqualification of a candidate for election to the National Assembly or a local council.
4.3. Some participants submitted that offences of a political nature should not be classified under disqualification offences. Some members of the public were of the view that sexual offences should also be classified as disqualifying offences under the Bill.
4.4. The clause also repeals the definition of “proof of identity” by removing the driver’s licence as one of the documents to be used as proof of identity for electoral purposes.
4.5. In terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, one has to be a citizen to qualify as a voter, hence according to the Bill, only a valid passport or national identity document will be required as proof of identity. These two documents reflect citizenship.
4.6. Some members of the public were of the view that driver’s licence should be retained as a form of proof of identity because the process of getting national identity documents is cumbersome. They argued that drivers licences have a national identity number which shows citizenry.
4.7. Some participants further highlighted that drivers licences must be modified so that they can show citizenship and remain used as proof of identity for purposes of electoral processes.
4.8. Some participants even proposed that the process of issuance of national identity documents must be simplified and that there should be synchronisation of identification documents on issuance to allow the use of any form of identity document.
4.9 Clauses 3: This clause amends the definition of party list seat in section 45B of the Act so that it is in line with Constitution by including the women’s quota and the youths’ quota.
- Participants applauded this clause as it indicates the need to align the current Electoral Act with the Constitution.
Clause 4: This clause provides for the continued election of 60 women to the National Assembly under a party list, as required by section 124 of the Constitution. It also provides for the youth quota in the National Assembly and provincial councils. It further provides for the election of women in the provincial councils and local authorities.
- Members of the public expressed satisfaction with this clause which seeks to align the Bill to the Constitution. However, some were of the view that the Bill should specify the selection criteria for the youths taking into consideration gender as well as persons with disabilities.
- Some participants were proposing that a 25% quota should be reserved for the youths in all leadership positions since the youths make up the majority of the Zimbabwean population.
- Some members of the public were of the view that the women's quota should be removed and allow fair competition in line with equal rights and gender equality. While most female participants were of the view that the law should provide for 50% women representation, some were of the view that women’s proportional representation should be reduced to between 1% and 5% because the current women’s quota is not adding any value to the economy.
- Others suggested that proportional representation Members of Parliament should serve for only one term and leave others room for rotation.
- Some participants proposed the introduction of a quota for war veterans in councils and the National Assembly.
Clause 5: This clause provides for disqualifications for nominations as a party list candidate as a youth member of the National Assembly, if also nominated as a candidate for election as a constituency member of the National Assembly, or as a member of a provincial council, or as a councillor and for a party-list candidate for election as a member of a local authority, if also nominated as a party-list candidate for election as a Senator or as a candidate for election as a constituency or youth member of the National Assembly, or as a member of a provincial council. No comments were received from members of the public.
Clause 6: This clause amends the process of nomination of party-list candidates by political parties. No comments were received from members of the public.
Clauses 7 and 8: These clauses stipulate that withdrawal of candidature for election must be done not less than 21 days before elections. No comments were received from members of the public.
Clause 9: This clause disqualifies a person from contesting as a councillor if he or she has been convicted of a disqualifying offence for which he or she has not received a pardon. No comments were received from members of the public.
Clause 10: This clause provides that if a nominated candidate withdraws, they should write to the Chief Elections Officer notifying him/her of their withdrawal. No comments were received from members of the public.
Clause 11: This clause provides for the principles applicable to the election of youth members of the National Assembly and local councils. No comments were received from members of the public.
5.0. GENERAL SUBMISSIONS
5.1. Some members of the public expressed their concerns about the way and means Parliament used in conducting these hearings. Parliament was urged to improve in raising awareness of its Bills as well as educating the public on the Bills before soliciting views from the public.
5.2. Parliament was also urged to improve its public engagement, especially on Bills of public interest by reaching out to the rural and marginalised communities physically. Members of Parliament were also urged to take up the central role of sensitising the public in their respective constituencies on all Bills before undertaking public hearings. This will ensure that the public makes meaningful contributions to the law-making process.
5.3. Participants also raised various other issues related to elections and were of the view that other electoral reforms should be included in the Bill. Some members of the public expressed their concerns over the independence of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and were of the view that the Commission should only report to Parliament to guarantee its independence.
5.4. Some members of the public were of the view that ZEC Commissioners should be apolitical while others were of the view that ZEC Commissioners should be provided by political parties. Some participants further urged ZEC to enforce peaceful campaigning by candidates and that all candidates involved in political violence should be disqualified from contesting regardless of which political party they belong to.
5.5. Members of different civic society organisations further submitted that ZEC should allow more stakeholders to conduct civic voter education and that the Bill should make it mandatory for ZEC to avail the electronic voters roll.
5.6. Organisations representing persons with disabilities submitted that the Bill does not adequately address their concerns. They were of the view that the Bill should introduce braille ballot paper for the visually impaired and ensure that polling stations be disability friendly.
5.7. They further submitted that persons with disabilities should be accommodated in the youth quota, provincial councils, local authorities and women’s quota in both Houses. It was their view that the Bill must make provision for postal voting for persons with disabilities and accommodate them to contest in all positions.
5.8. It was also submitted that the law should provide for proportional representation for persons with disability in the National Assembly.
5.9. Participants from the diaspora community registered their concerns over the exclusion of diaspora vote from the Bill. They submitted that the Bill should provide for diaspora vote and that ZEC must come up with necessary regulations and mechanisms that allow diaspora vote.
5.10. Some participants were of the view that the Bill should provide for party and candidate regulations as well as political party financing regulations. It was submitted that every elected position of power should have a maximum of two term limits and the Bill should give powers of recall to the electorate.
5.11. Members of the public suggested that traditional leaders should be non-partisan and all Members of Parliament to reside in the constituencies in which they were voted to represent.
5.12. Some participants were of the view that the Bill should introduce broadcast rallies for all Presidential candidates, and prescribe minimum qualifications for councillors, MPs and the President, i.e. O’ level for councillors, A’ level for MPs and Degree for Presidential candidates.
- Some participants further submitted that MPs and councillors should retire at the age of 65. It was their view that this will accommodate the youth to take up leadership positions. They proposed that the Bill should also stipulate the maximum age limit for election candidates.
- Some members of the public were of the view that the drafters of the Bill should consider the proposed ZESN and other Civic Society Organisations Draft Electoral Amendment Bill and incorporate its proposed amendments.
- It was further submitted that election observers should be allowed to observe elections throughout the electoral cycle from voter registration to the announcement of election results.
- Some participants were of the view that nomination fees are too high and unfriendly for persons with disabilities.
- Media practitioners also submitted that there are journalists who continue not to vote every time there are elections due to their nature of work. It was their submission that most of the time they will be covering elections in constituencies they are not registered in and as such, they will not be able to vote.
- It was their view that section 73 of the Electoral Act must be amended to allow postal voting for journalists.
- Organisations representing young people also submitted that Multiparty Liaison Committees must be decentralized and composed of all stakeholders including youths. It was their view that Multi-Party Liaison Committees should become permanent structures and not wait for the proclamation of elections to respond to political violence which otherwise is perennial throughout the electoral cycle.
6.0. COMMITTEE OBSERVATIONS
The Committee made the following observations:
6.1. The nature of the Bill generated a lot of interest among the general public which saw a high participation on the Zoom link. Therefore, more time should have been allocated for the public consultations.
6.2. Some members expressed dissatisfaction with virtual public hearings amid the current power challenges nationwide, data affordability and connectivity challenges.
6.3. The zoom platform was hacked and disrupted the public hearing.
6.4. The Bill falls short of addressing the much-needed electoral reforms.
- Some issues raised are beyond the Electoral Act and require amendments to the Constitution.
- ZESN submitted a Draft Electoral Bill to Parliament.
7.0. COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
The Committee, therefore, recommends the following:
7.1. There is need for Parliament to consider undertaking both virtual and physical public hearings on Bills of public interest. In as much as virtual hearings have their challenges, however, a wide coverage can also be reached.
7.2. Parliament must improve the security of meetings on the zoom platform.
7.3. Features on a driver’s licence must be improved so that a driver’s license becomes an acceptable and official identification document.
7.4. The ZESN Draft Electoral Bill referred to by some members of the public may have to be looked together with the Bill considering that Parliament was involved in the process of drafting the Bill.
7.5. Wide stakeholder engagement should take place before all Bills are crafted to ensure that all issues are incorporated.
8.0. CONCLUSION
The Committee noted that although there were concerns over the virtual public hearings, pertinent issues were raised by the participants who made submissions. Individual members of the public as well as civic society organisations managed to make meaningful submissions on radio, on zoom, via emails and messages to Parliament. The Committee, therefore, believes that passing this Bill after strong consideration of the views of the people and their recommendations will help to shape our electoral laws and processes, with the basic concepts of transparency and inclusivity that lie at the heart of the country’s democracy and sovereignty.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Friday, 3rd February, 2023.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS, the House adjourned at a Quarter past Five o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Thursday, 2nd February, 2023
The Senate met at Half–past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE
ERROR ON THE ORDER PAPER
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: I have to inform the Senate of an inadvertent error by the printer on today’s Order Paper where Notice of Motion Number 2 by Hon. Sen. Muzenda was omitted during the processing of Votes and Proceedings for the Senate.
APPOINTMENT TO THEMATIC COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: I would like to inform the Senate that the Hon. Senator I. Zizhou has been appointed to the following Thematic Committees;
- The Sustainable Development Goals and
- The HIV/AIDS Committee.
APOLOGIES RECEIVED FROM MINISTERS
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Today is Thursday in the Senate and as usual it is question time or private Members time. I have a list of Ministers who have tendered apologies and they are as follows:
Hon. Dr. C. G. D. N. Chiwenga, Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care; Hon. O. C. Z. Muchinguri- Kashiri, Minister of Defence and War Veterans Affairs; Hon. W. Chitando, Minister of Mines and Mining Development; Hon. Sen. Mutsvangwa, Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services; Hon. Dr. F. Ndlovu, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education; Hon. A. Moyo, Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education; Hon. P. Mavima, Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare; Hon. J. Moyo, Minister of Local Government and Public Works; Hon. Prof. M. Ncube, Minister of Finance and Economic Development; Hon. K. Paradza, Deputy Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services; Hon. Prof. A. Murwira, Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation Science and Technology Development; Hon. R. Machingura, Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation Science and Technology Development; Hon. Dr. J. Mangwiro, Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care; Hon. K. Kazembe, Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage; Hon. Shava, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
In the Senate today, we have Hon. Mhona, Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development; Hon. D. Garwe, Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities; Hon. D. Musabayana, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade; Hon. C. Chiduwa, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development; Hon. Maboyi, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage; Hon. Mhlanga, Deputy Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development.
We also have, I am being advised here, the Hon. Minister Masuka, Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement who is attending this session virtually. So we have a fairly good and comprehensive list of Ministers. The floor is open.
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
*HON. SEN. HUNGWE: Thank you Mr. President Sir. My question is directed to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Hon. Mhona. I would like to start by thanking the Hon. Minister. I asked a question last year regarding a certain road which had taken a long time in the same state but I heard the Hon. Minister talking on radio that his Ministry had rectified that. A certain company was given the contract to work on the road.
We appreciate that God gave us rain. However, the state of our roads is bad, especially in the urban areas - particularly in Harare. In both low and high density suburbs, people are suffering and the roads are damaging people’s cars. So I wanted to know the plans of the Ministry regarding these roads.
Let me also urge the Ministry to engage different companies, especially in Harare because the state of the roads is deplorable. There are potholes which are now as big as small dams. I thank you.
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: The Minister will respond but ordinarily the responsibility for urban infrastructure resides with local authorities.
*THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Mr. President Sir. I would like to thank Hon. Sen. Hungwe for the question. Indeed, the state of urban roads is bad but this is the responsibility of local authorities. However, I want to appreciate the fact that we have a revered leader, President E. D. Mnangagwa, who is a listening President. After noting that we were facing challenges with local authorities who have been collecting money for repairing these roads, His Excellency, just last week decided that our Ministry should partake in the refurbishment and rehabilitation of roads.
As I am speaking, we are working on several roads which we have engaged a number of people - of which we are looking at awarding tenders to people who qualify. We have been advertising and in the next five days we are going to tender. For Harare and other cities around the country, as a Ministry responsible for roads, our Ministry is going to – for example, look at roads from our main Post Office going to Bulawayo, Masvingo or Manicaland. We are going to work on the different roads. We are not going back. There are some places in the high density areas, major roads are going to be refurbished very soon.
Those who watch television, we were working on a road which is problematic, the Alps Road which goes via Mount Pleasant, Vainona to Hatcliff and virtually Glen Forest from Harare, which means that we are continually developing our areas. Indeed, the state of roads is deplorable because no-one was working on those roads. Even when we resurface roads and when we cover potholes, you would notice that there is need for a total make-over.
Our allocation from Parliament is not enough for us to work on all the roads in the country. So it is my request that when we decide to review the money allocated to the Ministry, I want to urge Hon. Senators to support us. I want to give the example we have been working on, looking at 18 km only you will find that you end up spending millions of USD. I think it is prudent that when I come to this august House you should ask me what we have used our allocation for. In that vein, I want to urge you to advocate for an allocation of a large amount of money to our Ministry to refurbish the roads. I thank you.
HON. SEN. KOMICHI: Thank you very much Mr. President. My question is directed to the Minister of Finance. On behalf of the people, I would like to know how far the Sovereign Welfare Fund has gone. We know the Act is already in place but what has happened so far to it and how many beneficiaries have benefitted from the fund? I thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. CHIDUWA): Thank you very much Mr. President. I would like to thank Hon. Sen. Komichi for the question. This is a very important and fundamental question which is very critical for the development of this country, with regards to the extent to which we can safeguard our national resources, especially for the future generation. I would want to say the Sovereign Wealth Fund is already operational but it is at its infancy stage. We have not done much on that. We are still setting up but the legal structures are all there and we have said even where we were saying some of the resources that we are going to collect from the 7% royalties, they will also be part of that Sovereign Wealth Fund. We are still at infancy, so we have not done much with regards to who has already benefitted since we are starting. I submit.
*HON. SEN. CHINAKE: My question is directed to the Minister of Home Affairs. Hon. Minister, our roads are no longer safe. You would find that most motorists do not respect road regulations. Some are using their phones, typing on phones whilst driving. Even kombi drivers are parking haphazardly. At Corner Chinhoyi and Nelson Mandela, you would find that some are loading there and police officers just pass by without taking any action. I want to know what plans you have as a Ministry to restore order in our cities. I thank you.
*THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS AND CULTURAL HERITAGE (HON. MABOYI): I want to thank the Hon. Senator for asking that pertinent question. I would like to appreciate what the Hon. Senator said and indeed this is what is happening. We are aware and our police force is working on that. They are taking action against commuter omnibus drivers who break the law. We work with police officers and they are reinforcing the police service also but I want to say that this is a challenge. However, as a Ministry, we are going to sit and deliberate on the issue so that we address it. I concur with you Hon. Senator, we are seeing that delinquent behaviour - even pedestrians are not behaving in a way which is expected. They try to be picked from anywhere and not at the designated bus stops, but we are going to address that. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. CHIEF CHUNDU: Thank you Mr. President. I want to address my question to the Minister of Transport. The Beitbridge–Chirundu Road is in a bad state. From Chinhoyi to Chirundu, there are a lot of potholes. The Hon. Minister said he is going to highlight the roads that are being worked on. However, I want to say that large vehicles are being affected by that road and even small vehicles. Does the Ministry give employees key result areas so that they see how they are performing? I thank you Mr. President.
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Hon. President. I would also want to thank Hon. Sen. Chief Chundu for raising that question. If this was an examination, then I would have passed. When he stood up, I spoke to my colleague that he was going to talk about the Chirundu Road. Hon. President, I want to thank Hon. Sen. Chundu for that important question which gives me the opportunity to explain to this august Senate about such an important road which links us with our neighbouring countries. This road links South Africa and Zimbabwe from Beitbridge, through Harare and eventually going to Chirundu. We have started working on the Harare–Beitbridge Road and at the moment, I would want to say that we have covered over 400 kilometres.
Instead of starting afresh, requesting for new contractors which will work on the Chirundu Road, we decided that the same people who are working on the Harare-Beitbridge Road are experts and they have demonstrated that they can do it. We sat with them and discussed the modalities of how they are going to work on the Harare–Chirundu Road. Last week those who use that same road, I believe you have seen that two of the companies are already on the road. From tomorrow, there is a portion of the road from Chirundu to Karoi that will be patched. At the moment, we are patching potholes because we want our motorists to use the roads in a better state. After that we are going to resurface the road until we reach Chirundu and we are going to transform Chirundu Border Post so that it becomes a one-stop border post like the Beitbridge Border Post.
Hon. Sen. Chief Chundu, this is your area. You can communicate with your people that this is what is happening. Our teams right now are on the ground working on refurbishing and rehabilitating that road. We will continue with that good job working with different Zimbabwean experts. This will allow us to do a good job. I believe that resurfacing will be starting in the near future but for now we are patching the potholes. I thank you.
+HON. SEN. KHUMALO: Thank you Mr. President Sir. My question goes to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. What I want to know is, what is it that we use the money that is collected from tollgates because the money is supposed to be used on road rehabilitation.
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Order. Hon. Senator, you are not connected.
+HON. SEN. KHUMALO: Thank you Mr. President Sir. I will start afresh. My question is directed to the Minister of Transport. What is it that happens to the money that is collected from tollgates? I understand all the drivers make payments on the tollgates. I will ask the Hon. Minister to tell us how they are making use of the money that is collected from tollgates. The money is supposed to be used for road rehabilitation.
*THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Hon. President. May you please allow me to respond in Shona. Thank you Hon. Sen. Khumalo for the question which is important on collection and use of tollgate monies. The question is that toll fees should be taken to different tasks, for example rehabilitation of roads. Let me inform this august Senate that there is ZINARA, which is responsible for toll fees. In the past, ZINARA used to work on roads but that is not their mandate. Their mandate is collecting fees on behalf of road authorities like councils, DDF, the Department of Roads which falls under the Ministry, which means ZINARA is responsible for the reception, collection and distribution of these monies. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and ZINARA have that responsibility of disbursing funds for road rehabilitation. When we sit down to discuss the annual budget, these are the monies that are allocated to us, even from ZINARA. This is the money that we use. There are some roads which do not have tollgates. Even roads that do not have tollgates still need to be rehabilitated.
I believe that it is important that Hon. Senators highlight roads that need to be worked on. ZINARA is doing a good job. For instance, $93 billion has been allocated to roads, which means that ZINARA in every three months reviews monies that are given to road authorities and local authorities. If you have a road that you believe is not in a good state, it is important to engage the Ministry. My number is always open and it is 0777 281 601. Please inform me about the roads that you want us to work on and I will send our engineers. We do not wait for office work to be done but they will come to you. They will say Hon. Senator, please take me to that road and show me the road. We do not wait for the Minister to be asked during the question and answer segment. When you come for sitting, what you would see on the Order Paper is something else, like what Hon. Sen. Hungwe said that we have already worked on a road that she mentioned. I thank you.
+HON. SEN. KHUMALO: Thank you Mr. President. If that money is also given to City Councils, why is it that in urban centres most of our roads are dilapidated? It is very clear that the state of the roads in urban areas is very bad. Why is the Ministry not focusing on urban centres first because they are the ones that have bad roads?
* HON. MHONA: Money which is allocated to local authorities is supposed to be allocated for the refurbishment of roads. This is what I alluded to earlier on that the money which is allocated to councils sometimes was not accounted for and no-one knew what they were getting. Every three months there is an evaluation of the monies and what the monies were used for and determining how much was taken to the authorities and what was done using that money.
For example, even the cutting of grass along main roads, you would find that you hear some people saying that there is not enough money. Do you need a lot of money to cut grass along main roads and even the cutting down of trees which obstruct traffic? So as the august House, we have an oversight role and I want to thank Hon. Sen. Khumalo. This is our responsibility and we have that mandate of taking authorities to task as a watchdog so that they explain to this august House how they used the money that is allocated to them by Government.
You will not stop informing this august House the amounts that we disburse to the City of Bulawayo, City of Harare and other cities, whether the money is enough or not, it must be used and accounted for. You would find that some councils are given money and they share that money among the management whilst not attending to service delivery. This is the challenge because some people do not know that their local authorities will always blame the Government whilst it is the responsibility of local authorities. Thank you.
*HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity. My supplementary question has been addressed that as a Ministry, is there anything that they are doing to make local authorities account for the money which has been allocated to them. I believe that question has already been addressed by the Hon. Minister.
*HON. SEN. MANYAU: My question is directed to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. When working on different roads, there are pavements which are used for the disabled who use wheel chairs and crutches but...
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: That is not a supplementary question. That is a question in its own right. I will give you the opportunity to ask that question. Before I ask the next Hon. Member to raise their question, we have the Deputy Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Hon. L. Matuke who has joined the Chamber.
*HON. SEN. DR. MAVETERA: Thank you Mr. President Sir for giving me the opportunity to pose my question. My question goes to the Minister of Finance and Economic Development. Hon. Minister, end of last year, there was macro-economic stability in the country but at the beginning of this year we have seen inflation going up and our dollar being devalued to the extent that right now all the benefits which you had extended to civil servants are of no use. Also the use of the local currency, most of the entrepreneur businesses are refusing to take our local currency which is actually to the detriment of the rural populace where they cannot get this black market thing going on.
My question is, what are you doing to arrest this inflation which has started to accelerate northwards and what strategies are you having to encourage the use of our local currency because we were told that were going to dedollarise later on but now it seems we are a completely dollarised economy. I thank you.
*THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. CHIDUWA): Thank you Hon. President and I want to thank Hon. Sen. Mavetera for asking that question. There was stability last year. However, at the beginning of the year, there was indeed a change in the state of affairs. I concur with you that towards the end of last year, our contractors were charging exorbitant fees and because of that as Treasury we have an oversight role to look at how resources are being used. That is how we introduce the value for money and we decide that all contracts should be evaluated so that we know whether prices are indeed the right prices which were supposed to be charged. Because of value for money, we started getting a lot of payments and again, there were payments for contractors for grain, wheat and other goods and services.
The money we paid in December is more than ZW$200 billion. Economics will tell you that allocating ZW$200 billion to the market, that money does something and what also brought about this challenge is that in December, some people went to the market to get USD and this affected our rate. I want to say that when you say that inflation is rising, I want to disagree because the inflation rate is going down on a monthly basis. It is at 0.7%. This month it went down from 1.3% to 0.6%.
However, the challenge is the exchange rate - like I said that the challenge is that there was a lot of liquid money circulating in the economy and this resulted in those who have large amounts mopping up the entire USD which were circulating.
I want to assure you that when you look for RTGS, you will not get the RTGS. We issued Treasury Bills last week and we took 45 billion from the market. Right now there are no RTGs in the market. There is enough RTGS for the development of the country. We are doing liquidity management and the money which is supposed to be circulating should be commensurate with economic activities and this is what we are doing. I want to say that the money that was injected into the market, we took a lot of money because of gold coins.
Those who have money and want to swap its value in gold coins can do so. Gold coins are small coins and these are taking a lot of money from the market. In the past two years, I believe that you heard that we were behind by three to six months but right now we believe that within two weeks we should have paid. No-one is going to say that their money is delaying. In the next two weeks we will be able to offset all the outstanding amounts. We are up-to-date with all the auctions. We have paid everything that we were supposed to pay. We also agreed that as we move forward we will keep working hard so that people do not speculate with money they withdraw from banks.
The inflation and interest rates should be parallel; this is what we are doing so that we contain the exchange rate. When the Central Bank reads their Monetary Statement we believe that interest rates are going to be contained and are going to decrease because we are saying that the inflation rate is going down. So, this is supposed to come down even in our Monetary Statement. However, I want to say that whatever money we have we must use it the right way. For us to have a strong currency we must make our industries viable, we must manufacture products and export so that we get foreign currency.
*HON. SEN. KOMICHI: My question is on last week’s figures, the statistics that were publicized in Harare that 80% of our population is using US dollars and only 20% are using the local currency. This means that in the near future we would reach the 100% US dollar currency mark. My question is; what measures do you have in place so that we go back to the local currency? I thank you.
*HON. CHIDUWA: Thank you for the supplementary question that was raised by Hon. Sen. Komichi. Indeed, the statistics that you mentioned are correct, even ZIMSTAT published such statistics. I believe that we need to reach a stage where the people are comfortable in using multi-currency. We can only reach that stage when we reach a certain level of stability. When our exchange rate stabilizes, if our currency does not fluctuate against the US dollars, we have reached currency stability. So, for us to reach a stable exchange rate, we need to produce. Production is important for it will give us exports and foreign currency. It will give us local currency in abundance.
Our market relates to the auction but in the long term, we need to allow demand and supply, the basics of economies of scale, to determine the economy. When our exchange rate is determined by the market, there is no manipulation and there is no preference of which currency because the true value of the currency will be determined by the market. The challenge that we face right now is that there is a parallel market which is being influenced by expectations of people. Our fundamentals are good because we have a surplus. Our Nostro balance is around US$2 billion. If we have US$2 billion Nostro balances then there is no reason for us to say that our currency is volatile. So we want to reach that stage where there is currency stability. When we reach such stability, people will be use whatever currency whether US or RTGs. We need to focus on production. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. MABIKA: Thank you Madam President. My question is directed to the Hon. Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. I appreciate that we were told about the roads that are being worked on but the challenge that I face is that we heard about different roads but the Mt. Selinda-Chipinge-Mbire Road, we have not seen any progress and we were told that a 5km stretch is going to be worked on but they have not reached the 2 km. People would only come and work for a short period of time covering 1 km. I do not know whether the law allows that we request that such big roads like Zimbabwe-Mozambique should be rehabilitated. The people of Chipinge are not happy when their roads are neglected whilst other roads are being attended to. I thank you.
*THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Madam President, I want to thank Hon. Sen. Mabika for raising that question. I want to apologize for the machines which are not in good conditions and which do not perform the task. At one point I was told about one of the machines which broke down. I want to appreciate the fact that when we urge people to work on these roads, especially Zimbabweans, this is empowerment which is being given to local people. You would find that when we enact laws we know that there are responsible authorities for regulating but we know that some contractors were not very honest in their dealings. So you would find that when you allocate tenders to companies you would find that there is a lot of corruption that happens. So we write down the different roads and the different contractors who are engaged. This is one of the roads, the Mt. Selinda which had people who were not performing well but our teams are on the ground and I believe that in the near future I will come to Chipinge and give feedback to this august Senate. I know about that road indeed and this has been a challenge.
At one point we spoke about 5km - inform them that the Minister said has said he is going to come to Chipinge. We will cover 10 km and give you working equipment.
+HON. SEN. NKOMO: My question is directed to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. Hon. Minister, thank you so much for updating us on the progress that you have made on road rehabilitation. Some of the roads were really bad.
What I want to touch on is on roads that need your urgent attention for there are so many accidents that have happened along those roads, especially the road between Bulawayo and Ngezi. There are so many accidents that have occurred on that road for that road is in a very bad state.
Another thing Hon. Minister, there is a road from Gwanda to Maphisa. That road has been talked about for a very long time. What I want to find out from you Hon. Minister is: what are your plans on rehabilitating these very strategic roads in that province?
THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF SENATE (HON. SEN. KAMBIZI): Hon. Members, can we just go straight to the questions rather than debating because most of our time is consumed by debating. I thank you.
*THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): I want to thank Hon. Sen. Nkomo for posing that important question and for thanking us for working on different roads. You also mentioned two important roads in Matabeleland South. Ngezi has a big history. The Gwanda-Maphisa Road that you mentioned has a lot of potholes which are causing accidents and the other roads that I spoke about, every province was given the task of informing us and I can assure you that the Gwanda-Maphisa Road is one of the roads that we have been working on. We have covered 5km in the Gwanda-Maphisa Road, even the Plumtree-Ngezi. We want to add on the 5kms and you will discover that in Matabeleland South we are working on different roads.
There is also the Beitbridge Road which is in Matabeleland South. These roads are being worked on. The Beitbridge-Bulawayo Road is in a bad state, so we are working on such roads. We want to identify all those roads as we cover all potholes bit by bit, covering the whole of Zimbabwe.
Thank you Sen. Nkomo. You mentioned important roads and we always talk about such roads. We will be working on every road and we will be covering 5km per road and I believe that as the rainy season comes to an end, we are going to cover all the potholes and then we will start resurfacing them. Thank you very much.
*HON. SEN. CHIEF NTABENI: Thank you Madam President for the opportunity. Hon. Minister, I would like to find out whether you have any plans regarding our road which links us with Victoria Falls. Are there any plans for rehabilitating that road?
THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: How does Kwekwe and Maphisa link? That is another question. You will be given time to ask.
HON. SEN. CHIEF NTABENI: Madam President, can the Hon. Minister answer my question.
*HON. SEN. MANYAU: Thank you Madam President. I want to direct my question to the Minister of Public Works and National Housing. We have a lot of people who are disabled and who are on the waiting list. I do not know the criteria that is used because for people who continually pay and contribute towards the waiting list for 10 years without getting houses, it is not right. What is the plan Hon. Minister?
THE MINISTER OF NATIONAL HOUSING AND SOCIAL AMENITIES (HON. GARWE): Thank you Madam President. Let me thank the Hon. Senator for that pertinent question, the question which is very important to us as a responsible Ministry. Indeed, we have a lot of civil servants who have been paying but who do not have houses yet. We all know that since the inception of the new dispensation, His Excellency, President E. D. Mnangagwa decided that there should be a Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities to address the housing challenges so that every Zimbabwean is not left behind, but that everyone should have access to owning houses.
Those who are on waiting lists are being given houses. We are clearing the list one by one, bit by bit, until everyone gets accommodation. I thank you.
THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF SENATE (HON. SEN. MOHADI): We have been joined by the Deputy Minister for Energy and Power Development, Hon. Mudyiwa. You are welcome.
Questions Without Notice were interrupted by THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF SENATE in terms of Standing Order Number 67.
HON. SEN. KOMICHI: I move that the time be extended by 25 minutes.
HON. SEN. A. DUBE: I second.
*HON. SEN. CHIMBUDZI: Thank you Madam President for the opportunity to ask a question to the Minister of Women’s Affairs. We know that a lot of SMEs are helping many women in Zimbabwe. What is Government’s plan regarding women in SMEs to access external markets and attend exhibition and fairs outside the country where they can showcase their products?
*THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF WOMEN’S AFFAIRS, COMMUNITY, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHLANGA): Thank you Madam President for this opportunity. I want to thank Hon. Sen. Chimbudzi for asking that pertinent question. Indeed in SMEs, we have a lot of women who are doing a good job in small businesses, contributing towards employment and towards the GDP of the nation in providing products and services through SMEs. So, we put 13 pillars in SMEs. One of those pillars is the export pillar. If we were to recall in the Dubai Expo 2020, we had a lot of women going to showcase their products. We also had the opportunity to go to Kenya and Namibia. We have Memoranda of Understanding with these countries and our women in business are given the opportunity to go and showcase and we urge women to participate in such exhibitions.
Some women in Manicaland went to Mozambique and won a number of awards after showcasing their businesses. We also have plans that as a Ministry, we go around with ZIMTRADE which promotes the export of goods and services explaining the importance of quality standards in business so that Zimbabwean women can access the external markets. Then this should translate into significant revenue for SMEs and business in women. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. CHIEF NTABENI: Thank you Madam President. My question is directed to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. My question is, are there any future plans for the Kwekwe-Victoria Falls Road because the road is like a river now? I believe that the people would be very happy if they get positive feedback from the Hon. Minister.
*THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Madam President. I want to thank Hon. Sen. Chief Ntabeni for that question. Such questions should be written down so that I come back with relevant responses. Indeed, I know about the road. It would go from Kwekwe, Lupane, Nkayi to Victoria Falls. Right now, we are looking for PPPs because we know that it might take us years for us coming to this august House to request for funding. The good thing about this road is that it is convenient because for those who want to go to Victoria Falls, it will be a short-cut for those from Harare for both business people and travellers. They would just go via Kwekwe, Lupane and Victoria Falls without going via Bulawayo.
As a chief, I want to request you to inform your people that we are going to be working on that road just like the Harare-Beitbridge Road. We will work on that road until we reach Lupane. I thank you.
HON. SEN. A. DUBE: Thank you Madam President. I will direct my question to the Minister of National Housing. There are some pool houses in most districts which are being occupied by civil servants. Others have been in for more than 25 years. My question is; those who have stayed long, why are they not allowed to buy and stay?
THE MINISTER OF NATIONAL HOUSING AND SOCIAL AMENITIES (HON. GARWE): Thank you Hon. Chair. Let me thank the Hon. Member for the question. We have got various models in the housing sector. There is rental accommodation, rent to buy accommodation and outright purchase accommodation. I am not too sure whether the houses she is referring to fall under any of the categories that I mentioned; if the Hon. Senator could put the question in writing so that we investigate and respond adequately. Thank you.
+HON. SEN. MKHWEBU: Thank you Madam President. My question is directed to the Hon. Minister of Energy and Power Development. In Gwanda, in Matabeleland South Province, there are solar panels that were installed. My question is; what are Government plans concerning the solar project in Gwanda?
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER DEVELOPMENT (HON. MUDYIWA): Thank you Madam President for the question. I know it is about solar energy and I guess you are asking about the Gwanda Solar Project which has not moved even an inch to generate electricity for the country. The Gwanda issue is in the courts. It went to court recently and there was a judgement that was passed in favour of the contractor being Intratek, with the Managing Director being Wicknell Chivayo. There were issues that ZESA have not made a decision on what to do after this judgement that favoured the contractor. We are yet to get what ZESA will do. Either they would want to appeal or maybe they would want to go by the judgement. After we know what will happen, then we can talk about it. If ZESA is not going to appeal against the judgement, then we can see something happening at the Gwanda Solar Project but if ZESA decides to go the other way and appeal against the judgement, it will take some time before we get electricity from the Gwanda project. The litigation might take long in the courts and we do not know how long it is going to take. At the moment, we cannot say there is anything happening at the Gwanda Solar Project.
THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF SENATE (HON. SEN. MOHADI): Order. We have been joined by Hon. Dr. Mangwiro, the Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care. Thank you.
*HON. SEN. G. MOYO: Thank you Hon. President. My question is directed to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. We have a lot of roads, some which were left in the same state in 2005 which were supposed to be tarred, for example in Headlands. The road has only 25 kilometres of tar since 2005 and nothing is being done. Our constituents always ask us what Government is doing regarding that road. It has been a long time since 2005. Is there a budget for that road or you have totally forgotten about it?
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. MHONA): Thank you Madam President. Like what I have said before, we have been receiving a lot of questions which would have been written down. However, because I have been moving around the country, I am aware of the road. Remember, we have a portion which was affected by the cyclone. I thought the Hon. Senator is going to thank the Government for the bridge that we repaired then ask her question. I want to say that when we completed that bridge but we have not forgotten the road which links Mutoko from Headlands which connects people from Manicaland and Mutoko. This is one important road. So there is no need for people to come via Harare. Indeed, we are aware of the road. After completing the bridge, we have engaged our engineers so that they are certain on what should be done. We are going to take over from the distance that has been covered. We would work on the road maybe covering five kilometres, 10 kilometres until we have covered the total distance.
THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: We have also been joined by the Minister of Energy and Power Development, Hon. Soda.
HON. SEN. KOMICHI: Thank you Mr. President. My question is directed to the Minster of Energy and Power Development. By end of last year we were upbeat that we were going to be putting one of the generators on the grid and adding 300 megawatts on the grid but -to-date, we have not yet been able to get that promise. When are we expecting to get our new generator on the grid?
THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER DEVELOPMENT (HON. SODA): Thank you very much Madam President. It is true that by the end of last year we expected that one of our units that we are constructing through the Hwange Expansion Project would be coming on the grid and bringing in 300 megawatts which would be followed by another Unit 8 to give additional 300 megawatts. You recall by the end of last year in December, there was a resurgence of COVID in China and that was the time we expected some engineers to come and work on the protection system. That is the remaining part but all other systems have been tested and commissioned including the turbine which is supposed to achieve some given revolutions of rotation per minute which is precisely 3000 revolutions per minute. That was also achieved and that is a critical part of the commissioning of that unit.
All we are remaining with is the final linking of the whole system to the grid which is supposed to be passed by ABB Engineers. Immediately, they could not be mobilised to come to the country which then later happened during the second week of December. Apparently, the engineers did not come from China because of the lockdown conditions that were obtaining in China. They had to be mobilised from elsewhere. They came and took their time to also understand the whole system and that was the major cause of the delay.
They were supposed to come up with some configurations. There are some settings which they were supposed to come up with which they did not do on time. There was some reinforcement from some engineers from their sister company ABB which is in South Africa. They also came and gave support. As we speak, they are working on the final part of that unit. There have been some delays but some lessons have been learnt which I think with Unit 8, we will not experience or encounter similar delays in order to bring Unit 8.
In order to ameliorate the situation of the depressed power supply situation, the Government increased on our imports and looking around from the region, we got 200 megawatts. We are importing a total of 500 megawatts. That is the reason the situation did not deteriorate that much even when we reduced production of electricity from Kariba because of the water issues. We are generating an average of 250 megawatts but there is going to be a meeting tomorrow between the two utilities and ZERA. We are the managers of the water resources in Kariba Dam; with the hope that water allocation is going to be increased and with additional water allocation, we will improve our generation.
So, coming back to the question, yes we did not manage to achieve the synchronisation of Unit 7 as we had initially projected but we are still expecting that to be coming onto the grid anytime because people are working flat out to ensure that the unit is linked to the grid anytime. Thank you.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: Thank you Mr. President. I move that Order of the Day, No. 1 be stood over until the rest of the Orders of the Day have been disposed of.
HON. SEN. MATHUTHU: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE 145TH ASSEMBLY OF THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION AND RELATED MEETINGS
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: Mr. President Sir, I move the motion standing in my name that this House takes note of the Report of the 145th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Related Meetings.
HON. SEN. A. DUBE: I second.
HON. SEN. MUZENDA:
INTRODUCTION
The Parliament of Rwanda, convened the 145th Assembly of the IPU and Related Meetings in Kigali from 11 to 15 October 2022 under the overarching theme “Gender Equality and Gender Sensitive Parliaments as Drivers of Change for a more Resilient and Peaceful World”. The 145th Assembly was attended by 1250 participants drawn from 120 countries, including 45 Speakers of Parliament. The theme of the Assembly was an acknowledgement of the achievement of the host Parliament which boasts of 61% women Parliamentarians.
Hon. Advocate Jacob Francis Nzwidamilimo Mudenda, Speaker of Parliament, led a Parliamentary delegation comprising of the following:
- Mabel Memory Chinomona, President of the Senate;
- Muzenda, Member of Parliament;
- Robson Mavenyengwa, Member of Parliament;
- Tongai Mafidi Mnangagwa, Member of Parliament;
- Spiwe Mukunyaidze, Member of Parliament;
- Vincent Tsvangirai, Member of Parliament; and
- Support staff.
The Hon. Speaker Mudenda attended the Executive Committee meetings which preceded the 145th Assembly and Related Meetings in Montevideo, Uruguay, in June 2022, virtually in September 2022 as well as in Kigali, Rwanda on 09 and 10 October 2022 in person.
KEY DECISIONS OF THE IPU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
IPU OBSERVER MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS:
The Executive Committee considered and accepted the requests for observer status for the following organisations: Collective Security Treaty Parliamentary Assembly Organisation (CSTO PA); and,
UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health.
Following some intense debate, the application for the observer status by the League of Parliamentarians for Al QUDS was deferred to allow for further consultations and due diligence by the Secretary General in light of the terrorists’ allegations levelled against the leader of that organisation.
The request by the Muslin World League was turned down on the basis that it is a non-governmental organisation with unknown interface with any Parliaments or Parliamentarians.
The Executive Committee noted that the Association of Secretaries General of Arab Parliaments already has a working relationship with the IPU through the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments (ASGP). Accordingly, the application was turned down.
The decision on the request by the G7 was deferred pending the establishment of mutually beneficial cooperation with the IPU.
PROGRESS REPORT ON THE IPU TASK FORCE ON RUSSIA/UKRAINE CONFLICT
The Task Force comprising eight members from all Geo-political Groups, undertook Missions to Kiev and Moscow, following invitations from both Parliaments of the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The Executive Committee took note of the report and endorsed the Task Force’s recommendation to continue its diplomatic mission through individual consultations with Parliamentarians from both sides. It was hoped that Parliamentarians from both sides could be brought together for an interface soonest. The Executive Committee encouraged the Task Force to continue its collaboration with other key peace brokers who are desirous to end peace in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
UPDATE ON THE IPU CREMER-PASSY PRIZE
The Selection Committee nominated two winners for the award:-
- Mrs Lopez Castro who is a young Parliamentarian from Mexico; and
- Ruslan Stefanchuk, Chairman of the Parliament of Ukraine.
The two nominees were in Kigali to receive their award.
FINANCIAL QUESTIONS
The Executive Committee endorsed the recommendation to increase the assessed contributions for Member Parliaments by 3%. Furthermore, it approved the proposed budget for 2023.
The Executive Committee commended the IPU Secretariat for the prudential management of the IPU finances which remain healthy.
Voluntary funding continues to increase with the continued support from SIDA, the Shura Council of Qatar, Canada, Irish Aid, China, Bangladesh, Benin, the United Arab Emirates and UN Agencies among other partners. The IPU strives to maintain a balance between assessed contributions and voluntary contributions at a healthy ratio of 75% to 25% respectively.
COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
The Executive Committee commended the progress made in the implementation of the Communications Strategy in the following areas:
- Increased digital platforms that would have an anticipated target of half a million views by year-end.
- Increased social media followers.
- Production of digital content for and about Parliaments on IPU’s website and YouTube platform which highlight positive Parliamentary practices.
- Intensified work on the database for Members of Parliament beyond the current 16 000 participants as shall be encouraged by all Member Parliaments who must submit their databases to the IPU urgently.
- Promoting activities of the Presidency.
- Preparing a climate change campaign.
- Continuing to generate coverage in the traditional media.
REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE IPU
The Activity Report of the President was anchored on three (3) deliverables as follows:
Reinforcing Values and IPU Strategy: The President participated in conferences, including the Young Parliamentarians and Women Speakers’ Summit. He also undertook visits to some Parliaments, schools and tertiary institutions where he articulated the values of the IPU and its role in strengthening democracy and multilateralism.
Increasing the Visibility of the IPU through press conferences and posting on social media platforms relevant information that promotes the core values of the IPU.
Universal Membership: The President of the IPU remains committed to accelerating universal membership of the IPU, inclusive of the outstanding membership of United States of America Congress and other Parliaments that remain outside the fold. Accordingly, the President and the Secretary General attended the CPA Conference held in Halifax, Canada, in August 2022 and engaged the Caribbean and Pacific countries to join the IPU. The President has also stepped up his engagement with the United States Congress on the same.
Establishment of IPU Regional Offices
The Executive Committee agreed in principle to establish regional offices whose objectives would be to enhance member engagement, provide systematic outreach to Parliaments and providing support for the IPU Work plans, among others. Upon presentation to the Governing Council, it was resolved that consultations would continue with the Africa Geo-political Group on the question of the host country for the proposed pilot project in view of Egypt’s offer to house the regional office but under the Arab League Group and not the Africa Geo-Political Group. Uruguay made a similar issue. The Secretary General was instructed to do due diligence as to whether or not these two offers could be pilot projects.
FORUM OF YOUNG PARLIAMENTARIANS
The President of Young Parliamentarians, Hon. Ms Sahar Albazar, reported success of the Young Parliamentarians’ Conference which took place in Egypt in June 2022 where 200 young Parliamentarians from 70 countries attended. The Young Parliamentarians extended their appreciation to the IPU for promoting youth parliamentary engagements in its activities.
Data Protection Policy
The Executive Committee adopted the Data Protection Policy. The comprehensive Policy seeks to strike a balance between the need to maintain privacy and the provision of data information on Members of Parliament.
Policy to Prevent Harassment, Including Sexual Harassment at the IPU Assemblies and other IPU events
Recent studies by the IPU uncovered a scourge of violence against female Parliamentarians. In response, the Gender Partnership Group developed its anti-harassment framework for its Assemblies and other IPU Events anchored on the adopted UN Code of Conduct to prevent harassment, including sexual harassment at UN events.
The Interim Report of the Secretary General of the IPU,
The Executive Committee noted the Interim Report of the Secretary-General which outlined the activities of the IPU since January 2022. The Secretary General indicated that the activities under review were in response to the Strategic Objectives as articulated in the IPU Strategy which is now in its second year. In this context, the following activities were undertaken:
- Thirty-six support activities in 16 countries to build capacity;
- Participation in forty-five (45) regional and global events to leverage parliamentary action; and
- Produced more than 10 publications and tools of trade of the IPU.
- 11.1Additionally, the IPU also implemented activities around the Policy Goals on Peace and Security as well as Sustainable Development Goals for All.
Questions relating to situations of certain Parliaments: The Executive Committee endorsed the recommendations of the Secretary General and noted situations in certain Parliaments as follows:
Afghanistan
The Delegation from Afghanistan to remain non-voting observers.
Burkina Faso
In light of the second coup d’état on 30 September 2022 and in spirit of engagement and dialogue, Burkina Faso will remain a member of the IPU until the expected 2024 elections.
Guinea Bissau
There is continued infighting between the Government and the Parliament. The Parliament has been dissolved pending Parliamentary elections scheduled for December 2022. Accordingly, the Executive Committee noted the recent developments and will continue engaging authorities on the pending elections process.
Sudan
There is still no functional Parliament in Sudan. Elections are scheduled for July 2023. The Executive Committee noted with regret the delays in holding the elections.
Eswatini
The Executive noted the developments in Eswatini, with particular reference to crackdown on protesters by the authorities.
The Executive Committee also acknowledged the situations in Haiti, Libya, Palestine, South Sudan, Venezuela, Bosnia Herzegovina, Myanmar and Tunisia as counter to democratic tenets.
Future Meetings of the IPU
The March IPU Assembly will be held in Bahrain. The Parliament of Angola offered to host the IPU in October 2023. A decision on the Angolan offer was deferred pending a site visit to Angola by the IPU Secretariat.
Election of Vice Presidents of the IPU
Ms. A.D. Kanoute of Senegal was re-elected for a second term as Vice-President of the IPU representing the Africa Geo-political Group.
GOVERNING COUNCIL
In addition to endorsing the decisions of the Executive Committee as enunciated in Item 2 of this Report, the Governing Council took note of the following Reports: -
- Reports on Recent IPU Specialised Meetings; and,
- Activities of Committees and other bodies.
Hon. Chinomona presented the report of the Women Speakers Summit held in Uzbekistan in September 2022. The Summit culminated in the adoption of the Tashkent Declaration which calls on Parliaments to step up implementation of the IPU Plan of Action for Gender Sensitive Parliaments. Furthermore, the report called for immediate and robust action towards achieving gender parity in Parliaments, gender mainstreaming in both the public and private sectors as well as tackling gender based violence.
Of particular note is that the Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians reported on two cases of Zimbabwean Members of Parliament, namely Hon. Joanna Mamombe and Hon. Job Sikhala. The report alleged human rights violations against Hon. Mamombe which include abduction, torture, ill treatment and other acts of violence, threats, acts of intimidation, arbitrary arrest and detention, inhuman conditions of detention, lack of due process at the investigation stage, lack of fair proceedings, violation of freedom of opinion and expression, violation of freedom of assembly and association, violation of freedom of movement, other acts obstructing the exercise of parliamentary mandate, impunity and discrimination.
On the other hand, the alleged human rights violations against Hon. Sikhala include arbitrary arrest and detention, inhumane conditions of detention, lack of due process in proceedings, lack of due process at the investigation stage, lack of trial proceedings, excessive delays, violation of freedom of opinion and expression, violation of freedom of assembly and association, violation of freedom of movement and other acts obstructing the exercise of the parliamentary mandate.
The Committee renewed its interest to undertake a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe to examine the cases as well as to observe the trials of the concerned Members of Parliament.
In the spirit of transparency, the Hon. Speaker appeared before the Human Rights Committee and articulated the status of the cases for both Hon. Mamombe and Hon. Sikhala as well as Hon. Sithole who is charged together with Hon. Sikhala and also highlighted that the three are still Members of Parliament enjoying full benefits of this status. The request for the mission to Zimbabwe will be considered by the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs as the relevant Ministry.
SADC GROUP AND AFRICA GEO-POLITICAL GROUP
MEETINGS
As has become tradition, the SADC Group and the Africa Geo-political Group convened their meetings on 10 October 2022 to consider and reach a consensus on issues on the Agenda of the IPU 145th Assembly and Related Meetings. These included the Report of the Executive Committee and the Emergency Item/s on the Assembly Agenda. The Hon Speaker, Advocate Mudenda, presented a summary Report to both groups subsequently.
Both Groups expressed reservations about the proposal submitted by the delegation of Pakistan as an Emergency Item entitled “Creation of the Global Fund or financing facility for climate change vulnerable countries to address loss and damage associated with climate change” as it did not meet the criteria for an Emergency Item in terms of Article 11 of the IPU Statutes.
OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE 145TH ASSEMBLY OF THE IPU AND RELATED MEETINGS
The IPU 145th Assembly and Related Meetings was officially opened by His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, on 11 October 2022. His Excellency Kagame welcomed delegates after being called upon to address the Assembly by the host Speaker, Dr. Mukabalisa. The President lauded the Assembly’s theme which espoused gender equality in all spheres of human endevours, more-so when the women folk form 52% of the world’s population. It was, therefore, incumbent upon Parliaments to enact laws that effectively promote gender parity. However, the President cautioned that there was “no size fits all “in tackling gender equality deficiencies. To him, what was critical is the application of the political will to achieve the goal. The President wished the Assembly vibrant deliberations where outcomes should have positive resolutions.
In welcoming the delegates to the land of a thousand hills, Hon. Donatella Mukabalisa, Speaker of the Parliament of Rwanda, expressed Rwanda’s commitment to the participation of women in politics and inclusivity as enshrined Rwanda’s constitution. Accordingly, Rwandan women are active in participation in socio-economic and political development. She called on delegates to reflect and take stock of on gender equality and proffer solutions to address the related challenges.
In his address to delegates, Mr. Martin Chungong, Secretary General of the IPU, called for the acceleration of progress to achieve shared goals on gender equality and gender sensitive Parliaments with zero tolerance to gender violence and sexism. In addressing instability as experienced in some parts of Africa and the Russia/Ukraine conflict, among others, the Secretary General underscored the value of dialogue as articulated by the founding fathers of the IPU. He called upon Parliaments to strive for peace, equity and opportunities for all.
Hon. Duarte Pachecco, President of the IPU, commended the collective efforts across the globe in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. He called for parliamentary cooperation in resolving global challenges, including climate change, political instability in Africa, Russia/Ukraine conflict and the situation in Palestine. Such cooperation would pave way for sustainable development as well as progress in the fight for gender equality.
EMERGENCY ITEM FOR INCLUSION ON THE AGENDA
In accordance with Assembly Rule 11.1 which states that any Member of the Union may request the inclusion of an Emergency Item in the Assembly Agenda, the following delegations subsequently submitted proposals: -
- “Creation of the Global Fund or financing facility for climate change vulnerable countries to address loss and damage associated with climate change” submitted by the delegation from Pakistan;
- “Condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent annexation of territories in defense of the territorial integrity of all States” submitted by the delegation of Chile with the support of the GRULAC Geopolitical Group.
- “Preserving Iraq’s sovereignty, rejecting repeated attacks and not interfering in internal affairs” submitted by the delegation from Iraq.
The delegation of Iraq withdrew its proposal before the vote. The submission by the delegation of Chile carried the day after a vote and was accordingly included on the Agenda of the Assembly as an Emergency Item.
DEBATE ON THE THEME OF THE ASSEMBLY
In their interventions on the theme of the Assembly entitled “Gender Equality and Gender Sensitive Parliaments as Drivers of Change for a more Resilient and Peaceful World”, Parliamentarians took stock of the positive steps towards achieving gender equality. Speakers unanimously concurred that it had become an imperative to include women leadership in addressing global challenges such as conflicts, pandemics and climate change. Through their legislative and oversight functions, Parliaments can play a critical role in enacting strong legislation, including quotas for women in politics and ensuring gender responsive budgeting.
In his address to the Assembly, Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Advocate Jacob Francis Nzwidamilimo Mudenda, shared some best practices from the Parliament of Zimbabwe, including the following:
- Development of an Institutional Gender Policy whose principal framework lays the foundation for integrating gender perspectives within the Parliament.
- 60 seats in the National Assembly are constitutionally guaranteed up to 2030 on the basis of proportional representation in addition to constituency representation.
- Establishment of the vibrant Zimbabwe Women Parliamentary Caucus (ZWPC) by our Parliament in 2001
- Promulgation of a new Marriages Act (No. 1) of 2022 which unequivocally disallows early child marriages wherein it became legally impermissible to marry a girl below 18 years age of majority.
- Constitutionally guaranteed one third of women councillors in every local authority.
FORUM OF WOMEN PARLIAMENTARIANS
The Forum of Women Parliamentarians contributed, from a gender perspective, to the draft Resolution before the Standing Committee on Democracy and Human Rights “Parliamentary impetus to local and regional development of countries with high levels of international migration and to stopping all forms, including State-sponsored, of human trafficking and human rights abuses”. The forum recommended a human rights based and gender sensitive approach to migration, addressing the root causes of trafficking of women and girls, including for sexual exploitation and combating human trafficking with focus on the rights and needs of survivors.
In addition, the forum held a panel discussion on the theme “Gender-sensitive Parliaments: Parliaments free from sexism, harassment and violence against women”. Accordingly, debate highlighted policies and mechanisms for the prevention of and response to sexism and gender based violence in Parliamentary space. In addition, the forum recommended policy measures to prevent sexism and harassment in Parliament, independent reporting and complaint mechanisms, confidential spaces where victims can get information and support. Collaborating with the media for dissemination of information on the participation of women in politics and the violence they may face was also recommended.
The Forum of Women Parliamentarians organized a parity debate on the theme” Rejuvenating Parliaments: Why younger and gender sensitive Parliaments are more effective and efficient institutions. The debate examined the needs, expectations and aspirations of a more diverse generation of men and women Parliamentarians as well as practical ways of reconciling Parliamentary activities and family responsibilities.
Hon. Chinomona articulated the steps taken by the Government of Zimbabwe to address cases of human trafficking which include domestication of some provisions of the International Protocol on Trafficking to include criminalization of offenders as well as enacting survivor centered provisions for victims of trafficking. In addition, she shared that Zimbabwean law allows for the compensation of victims of trafficking by the perpetrator.
FORUM OF YOUNG PARLIAMENTARIANS
The Forum Members recommended the creation of youth caucuses, youth wings of political parties, empowerment opportunities for young Parliamentarians.
The forum also exchanged views on the theme of the General Debate on “Gender equality and gender sensitive Parliaments as drivers of change for a more resilient and peaceful world”. The forum affirmed the need for Parliaments to be fully inclusive of young Parliamentarians. It called for innovative ways to address challenges of gender equality, including provision of feeding rooms for young mothers as well as policies that address sexism and gender based violence.
The young Parliamentarians also shared the progress in launching the “I Say Yes to Youth in Parliament” Campaign in their respective Parliaments. Of note is that Parliaments have been receiving assistance from the IPU in the implementation of this initiative.
THE OUTCOMES OF THE 145TH ASSEMBLY AND RELATED MEETINGS
Kigali Declaration on “Gender Equality and Gender Sensitive Parliaments as drivers of change for a more resilient and peaceful world”: The Declaration represents a milestone in progress towards gender equality and gender-sensitive Parliaments. It encourages IPU Members to step up their efforts to promote gender equality in both the public and private sectors. The Kigali Declaration is attached as Annexure “A”.
The IPU Assembly also adopted a resolution on “Parliamentary impetus to local and regional development of countries with high levels of international migration and to stopping all forms, including State-sponsored, of human-trafficking and human rights abuses”
The resolution calls on the United Nations to make the topic of human trafficking and modern-day slavery, a specific focus for the next UN General Assembly.
It also urges governments and Parliaments to address the demand side of trafficking, including trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The Resolution is attached as Annexure “B”.
The IPU 145th Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution on Ukraine entitled “Condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine and the annexation of territories in defense of territorial integrity of all States” The resolution is attached as Annexure “C”.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Parliament should implement the 10 - Action Plan for gender sensitive parliaments, gender equality and gender mainstreaming. It is acknowledged that the Parliament of Zimbabwe has made positive strides in its quest for achieving gender parity as enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Zimbabwe. The country should continue on this trajectory.
Parliament should consider launching the “I say yes to Youth in Parliament Campaign”. This gesture would renew the commitment by Parliament towards youth inclusivity in Parliamentary processes. The Hon. Speaker and the President of the Senate are commended for signing up to the “I say Yes to Youth in Parliament Campaign”.
Parliament to actively engage in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals through the Expanded Sustainable Development Goals Committee which should establish a monitoring and evaluation matrix.
Parliament to endorse the Global Compact for Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees as well as to use them as roadmaps for improving international cooperation and migration governance. CONCLUSION
In line with the IPU Statues and Rules as well as the IPU Strategy which places emphasis on implementation of resolutions of the IPU, Parliament of Zimbabwe will be called upon to report on action taken towards implementation of the adopted resolutions. Accordingly, Parliamentary Committees are encouraged to implement resolutions and provide feedback thereof timely.
The delegation wishes to express its profound appreciation to Parliament and the Government of Zimbabwe for affording it the opportunity to represent Parliament and the country at the IPU 145th Assembly in Kigali, Rwanda.
HON. SEN. CHIEF MTSHANE: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to support the 145th Assembly Report of the IPU and its related issues. Among other things that were discussed, Mr. President Sir, was the establishment of the IPU regional offices.
The Executive Committee agreed in principle to establish regional offices whose objectives would be to enhance member engagement, provide systematic outreach to Parliaments and provide support for the IPU workplans, among other things.
Upon presentation of the Government Council, it was resolved that consultations could continue on the question of the host country for the proposed pilot projects in view of Egypt’s offer to house the regional office but under the Arab league.
Mr. President, they also discussed the Forum for Young Parliamentarians. The President of Young Parliamentarians, Hon. M. S. Sahar Abazar reported success on the Young Parliamentarians Conference which took place in Egypt in June 2022. The Young Parliamentarians extended their appreciation to the IPU for promoting Youth Parliamentarian engagements in its activities.
On data presentation policy, the Executive Committee adopted the Data Protection Policy. The comprehensive policy seeks to strike a balance between the need to maintain privacy and the provision of data information on Members of Parliament.
On policy to prevent harassment including sexual harassment at the IPU assemblies and other IPU events, recent studies by the IPU uncovered a scourge of violence against female parliamentarians. In response, the gender partnership group developed its anti-harassment framework for its assemblies and other IPU events anchored on the adopted United Nation’s Code of Conduct to prevent harassment, including sexual harassment at United Nations events.
On the Interim Report on the Secretary General of the IPU, the Executive Committee noted the Interim Report of the Secretary General which outlined the activities of the IPU since January, 2022. The Secretary General indicated that the activities under review were in response to the strategic objectives as articulated in the IPU Strategy, which is now in the second year.
There were also questions relating to situations of certain Parliaments. The Executive Committee endorsed the recommendations of the Secretary General and noted situations in certain Parliaments as follows:
On Afghanistan, the delegation from Afghanistan was to remain non-voting observer. On Burkina Faso, in light of the second pool on 30th September, 2022 and in the spirit of engagement and dialogue, Burkina Faso will remain a member of IPU until the expected 2024 elections. There is continued infighting between the Government and the Parliament. The Parliament has been dissolved pending Parliamentary elections scheduled for December, 2023. Accordingly, the Executive Committee noted the recent development and still continues engaging authorities on the pending elections process.
On Sudan, there is still no functional Parliament in Sudan. Elections are scheduled for July 2023. The Executive Committee noted with regret the delay in holding elections in that country. The Executive Committee noted the development of Eswatini, with particular reference to crackdown on parastatals by the authorities. Future meetings of the IPU, the much IPU Assembly will be held in Boreign, Angola. The Parliament of Angola offered to host the IPU in October, 2023. The decision on the Angolan offer was deferred pending a site visit to Angola by the IPU Secretariat.
On the elections of the Vice President of the IPU, Mr. A. G. Kanoute of Senegal was re-elected for a second term as Vice President of IPU, representing the African Duo-Political Group. With those few words, once again thank you for the opportunity to debate.
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. CHIRONGOMA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 7th February, 2023.
On the motion of HON. SEN. MUZENDA seconded by HON. SEN. CHIRONGOMA, the Senate adjourned at Twenty Seven Minutes past Four O’clock p. m. until Tuesday, 14th February, 2023.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 1st February, 2023
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE HON. SPEAKER
COLLECTION OF 2023 CALENDARS AND DIARIES
THE HON. SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that the 2023 calendars and diaries are ready for collection at the Public Relations Office 1; Pax House, Third Floor, North Wing.
An Hon. Member having been bending while another Hon. Member was speaking.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order. Who is the Hon. Member bending there? Who is that Hon. Member! – [AN HON. MEMBER: Shumbamhini.] – Hon. Member, you should not be upstanding when another Hon. Member is presenting. Secondly, when you enter this august House you must do obeisance to the Chair. Thank you.
FIRST READING
CRIMINAL LAW CODIFICATION AND REFORM AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 15, 2022]
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI) presented the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Amendment Bill [H. B. 15, 2022].
Bill read the first time.
Bill referred to Parliamentary Legal Committee.
FIRST READING
POLICE AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 1, 2023]
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI) on behalf of THE MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS AND CULTURAL HERITAGE (HON. KAZEMBE) presented the Police Amendment Bill [H. B. 1, 2023].
Bill read the first time.
Bill referred to Parliamentary Legal Committee.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I move that Orders of the Day, Numbers 1 to 12 be stood over until Order of the Day Number 13 has been disposed of.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
HON. TOGAREPI: I move the motion standing in my name that a respectful address be presented to the President of Zimbabwe as follows: -
May it please you, your Excellency the President.
We, the Members of Parliament of Zimbabwe, desire to express our loyalty to Zimbabwe and beg leave to offer our respectful thanks for the speech, which you have been pleased to address to Parliament.
HON. P. ZHOU: I second.
HON. TOGAREPI: Mr. Speaker, I am here to debate the State of the Nation Address by His Excellency the President, Cde E.D. Mnangagwa. The President raised very important issues when he presented the SONA to this House. Members would agree with me that when we went to the New Parliament Building, we saw a building that was done for the Parliament of Zimbabwe which is second to none if we look around Africa. It was well-done with a lot of expertise and space for Parliament. When we went there, I saw every Member of Parliament appreciating what the Government of Zimbabwe, through the assistance that we got from the Chinese Government - that this is good work. I hope every sector of this economy and Government will take a cue from what Government has done in coming up with this very important and prestigious building, our Parliament at Mt. Hampden.
The other issues that the President looked at include issues of social economic development. There has been a lot of improvement in the lives of our people since the new dispensation...
THE HON. SPEAKER: Members on my left, can you reduce your conversations to whispers.
HON. TOGAREPI: This has been seen through the implementation of the National Development Strategy One (1). We have seen a lot of movement towards economic development for our people. There has been a lot of development in many sectors, including road construction. We have seen mining developing and a lot of effort in agriculture. If you go around the country today with the good rains that we have received, there is a lot of agricultural production that is going on. This will reduce the amount of importation of food and more resources will then be allocated to economic development, which is very good for the growth of our economy.
The other thing that I also appreciated is what Government is doing at the moment, dealing with the inflation that was now destroying our currency and the buying power of our people was now compromised by – [HON. BITI: Uko Shumba, aiwa Mhofu dai masiya.] – Mr. Speaker, there is this gentleman – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – [HON. BITI: I thought uri shamwari yangu.] – Okay, Hon. Biti Mr. Speaker, yah, he is my friend but Hon. Biti thinks I am Shumba when I am a Mhofu and I get very worried.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, Hon. Biti you are a seasoned politician – [HON. BITI: Good afternoon Sir!] – No, I am not accepting that.
HON. TOGAREPI: Mr. Speaker, if you see the growth of foreign currency earnings of our country is an indication that there is a lot of economic activity and improved trade. I call upon the people of Zimbabwe to support Government in an effort to increase production and manufacturing in our economy so that we can earn more income in terms of foreign currency so as to improve the economic development of our country.
I also want to talk about the area where our Government has done a good job. This is to do with the run-away parallel market rate that was causing untold suffering to our people. Government came up with the gold coins which definitely stabilised our currency against the hard currencies. There was a lot of pressure on the Zimbabwe dollar which after the coming in of the gold coin then stabilised. Many people went for Christmas with a stable currency which improved the welfare of our people and it was very important.
I also want to applaud what Government is doing in terms of improving agricultural production. The Pfumvudza programme has done a tremendous job in the rural areas. People can feed themselves and you can also appreciate that with the type of production, people are going to have improved standards of living. Added to that, I would like to applaud our Government for the support they gave to farmers in terms of production of wheat, given the wars that are taking place between Ukraine and Russia. These two countries were the sources of wheat and bread that we enjoy in some of our countries that are not producing wheat. Now, with the support of Government to produce wheat, it means we can be self sufficient as a country. I want to applaud Government for that and encourage those with land to produce wheat to come on board and start producing wheat so that in a few years, we will be able to export wheat to some of these countries. If you look at the war in Ukraine, it is not going to end very soon. There will be more years of fighting and less wheat coming to Africa. That is a market we must take advantage of.
I also want to talk about the Harare/Beitbridge Road. Government has done a good job using our own resources. When driving on that road, you enjoy it because the road is very good. However, I would like the Hon. Minister of Roads to take note of a concern I have. The road is wide but as you get to the bridges, the road narrows down and exposes people to accidents. I do not know what plans the Minister has but I am sure he will be able to tell us how he will deal with that because most of the accidents that we are seeing along these roads are caused by the narrow bridges. So, we would want to see an improvement on those bridges.
Madam Speaker, I also want to applaud Government for the continued growth in the mining sector. We are seeing a lot of mining houses coming up, downstream industries such as the Manhize Plant coming up, which will aid the development of the country. It is my wish that all that is happening now can be supported by all the people of Zimbabwe to ensure that this country develops as fast as we envisage and see that our people’s standards of living will improve. I thank you Madam Speaker.
HON. CHIKWINYA: On a point of order Madam Speaker. Just before you assumed the Chair, I had asked for guidance from the Speaker pertaining to why we are not referring back to Question Time today and he referred me to Order Number 66 of the Rules. Firstly, I would like to quote what the Minister of Justice said yesterday. He moved that we suspend Rule 66 (2) which is to do with Question Time. This rule lays out the sequence by which Orders should be done. The sequence states that unless the House has resolved, otherwise determine on Wednesdays, the routine of business shall be as follows, in order of precedence:
a) Questions
b) Notice of Motions in the name of Private Members
c) Private Members Orders of the Day
d) Other Notices of Motions and Orders of the Day.
We resolved to suspend this whole section yesterday but today the Minister of Justice who is the leader of Government business came not prepared to expunge the Government business under which we suspended the rules. He then moved that we revert to adopting Section 66 (2) but unfortunately, we did not revert in its order of precedence as set out in the Rules. The Rules give precedence to Question Time first. I therefore move that we respect the Rules and go back to Question Time, and move as prescribed in our Rules. I thank you.
THE HON DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Chikwinya, I am being advised that the Question Time was suspended yesterday and this motion which is being debated falls under Government business.
HON. CHIKWINYA: I referred to you and the Clerk to Order of the Day, Number 1 on today’s Order Paper, No. 14 which captures the Justice Minister who is Leader of Government Business’s presentation and I may go through it but in respect of time, he suspended Standing Order Number 53, 66 (2) with no particular reference to a Clause. If he did not want to suspend Question Time, he could have skipped a, b, c or d in order of his precedence but he suspended the whole of Standing Order Number 66 (2). What then the Standing Rules say and it is explicit – business shall be as follows in order of precedence. The key word is precedence and precedence (a) is Question Time. If the Minister cannot expunge of Government Business which we had agreed to and resolved to suspend business for, we should go back to Question Time – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
The motion being moved by Hon. Togarepi is not Government Business. It is his respect for the motion where he is imploring us to respect the speech by the Head of State and we are allowed to do that as long as we expunge of Question Time and I beg you to respect the rules which you are part of and the rules which you made Madam Speaker – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – if you may prove that we want to do Question Time that is alright but I still refer you to the Order of the Day – it directs us to Question Time, then we can deal with Hon. Togarepi’s time – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Chikwinya, – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Hon. Chikwinya, we are going ahead with the motion which was moved by Hon. Togarepi because Question Time was suspended and the Minister has just gone to the Senate. He will be coming back very soon.
HON. CHIKWINYA: It is alright Madam Speaker, nyika inotongwa nevene vayo. Vene vayo ndimi but you are wrong – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: We are not wrong Hon. Chikwinya. We are going ahead with the motion.
HON. P. ZHOU: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am for giving me this opportunity to second the motion and to debate on the State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by His Excellency the President of Zimbabwe...
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Member are you connected?
HON. P. ZHOU: I think so. – [HON. CHIBAYA: President of Zimbabwe Nelson Chamisa] – [HON. MEMBERS: Aaaah!] - [HON. T. MOYO: Zviroto zvako izvo.] – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – [HON. MATHE: Withdraw that.] – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Zhou, please go ahead.
HON. P. ZHOU: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
HON. TOGAREPI: On a point of order Madam Speaker. I think the Hon. Member must withdraw the statement that Chamisa is the President of Zimbabwe.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Who said that? He must withdraw because that is a misleading statement. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Order, may we please have order in the House. Who said Chamisa is the President of Zimbabwe – [AN HON. MEMBER: Hon. Chibaya!] -
Hon. Chibaya, please...
Hon. Chikwinya having stood up
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Chikwinya, I did not recognise you. Please may you take your seat?
HON. CHIKWINYA: Handiti zvanzi tiite withdraw.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: No. Are you the one who said that?
HON. CHIKWINYA: We want to withdraw.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Are you the one who said that statement – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
HON. CHIKWINYA: Haana kunzwa zvakanaka. Hanzi President Chamisa is the President of Zimbabwe Citizen Coalition for Change. Haana kunzwa the last part – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Chibaya, please may you withdraw your statement – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
An Hon. Member having stood to raise a point of order.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Please sit down. You cannot raise a point of order on top of another one. Hon. Chibaya, withdraw your statement.
HON. CHIBAYA: Hon. Speaker, I do not know what you want me to withdraw. It is true that President Chamisa is the President of Zimbabwe Citizen Coalition for Change – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
*THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: What has that got to do with the business of this House? – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – If you continue behaving in that manner, I will send you out Hon. Members. You are disrupting the smooth running of the business of this House – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – I am giving you the last warning.
HON. T. MOYO: On a point of order, Hon. Chibaya said Chamisa is the President of Zimbabwe. That has to be withdrawn – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – The overzealous member said Chamisa is the President of Zimbabwe and that has to be withdrawn.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Chibaya, may you be honourable and withdraw your statement? Why are you misleading the people? Hon. Chibaya withdraw your statement! Hon. Chibaya withdraw your statement! – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
Hon. Gonese having stood to raise a point of order.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Gonese, take your seat.
HON. GONESE: I have not spoken.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have not recognised you. Please take your seat.
HON. GONESE: I just stood up. I think it is allowed to stand up Madam Speaker – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Why are you standing Hon. Gonese?
HON. GONESE: I want to raise a point of order ...
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, why are you disrupting the smooth running of this motion? Please take a seat.
HON. GONESE: It is not that Madam Speaker. I just stood up and I did not say anything.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Take your seat Hon. Gonese.
Hon. Chibaya withdraw your statement.
HON. CHIBAYA: Hon. Speaker, I do not know what you want me to withdraw I said the President of CCC Zimbabwe Nelson Chamisa. What is wrong with that?
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is not what you said Hon. Chibaya.
HON. CHIBAYA: That is what I said and I can replay it. I do not know where the anger is coming from, I do not know why my Central Committee Member is getting angry. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Anyway Hon. Members, we will check in the Hansard. You may continue Hon. Zhou.
HON. P. ZHOU: Madam Speaker – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Hon. Speaker, for starters, I think it is important that you treat us as equal Members of Parliament. When from the ZANU PF side someone rises on a point of order, you should allow them to speak just as you do on the left side of your seat.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is what I always do.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Let me deal with the issue that you raised that you are going to play the recording. I think it is important that you inform the House on which Order you are relying on to say Hon. Chibaya should withdraw. This is a House of Rules; it is not a House of feelings and emotions. Apparently…
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: There are no emotions Hon. Member, I have already ruled on that matter. May you take your seat! – [HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Which Order are you basing on, that is my question?] – If you continue in that manner, I am going to send you out – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Order, order! You are disrupting the smooth running of this House, I am giving you the last warning. Hon. Chibaya, the second warning.
HON. P. ZHOU: Thank you Madam Speaker Maam for giving me the opportunity to second the motion, State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by His Excellency, the President of Zimbabwe, Dr. E.D Mnangagwa and presented here by Hon. Togarepi.
HON. CHIBAYA: On a point of order!
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Chibaya, I am not recognizing you, take your seat. Why are you disrupting? – [HON. CHIBAYA: The Hon. Member is reading her maiden speech.] – Hon. Chibaya!
HON. P. ZHOU: The President’s Address is very important because it drives the nation in the right direction.
THE HON. SPEAKER: May the Hon. Member be heard in silence
*HON. P. ZHOU: Allow me to present in my mother tongue; the President said a lot of things – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
HON. T. MLISWA: Madam Speaker, some of us have got more things to do out there. When we decided to be Members of Parliament, it was to represent people and this kind of behaviour in the House leaves a lot to be desired in terms of the agenda of the Hon. Members. We have been quiet, the Office of the President must be respected at all given times. The State of the Nation Address is critical in terms of the direction in which he sets – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
I was hoping that the ruling party would certainly debate and the government-in-waiting would also debate – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - That is the Opposition, it is known as the government-in-waiting. So to me, what we must look forward to is what the government-in-waiting has to say and at the same time the ruling party moves to address their manifesto in terms of what they promised the people. If what the President said does not complement and is not in line with the manifesto, then let us critique it. It is about facts on the debate. So may we respect the State of the Nation Address so that we are able to debate for the purpose of Zimbabweans who elected us.
When we are here, we are not here on our own but because people believed that I would represent the country – [HON. CHIKWINYA: Inaudible interjection.] – What I am saying Hon. Chikwinya is important, you are a seasoned politician; we actually look up to you. You were in Parliament before me, you should be leading me and giving me advice. Let us respect the Chair. We have the Madam Speaker who is there; when the Hon. Speaker was in the Chair, you did not make noise. Does it mean that women will be looked down upon? This is abuse to the women.
We cannot allow this to continue. Madam Speaker, exercise your powers and chuck people out. Some of us have got businesses which give us more money than being here. We are here to represent the people who chose us to represent the country. Hon. Chikwinya, I think it is important that we move together.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you very much Hon. Mliswa. People should present facts not just to disrupt debate in this House.
*HON. P. ZHOU: The President raised a lot of issues: on roads, food security and corruption. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank him for the agricultural aspect that he addressed – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – These two are disturbing me - I cannot concentrate on my speech.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
*HON. P. ZHOU: Pfumvudza Programme helped in increasing agricultural yield output as well as the Presidential Input Scheme which increased the wheat output. We managed to attain a record breaking tonnage. We also managed to have rural cooperatives being able to grow wheat. As a result, we managed to get more than 375 000 metric tonnes of wheat. That gives us surplus and enough for a year’s supply for the whole country. Speaking about wheat, many countries in Africa are struggling to get wheat because most of them were importing from Ukraine and Russia where there is war currently.
The United Nations reports that many countries in Africa imported 44% of wheat between 2018/20 from Russia. As we speak, the price of wheat has gone up by 45% and that means as Zimbabweans, we are blessed because of these strategies that we are implementing in agriculture. We are not struggling to produce bread because we are getting it from our locally produced wheat. We have enough wheat in the strategic reserves and now we will be focusing on other crops. That really shows that as a country, we are well organised.
I would like to applaud the gold coin strategy that came, especially the introduction of smaller denominations which are being sold at US$200 and below. I really like that one very much and I wish more smaller denominations could be introduced in order for us to transact even in rural areas for procurement of goods such as goats. I would really like to applaud the introduction of the gold coins’ strategy that arrested inflation. As you know, there are unscrupulous people that continue destabilising the Zimbabwe currency. They are trying to manipulate our currency but I would like to say the gold coin strategy is very key and effective.
Going back to my earlier point, we also have enough crops like maize and I hereby request that farmers be paid on time so that they are able to go back and continue producing. Midlands Province falls under Regions 3, 4 and 5 and there is need to establish irrigation schemes so that farmers are able to produce more food. I would like to applaud the plan by Government in allowing several cooperatives to start irrigation schemes.
The Road Rehabilitation Programme was well done in some other parts of the country including Midlands Province where some roads were attended to. For example, CMED attended to the Amaveni Road in Kwekwe and the remainder of the kilometers were done by the City Council. In Gokwe, the Masvisvi-Silver Bridge was attended to. I would like to applaud the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development for listening to our concerns. There was a tree at Sebakwe River which was posing a danger to motorists and I am happy to report that the tree was cut down. I really want to thank the Minister because he works hard. I also want to applaud the Minister for erecting speed humps on all high accident zones so as to reduce the rate of accidents.
HON. T. MLISWA: The beauty about vernacular language, I am sure it is a bridge and you can describe it rather than saying grrrr grrrrr.
*HON. P. ZHOU: I would like to turn to the health sector. I would like to thank our Government for putting in place measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. A lot of our people did not succumb to the disease and I really want to thank the Government. Furthermore, Government opened and rehabilitated a lot of clinics and health facilities in order to take care of COVID patients. On Universal Health Coverage, a state of the art Pathology and Diagnostic Centre was constructed at Midlands State University.
Patients are no longer going to Harare. There is Sherwood Clinic and there is need for staff accommodation and investors should fulfill their corporate responsibility.
The President talked of the 16 Bills and Medical Services Act is also included, looking at Chapter 15 of the Medical Service Amendment Bill in trying to align it with the Medical Services Act. We urge the Government to provide anti-snake venom because people are losing lives by the time they get to hospitals. There must be provision of oxygen at clinic level and anti-snake venom so that they are attended to earlier. I also wish if ambulances could be availed at clinics so that patients can be attended to much earlier from clinics to district hospitals. We must also consider that the country is under sanctions yet they are doing so much to improve the livelihoods of people. Hypertension and diabetic testing kits should also be availed at clinic level.
Madam Speaker, regarding the 16 Bills, I would like to thank Hon. Minister Ziyambi for informing Parliament that we shall be working very hard and knocking off late. Talking of Parliament building, I would like to appreciate the relationship between the Government of Zimbabwe and the Chinese Government through the Look East Policy. I say may it continue because we are seeing results. I also want to thank our listening President. Our President is a listening President, he takes all requests from Members of Parliament, civil servants and he urges officials to work on all those requests.
For those 16 Bills that I referred to, I request that we all unite as Members of Parliament, members of staff and all stakeholders so that we pass the Bills on time. I thank you Madam Speaker.
HON. T. MLISWA: Thank you very much Madam Speaker Ma’am. I want to begin by thanking the President as usual for setting the tone. The State of the Nation Address and as the words say, ‘state of the nation address’, it is very clear in terms of what must be achieved and the success and the challenges but that also cannot be complete without the Ministers responding. Unfortunately, not many Ministers respond, which renders the state of the nation address a mere ceremony. We gathered in that beautiful building, others feel comfortable because they have not been given accommodation, they sleep in a beautiful building - the Ministers are all there listening but they never respond. So what is the point of the State of the Nation Address when Ministers do not respond because each portfolio is mentioned by the President? The Ministers will be listening so they have to respond but you agree with me Madam Speaker, that it has been a challenge to get Ministers to respond. When Ministers do not respond, it becomes a non-event. The coach who has a game plan for his team to say the midfielder will be defensive, we have a 4-2-2-2 structure, if players do not adhere to the 4-2-2-2 structure, then there is no point for that. I still ask myself, why should we have the State of the Nation Address when Ministers are not responding, only a few will respond. If we have to count the Cabinet Ministers and how many of them responded, you realise that while the President is right in saying nyika inovakwa nevene vayo, asi pane vamwe futi vene vayo vari kuvaka nyika who are Ministers who are not responding.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, we need to be very clear about this and asking ourselves the importance of the State of the Nation Address which the President would have devoted a lot of time to. Information you would have got it but then you zero in on it, the Ministers then must respond. My question is how do you measure the success and failure when Ministers have not responded. Are we not just using tax payers’ money, abusing it? The President set the tone and this is important, some of the Ministers who are here must speak to your colleagues about this that they are disrespecting the appointments of the Head of State. There are many people capable of being Ministers here, people who are competent. Hon. Mhona was a Member of Parliament, he is now a Minister but today his performance is there. There are a lot more Mhonas within the party who can do the job. Why should we be keeping people who are not doing the job? What other job are they doing in reporting to the President other than makuhwa? It has now become a norm. What are you reporting to the President if you are not able to respond on issues that you have been appointed to do in Parliament? You do not. This is the House that represents everyone. They can go to Cabinet, they can go to any Congress but there is only one Parliament which represents the people and this is the august House. So if you cannot lay your case here, it will not be heard. People will say you are doing nothing. This issue Madam Speaker is very important for it to be dealt with. This again the Speaker’s Panel, yourself included, I think you are also a bit lenient on the Ministers. There are rules which must be followed - for the first time I will also challenge the powers of the Speaker sitting there. He has the power to whip all the Ministers. If not, they can be charged for contempt. No Minister has been charged for contempt. They do not come to Parliament question time. The last time the Vice President came here, he assured us they will come. They have not come. The President says the State of the Nation Address, they do not come. The Hon. Vice President comes as well hoping that he is a General, they also listen and see that he is a General but they still do not come. Vanhu vakaita sei? Inhinhi dzakaita sei dzisingaende munzira imwe chete?
I have to say this as we end this Parliament that one arm of the State is not firing, that is the Executive. Unfortunately, the prerogative lies with the President. They are responsible for the policy. They are responsible for execution and we are responsible for making the laws. We have done our bit in making the laws with limited resources while they have got more resources than we have. This House passes a Budget for them to have two cars while we have one. This House passes that they have everything while we have nothing so that they can discharge their duty properly but they have failed.
We cannot end this Parliament by not talking about how the Executive has been sleeping on duty and how they have let the President down. All they are good at is going to Official Openings together. They go to State banquets, they do not miss them. They like their food and wine but they do not want to come to Parliament and respond to issues of national interest. Madam Speaker, this is something which has let the SONA become a non-event because they are not participating where they should participate. Boxes must be ticked and not only that, Parliament too has allowed them to get away with murder. This is an institution which is governed by its rules and those rules must be used. They must not be used when people feel they must be personal, raise a point of order on a Privileges Committee for Hon. Mliswa and others for a bribe attempt. That is the only thing, but in terms of contempt on the cases which are there, they have not done that. I am also disappointed that the Speaker’s Panel has not exercised its power in ensuring that people are active when it comes to work.
Let me also go to the Parliament itself, which is a beautiful Parliament. I am not worried who built it but at what cost? We are all celebrating how great the Parliament is, but at what cost? There is nothing that is beautiful that comes for free. There is no grant that is given for free. You now know that when they give it for free, they are taking Manhize which is worth USD153 million. Could we not have mined our resources and make that money to build our own? To us, let us not be excited about sitting in a Parliament which comes with a cost. There is no-one who will ever give you anything for free. In Shona they say, itsitsi dzei kubvisa mwana wemvana madzihwa? Inini munondiziva kuti handina kuroora, mukaona ndakubvisa mwana wemvana madzihwa, chii chandirikutsvaga? Ndakudaka mai vacho. Saka hazviuye mahara – [HON. MATHE: Inaudible interjection.] – Madam Speaker, the Hon. Member is being generous as my big sister by saying, ‘kana tabva panapa ndichakuratidza mukadzi wekuroora’. So I am waiting for that.
Madam Speaker, all these things are at a cost. You see the influx of foreigners coming in, they are not coming for nothing, yet they say Zimbabwe is not bad. So what bad publicity can we say we are encountering when they keep coming? Go on the Air Link which comes from South Africa at 06.30 you will see more white people than black. What are they coming to do? On the way back, you see more white people than black but those are the very same white people that are not saying good things about Zimbabwe. They are the same ones who are going about telling their friends ‘do not come to Zimbabwe’ because they are making money. They do not want others to come here.
Jump on the Air Link, why is it 06.30 in the morning and arriving at 08.00. It is because they go straight to the office and why is it that it leaves at 06.30 again back? It is because they finish work at 4, so they go and board and come back. There is a secret to it and it is never empty, it is always full. That tells you the resources that we have. To me, it is important that we bring the Indigenisation Act back. That is where I am going to. For a very long time, people did not understand. One thing that you cannot take away from the former late President, R. G. Mugabe is, he could see further than we did. He understood the mentality of white people and foreigners. He was in it for a long time. He was an accomplished Statesman, he was an accomplished historian, educated who was pro-black and believed the resources are for his people.
The amount of the resources that have gone to people who are not ours cannot be compared. He was prepared to keep those resources for his people so that generations to come would enjoy them. He was more worried about being in power than plundering the resources for the people. Today, if you look at it, the foreign direct investments which have come through, what has changed the country? We are busy fighting the Minister of Finance here but there is no production. Every Minister is telling you about this much is coming, how much is coming? The foreign direct investments which were laid before this House by the late Hon. Sen. General S. B. Moyo, may his soul rest in peace; what have we done to take stock of them? One of them is Chinese factory in my constituency. It was said to be worth $60 to $80 million. What are they bringing to the economy? The workers are abused. They are violating human rights. They are getting money in foreign currency and they do not bank the money.
The very same investors who are coming here are taking everything. There is environmental degradation. They have destroyed sacred places, uko vachingoburitsa mari. Which country can allow a situation where your resources are plundered to a point where even the environment, nzvimbo dzinoyera nemakomo haasisina basa? What are they bringing back? We need to be told on the SONA, those informing the President, how much these ventures have brought. The MOUs that have been signed and amount of money spent on those MOUs to be signed, is so much that we could have built a number of hotels. How many delegations flying out to go and do MOUs but where do those MOUs go?
We are here attacking the Minister of Finance who is not responsible for production. If we talk about production in terms of resources, Manhize – we made a lot of noise there and we decided to keep quiet because at the end of the day you could see that Government is not involved. The biggest steel works in the entire of Africa which will be generating USD20 billion a year, we have nothing in it. We ask the Ministers what is in it for us, there was no answer. How do you build a country when you are not involved in the biggest resource you have in terms of steel – no one can give you an answer.
We walked away without an answer and today we do not have an answer. My colleagues who are in the ruling party cannot answer because they will be expelled. They cannot ask again. We went to Manhize, made noise and we got up. We left that Pre-budget empty-handed yet we represent people. How then can we turn around the welfare of the people when we are not getting our resources? Manhize, who owns Manhize? I cannot even tell you Madam Speaker. Who in Zimbabwe is Manhize, I cannot tell you.
We have the Deputy Minister of Mines here; they have been trying to get a lot of investment going. There is one thing, signing an MOU. Most of the investors that have come in, for example Cold Storage Commission brief case - they love whites. When they see a white man, they believe. They give the resources to a white man without due diligence. Who was responsible for the due diligence? How can you allow CSC to go to people who act and even the Vice President coming there? In fact, those were Hollywood actors.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Mliswa, you are left with five minutes.
HON. T. MLISWA: Madam Speaker, on that one, it is something which I was going to bring as a point of order. I do not know where they pick this time up because yesterday they gave me a certain time and unbeknown to them, I was timing. I had spoken for twenty-three minutes in my whole conversation. Hon. Biti got up to extend by ten minutes, so it was supposed to be 30 minutes. While we are there, what source of timing do they use because there must be a bell. We can have a bell which tells us 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes. We cannot rely on human beings. This Parliament must be professional. There must be a timer there which tells me I have spoken 5 or 10 minutes and while I am speaking, I am watching the timer. These times we are given are not true. I want to know the source of the timing and we start from there.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is a watch over there Hon. Mliswa.
HON. T. MLISWA: There is no watch over there. Why were we not told that we are starting at this time so that we can refer? I cannot refer to that time. To me, I want to be honest and I see that it usually happens with me when I start debating and hitting where it hurts, and they now say ‘five minutes Hon. Mliswa’. Twenty minutes is a lot. All I ask is, can we have a timer. I think this Parliament has got money to put a timer and rings five or ten minutes. Madam Nyawo, unfortunately you are not a good source for timing. Can we just have it there so that we deal with it? I therefore propose that you put a timer so that when a person has the floor and debating, they can see the time. Even munhu anomhanya 100 metres, haungoti hauna kubata time iyo time iripo. Mumastadiums ese zvirimo.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Please, may you debate the motion Hon. Mliswa. You are now wasting time speaking about time.
HON. T. MLISWA: No, it is very important. Madam Speaker, we had the issue with FDIs. To us, that SONA was supposed to give figures to every foreign direct investment but they did not give figures to the President because those FDIs are not working. Every FDI has a figure and we have signed an MOU. What has come in and at what stage is it at? To me, that was lacking and it becomes very difficult for us to be able to do that.
The Indigenisation Act was very clear, 51/49. I cry every day, why did we really remove that one? No-one argued with it. Even the people investing in this country had agreed that they would stay. The mining houses you see today were supposed to give 10% to the local community, 10% to the workers and 31% would go to sovereign wealth but now we cannot do it. Now, they are telling you that law is not there but the likes of Biti can tell us. Does the law work in retrospect because the deal was signed? Today ZIMPLATS has not given 10% to its people and Mimosa and Unki, I do not know.
To me, what was the point of the law? We must be able to come back to that law because that is the only law that guarantees us. While the Constitution is very clear in terms of Section 13 (4) that local communities must benefit, it is up to the company to do that but it is not law. Indigenisation Act was law and that has got to come back. It was important that in the SONA, that was the critical point after our debates and we all agreed on that. So, why is it that the things we talk about at pre-Budget are not factored in there? The people will continue to suffer for as long as they do not control their resources.
Agriculture is a painful one. One white man told me that you think it is easy to farm. We were excited when we took over farms and these were white farmers who were well-funded but while they were well-funded, it was still difficult. This land reform which happened, actually most of them did celebrate –
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Your time is up Hon. Mliswa.
HON. MADZIMURE: I move that the Hon. Member’s time be extended by ten minutes.
HON. TEKESHE: I second.
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Your time is extended by five minutes Hon. Mliswa.
Motion put and agreed to.
HON. T. MLISWA: We go to agriculture. Hon. Togarepi indeed praised the maize but agriculture means nothing when the producer price is poor. The wheat that we are talking about, they are paying the farmers now and this was money that they were supposed to get during the 2022 season. No wonder why there is no maize. We do not see a lot of maize because people were relying on their wheat money and the wheat money is coming now; late disbursement and poor pricing. How can you give a wheat farmer now when he wants to use that money to buy fertiliser for the 2023 agriculture season? You are giving them now as you saw in February, zvakamboitika kupi?
So now what are we doing that we have a shortage of maize? Whether it is a set up or strategy or cartel but they are going to import more maize, especially going towards elections they pay more for importing. Let us talk about the maize price in this country alone that the farmers got. It was US$90 or RTS$100 000 or if you look at it, it is $140/150 000 but they are importing at US$320/340. Honestly, where have you ever seen a successful agriculture agenda when farmers are paid this much? For you to continue with agriculture and you are a farmer, the cost of inputs must be replaced through production. That is it, and if that does not happen, this is no wonder why there is so much downsizing in the country. It is not because people cannot farm but there are no resources. You can downsize but for as long as you are not given resources, the subsidy, where is the subsidy? There is no agriculture which can triumph without subsidy. Look at Zambia and Malawi. You are buying $13 for a bag of fertiliser and the Government pays the difference. It makes sense. You now have a situation where in terms of agriculture, the pricing model where there is no inflation does not make sense. How many times have we said let us dollarise but the economy is dollarised quietly and they cannot admit because once they admit, they will say oh Hon. Biti was correct and that hits them hard. We are all dollarised right now and that is where we are going.
How can you go and borrow inputs in ZWL but your loan is in USD? Varimi ngatibetseranei apa. We were given our inputs in ZWD but the loan is now USD. How do you pay it back? How do you pay back a loan ZWD which has now been converted to USD? To me, the farmer is poor. There was supposed to be an intervention and the SONA was supposed to be very clear to say for all the debt the farmers owe you must pay this percentage and the rest Government takes over. No wonder why all the farmers are back in the fields because the pricing yanga yakaderera kwanga kuine inflation vanodzosera chikwereti sei, kasi ndave kunogura munda wavo futi. Ko ivo vamagurira munda futi vachaiwana kupi mari yacho?
So you also have a price matrix which is wrong. You cannot have one borrowing in ZWD and the next thing it is US dollars.
Hon. Speaker, the issue of agriculture, I do not know why cotton was not mentioned. The cotton issue seems to be a hot potato. We have COTTCO, which made more money than the farmers. The farmers from Nembudziya in Gokwe were paid less money and were being paid ininputs yet there was $5.5million which was meant for them.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Your time is up Hon. Mliswa.
HON. T. MLISWA: No, I was watching the clock when I started. I still have five minutes. It was 10 minutes and I still have another five minutes. I would not lie. I said each time I go to hot things, I am told the time is up. The cotton issue is a hot one. Who is protecting who? The $5.5million for cotton went to legislators and I am being told to stop talking. Every time I am told to stop talking. What should I do?
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Standing Order No 93 provides that a Motion moved at the expiry of time limit – a Member may be permitted to speak in excess of 20 minutes for not more than five minutes and not 10 minutes. So, please wind up.
HON. T. MLISWA: So, as I conclude, the cotton issue where $5.5million was given for the farmers ended up in people’s pockets and unfortunately this Parliament is implicated in terms of the Agricultural Committee which did not play its role. So, if you are representing people, why is that money finding itself in the pockets of Members of Parliament, in politicians’ pockets? Then they want to say the matter is political. When you steal you say it is political. Then they are backed up by heavy weights.
Now, let me move to my final point of corruption. The issue of corruption was not hit hard in the SONA yet it has become cancerous. Corruption has become more dangerous than sanctions. In-fact we have lived with sanctions which are now our friends. We now know how to go around them but corruption is constantly being taken to different levels. So, the issue of corruption, the illicit flows which are there, the drugs which you are talking about, the mutoriro and guka is corruption. Who is bringing them in? A society is dying because of that and the issue of drugs was very important at the end of the day. The war veterans themselves must be given what belongs to them. I did not see in the SONA how war veterans will be compensated for going to the struggle. Today they are still impoverished. I also did not see a discussion of our heritage, culture and tradition. If you see Mbuya Nehanda statue, people are not allowed there. So, what was the point of putting her there? People and visitors who want to take pictures are not allowed. How much are we putting in our culture, heritage and tradition? When you put a lot of money there, all these behaviours change. Drugs will be a thing of the past because our tradition matters a lot in the rural areas. Therefore, more money must be put in the rural areas because they are the majority of the people in the country. I did not see that in the SONA. Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for allowing me to speak and at the same time helping those I was going to expose not to be exposed.
HON. CHIKWINYA: You said, ZANU, ZANU then former ZANU.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: No, I was not in. You are disturbing the flow of debate Hon. Chikwinya.
HON. T. MOYO: Hon. Speaker, I want to add my voice to a motion moved by Hon. Togarepi and seconded by …
HON. T. MLISWA: On a point of Order Hon. Speaker. Hon Chikwinya said ZANU, ZANU and former ZANU. May I set the record straight. I am still ZANU-PF but I am outside ZANU-PF.
HON. T. MOYO: Hon. Speaker, I want to thank you for recognising me. May I add my voice to a motion moved by Hon. Togarepi and seconded by Hon Zhou. Firstly, I want to commend His Excellency Dr. Mnangagwa for a well thought out, insightful, informative and highly comprehensive speech. The speech was made in a very spacious building Mr. Speaker Sir. The SONA was made in a spacious building with a lot of comfort such that the Hon. Members ended up sleeping, especially Members on your left.
HON. GONESE: On a point of order Hon. Speaker. I believe that it is important for the Chair to clarify to Hon Members when an issue has arisen. The point is that there is a convention in the Standing Orders but it does not specifically mention the rations. I want clarification as to what has informed the decision whereby you recognised two members from the governing party including one who is in ZANU but outside ZANU and it makes them three. A member from the opposition benches rose to contribute and you did not recognise him. I would like the Speaker to explain to us so that the people of Zimbabwe and not just the Hon. Members are informed as to what is the justification for that. I think I should call it discrimination or unfairness. For me, this is blatantly unfair.
My understanding is that when you are in the House, you have got the governing party and the opposition. The opposition as of now is constituted of two political parties as well as an Independent Member of Parliament. I believe that it is important to have balance in terms of debate. Otherwise if it is one sided, it gives a completely wrong picture of how the legislatures are perceiving a particular issue. I believe that we should alternate – that is what I have observed in other Parliaments, notwithstanding the numbers....
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: You have made your point and we take note. Hon. Togarepi is the mover of the motion and the seconder is not counted. We start counting – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- I am chairing and I have given Hon. Moyo the chance to debate and the next is Hon. Sibanda. I have made that decision already – [HON. MEMBERS: What is the rule?] – The rule is that the mover and seconder are not counted. It is not a matter of us arguing Hon. Gonese.
HON. GONESE: Before I sit down, I would like you to point out the Standing Order which you are placing reliance on with regards to what you have just said.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: I am checking on that one.
In the mean-time, Hon. Moyo can you go ahead?
HON. T. MOYO: Hon. Speaker, I was describing the building where the State of the Nation was made that it is such a majestic building, spacious and with a lot of comfort and equipped with closed circuit television such that because of the ambience in that room, the majority of members to your left ended up sleeping. I am also aware that very few members on your right could have slept.
Hon. Speaker, His Excellency the President spoke about political violence. The President said that political violence must be condemned at whatever costs. Political violence must never be condoned. This reminds me about the speech by the former Prime Minister of Prussia Otto von Bismarck who said “the questions of the day shall not be decided by great speeches and majority decisions but by blood and iron”. Here we are saying that Dr. Mnangagwa has emphasised that we must cultivate a culture of love, harmony and peace. Violence is unAfrican and has no place in a democracy. It must be condemned at whatever level. That was a great speech that was made by His Excellency the President.
He also spoke about ZIMSTAT 1. By ZIMSTAT 1, we are saying that Zimbabwe was able to launch our own Zimbabwean satellite showing our brands and the implications of such a satellite. We are able to detect and also to perceive disasters before they occur in Zimbabwe. We want to commend the Second Republic for a job well done. ZIMSTAT is also very important in as far as ensuring that we are able to locate those minerals that have not been discovered. One such mineral is uranium which is found in my constituency Gokwe-Chireya. There is a lot of uranium. It is in abundance. We are so endowed because of those minerals. I need to commend the Second Republic for signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Zimbabwe and Russian University so that we are able to develop our own nuclear energy as a way of alleviating problems that are affecting Zimbabwe, especially the issue of challenges of electricity.
I now turn to Education 5.0 – this speaks about the issue of innovation and industrialisation which is a prelude to development and modernisation. According to the new curriculum, students must desist from regurgitation facts. Education 5.0 emphasises on creation of jobs – those people who complete their degrees must be job creators rather than job seekers. That was a very important message that came from the President’s speech.
I now want to turn to the issue of mining. The President commended the great work that is being done by artisanal miners. They have contributed immensely towards the number of more than 30 tonnes that Zimbabwe got in 2022. My message is that whilst I appreciate the importance of mining to economic development, we need to condemn those companies that have a habit of exporting minerals in their raw form, especially platinum, lithium, chrome and so on. That is in line with neo-colonialism. According to Andre Gunder Frank’s theory of metropol satellite relations, when we export those mineral ores, we are under-developing ourselves in line with the under-development theory. I want to thank the Government for passing a Statutory Instrument that criminalises the export of lithium and other mineral products. We want to emphasise the issue of value addition and beneficiation. Let us have processing plants being constructed in Zimbabwe. Let us produce our batteries and sell locally and also export them. This will contribute immensely to sustainable economic development that will contribute to modernisation or modernity.
On the issue of Pfumvudza/Intwasa, whilst I commend Government for a job well done, I would like to condemn the peasant farmers who have got the habit of selling inputs at very low prices. That is a way of –[HON. BITI: Why are you calling them peasant farmers] –
HON. T. MOYO: Why are you talking to me? No, you do not have to ask me enda unonwa mapiritsi, hauna kunwa mapiritsi e HIV, tanga wanwa mapiritsi e HIV, stupid.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): Address the Chair Hon. Moyo, please.
HON. T. MOYO: Mr. Speaker Sir, the issue of inputs that are being abused by very few people who are selling those inputs - yes, that is very bad and also some civil servants, a few civil servants –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – get away, rubbish! You do not have a right to…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Moyo! Hon. Moyo! – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Please withdraw that.
HON. T. MOYO: You are not allowed to challenge me, I have the floor. Hon. Speaker, I have the floor – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Anondirova ndiani?
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: On a point of order! What is he withdrawing?
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: He knows what he has said.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Hon. Speaker, the type of language that I heard from the Hon. Member is not only unparliamentary, it is unruly. For him to call any Hon. Member that he should go and take his tablets is not only defaming but it is also stigmatising if indeed that Member is taking those tablets and for him to then worse of say ‘rubbish’ a minute later, Hon. Speaker, that kind of behaviour cannot be allowed. I believe that this Hon. Member cannot be allowed to continue debating.
HON. T. MOYO: - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: I have given him the floor; it is me who is in the Chair. I have given him instructions to withdraw and he is about to do that – [HON. MEMBERS: inaudible interjections.] –
HON. T. MOYO: May I withdraw the unparliamentary language that I used on Hon. Biti.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, for allowing me to debate the State of the Nation Address. You will realise that I have two gadgets in my hand. One of them is actually showing the 18-page speech that was given by Mr. Mnangagwa on 23rd November 2022. On the other one – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-.
I have had the privilege to be in this House for close to 10 years and it is the first time that I am debating the State of the Nation Address. Circumstances aside but I feel this is a great opportunity for us as a nation to make an assessment of our progress that we make through political leadership. The State of the Nation Address comes against the background that I have laid to say I first came to this august House in 2013 and I am nearing ten years and this is my tenth year of being in the august House. I am a witness to the events that unfolded in 2017 and that ushered in the so called Second Dispensation.
*HON. P. ZHOU: On a point of order. The Hon. Member said Mr. Mnangagwa. Is that his proper title? He is referred to as President Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa. If he does not want to recognise that, then he must not debate his speech. Majaira kuvhiringa zvinhu.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Sibanda, we address the President as President of Zimbabwe and not Mr. Mnangagwa, please.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Mr. Speaker Sir, I will leave that for another day.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: What you need to do is to withdraw that statement and then move on.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: This State of the Nation Address which was given on 23rd November 2022 is actually the final and last before we get to the next…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Ah Hon Sibanda!
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Sorry Mr. Speaker Sir, you wanted me to say something.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Withdraw the word “Mr.” and replace it with “President Mnangagwa”.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: I withdraw what was seen or heard to be unparliamentary. As I indicated the State of the Nation Address on 23rd November 2022 was the last and final by His Excellency in the life of this term. Therefore, when we analyse it and look at it, it is important that on the other end, we compare it with the 2018 manifestos of his political party because he is a leader of that political party. Therefore, when we measure the State of the Nation Address, it is important that we measure it against tangible achievements or failure of achievements from whatever promises that Government had made prior to 2018 elections.
I will refrain from the promises made by ZANU PF in 2018 and possibly deal with the promises made by the incumbent when he was elected President in 2018. Most of them are actually contained in the State of the Nation Address that was given on the 22nd November, 2022.
Hon. Speaker, amongst the issues that appear in the State of Nation Address and for avoidance of doubt, on page 2 - the last paragraph of page number 2, where it states that Parliament was expected to accomplish a legislative agenda in line with the expectations of the electorate; allow me Hon. Speaker, to say that in the life of this Parliament, my experience was different from the life of the previous Parliament that I experienced. It is this period of time that we saw very controversial constitutional amendments, some of which are sub judice in the sense that the issues are still before the courts but when we talk about the legislative agenda Hon. Speaker, we have not been able to go even 50% of what we had on our agenda.
Mr. Speaker Sir, when it comes to the social economic growth that had been promised, what is in this statement of the State of Nation Address and other promises that have been made is quite different from what we are seeing on the ground. Social economic growth that is being reflected and numbers that are given is not the same with the state of livelihood that the people of this country are currently encountering. Instead of social economic growth, we have seen increased poverty and we have seen the increased suffering of public servants in this country.
Hon. Speaker, in his speech, the President also mentioned about the Presidential Input Programme. It is a good programme on the face of it, but Hon. Speaker, honestly if we want to build our agricultural sector, it is important that we move from a welfare kind of programme to an economic beneficial programme where Government will take money from the State coffers and lend to farmers who then are made to pay back at concessional rates, contrary to the current one which is actually appearing to be easily abused for political reasons. I guess across the political divide we have seen and at times we have had Ministers actually being arrested for abuse of inputs that come from this same programme. If we were to assess Hon. Speaker how much has been utilised in this programme, we will realise that the State coffers have lost a lot of money towards unscrupulous dealers who have been abusing the Presidential Input Programme.
Mr. Speaker Sir, then when it comes to mining, contrary to the promises that were made in the State of Nation Address, leakages and smuggling has actually increased in this country between the time when the President was speaking and now. What is most worrying is that the people that are mostly involved in this smuggling of precious minerals from this country are people that are close to his inner circle, including his own children. Hon. Speaker, we cannot talk of corruption and the President cannot really stand up and say I am talking about corruption and that I am going to curb corruption when as I speak currently, there is an ongoing case of corruption in Victoria Falls that involves one of the sons of the President where he intends to forcefully possess a piece of land that has been under the lease of an internationally renowned and operating tourism company.
Hon. Speaker, our fear is that when corruption is coming from the First family and when corruption is coming as if it is impunity, investors will shun investing in this economy. Hon. Speaker, I go on to attend to – [THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: Iyi haisi hama yedu iyi.] -
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Sibanda, what you are debating or raising, are you pretty sure that the son that you are talking about is the son to the President or it is similarity of names? -[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Hon. Speaker, for avoidance of doubt, I am a legal practitioner, a registered one, so I am aware of what I am talking about. I am not speculating and I am sure what I am saying is on record…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: If you are a renowned lawyer like you are saying, why are you now raising issues that are before the courts?
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Which issues before the courts that I have raised?
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: The one that you are talking about.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: No, the one that I am talking about is not before the court. I am talking about a case in which an internationally renowned tourism company is being dispossessed of its land by a son of the President who gave this State of the Nation Address. I am saying there is no investment that can come in a country that has got...
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order, may I guide you. Section 98 stipulates that “no Member must, while speaking to the question, speak against or reflect upon any resolution of the House or an entry into the Journals House except for the purpose of moving that such resolution or entry be rescinded or expunged as provided in Standing Order No. 107, use the name of the President irrelevantly in debates or for the purposes of influencing the House in its deliberations…” – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Hon. Speaker, my sincere apologies that you have been ill-advised by the Clerk...
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: No, no, I have not been ill-advised. Please sit down I am still continuing – ‘…use derogatory, disrespectful, offensive or unbecoming words against the President, Parliament or its Members or the Speaker or the President of the Senate’. So, stand guided by that ruling.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Hon. Speaker, charity begins at home; I have been guided by my brother Hon. Minister Ziyambi to take a different direction. The President, on page number 7, spoke about the promises that his Government had made in terms of schools and school fees that we are going to have free education. For the past three/four years, this country has been advised that we are going to enjoy free education. Even this year, some parents had relaxed and thought that the Government was going to implement the free education policy, but even as we get to the end of the life of this Parliament, Zimbabweans should measure such State of the Nation Addresses and promises that were made in making choices as we go to the election of 2023.
One of the promises that had been made was universal health coverage but as we speak, if you walk into a hospital, for example Binga District Hospital where I come from, it is easier to call for your traditional healer to come and treat you whilst you are admitted at the hospital because the hospital is only offering a bed and nothing else. There was talk about BEAM and I doubt if it still exists in the records of school headmasters. It is no longer there because there is nothing that is happening to BEAM.
So even when we talk about engagement to attract investment which I find on page 11 of the State of the Nation Address, it is clear that investors except for rogue investors, criminals and thugs, feel real investors are walking into this country because the promises that are being made are promises that one can tell that they are not meant for the good of this nation.
As I wind up, I want to state that Gen. Tongogara wherever he is sleeping, Gen. P. V. Sibanda wherever he is seated in his office and all war veterans that fought for this country, I am sure they can now realise that the objective that they fought for is no longer being fulfilled. The people that they went to war with whilst they had agreed that they were going to fight for the majority, currently the resources of this country are being enjoyed by just a few and those few are the ones that are seen surrounding the first person of this nation.
We have failed to pass the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill up to date and the reason is because corruption around mines and minerals is within the clique and the inner cluster of a few ruling class in this country. That is why I say most of the war veterans regret why they went to war because currently the proceeds of independence are accumulating to a few and we have seen how that is being abused. That being the case, war veterans and all citizens of this country have got an opportunity in 2023 to ensure that the objectives, values, ethos of the 1970s liberation struggle are final, have finally come to be seen and are fulfilled by a new and better inclusive government. Thank you Hon. Speaker and thank you to your Clerk for continuing to ill advise you.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 2nd February, 2023.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that we revert to Order of the Day, No. 1.
Motion put and agreed to
COMMITTEE STAGE
JUDICIAL LAWS AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 3, 2022]
First Order read: Resumption of Committee: Judicial Laws Amendment Bill [H. B. 3, 2022].
Question again proposed.
House in Committee.
HON. BITI: On a point of order Hon. Chairperson.
THE CHAIRPERSON: What is your point of order?
HON. BITI: I move that we revert back to Clause 3 which escaped our attention in yesterday.
HON. CHIKWINYA: I second.
HON. BITI: Thank you Sir. Mr. Chairperson, the remarks I make apply to both Clause 3 and 4. I respectively submit that there is an omission, there is a lacuna in both Clause 3 and 4, whereas subsection 3 of 3 and the proviso to subsection 2 makes it clear that the parties concerned must consent to the proceedings being conducted by way of a virtual sitting. We should insert in these provisions and guarantee the right of members of the public including the press of access to those virtual hearings. So I propose that we put a stand-alone provision that will read as follows ‘that rules of court shall ensure that the right of members of public, including the press - of access to the virtual court proceedings so that the constitutional right of having public hearings in trials or appeals is guaranteed’. I submit that that should be a cross cutting addition to every virtual sitting. So a member of the public should have a right to participate in those virtual sittings. Whatever virtual platform that the particular court is using must be accessed by the public.
Speaking as a lawyer, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court are already on a virtual system but it is a very private system, you must have a private email. The staff at the Supreme and Constitutional courts has to come to your laptop and desktop to actually insert software that will allow you to participate in the virtual hearings. So, members of the public are actually excluded by the particular IECM software that they are using. So, I am proposing that they must use, in order for us to comply with the Constitution, every platform must allow access to the proceedings.
The second thing that is also cross cutting and this applies in particular, Hon. Chairperson and Minister of Justice, this applies in particular to criminal hearings whether in the Supreme Court or Constitutional Court application of a criminal matter. The virtual sittings must allow virtual communication and guarantee virtual communication between the lawyer and his client and I propose also between the National Prosecuting Authority or the State agency and its witnesses. Virtual communication must be private. At the present moment; the Magistrate Court has actually hold virtual court sittings for remands. So remand prisoners at Harare Maximum Prison and Harare Remand are actually having virtual sittings, those sittings now if you go to court 6 for instance, there is no private communication between the lawyer and his client. If you go to court 6 now there is a screen and everyone can see all the prisoners who are being remanded on that day.
We need to create a virtual court system and system which allows that private communication which allows and guarantees the constitutional right to communication between the lawyer and his client. The lawyers must ask if his clients have been treated well, were they not assaulted, did they take their tablets. That communication must be there and it is not there at the present moment. So I submit that, that should be incorporated. I thank you very much I think the Hon. Minister will see the wisdom of what I am saying.
HON. GONESE: Thank you very much Hon. Chairperson and I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to the Hon. Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for his indulgence in us for deferring the consideration of the Committee Stage to today from yesterday and secondly for allowing us to revert to Clause 3 of the Bill. Having said that, I think it is also important and I know that he is conferring with Hon. Biti, if I can just wait so that he will also pay attention to what I will be saying. I have got additional points to what was raised by Hon. Biti.
The first point I want to make is an obvious one. I think I am just going to make it to ensure that we are all in the same page. Not just the Hon. Minister but all the Hon. Members in the august House, that is to make reference to the provisions of section 69 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which is the supreme law of the land that is the section which deals with the right to a fair hearing. It makes reference to a public trial and it is not just confined to criminal matters but also even to civil matters. I think that it is only fair that I actually make reference to the actual provision which talks of the right to a fair hearing and says that every accused person accused of an offence has the right to a fair and public trial. I want to emphasise the word public. Even when you go to subsection 3, it actually makes reference that every person has the right of access to the courts or to some other tribunal or forum established by law for the resolution of any dispute. That necessarily means Mr. Chairman, this right is not just extended to the participants in a criminal matter even citizens of Zimbabwe who are not part and parcel of that particular proceeding are also entitled to have access to what would be happening. That is to emphasise the point made by Hon. Biti who has spoken before me that you must then have virtual sittings which then accommodate and enable other people to have access to that particular proceeding. If you leave it open ended the way it is, it will then reduce and I will also speak from the experience of being a practising legal practitioner. You will find that in the Supreme Court and in the Commercial Division of the High Court where you are already having these virtual sittings, they have been reduced to Chamber proceedings. When you are looking at what we call Chamber proceedings Mr. Chairman, it is those proceedings which are held in the office of the judge.
You have got two different processes in terms of applications. You have got the court application and the Chamber application. The Chamber application is for example, when there are urgent matters on interdicts and so on. This is the kind of procedure where you are only having the parties and it is called Chamber because it will be in the Chambers, in other words, in common language, the offices of the judge. When you are talking of court application, you are going to have it and it is supposed to be in open court. So when you are looking at Court C for example, it is a very big court and that is where you have a lot of these and even unopposed applications. That is where you have them at High Court and they are accessible to anyone. You can just walk in and you are able to follow proceedings.
The danger that we have Mr. Chairman is that we are trying to deal and move with technology as the Hon. Minister was saying yesterday, but at the same time we must not violate provisions of the Constitution. We must not violate principles which have been applied over the years in terms of access to justice. Even if it is a civil matter, members of public are entitled – it can be a matter of public interest for most people, it does not matter. The bottom line is that people have got a right to follow those proceedings and I therefore submit that it is important in Clause 4 to have some formulation which enables – like yesterday, we had a zoom platform on the Electoral Amendment Bill and it was accessible to people from all over and even people in the diaspora were able to have access to hear. That is the kind of platform that we need for these virtual proceedings so that people who have interest where there is a criminal trial, or whether civil proceedings, they are in a position to do what they would normally do under the ordinary sittings of the court.
That is the reason why I believe that the Hon. Minister of Justice must look at this closely and appreciate where we are coming from. In making these remarks, I also wish to point out that during the Second Reading of this particular Bill, the Portfolio Committee made its presentation. At the same time, the presentation of the Portfolio Committee was not just informed by what members of the public said, but also by the Law Society of Zimbabwe which represents the legal profession in this country. They also made their written submissions in that direction, which I am now going into.
The other point Mr. Chairman is that when we look at the formulation of Clause 3, it simply talks of the right to be heard. It does not talk about the right to be seen as well, the reason being when you have got public trials, if it is a criminal case, the accused will be in court with the magistrate and all other parties who are interested. At the same time, even in civil proceedings, when it is in open court, it is accessible to members of the public. I submit that the formulation should not just make reference to the right to be heard but also to be seen so that the accused, the plaintiff and the defendant, if it is a civil case; if is a court application, the applicant and the respondent also have those same rights. As a result, I would submit that let us have audio visual equipment to be added as part of the definition when we are looking at virtual sittings so that it is clear.
We do not want to leave anything open to doubt. We do not want to have a situation where the rights of the people of Zimbabwe which are enshrined in the Constitution are then going to be compromised by language, which is not explicit. That is the reason why I am suggesting to the Hon. Minister that we must add audio visual two way equipment. At the same time we also put the formulation proposed by Hon. Biti that there is access to members of the public. That will also apply to Clause 4 which refers to the High Court and other clauses which refer to the other courts which are the Labour Court and the Administrative Court. I will speak in detail regarding the rights of accused persons when we come to remand because we have got a specific clause on that. For now, those are the two issues which I believe the Hon. Minister of Justice should pay close attention to so that we can have appropriate amendments which will ensure that we are not depriving people of their rights.
Before I sit down, I just want to indicate that yes, it is desirable to have some of these virtual court sittings but I submit that this should be the exception and not the rule. We should look at situations where there is a pandemic so that we have access to justice during those periods. Unlike the situation that we had in 2020 where the court proceedings virtually came to standstill, we do not want that scenario but where things are operating normally, where everything has been opened up, I think we must additionally use the traditional system where we have got physical hearings. Having said that, when we have to revert to virtual sittings for whatever reason, let us ensure those two principles are properly captured by an appropriate formulation. I believe that we simply have to add the right to be heard and also to be seen. That cures one of the problems, then the other obviously is to say that this public platform is accessible to whoever wants to follow proceedings and listen. Those would be my submissions Mr. Chairman.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Chairman, it looks like we are now going back to the second reading speech. I listened attentively to Hon. Gonese. He was making reference to Clause 4, Clause 3 and to general issues. We are on Clause 3 and the Hon. Members must specify what they need done on that clause and we proceed. Issues of dealing with general statements, we will sleep here without having done anything. What we need is concrete amendments to say that, on Clause 3 it is wrong in that it has one, two, three and four. My suggestion is this. Then we debate that so that I can say yes or no but these general debates – my submission is, let us give specifics like what Hon. Biti said, to say that can we have something that indicates that rules of the court will allow it to be a public hearing whereby the public can have access; something like that rather than a general discussion.
Where I will turn to disagree with Hon. Gonese is the section that he mentions, he is trying to protect the accused and not members of the public who are at home. By saying that, you are entitled to a free, fair and public trial. It is protecting the accused, not the people who want to listen. The very basis of even a commercial arbitration is to deal with the dispute. The others will benefit but I agree that it has to be, to a certain extent, a public affair but we are not doing it for the purposes of an onlooker. Let us couch it in a manner that while we quote the Constitution, let us put the Constitution into the proper context and we come up with an amendment that will suit what we are saying.
HON. P.D. SIBANDA: I would like to raise a concern on the proviso to Clause 3 (2) and apparently that proviso also applies to Clauses 4, 5 and 8. Now, this proviso provides that there should be consent of the parties for a virtual sitting to occur. My submission is that this proviso does not contemplate a scenario where parties might now agree. One might disagree and unreasonably for that matter. It is my proposal that we should be able to state that where such a situation arises, should the matter revert to an open court, physical sitting or should the judicial officer be given that power to make their discretional ruling to say we should continue or revert to a physical sitting.
HON. BITI: I think Hon. Sibanda raises an interesting point. Clause 3 is talking of the Constitutional Court. Clause 4 is talking of the Supreme Court. By far the overwhelming number and substance hearings in the Constitutional Court and in the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court is a Court of Appeal. The Constitutional Court does not hear evidence, it hears application and most of the applications in the Constitutional Court are actually appeals because it has limited original jurisdiction. Its limited original jurisdiction is limited to certain issues that are spelt out in Section 167 of the Constitution. So for instance, Presidential challenges pursuant to a Presidential Election, the Constitutional Court has original jurisdiction. Section 167 (2) speaks of challenges relating to the failure to comply with constitutional obligations by Parliament or the President, so very limited jurisdiction but all that is on paper.
So, I think in my submission if it is a constitutional application, a Supreme Court appeal and where the other party is being unreasonable because everything is on paper and no evidence is being lost, I think the court should be able to say come on, come on, and let us proceed by virtual. It is different from a trial now in the High Court which tests evidence. In the High Court where it is a criminal trial or a civil trial, if one party says I do not want, I want the old traditional method then that party should be respected, but in the Constitutional and the Supreme Courts, because they are essentially courts of records, you are going to page 85.
I was doing a matter last week which had 2000 pages; surely we should be able to proceed virtually because there is no prejudice. It is basically a technical lawyers’ thing as opposed to the High Court where – do you see my point – [HON. ZIYAMBI: Yeah] – So, we should say for Clauses 3 and 4, in the event that one of the parties objects, the court should have the final say on whether the proceedings will proceed virtually or not. The court now has discretion. We should give the court discretion and the court might say this particular matter, we want the whole; for instance I was doing a case for Chilonga people whose land was dispossessed. I am sure my clients would have objected to the hearing because of the importance of the matter and the Judge will say, surely these people have travelled from Chiredzi. They want to know about their land rights, so let us give discretion to the judicial officer. I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Chair, I move that we report progress and seek leave to sit again.
Motion put and agreed.
House resumed.
Progress reported.
Committee to resume: Thursday, 2nd February, 2023.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Madam Speaker Ma’am, I move that Orders of the Day Numbers 2 to 9 be stood over until Order of the Day Number 10 has been disposed of.
Motion put and agreed to.
COMMITTEE STAGE
INSTITUTE OF LOSS CONTROL AND PRIVATE SECURITY MANAGERS BILL [H. B. 5, 2022]
Tenth Order read: Committee Stage: Institute of Loss Control and Private Security Managers Bill [H. B. 5, 2022].
House in Committee.
On Clause 1:
HON. DR. MURIRE: Madam Speaker, I propose the amendment in response to input from the Portfolio Committee and from the information gathered from the Public Hearing. Accordingly, amendment of the title is proposed as follows:
“Title of the Bill is amended by the deletion of the word ‘Managers’ after Security and substitution with ‘Management’ and in all instances where the title appears in the Bill”.
Amendments to Clause 1 put and agreed to.
Clause 1, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 2:
HON. DR. MURIRE: Thank you Madam Chair. Clause 2 of the Bill is amended
- On page 5 in line 11 by the insertion of the following definition -
“private security” means armed or unarmed security or protection of physical and non-physical assets including human beings, infrastructure, finances, cyber space and other forms of property provided as a service on private basis; and
“security service” means security service provided by security services institutions established in terms of section 207 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe”;
- On page 5, in line 9, by the insertion of “guard” after “security” in the two instances in which the word “security” appears in line 9.
I so move Madam Chair.
HON. BITI: On a point of clarity Madam Chair. He refers to security managers being referred by Section 207 of the Constitution. Section 207 of the Constitution refers to the country’s security forces. This Bill is not talking about the country’s security. It is talking about private security. So I seek clarification why he is making a reference to the military, the police and the CIO. Maybe if I can have somewhere where I can read where he is reading from. Can I have a copy of the Order Paper?
HON. DR. MURIRE: Thank you Madam Chair. I would like to thank the Hon. Member for making that observation but for clarity purposes, here the Bill is trying to explain the difference between private security and national security. That is why we found it necessary to put security services as opposed to private security services because the Constitution talks of national security services. So this is for the purpose of distinction. That is why it is on the definition. Unless if the Hon. Member has got another proposal of how we can define it so that we separate it from private security as envisaged in the Bill. Thank you Madam Chair.
HON. BITI: So I propose that we add the word ‘national’ so that it is national security services.
HON. DR. MURIRE: I have no objection to that.
Amendments to Clause 2 put and agreed to.
Clause 2, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 3:
HON. DR. MURIRE: Thank you Madam Chair. Clause 3 of the Bill is amended on page 5, in line 14, by insertion of ‘professional’ after practice. I so move Madam Chair.
Hon. Biti having rose to debate
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (HON. MAVETERA): Hon. Biti, if the amendment is put, there is no debate.
HON. BITI: No, you were on the amendment, I have no problem with those amendments. You are now on the substantive 3. You put his amendment, I did not object to that. Now you are on Clause 3 as it originally stood. That is all.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Wait till I finish then you can come in.
Amendment to Clause 3 put and agreed to.
Clause 3, as amended, put and agreed to.
HON. BITI: I think Clause 3 is where we should make it clear that this Bill is applying to the operations of private institutions that provide security to private individuals as opposed to national. That is where we need to make it very clear, that this is private security. I will say that, “this Act shall apply to the registration, regulation, operation and practice of private security operators and private chartered loss control operations”. That is how I would put it.
HON. DR. MURIRE: I seem not to agree. This is a private regulation for a specific group of professionals who are offering their management services. It is not like a public regulation that regulates everybody who is in that industry. It is specifically offering on those who are qualified as managers. Just like we have got engineers, the engineers are regulated by the engineers’ regulation or accountants. This is a subsidiary law as opposed to a private regulation.
For example, accountants have got Public Accountancy and Auditors Act that offers the framework to regulate all those who offer auditing and accounting services but the CIS Act focuses on those who are offering a common interest in accounting. This is why we are saying those who are practicing as chartered loss control and private security managers.
HON. BITI: So in his example, he is regulating the manager, let us say Fawcett Security but where is the law that regulates running operators like Fawcett Security and Chitkem?
HON. DR. MURIRE: That is the Private Investigators’ and Security Guards Control Act, Chapter 27: 10, which is also - actually the Minister is proposing amendment to that Act as well. Thank you.
HON. BITI: He knows his stuff, actually I did not know.
On Clause 4:
HON. DR. MURIRE: I move the amendment standing in my name on the Deletion and substitution of Clause 4, that Clause 4 of the Bill is deleted and substituted by the following-
Objects of the Act are to-
(a) set minimum qualifications for the admission of members of the institute;
(b) develop standards, guidelines, best practices and recommend regulations and a code of conduct for application by members;
- influence the development of appropriate and relevant national loss control and private security management educational and professional training curriculum and qualification framework;
- promote—
- the studying and practice of loss control and private security management as a profession;
- the facilitation of sustainable skills relevance by offering mandatory continuing professional development for members;
- compliance to practice standards established and contained in the code of conduct; and
- professional integrity, repress malpractices including corrupt practices, increase and promote public confidence in those persons practicing or teaching the profession;
- raise the character and status of the profession and in so doing, preserve the integrity and quality of the service offered by its members;
- provide disciplinary mechanism for breach of the code of ethics and non-compliance with regulations, practice standards and guidelines.
(2) The Institute shall exercise its functions and recommend regulations necessary to give full effect to the objectives set out in this Act (1).” I so move Madam Chair.
Amendments to Clause 4 put and agreed to.
Clause 4 as amended, put and agreed to.
Amendment to Clause 4 put and agreed to.
Clause 4, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 5:
HON. DR. MURIRE: Madam Chair, Clause 6 of the Bill is amended on page 6 in line 10 by the insertion of sub-clause (2) as follows—
“(2) The institute is a professional body with loss prevention occupations (including cyber security, digital, physical and forensic investigation; debt collection, risk management, loss assessment, loss control and disaster and emergency management) as its constituent elements.” and the current clause shall accordingly be renumbered sub-clause (1). I so move Madam Chair.
Amendment to Clause 5 put and agreed to.
Clause 5, as amended, put and agreed to.
On Clause 8:
HON. DR. MURIRE: Clause 8 of the Bill is amended—
- on page 6 in line 34 by the deletion of “or other relevant discipline”;
- on page 6 in line 36 by the deletion of paragraph (a) and the substitution of the following—
“(a) members nominated for election are competent to implement provisions of the Act and regulations made under it and in so doing complementing the State on its obligation to provide quality loss prevention and security protection service to citizens; and”
- on page 7 in line 19 by the insertion of “and approved by the Minister” after the word “nominated”.
HON. BITI: Thank you Madam Chair. The Bill is seeking to create two bodies. First is the Institute of Chartered Loss Control provided by Clause 6. Then under Clause 8, you have got the Council, so you have got two things, the Council and the Institute. So under Clause 8 …
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (HON. MAVETERA): May you please switch on the microphone.
HON. BITI: Madam Chair, under Clause 6, the Bill provides for the Institute of Chartered Loss Control and Private Managers and then it provides for the functions. Under Clause 8, you have got the Council. Under Clause 8, the clause provides for how members of the Council are elected. It provides for the composition of the Council, which includes the President, the Vice President, the Secretary General and how they are elected.
Under Clause 6, there is no provision of how members of the Institute are elected or appointed. The clause just said, he is hereby establishing authority to be known as the Institute of Chartered Control, which shall be an association of professional loss control and private security managers. A body corporate capable of suing and suing in its name and subject to this act of conforming all the acts bodies, corporate may by law perform. Functions of the institute are to design, formulate, coordinate, et cetera.
The functions of the Institute are different from the functions of the Council that are defined in Section 9. So, is the intention Hon. Member to create different bodies for the Institute and different persons for the Institute with those that are different from the Council or your idea is that the councillors are in fact going to run the Institute, in which case you need to conflate Section 6, 7, 8 and 9.
HON. DR. MURIRE: Thank you Madam Chair. Perhaps with his legal mind, he could put more flesh to it but the idea is the Institute is an institution with members who apply to be members on a voluntary basis. That forms the Institute. Now, the Council that we are talking about is a management body of the Institute. I am sure also in the legal profession, you have got a management body that runs the Law Society of Zimbabwe. The Law Society is the institution but you have got a management body, which we might call a council, a committee, whatever. Perhaps the use of the word council is what you might put in your legal mind to me so that I understand but it is one thing. The institute is the organisation, which has got a council that runs its day to day affairs and makes policy for the institute itself. With that perhaps, you can offer more flesh. Thank you.
HON. BITI: The submission that I would make to him is that there must be a policy body, which is the Council. So, I would suggest that the policy body should be appointed by the Minister, whoever Minister is going to administer this, whether it is Home Affairs or Security. However, your Section 6 must say, the Minister must appoint these people from the following persons and you define them. So in the case of the Law Society, there used to be a Retired Judge, a Practitioner a lawyer, someone from the University of Zimbabwe and so forth. So there will be a professional body. Then your Clause 9 now is the operational body, your Council, the one that deals with the day to day running which can be elected members, just like at the Law Society, we now have a council where lawyers choose whom you want to be President of the Law Society. However, the Minister does not appoint these ones. The Minister only applies those that are unelected. That would be my suggestion Madam Chair.
HON. DR. MURIRE: Thank you Madam Chair. On this one, we just made our thinking in line with other professions. Like CIS, the Minister does not appoint a council for CIS. They elect themselves and the Minister only approves. Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe, the Minister does not appoint, they elect themselves to the Council and the Minister approves. The purpose of the approval for those who are nominated is because these are people who are working in the security field. As such, the Minister’s nod is required. If they nominate themselves to council, then the Minister approves.
HON. BITI: You did not mention Clause 6 …
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (HON. MAVETERA): May you please switch on your microphone.
HON. BITI: Members who are defined in Section 9, Secretary General, President and so forth.
So you simply now need to say, ‘there shall be an institute run by council whose functions are the following:’.
HON. DR. MURIRE: Accepted Madam Chair, perhaps you can put it in the proper legal wording, then it can be captured so that we do not revert to it again.
On Clause 8:
HON. DR. MURIRE: Madam Chair, I move the amendment standing in my name, that Clause 8 of the Bill is amended—
- on page 6, in line 34, by the deletion of “or other relevant discipline”;
- on page 6, in line 36, by the deletion of paragraph (a) and the substitution of the following—
“(a) members nominated for election are competent to implement provisions of the Act and regulations made under it and in so doing, complementing the State on its obligation to provide quality loss prevention and security protection services to citizens; and”
- On page 7, in line 19, by the insertion of “and approved by the Minister” after the word “nominated”. I so move Madam Chairperson.
- Amendment to Clause 8 put and agreed to
Clause 8, as amended, put and agreed to.
Clauses 9 to 12 put and agreed to.
On Clause 7:
HON. DR. MURIRE: Madam Chair, I move the amendment standing in my name that;
AMENDMENT OF CLAUSE 13 AND INSERTION OF NEW PARTS
The Bill is amended on page 9, in line 44 — (a) by the insertion of a sub-clause (3) to Clause 13— “(3) Any person may inspect the register and make copies of any entry therein at all reasonable times upon payment of such fee as may be prescribed.”; and
(b) by the insertion of new Parts IV and V after Clause 13 as
follows -
“PART IV
PRACTICING CERTIFICATES
14. Prohibition against practice without practicing certificate
- Subject to subsections 2 and 3, no person shall practice as a chartered loss control manager or chartered private security manager, whether directly or indirectly, by himself or herself or in partnership or association with any other person, except in accordance with the terms and conditions of a valid practice certificate which authorises him/her to practice as a chartered loss control manager or chartered private security manager as the case may be.
- Subsection (1) shall not apply to anything done by a registered person which he or she could lawfully do as an unregistered person in terms of section 26.
- Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 8 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or both such fine and imprisonment.
- Conviction for any offences under subsection 3 shall not be a bar to a further prosecution or conviction if the offence continues.
15. Application for practicing certificate
A person who wishes to obtain a practicing certificate shall apply to the council in the form and manner prescribed, and shall submit with his or her application such fee, certificates, documents and information as may be prescribed.
16. Issue and refusal of practicing certificate
- On receipt of an application for practicing certificate in terms of section 15, the council shall issue a practicing certificate to the applicant authorising him or her to practice as a chartered loss control manager or chartered private security manager if the council is satisfied that the applicant is registered as a chartered loss control manager or chartered private security manager, as the case may be.
- Where an applicant who already holds a practicing certificate authorising him or her to practice as a chartered loss control manager has applied for a practice certificate authorising him or her to practice as a chartered security manager, the council shall require him or her to surrender his or her existing practice certificate before issuing him or her with a new practice certificate.
PART V
LICENSING REQUIREMENT
17. Licensing for provision of private investigation and security guard services
(1) A registered chartered private security manager shall not, whether by himself or herself or in partnership with other or as an association, engage in the practice of/or offering private investigation or security guard services unless he or she respectively—
- obtains a private investigators license issued by the controller of private investigators and security guards in terms of the Private Investigators and Security Guards Control Act [Chapter 27:10] and regulation made under it;
- obtains a security guard license issued by the controller of private investigators and security guards in terms of the Private Investigators and Security Guards Control Act [Chapter 27:10] and regulation made under it.”; and the subsequent clauses are accordingly renumbered. Thank you Madam Chair.
HON. BITI: Thank you Madam Chair. We have liaised with Counsel to Parliament and the drafters. So what we have agreed is that the way that Clauses 6, 7, 8 and 9 are currently formulated - the Bill gives the impression that it is creating two separate bodies, that is, a council and an institute.
The institute’s functions are defined under Clause 7, with the council’s functions defined under Clause 9 but it is clear from the Hon. Member that he seeks to create an institute which is run by a council. So there are no two separate organs. There is no separate institution and there is no separate council. There is just one institute run by a council. The best way of reconciling the contradiction is to simply marry Clause 7 and Clause 9. The functions of the council are married with the functions of the institute. We are marrying Clause 7 and Clause 9 and everything else remains the same. You now have an institute run by a council whose functions are in some totality of Clause 7 and Clause 9. That is what we have agreed. Thank you.
Amendment to Clause 6 put and agreed to.
Clause 6, as amended, put and agreed to.
Clauses 14 to 19 put and agreed to.
On Clause 8:
DELETION AND SUBSTITUTION OF PART VI
HON. DR. MURIRE: Thank you Madam Chair. The Bill is amended on pages 12 and 13, by the deletion of Part VI and the substitution as follows—
“PART VIII
GENERAL PROVISIONS
24. Use of certain designations
- A registered chartered loss control manager shall be entitled to the use of the designation “chartered loss control manager” or in abbreviation as CpLM, which is an indication one is a chartered professional loss control manager.
- A registered chartered security manager shall be entitled to use the designation “chartered security manager” or in abbreviation as CpSM which is an indication one is a chartered professional private security manager.
25. Offences by unregistered persons
(1) Subject to section twenty-six, no person other than a registered chartered loss control manager shall—
- practice as a registered chartered loss control manager; or
- hold himself or herself out to be a registered chartered loss control manager; or
- use the designation or initials referred to in section 24 (1) or any other names, title, designation or letters indicating that he or she is a registered chartered loss control manager, whether by advertisement or description or in any document.
(2) Subject to section 26, no person other than a registered chartered security manager shall—
- practice as a registered chartered security manager; or
- hold himself or herself out to be a chartered security manager; or
- use the designation or initials referred to in section 24 (2) or any other names, title, designation or letters indicating that he or she is a registered chartered security manager, whether by advertisement or description or in any document.
- Any person who contravenes subsection (1) or (2) shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 8 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or both fine and such imprisonment.
- Conviction for any offence under subsection (3) shall not be a bar to a further prosecution or conviction if the offence continues.
26. Exemptions
(1) Section 25 shall not prevent a person who—
- employed exclusively at a salary and does not carry on the business on his or her own account, from describing himself or herself as a loss control manager or private security manager in relation to the undertaking in which he or she is employed; or
- without receiving any fee or reward, prepares or reports on the security or loss control systems of a club, society, institute or other association not established for profit, from describing himself or herself as a private security manager or loss control manager in relation to the preparation of/or reporting on such systems.
(2) Any person in bona fide employment of—
- a registered loss control management company; or
- a company or partnership referred to in subsection (5) shall not be regarded as practicing as a chartered loss control manager or as holding himself or herself out to be a registered chartered loss control manager for the purpose of section 25 in respect of anything done in the course of such employment while under the direction or control of registered chartered loss control manager.
(3) Any person in bona fide employment of— (a) a registered security management company; or
(b) a company or partnership referred to in subsection (5) shall not be regarded as practicing as a chartered private security manager or as holding himself or herself out to be a registered chartered private security manager for the purpose of section 25 in respect of anything done in the course of such employment while under the direction or control of registered chartered private security manager.
- Section 25 shall not apply to any person in the full-time employment of the State, a statutory body, or local authority in respect of anything whose directors or the course of such employment.
5. Notwithstanding section 24, a company or partnership whose directors or partners, as the case may be—
- are registered chartered loss control managers or registered chartered private security managers; and
- hold practicing certificates; and
- directly control and manage the provision of loss control or private security management services offered by the company or partnership; may practice as chartered loss control or chartered private security managers.
27. Reciprocity:
- Where any country, specified by the Government by notice in the Gazette, prevents citizens and residents of Zimbabwe from becoming members of any institution similar to the institute or subjects them to unfair discrimination in that country, no subject of any such country shall be entitled to become a member of the institute or practice the profession of loss control and private security management in Zimbabwe under the name of the institute.
- Subject to the provisions of subsection (1), the council may prescribe the conditions, if any, subject to which foreign qualifications relating to loss control and private management shall be recognised by the institute for the purposes of entry in the Register.
28. Regulations:
- Subject to this section, the Minister, in consultation with or upon recommendation of the council, may make regulations providing for all matters which by this Act are required or are permitted to be prescribed or which, in his or her opinion, are necessary or convenient to be prescribed in order to carry out or give effect to this Act.
- Regulations made in terms of this section may provide for—
a) The standard and conduct of qualifying examinations under these regulations;
b) the qualifications for the entry of the name of any person in the Register as a member of the institute;
c) the conditions under which any examination or training may be treated as equivalent to the examination and training prescribed for members of the institute;
d) the conditions under which any foreign qualification may be recognised;
e) the manner in which and the conditions subject to which applications for entry in the Register may be made;
f) the fees payable for membership of the institute and the annual fees payable by associates and fellows of the institute in respect of their certificates;
g) loss control security management general principles;
h) the establishment and functions of Council Committee;
i) the particulars to be entered in the Register;
j) the internship training, the fixation of limits within which trainees may be charged and the cancellation and termination of internship engagement for misconduct or for any other sufficient cause;
k) the regulation and maintenance of the status and standard of professional qualifications of members of the institute;
l) the maintenance of a library and publication of books and periodicals on loss control and management;
m) the management of the property of the council and the maintenance and audit of its accounts;
n) the summoning and holding of meetings of General Meeting, the times and places of such meetings, the conduct of business thereat and the number of members necessary to form a quorum;
o) the powers, duties and functions of the President and the Vice-President of the Council;
p) the terms of office, and the powers, duties and functions of the Secretariat;
q) the establishment of a loss control managers Quality Review Board;
r) conditions for cancellation, suspension and restoration of registration;
s) conditions under which practicing certificates shall be issued or withdrawn;
t) disciplinary regulations and appeal procedures;
u) any other matter which is required to be or may be prescribed under these regulations.
3 Regulations made in terms of this Act may impose a fine not exceeding level 8 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such fine and such imprisonment.” Those are the amendments proposed Madam Chair.
Amendments to Clause 8 put and agreed to.
Clause 8, as amended, put and agreed to.
House resumed.
Bill reported with amendments.
Bill referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee.
On the motion of HON. TEKESHE, seconded by HON. MUTSEYAMI, the House adjourned at Nine Minutes to Seven o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 1st February, 2023
The Senate met at Half–past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE
NOMINATION TO THEMATIC COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: I have to inform the Senate that Hon. Sen. Ndiweni has been nominated to serve on the Thematic Committees on Gender and Development and Peace and Security.
COLLECTION OF 2023 CALENDARS AND DIARIES
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: I also have to inform the Senate that the 2023 calendars and diaries are ready for collection at the Public Relations Office at Parks House, Third Floor, North Wing.
SECOND READING
PRIVATE VOLUNTARY ORGANISATION AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 10A, 2021]
First Order read: Second Reading: Private Voluntary Organisation Amendment Bill [H.B. 10A, 2021].
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. President Sir. I rise to deliver my Second Reading Speech on the Private Voluntary Organisation Amendment Bill. The Bill before you today is very necessary measure to improve the administration, accountability and transparency of our charities in our country. The legal word in our country is Private Voluntary Organisations (PVOs). Under our law, every charity that uses money collected from the public or donated from a foreign government or foreign agents is required to be registered as a PVO in terms of the Private Voluntary Organisation Act, which the Bill before you seeks to amend.
Let me say from the onset that our country benefits very much from the work of those PVOs which operate lawfully within our borders. PVOs provide support for communities in a wide range of areas, where the national or Local Government, for want of resources or expertise has been deficient for any reason. I am speaking of support and assistance in the form of programmes, projects, services, goods and money in such sectors as health and education provision, assistance to widows and orphans, the relief of poverty and hunger and the empowerment of women, youth and disabled.
We, as Government, are very grateful for the help given by the PVOs. The best PVOs have access to resources, experience and expertise, surely needed by the people they benefit. Therefore, from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of Government, I would like to applaud these PVOs for the great work they are doing. Accordingly, this Bill does not speak to those law abiding PVOs I have just mentioned but to the few who may have been tempted to use the guise of charity to carry out undesirable, harmful and criminal activities.
For instance, we received communication from the Financial Action Taskforce, which is the world’s policeman against money laundering that some charitable trusts are being misused as a means for channeling funds to fund terrorism and other criminal activities or to launder the proceeds of criminal activities by, for instance, buying out properties in Zimbabwe and other countries.
Mr. President Sir, we are also, as the Government, aware that some so called charities act in a politically partisan manner by directing money to favoured political parties or candidates at the expense of other political parties or candidates. Partisan assistance using foreign money or money collected from the public under the guise of charity must never be allowed to influence the outcome of national or local elections. In many developed countries, this kind of behaviour is understood to be harmful to the very idea of charity. In the United States for example, you cannot register any organisation, a non-profit organisation for tax purposes if that organisation campaigns or canvasses for any political candidate or party.
It is in this context that this Bill seeks to clean up the space within which PVOs may operate. For some time now, the Government has noticed that some so-called charities have completely by-passed the Private Voluntary Organisation Act by forming trusts sanctioned by the Registrar of Deeds, Companies and Intellectual Property. This is a device that is specifically permitted by the Act. Originally, the Government did not want to discourage families or individuals from forming family or private trusts to benefit family members or members of the public using their own resources. It is still not our intention to impose registration on these kinds of private trusts.
However, if it appears that any trust is using for charity purposes, foreign money, not generated by their own activities or investments or using money collected from members of the public; from the public at large, then they must be required somehow to register as a PVO under the Private Voluntary Organisations Act. We want such trusts to be accountable in the eyes of the public on the sources of their funds and the use to which they are put.
Mr. President Sir, it was realised that the procedures for registration under the Act need to be streamlined and expedited. This is why some of these charities have chosen the route of forming trusts, sanctioned by the Registrar of Deeds, Companies and Intellectual Property. We cannot run the risk of charities of a public character being used as a cover for theft, embezzlement, tax evasion, money laundering or partisan political activities.
I will not at this stage undertake a clause by clause analysis of the Bill. The Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill admirably suits that purpose and I encourage Hon. Senators to read it carefully. With these words, I urge Hon. Senators to support this Bill, which is intended to promote a better, safer and more conducive environment for the operation of PVOs in our country. I move therefore, that the Bill be read a second time.
*HON. SEN. KOMICHI: Thank you Mr. President for affording me this opportunity to add my voice to this debate. I would like to thank the Minister of Justice for bringing the PVO Bill to this august House. Hon. Minister, you concur that these organisations play a critical role of welfare issues in Zimbabwe. These organisations play a role which is not covered by Government in rural areas, in different areas, in education, health, public awareness, in different projects, at times giving food aid. There is a big gap in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is a country that does not have a strong economy which can cater for every Zimbabwean. So these different NGOs are covering that gap. So the job that they do is quite big and I am glad that you appreciate and we also appreciate that. These services that are offered by NGOs are found the world-over so that things go well in those countries. For example, in Zimbabwe, they have been playing a big role in health, family planning, HIV and other areas. We need to enact conducive laws. When you enact a law and there is public outcry, it means that law is not good. When a husband enacts a law and the recipients of that law are not happy, whether they are children or the mother, that law is not good. Zimbabweans are panicking in different communities, especially those who work with the laws that you are enacting Hon. Minister. This law is quite obscene, like saying that someone should go without wearing any clothes. This law takes away the freedom of people who are working. The previous laws were quite good enough. They were protecting the issues that we were highlighting. We have never seen an organisation which threatens the Government in Zimbabwe. That has never happened. If there is anything that is feared from such organisations, please relax because no organisation has such capacity. You are just misdirecting efforts to organisations that are not a threat. So there is no threat in these NGOs.
The law should please the people and people should be happy when laws are enacted. In this case, the PVO Amendment Bill is not a good law. It infringes upon the rights of the people. It is as if this law is meant for opposition political parties as if the Government of Zimbabwe does not want opposition. It seeks to suppress opposition politics in the country. It seeks to silence dissenting and opposing voices using the law because Parliament will approve. It will say yes, yes but consequently this is going to suppress opposition politics and the democratic process. In a democracy, there should be different voices. People should air their views. They should converge, discuss and plan their things. In the 42 years that Zimbabwe has been led by you, I have not seen an organisation which is a threat to the Government.
I do not support this law because it is retrogressive. It takes us back to what we were fighting for as opposition. We have been fighting for democratic space in Zimbabwe. We had gone strides in attaining democracy and we were being emulated by other countries that there is democracy in Zimbabwe but it is like we are on reverse gear. We are retracing our footsteps back to where you would find people in streets expressing displeasure and concern over such issues. Hon. Minister, I am going to be honest. This law is not good. Please do not enact this law. We can still work with what is there. I thank you Mr. President Sir.
*HON. SEN. SIPANI-HUNGWE: Mr. President, I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to air my views regarding the Private Voluntary Organisation Amendment Bill which is going to affect NGOs. Indeed, such organisations come under the pretext of people wanting to bring welfare. We are not opposed to that, the issue is that the law which was brought by the Hon. Minister is a good law indeed. There is no country where anyone can just get in and do what they want. Everyone knows that this country was colonized by the Westerners or the whites.
The people of Zimbabwe, having seen the subjugation that was done by the imperialists, decided to take up arms to fight for independence. Now that we are independent, we find people coming from other countries as wolves covered in sheep skins. They come and divide the people but the issue is that NGOs should focus on their mandate of charity and welfare issues. You would find most of them interfering in local issues and domestic politics. If we do not take this seriously, we might find ourselves recolonised. There is a mother and father in a home and there are laws in every home which govern visitors and people who come into that home. There is a chair for the father which cannot be occupied by visitors. You find Non-Governmental Organisations coming into the country having been received and entertained so that they perform their charity responsibilities but you find them interfering in political issues. They must leave Zimbabweans to participate in their own politics.
It is important that opposition should be there but as Zimbabweans, we need to participate in the democratic process. You will find NGOs carrying sugar and poison. At the end of the day, this is not good. I stand to support the Bill which is good for the people of Zimbabwe who plan their own things. In every home, there are brothers and sisters and they should allow us as siblings to deal with our family matters as a nation. Hon. Minister, I am 100% behind the Bill because as Zimbabweans, we need to support the Bill as the Senate and the august House. You might say Hon. Hungwe, why are you saying that? I went to the rural areas when NGOs were distributing mealie-meal. After giving women the mealie-meal, it was written that you should vote for a particular party. This indeed shows that they were interfering in internal processes.
Hon. Minister, you have brought Bills into this august Senate but this Bill is excellent. As Senators, we are people who are seasoned and mature and we need to support this Bill because it makes our home to be in good standing. I thank you Mr. President Sir.
*HON. SEN. KAMBIZI: Thank you Mr. President, I have a few words to contribute to the Bill …
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Order, order may you please connect? You may proceed.
*HON. SEN. KAMBIZI: I have a few words Mr. President Sir. Firstly, there is a common adage that says, once bitten, twice shy. There is no snake that is not dangerous no matter how small. Thirdly, we cannot say this enemy is a small enemy because an enemy is an enemy. When an enemy comes into your home, then you have to shoot them. Let me say that this Bill is meant to protect our home, no matter how young a child is.
When you hear a disabled person saying I will beat you up, then believe that person. I am saying that these PVOs really help and we appreciate that. Some clearly define their mandate and they do that and this helps our people. There are however, others who come covered in sheep’s skin when they are cunning wolves. Such NGOs are the ones that we are talking about. We do not want such NGOs. We are saying this law is good. We support the law because we want genuine NGOs and people who are interested in the welfare of the people.
The problem Mr. President is that our people sometimes rely on these PVOs because there are sanctions that were slapped upon our nation by the same western countries. This food aid is not coming freely but comes with conditions attached. You are told to take food with conditions.
Let me end Mr. President by saying there is no country without an Opposition Party. Zimbabwe is a democratic country that respects the Constitution, freedom of expression; freedom of association and this is followed. However, we are saying if I fight with my own brother, why should a stranger come and try to divide us as brothers? If you find such a person coming into the family, you will discover that they have an ulterior motive.
As Zimbabweans, we fight and argue but we correct each other and can work together. The Opposition is ours; these are Zimbabweans. We socialise together but when someone from outside the country comes, then you discover that they come to destroy relationships. So this Bill is good for us as Zimbabweans because it allows us to move and work freely as Zimbabwean citizens without any interference. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the PVO Bill which was tabled by the Hon. Minister to this august House.
Mr. President, every home has laws. It was really worrisome when we were seeing people doing what they want. So, this Bill indeed, is a good Bill and we appreciate. This is going to stop people with ulterior motives who just come from wherever they are coming from to interfere in our internal processes. Mr. President, opposition is good and democratic. It is made up of Zimbabweans. The ruling party is made up of Zimbabweans. We are all Zimbabweans whether ruling party or opposition. We need to work together as Zimbabwean nationals and not to be influenced by PVOs who call people and pay them off to follow whatever has been authored by PVOs.
We have seen people fighting and killing each other because of the invisible hand. Mr. President, we need to learn and understand where we want to go because what was happening was not good. So Hon. Minister, what you have done is a good thing. The President usually says that the country is built by its own people. We are the owners of Zimbabwe, we are Zimbabweans and we follow the laws of the land. Those who come to Zimbabwe should also abide by the laws of the land so that there is development and peace in Zimbabwe, not to be influenced by foreigners and people who come with ulterior motives, trying to divide Zimbabweans.
Lastly Mr. President, we appreciate this Bill and I support it. It is important that there be laws that govern the land. I thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity.
*HON. SEN. MABIKA: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity. When the Hon. Minister was tabling the Bill, he stated that the Bill would benefit PVOs that operate lawfully. What I did not hear is that those that operate outside the law will face what prosecution or what measures would be taken against those who operate outside the law.
In order for someone to join a burial society, they must read the terms and conditions and adhere to them. If PVOs want to operate, they should adhere to the law. Those that operate lawfully are the ones that are needed. I also like the fact that or maybe using the Shona adage that says, if you want to see a cow then you should touch the calf. In Zimbabwe, Opposition Parties are allowed; if an NGO wants to be an opposition then they should register as a political party and if they want to do charity work; then they should follow their mandate of being charitable organisations and not come with ulterior motives pretending to be sheep. Otherwise this would not work because they have a different mandate. We appreciate this Bill and my view is that we need to accept the PVO Bill and allow it to pass because it is good for the people of Zimbabwe. It is going to benefit the people of Zimbabwe and it has nothing to do with political parties.
In the rural areas, PVOs are giving money to other people and some people are not benefitting from those monies. So PVOs adhere to the laws of the land. Even the games that are played by our children have laws which govern such games. If you want to operate as a PVO, then it is important to adhere to the law. This Bill should pass and it comes at an opportune time. This is a time where you find NGOs giving people money so that they follow what they want. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. CHIMBUDZI: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to add a few words to the Bill which was brought to this august House this afternoon by the Hon. Minister. I will start by thanking the Hon. Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. Indeed Hon. Minister, you are doing a good job. This Bill comes at an opportune time. It was actually supposed to be a law already. However, we appreciate that the Bill has come to this august House. As Zimbabweans, we are enacting our laws as a nation. Let me say that we have challenges that we see happening. Zimbabwe is being punished in a lot of things.
IMF is told that it should not support Zimbabwe because there is no rule of law. You find NGOs saying the operating environment is not conducive but the Bill is going to regulate the operations of that sector and there will be peace in Zimbabwe. When we talk of democracy, we must not manipulate and twist it. Democracy was brought by the sacrifice and the sweat of our young men and women who went to war to fight for independence.
Women were not allowed to vote. They were not allowed to open bank accounts and they were not allowed to come to Parliament but the liberation struggle brought about independence and democracy which allows the people of Zimbabwe to exercise their different freedoms and the different rights that are enshrined in the Constitution because there is democracy, like what different Hon. Senators have said. Even 150 political parties will be okay because that is democracy. This is what young men and women fought for, to attain independence and to attain such freedoms. They fought for us so that we would be able to come and deliberate on issues, meet and enact laws which protect such freedoms. So we need to pass this Bill because it is good for the people of Zimbabwe. I thank you Mr. President.
*HON. SEN. CHIRONGOMA: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity. I stand up to contribute and I will start by appreciating the Hon. Minister who brought this Bill to the august House, the Bill which we believe is good for the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a free nation. A person is allowed to come to Zimbabwe but they must adhere to the rules and laws of the nation. We support the Bill. We are not enemies with the opposition parties but we are relatives and we live in the same communities yet NGOs would want to divide us as a people.
Some Hon. Senators have explained and in the past, you would find that when NGOs were distributing food aid packages, there were political party logos and the flyers which were attached to food donations. We saw this happening in Zimbabwe. We support this Bill fully because it is good and it brought us to this august House to represent the people. They contributed and they said that they do not want people who come with ulterior motives. All they want is to live in a free country. So we support this Bill and I thank you.
HON. SEN. MOHADI: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to add a few words to this Bill which has been presented by the Hon. Minister whom I also want to thank. I think this Bill was brought at the right time of the year, especially 2023 as we shall be going for elections. These PVOs come in a very nice way saying that they are going to assist in Zimbabwe. The Government of Zimbabwe gives them a nod to go ahead. When they are within the country, they have their own hidden agendas which they will be pursuing through. You heard many of the Hon. Senators talking about people being given assistance in the form of food but inside the packages, there are different stories altogether.
Our people are said to be suffering and every month they go to the banks and you find that money is sent in and others are taken from the banks saying that those monies are assisting our people yet they are destroying our country. There are private organisations talking today, you find that there is something that is taking place at the moment whereby farmers who were in the country and those that left this country are now sending their sons and daughters back saying that they want to assist the people. If the Government gives them the green light, they will then start to do what they want. People are being given different things in the form of food or goodies. Some are given stoves so that they do not cut down trees and looking at it, these things are not very useful but you will find that people will be so happy to receive the goodies but the companies will be having a hidden agenda.
Where are these private organizations taking the country to? We must be very worried and we must support this Bill so that we stop all what is happening because that is another form of campaigning. Mr. President, with these few words, I support this Bill.
HON. SEN. DR. MAVETERA: Thank you Mr. President Sir for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to this Bill that has been brought to this august Senate by the Hon. Minister. Before I add my voice to this important Bill, I think it would be pertinent for me to just draw ourselves down memory lane. PVOs are a symptom of poverty. All of us here, in 1980 were already born, and the first 10 years of independence, there were no PVOs. So what brought PVOs?
Mr. President, the deteriorating socio-economic crisis of the country, the hallmark of calling for these PVOs comes in. Unfortunately, when you are hungry and are a beggar, you do not take due diligence and they take advantage and bring in all their other agendas. This is actually what we should be taking about. So, with all due respect, PVOs are not linked to opposition. I think we need to be clear as a nation so that we do not fight amongst ourselves. This is how they are achieving their goals because the ruling party is saying PVOs are opposition and opposition has not gotten a cent, so we are fighting. This is exactly the whole point of PVOs. For those who care to listen, there is no way where there are non-governmental organisations where there is no social upheaval. What is the reason? It is because we are inviting these foreign organisations through our mismanagement of the economy topinza muvengi mumba. PVOs, I have to be very honest, I have worked for an NGO, I was actually a country director for an NGO and I know all the shenanigans that happen in NGOs. At one time they labeled me an operative of the State because I knew as a citizen of Zimbabwe, there are certain things that I uphold. I am a Zimbabwean citizen first and everything else follows. So all NGOs have an agenda - they are not Father Christmas. We must be very careful as Government and as a people that we are opening these doors by doing corruption.
It is a symptom of how we govern ourselves. Now at the end of the day, we will end up with a case like Somalia, fighting. I was listening to the debates; with all due respect, some are trying to say a PVO is synonymous with opposition, that is completely out. The problem is that we need to sort our country, we need to correct the economy. You will never have PVOs coming in this country.
We are selling our country for cooking oil and beans, this is what they bring. There is no country that develops with PVOs; you need to know that, it is not a secret neither is it political.
Let me now look at what is happening in the world for those who are politically conscious. Every country whose government has either social upheaval or civil disobedience, the prelude to that is an influx of PVOs. That is a fact, you cannot deny it, it may not be popular but I am a member of the opposition, I am very angry to be associated with PVOs because we have not benefited anything from these PVOs’ – [HON. SENATORS: Hear, hear.] – So the truth is, I support this Bill but we need to craft it in a manner that we do not fall into the pitfalls of these organisations and say there is no rule of law and this tichitadza kufunga zvakakana.
This Bill is very important; I will tell you - for those who want to listen, all the directors, all the senior workers of these PVOs are actually operatives of intelligence of foreign Government. That is a fact, you cannot deny it. It is a fact that I am a Zimbabwean, I was born a Zimbabwean and I am going to die in Zimbabwe. I have been requested to work outside the country but I refused, saying I want to work for my country. I cannot have those people come and destabilize the country for the sake of their personal agendas.
Look at what is happening in Ukraine - that is a result of PVOs, nothing more. They will come but we are saying they do not come and force us when we actually invite them. So how should we close those gaps so that we do not invite them? Let us solve our problems. Honestly, we cannot have social unrest because we allowed some organisation to bring beans, cooking oil and mapfunde.
Now we have had forty years of independence. For those who care, how many PVOs do we have? They said poverty alleviation and all that. Are you now out of poverty? You will never get out of poverty but you will sink into poverty when you invite PVOs. I am not saying they are bad, but as a country we need to make sure we screen whoever and they should literally stay in the lane of their mandate.
Hon. Minister, I know sometimes we get emotional and reason emotionally, but let us not draft an emotional Act.
This has nothing to do with your campaign in July this year. I am telling you all Hon. Members this is about Zimbabwe. Yes, we may want to campaign but all of us, through you Mr. President, might not be here because we could lose during the elections. So it is not about campaigning, it is about Zimbabwe. I want to stay in a good Zimbabwe.
So definitely what I am saying Mr. President is a fact. PVOs are not good for the country, but because you have failed to manage your affairs munopedzisira makumba nevaroyi and that is exactly what you are doing and you blame them. They call you, you open the door and allow them to come in and do what they want and you say why they are doing that. Close the door. How do we close it? By empowering our people and making sure that there is no poverty. Mark my word, anyone who gives a proposition that the country will be better with PVOs, unfortunately I do not want to sound insulting but we may need to have a psychiatric examination of that person because I have witnessed this. For all the years I have been here, I have never seen any improvement. I am telling you I am talking from experience. I worked for a PVO and most of the things I said no this is Zimbabwe. Most of these so called technocrats from foreign countries – they bring in an NGO, they say they give you a technical partner. Those technical partners are intelligence agencies. That is a fact. You do not need to argue. If you want to argue you can argue. You can say Hon. Sen. Mavetera has gone berserk, but that is a fact.
Personally I have no problem with this Bill because we are Zimbabwean and Zimbabwe is the only country I will be in and I need to be protected. I do not need to see people coming in and causing problems in our country. When they go to their country, tinosara tichirovana. Right now you are all symptomatic of the effects of PVOs. Right now my colleague there says that PVOs are opposition but that does not make sense. We are not enemies we are together. That is reality, that is what we are doing and if you do not see it and continue along that narrative, then we are not going to go anywhere as a people.
No one owns these PVOs. It is CIA and M15 that you are seeing. You do not own them. They will give you money. Of course we had impoverished our people such that when a Zimbabwean is made a director of a PVO and is given those big cars, he forgets that he is Zimbabwean first. Arikutengwa nenzara. So let us make sure that our children, our people are not bought by poverty and end up akutotengesa nyika. That is a fact Mr. President.
I do not think there is anything bad about this Bill but there are certain sections which actually were influenced by these PVOs resulting in us hating each other and inviting people to say in Zimbabwe there are human rights abuses or violations. All that is nonsense. That is a security issue. So we need to be aware and be on the forefront to vaccinate ourselves as a nation from these PVOs and the thing is let us stop corruption. Let us share the little we have as a nation. We have got super rich people here and very poor people. Let us share. I have never heard of anyone who was buried with their Ferrari. We leave all our possessions when we die. Why do you not share and make other people happy and you continue to live.
This is the symptom and cure. The PVO Bill, Minister, if you had brought your statistics from 1980 to 1985 there were no NGOs in Zimbabwe. In 1985 one or two were started because we were fighting a war. In 1990, when you started to think about land, they started to come in and this is the problem. It is an economic and political issue and we are actually giving them the leeway. Right now we have removed our eyes from the ball, the ruling party is saying PVO is opposition and opposition is saying this and that. You have already been confused.
To me Mr. President, this Bill is actually an emotional issue. We are victims of NGOs. I want fellow Zimbabweans to put their differences aside and think like Zimbabweans and to stop being exploited by these NGOs. Yes, they will give you oil like I said. Look at the things which they give you. If you are given beans next year what will they give you so that they continue to loiter around within your environment. You will never remove them. Ingozi yamapinza mumba and we need to retrace our footsteps. Let us put Zimbabwe first, think like Zimbabweans, feel for each other and develop our country so that we do not have any poverty which will actually make us prone to this.
With those few words Mr. President Sir, allow me to thank the Minister for bringing this Bill. This Bill to me is actually one of the most important Bills ever brought in this august House because it has something to do with security of the nation and which is actually our well-being as a people. I thank you Mr. President Sir.
+HON. SEN. DUBE: Thank you Mr. President. I would like to second this Bill. This is a very important Bill and I agree with this Bill. I come from Matabeleland North. We are bordering Zambia and Mozambique. These PVOs are good but when they come into the country, they must carry out what they agreed with the Government that they will carry out. When they go out into the communities, they must not start spreading other things.
We are not saying that PVOs are for the opposition. If there is hunger in the home, the father is also allowed to go and borrow or to ask from the neighbour but the mother cannot go about saying that there is hunger, my husband is useless and so forth but it is not correct for them then to go about and say your husband is not okay or your father is not okay, so I have brought food for you. If they go to other places, to the community, they start preaching another gospel which is not correct.
We are saying the PVOs are good but they must stick to their mandate. They should not cause problems within the community where people start fighting amongst themselves and writing on the board about other people. If you are a councillor or maybe a Member of Parliament, then they raise the name and say we do not want this Member of Parliament and yet the Member of Parliament or the councillor was elected by the members of the community. We are not saying they come here because they were sent by other people to come and do what they do. Zimbabwe is going to be built by its own people. If these PVOs want to go into politics, they should go into politics and let the people vote for them but they should not disturb the Government that allowed them to operate.
We are not saying that they are from the opposition. We have over 50 opposition parties here. Yes, we agree that they assist; they give us porridge for the children or 2kgs of sugar, that is correct. I agree with this Bill and it has come at an opportune time because people are fighting over these PVOs in the communities. Some of the PVOs, not all of them, when they come may be to the DDC, they sign agreements with them but when they get into the communities, they do not do what they are supposed to be doing.
Politicians should also carry out their mandate but not from the PVOs. They must do what they are mandated to do. I come from a place where there are so many PVOs. From the way they operate, you can tell that they do not respect the laws of the country. Even at home, people should follow the laws that are put by the father of the home. They should not come and say get out of the home because there is no food. I thank you Mr. President.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. President. I want to thank the Hon. Senators for the robust debate. I just have a few comments; the first being Hon. Sen. Komichi who had reservations about the Bill, indicating that it will take away freedoms from our people. On the contrary Mr. President; those NGOs that are law abiding, there is nothing to fear but we were getting into a scenario where somebody would just wake up to register a trust, goes on to get public funds and start operating, no regulations whatsoever. That was tantamount to stealing money from people. Any public funds must have some form of regulations. Even donor funds, we need to have some uniformity with other countries as to what you are doing.
All we are saying is, if you come and you say you are going to assist with water sanitation, you do not have business getting into political lobbying. If you are saying you are going to provide beans, if I may borrow the example, why do you then go and influence people? You came and you said there is food insufficiency in the country, so stick to what you said you came for. That is all what we are saying. What we are saying is, we want to put mechanisms to protect our society from unscrupulous people. There are some who may actually decide to do money laundering or finance terrorism through these NGOs. So, we are saying we want to follow the money where it is going and there is nothing to be alarmed about. When the Government is following the money that you said you are bringing in US$1 million for borehole drilling and we find out that you have drilled two boreholes, we would say where is the other money, and that also raises an alarm.
We believe that this is a progressive piece of legislation and I want to thank the Hon. Members, Hon. Sen Tongogara, Hon. Sen. Mabika, Hon. Sen. Chimbudzi, Hon. Sen. Chirongoma, Hon. Sen. Dube and Hon. Sen. Mavetera for a robust debate and I agree that under normal circumstances, as a nation, we must be able to look after ourselves. That is a fact but as we correct the deficiencies that happened, that is the reason why I said we need to thank those law abiding PVOs for the work that they are doing.
However, you would find that where some of these NGOs go to operate, if Government comes through Social Welfare to give food aid and there is an NGO, you will see people rushing to them because they confuse us, if I may borrow what he said. They confuse us by bringing their agendas. So we are trying to control that. If you are coming, we know the mandate that you have and we want you to stick to that mandate while we correct our issues because we do not need NGOs; if we can have it that way, we do not need them. They create confusion like what Hon. Sen. Mavetera was saying that we end up fighting amongst ourselves and they will be standing there.
In fact they enjoy that fight, it is a very fertile ground – one saying that I heard as if you want to steal without any problem, allow brothers to fight. While they are fighting, you simply take and they will not notice. That is what they do; they allow us to fight so that they can also loot. It happened in other countries but by and large, this is a very good piece of legislation. We can always improve it if we feel that there are areas that are deficient but we believe that it is a progressive piece of legislation that will ensure that we will not fight amongst ourselves if NGOs follow this piece of legislation. With those words, I move that the Bill be now read a second time. I thank you.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read a second time.
Committee Stage: With leave, forthwith.
COMMITTEE STAGE
PRIVATE VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 10A, 2021]
House in Committee.
Clauses 1 to 18 put and agreed to.
(v)HON. SEN. B. MPOFU: Thank you Hon. Chair. I realise that every clause is now being amended. Is it still an amendment Bill or it is now a Bill on its own? If it is a Bill on its own, should it not have gone through the appropriate public consultations rather than coming in here as an amendment?
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Madam Chair, the title of the Bill is Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill. So in reading the clauses, it will indicate that we are amending a certain section of the existing Bill. So it is not a new Bill whereby when you are putting the clauses, you will not indicate that it is amending a certain section. So, the way we are doing it is very proper. I thank you.
Clauses 19 to 35 put and agreed to.
House resumed.
Bill reported without amendments.
Third Reading: With leave, forthwith.
THIRD READING
PRIVATE VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 10A, 2021]
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI) on behalf of THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE, LABOUR AND SOCIAL WELFARE (HON. PROF. MAVIMA): Thank you Mr. President Sir, I move that the Bill be now read the third time. I thank you.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the third time.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. President Sir. I want to thank the Hon. Senators for a good job and say well done.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI), the Senate adjourned at Fourteen minutes past Four o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 31st January, 2023
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. SPEAKER in the Chair)
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order. What is it Hon. Mliswa? Can you state your case clearly so that you are recorded appropriately? What is the issue?
HON. T. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, Hon. Chikwinya was pointing to Hon. Sacco saying that he is wearing Party regalia and I told him it is not. It is a national dress and I am proud of it. Not only that, he must have longs again to accompany it and a tie of a national dress and a white shirt and he would look very nice. I actually commend him for that. In fact, all of us must be wearing that. Well done Hon. Sacco.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you. The issue of the national dress was approved here. It was moved by Hon. Sithembiso Nyoni. So there are no issues.
HON. NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir and good afternoon. I rise on a point of national interest which is premised on the evictions that are currently taking place of compound dwellers or those that are in farm houses whose farms are owned by A2 farmers. Mr. Speaker Sir, the Constitution is very clear in Section 295 and Section 72 that those people will not be taken to any court of law for the purpose of land redistribution. However, Mr. Speaker Sir, I request that the Hon. Minister of Lands comes to this House and makes it very clear in terms of the continued stay of those former farm workers in those farm houses in the compounds as it relates to their continued stay in those places vis-a-vis the Global Agreement that seeks to compensate the former farmers using the USD3.5 billion. My issue is premised on the continued stay of those former farm workers to avoid the flagrant eviction…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Member, what is your prayer?
HON. NDUNA: My prayer Mr. Speaker Sir, is for those former farm workers to continue to be given lease of stay in those former farm workers’ compounds as opposed to being evicted in the manner that they are being evicted currently.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Member, did you check whether the evictions are in terms of a High Court order, because I do not want to waste my time.
HON. NDUNA: Yes Mr. Speaker Sir. They are not in terms of any court of law. They are in terms of the power of the A2 offer letter given to the current farm owners. So I request that the Minister of Lands comes and clarifies that matter.
HON. T. MLISWA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker Sir. I think it is important, even to the Minister of Justice who is here to understand that the Land Reform Programme has got two programmes, the A1 and the A2. The A2 has a map which every farmer is given and if the compound is within the boundary, it is yours and it is for the workers. What has been happening is that most people have been staying in these compounds and are also getting involved in criminal activities. I have three compounds on my farm and they belong to me. They are for my workers not for the people to just get involved in activities which are not for it. Hon. Nduna must understand and he knows better…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order. That is not a point of order. You are now debating. Allow – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Order, can you hear me? Order, allow the Hon. Minister to appear with his Ministerial Statement and then issues will arise at that point and you can argue the case – [HON. T. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, I am sorry. All I am saying…] – Order! I have ruled.
HON. T. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, all I am saying is there are High Court orders. I am trying to help, being a lawyer and I know them. There are High Court orders. Hon. Nduna must give us an example of an eviction which happened without a High Court order…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order! - [HON. T. MLISWA: ...without a High Court Order.] – Order, order! Let us hear the Hon. – [HON. T. MLISWA: I know Hon. Nduna needs votes for next year. So, he is trying to protect some of his voters. He is very intelligent but he cannot use this Parliament for that.] – Order! I shall not allow debate on a statement of national interest.
HON. TOGAREPI: I rise on a point of national interest. These past two weeks, I have been travelling up and down from Masvingo and I have witnessed several accidents. Our Government has done a good job on the Masvingo Road. It is wide and people are travelling well and safely but when you go to bridges, I witnessed about 17 accidents and most of them were happening at the bridge. Our roads are wide but when they get to a bridge they go narrow and accidents are happening. I was thinking Mr. Speaker, what can be done by Government and the Ministry of Transport to deal with the bridges because of those wide roads, people are now speeding so much but when they get to the bridges you see accidents. Several of them these past two weeks and I was saying to myself Government can do something to deal with the narrow bridges, especially on highways so that we can save lives. Thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you Chief Whip. MDC-T, you will have only one person to present because we agreed to four presentations.
HON. CHIKWINYA: My point of interest arises from what has become a national scourge that has emerged, especially involving our youths with regards to drug and alcohol abuse. Recently Hon. Speaker, there was a story of a high school which expelled several students after having found them guilty and in possession of drugs and alcohol and having partaken in the consumption of these drugs and alcohol.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order! Hon. Hwende, stop taking those pictures please.
HON. CHIKWINYA: I want to believe this is a crisis emerging in the majority of our constituencies. I remember the Member of Parliament for Harare West raising this issue with the Minister of Home Affairs. I also did at some particular time. My prayer Mr. Speaker in respect of Government’s initiatives of curbing this issue; may the Minister of Home Affairs address Parliament on the steps that have been taken by Government and perhaps produce statistics if we are seeing any reduction to the same? Also, how we can assist our local communities to ensure that this scourge does not affect this emerging generation. Fingers are also being pointed to law enforcement agents that they are also now beginning to trade in these drugs and therefore we are all exposed Hon. Speaker. Thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Would it not be richer if you raise this issue through a motion so that there is debate on this national scourge.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Mr. Speaker, I will do that.
THE HON. SPEAKER: MDC-T, you will have to choose who will present between Hon. Tekeshe and Hon. Maphosa – [HON. TEKESHE: Inaudible interjection] – You stand up when addressing the Chair.
HON. TEKESHE: As she is the only lady, I will give her the opportunity.
HON. MAPHOSA: Thank you very much Chief Whip for giving me the opportunity. My point of national interest emanates from these big houses that sell chicks to the public, especially the women of our country. Mr. Speaker, there has been a rise of these hatcheries especially Hamara where a whole lot of chickens are dying after people have bought them, maybe days or even on their way home. Being a chicken farmer myself, I bought 400 chicks from Hamara on the 9th and about 150 died before I got home. Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that this chicken rearing is not a new thing. We were brought up by our mothers and fathers who used to do this business and we have never seen such happening. You will remember that when you bought chicks you would get five extra chicks and it was rare for the five extra chicks to die during the space of rearing, which is the six weeks.
I will quote someone who sent this on Twitter, the Queen of baTonga. She says ‘I am very disappointed by the quality of birds you sold to me’. She quoted the Hamara chicks. ‘I bought 100 and 45 died. The 55 are still chicks weighing less than 500 grams after four weeks. They are eating feed like goblins. I am returning the birds to you tomorrow. This is unacceptable practice.’ Mr. Speaker Sir, this is not a laughing matter. My thought went to an old woman in Mangwe where she will go to buy 50 of these chicks and these chicks died before they could do whatever they wanted to do.
So, I implore this House through you Mr. Speaker, that the Minister responsible, I think for Agriculture and the Committee, to dig into this to see what is the cause. I am thinking that the hatcheries or houses themselves have some sort of neglect or they know that they are selling sub-standard chicks to poor citizens who want to live. We must know that most of the people are living through the rearing of chickens and vending. This is my prayer Hon. Speaker. I thank you. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] -
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Hwende, the Chair is the Speaker. I must be heard in silence. Hon. Maphosa, you will have to, in future convince yourself about the integrity of your sources. I am not aware of the queen of baTonga.
HON. MAPHOSA: Mr. Speaker Sir, that was just an example but I have done enough investigations on this. I thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Yes, so quoting such sources may not be convincing. In any case Hon. Maphosa, I think your first port of call is the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe. Refer that matter to the director, Consumer Council to investigate the issue before we proceed to ask the Hon. Minister. - [AN HON. MEMBER: Inaudible Interjection.] -
THE HON. SPEAKER: Pardon, you did not approach the Chair. Unfortunately, you did not approach the Chair. You can do that next week, tomorrow or even on Thursday. Thank you.
MOTION
LEAVE TO SUSPEND PROVISIONS OF STANDING ORDERS NO. 53, 66 (2) AND 68
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Speaker Sir, I seek leave of the House to move that the provisions of Standing Orders Number 53, 66 (2) and 68 regarding the Automatic Adjournment of the House at Five Minutes to Seven o’clock p.m. on sitting days other than on a Friday and at Twenty-Five Minutes past One o’clock p.m. on a Friday and Private Members Motions taking precedence on Wednesdays after Question time and Questions, be suspended with effect from today and for the next series of sittings in respect of Government business. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order Hon. Nduna, I am speaking. Hon. Member, before you object, there is an Hon. Member who is seeking clarification.
(v)HON. GONESE: I just want to seek clarification from the Hon. Minister because he has generally said Government business and I know that Government has a lot of things that may be coming. I was of the opinion that if he has some business with some urgency to it, the Hon. Minister should specify the business. Some of the Standing Orders which he mentioned relate, for example to Private Members business, which takes precedence on Wednesdays after question time. In short, it impinges on the rights of those private members.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you. The clarification sought here Hon. Minister, is the nature of Government business and whether this is going to be indefinite. Is there any time limit for the suspension? That is the question for clarification from Hon. Gonese.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker, we can suspend for this week and if there is still anything that we need to do, we can still seek leave for next week so that we can clear the Bills. If there is anything outstanding then we can always indulge you so that we do not have a timeline that is not specific.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Alright, just one week.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Yes, we can always indulge you and seek leave again if there is still business to be considered.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you very much Hon Minister, With that understanding, Hon. Mushoriwa? It is okay? Thank you very much. There is no objection and it is agreed to.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
SUSPENSION OF PROVISIONS OFSTANDING ORDERS NO. 53, 66 (2) AND 68
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIR (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Speaker Sir, I move that the provisions of Standing Orders, Number 53, 66 (2) and 68 regarding the Automatic Adjournment of the House at Five Minutes to Seven o’clock p.m. on sitting days other than a Friday and at Twenty-Five Minutes past One o’clock p.m. on a Friday and Private Members Motions taking precedence on Wednesdays after Question time and Questions, be suspended with effect from today and for the next series of sittings in respect of Government business. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. - [AN HON. MEMBER: Inaudible interjection.] -
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Members, why do you not lower your voices and whisper to your colleagues and respect the House? I have seen one Hon. Member who I shall not describe or name laughing to such an extent that she had to recline backwards. That is not being honourable. Hon. Members speak and laugh in style - [Laughter.] -
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
LEAVE TO MOVE FOR SUSPENSION OF PROVISIONS OF STANDING ORDER NO. 142
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I rise to seek leave of the House to move that the provisions of Standing Order Number 142 regarding the introduction of Bills be suspended in respect of the Police Amendment Bill.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
SUSPENSION OF PROVISIONS OF STANDING ORDER NO. 142
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker, I move that provisions of Standing Order Number 142 with regard to introduction of the Bills be suspended.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION FOR THE 7TH MAY 2022 BY-ELECTION
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker Sir, I rise that this House takes note of the report of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for the 7th May 2022 by-elections presented to this House of Parliament in terms of Section 241 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe as read with Section 13 Subsection (1) of the Electoral Act.
I move that the debate do now adjourn to allow Members to read the report.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 1st February, 2023.
MOTION
SECOND READING: JUDICIAL LAWS AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 3, 2022]
Second Order read: Second reading: Judicial Laws Amendment Bill [H. B. 3, 2022]
- [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] –
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order Hon. Members by the door there, this door is open and I do not want to push you out.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker Sir, I wish to thank the Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for the detailed report that they presented to the august House.
I, also in the same vein Mr. Speaker Sir, want to thank Hon. Members of this august House for a very enlightening, lively debate on the Second Reading of the Judicial Laws Amendment Bill. The report and the debate raised pertinent issues which deserve to be responded to.
I will start by addressing issues raised in the Report of the Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. In the Report, the Law Society of Zimbabwe raised a pertinent issue in which they argued that virtual sittings potentially infringe the Constitution which gives accused persons the right to a public trial and civil litigants the right to a public hearing.
In the same vein, Hon. Biti and several Hon. Members also raised the same issue during debate. I would like to gladly inform the Hon. Members that due to the beauty of technology, virtual sittings may be made accessible to the public through video conferencing which can accommodate a number of people.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the introduction of virtual courts is not meant to deprive the right to public hearings but rather this will increase the accessibility of court proceedings to the public since virtual sittings can potentially accommodate more people than some of the physical courts. For example, Zoom meetings can accommodate up to 500 people per session.
Allow me to address the second issue raised by the public on Clause 5 of the Bill which seeks to amend Section 13 of the High Court Act, Chapter 7:06. This clause inserts a section which prohibits the High Court to deal with a case or a claim which falls within the jurisdiction of an inferior court or tribunal, except on appeal or review. The public highlighted that this clause is in violation of Section 171 of the Constitution which gives the High Court inherent jurisdiction.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the law seeks to make sure that justice is delivered expeditiously. This will shift the burden from the High Court to specialized courts such as the Labour Court and the Commercial Court which will carry the jurisdiction of the High Court in matters which they are competent to hear.
By passing this law Mr. Speaker Sir, the legislature will promote speedy delivery of justice by competent specialized courts. It is pertinent for the Hon. Members to note that the Bill seeks to align Section 85 of the Labour Court Act, Chapter 28:01 to the qualifications of a judge provided in Section 179 of the Constitution.
Mr. Speaker Sir, allow me to kindly address concerns raised by the public on Clauses 16 and 17 which propose to alter sentencing levels for scrutiny and review provided for in Section 57 of the Magistrate Court Act. The Bill proposes that cases will be sent to a judge for an automatic review only where a magistrate has imposed a fine beyond level 10 or more or two years imprisonment. In the cases where a lower sentence has been imposed, it will be sent to a regional magistrate for scrutiny. Some members of the public were of the view that magistrates despite any ranking should not be allowed to scrutinise cases of other magistrates. It is argued that this lowers the standards of checks and balances in the justice system.
Allow me to indicate that the law does not intend to lower the standards of our justice systems. These provisions intend to bring sanity and excellence in the justice system by allowing senior magistrates to play a supervisory role on junior magistrates. This will further shift the load off the shoulders of the High Court Judges who are currently overwhelmed by cases on their desks. Thus, it is proposed that the law should allow the junior magistrates to be scrutinized by the senior magistrates who have expertise and experience.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the Committee also recommended that marginalized populations who are not familiar with vast technologies must be fully accommodated. What is envisaged in the Bill is not to limit trails only to virtual trials; the idea is to accommodate those who are inconvenienced by travelling or by the other party to the trial who cannot attend trial. An example is a litigant who wants a divorce but the other part is out of the country or anyone who wants to prosecute a civil claim but he or she is not in the country.
Mr. Speaker Sir, allow me now to address issues raised by Hon. Members. Let me first address an issue raised by Hon. Mashakada who affirmed that the Bill is treating criminal civil matters differently in terms of consent, whether or not to hold a virtual court sitting. According to the law Mr. Speaker Sir, both civil and criminal matters require consent of the litigants as to whether the case may be heard physically or virtually. Thus, the law does not discriminate civil matters and criminal matters.
Hon. Members raised the point that in a virtual court, if an accused gets convicted, he or she might skip the borders. The amendment in Clause 18 of the Bill will provide for virtual court sittings in bail and remand other than initial remand proceedings. The provision will not apply to the trial itself. The provisions of Section 194 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act shall continue to apply in respect of trials. Section 194 (1) provides that every criminal trial shall take place and the witnesses shall accept as is, otherwise specifically provided by this Act or any other enactment, give their evidence by voice in an open court in the presence of the accused unless he so conducts himself as to render the continuance of the proceedings in his presence impracticable. The court may order him to be removed and direct that the trial proceed in his absence.
Mr. Speaker Sir, allow me to tackle the issues raised by Hon. Mliswa on physical interaction which he says is very important in criminal trials. As I said, it is vital to note that in criminal matters virtual court sittings will be done during initial stages of a trial such as remand and bail applications. In those proceedings, the Bill in Clause 18 has a provision that the prosecutor and the accused have the right to question a witness and to observe the reaction of that witness.
Allow me to address the challenge of internet connectivity which most of the Members alluded to. I would want to submit to this House that those challenges maybe be improved but this should not stop the enactment of the law that establishes virtual court sittings.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to concur with Hon. Togarepi who indicated that the law does not seek to do virtual courts on everything but to necessitate the existence of virtual courts so as to allow those who cannot be tried physically to be able to access justice, thus living no space and no one behind. It is important for our country to move with technology and I urge Hon. Members to be able to embrace this change.
Mr. Speaker Sir, allow me to conclude by advising Hon. Members that this new legislation is open to amendments. I want to encourage Hon. Members that instead of dismissing this Bill, let us come up with progressive ideas that will sharpen the Bill so that our country may attain expeditious justice. I move that the Bill be now read a second time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read a second time.
Committee Stage: With leave, forthwith.
COMMITTEE STAGE
JUDICIAL LAWS AMENDMENT BILL [H. B. 3, 2022]
House in Committee.
Clauses 1 to 3 put and agreed to.
On Clause 4:
HON. CHIKWINYA: My request is that may the Journals Office resubmit the Bills to our emails. I understand that they were sent long back but can they resubmit all the Bills that are meant to be dealt with perhaps this week so that we can go through them.
HON. GONESE: I have engaged the Minister of Justice and as you have noted, I was on virtual in my vehicle following the proceedings. So, when the Hon. Minister sought to have the Committee Stage to be dealt with today, I tried to engage and unfortunately he said the stage had already been passed. I have since conferred with the Hon. Minister and I hereby submit that in the interest of the people of Zimbabwe, this is a Bill which has got some important provisions where I wish to make important contributions. Unfortunately, I had not anticipated that the Committee Stage was going to be dealt with today. I have engaged the Minister and I asked for his indulgence to have the Committee Stage deferred to tomorrow. I seek that you report progress and seek leave to sit again. Tomorrow I will be having all my notes and I will be able to make the relevant contributions. I have actually engaged the Minister; I was on virtual as you noted, so I had to rush to the Chamber Hon. Chair. The Hon. Minister said in his response at the Second Reading that Hon. Members will be free to make contributions to enrich the content of the Bill. This is what I intent to do. Unfortunately, I do not have my notes with me and that is the reason why I am seeking his indulgence and also the indulgence of the Committee so that tomorrow we will be able to do justice on the Committee Stage. When the Bill passed Second Reading, I did not object Hon. Chairperson.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (HON. MUTOMBA): Hon. Gonese, your indulgence has not been accepted by the Hon. Minister.
HON. GONESE: As I have already indicated Hon. Chairperson, under normal circumstances, we have two stages. The Hon. Minister will be able to listen to the submissions which I will be making tomorrow. This is a very important Bill, the Law Society of Zimbabwe made its submissions and I do not have the papers with me at the moment. We only passed the Second Reading stage just a few minutes ago and as Hon. Chikwinya has already alluded to, a lot of us do not have the Bills with us...
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Order Hon. Gonese, your point has been noted, please take your seat.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: Hon. Chair, I move that we report progress and seek leave to sit again.
House resumed:
Progress reported.
Committee to resume: Wednesday, 1st February, 2023.
SECOND READING
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL BILL [H. B. 2, 2022]
Third Order read: Adjourned debate on Second reading of the National Security Council Bill [H. B. 4. 2021].
Question again proposed.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I just want to start by thanking the Hon. Members that debated the National Security Council Bill and also thank them for their contributions to the debate. Basically, this Bill is about compliance with the Constitution in order to set up the National Security Council. So it will give effect to the structure of National Security Council when it should sit, establish its secretariat and what we are trying to do is to ensure that it complies with the constitutional provisions. Therefore, I want to thank the Hon. Members and the Committee on Defence that interrogated the Bill. I now move that the Bill be now read a second time. I thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Is the Chairman of the Defence Committee here or any member of the Committee? If you are here - did you table your report?
HON. NGULUVHE: Yes, we are here. We have not tabled our report.
THE HON. SPEAKER: So the report was not tabled and that is where the glitch is and therefore, the Hon. Members did not debate. The Hon. Minister will have to adjourn debate or if the report is ready, I will ask the Acting Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee to present the report.
HON. NGULUVHE: Thank you Hon. Speaker. INTRODUCTION
The National Security Authority Council Bill [H.B. 10, 2021] was gazetted on 6 June 2022. It seeks to operationalise the provisions of the Constitution by specifying additional members of the council, functions and also to bring it into operation. The National Security Council which shall be chaired by the President is vital in coordinating defence policy, foreign policy, non-State security policy issues arising from threats posed by natural and human caused calamities such as disease outbreaks and climate change consequences and to reconcile diplomatic and military commitments and requirements. Thus, this report summarises the views gathered during the targeted consultations held by the Committee.
BACKGROUND
The National Security Council is being established in line with Section 209 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013) Amendment (No. 20). Security issues are important for development, both at national and international level. In this regard, Section 10 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, highlights that “the State and every person, including juristic persons, and every institution and agency of Government at every level, must promote national unity, peace and stability’. In the same vein, the Declaration and Treaty of SADC of 1992 outlines that “war and insecurity are the enemy of economic progress and social welfare”. At international level, Sustainable Development Goal 16 calls for the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies in order to achieve sustainable development. It is a fact that the SADC region, the African continent and the world in general has been facing a number of security challenges, some which impact on Zimbabwe economically, socially and politically. For instance, in Mozambique, there have been acts of violent extremism and terrorism in the Cabo Delgado region and the country has to be on high alert to ensure there are no spill-over effects into the country. Other security challenges that affect the region, continent and globally are associated with food shortages, conflicts over natural resources, climate change, migration, disease outbreaks, wars among others.
Therefore, the National Security Council will regularly review national security policies in view of any prevailing national, regional and international security developments and direct the taking of appropriate action. It will also ensure that civil society organisations are not misused by terrorist organisations, whether as a way for such terrorist organisations to pose as legitimate entities. It is against this background that the National Security Council becomes relevant to assess the socio-economic and political impacts of these security threats on Zimbabwe and to ensure that appropriate action is taken by the relevant authorities.
METHODOLOGY
The Committee had an opportunity to interact with the following stakeholders in order to get more information and an appreciation of the operations of the National Security Council:
- The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence and War Veterans Affairs; Ambassador Marongwe,
- The Deputy Commissioner General of Police
- The Commissioner General, Prisons and Correctional Services
- Officials from the Office of the President and Cabinet
- Zimbabwe Peace Trust and the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) The Committee adopted a targeted approach in its public consultations, in order to get detailed and incise information on the establishment of the National Security Council.
FINDINGS
Purpose of the National Security Council
The preamble to the Bill clearly lays out that the National Security Councils is being established “to ensure effective co-ordination of security related and intelligence functions of the State’. Stakeholders in the security sector opined that in essence, the National Security Council would be established to aid the work of various State Security organs already in place. It was highlighted that the current set up created a silo mentality where each organ of State Security such as the Police, the Defence Forces, Prison and Correctional Services or the Intelligence Services had no obligation or appropriate platform to openly share information and ideas with each other. The National Security Council would bridge that gap.
Clause 3: Composition of the National Security Council
There was general concurrence among stakeholders on the composition of the National Security Council which largely had to be flexible and had to be at the discretion of each Sovereign State. The Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) stressed that there was no standardized composition of a National Security Council widely due to the fact that countries were at different levels of development, politically, economically and socially. It was noted that in some countries such as Nigeria, the National Security Council had a National Security Advisor who ran an office known as the Office of the National Security. It is through this office that a national security strategy or national security policy is developed in order to enhance the work of the National Security Council. In addition, the Advisor is responsible for taking down minutes during council meetings as well as coordinating the work of the council. In the case of Zimbabwe, the work of the National Security Council shall be coordinated by the Director General of the Intelligence Services.
The Committee also learnt that in other countries, the National Security Council incorporates the Minister of Justice to ensure that the council operates within the confines of the law. However, Clause 3 (1) (i) of the Bill which gives the President the discretion to call any Minister from time to time to be part of the council, bridges that gap.
There was, however, concern on issues of gender parity in the composition of the National Security Council, in light of the fact that office bearers in the security sector are appointed on merit and the sector is currently male dominated. Nevertheless, the Committee would encourage that the National Security Council should always be mindful of gender issues in its deliberations of security related matters.
Clause 4: Functions of the National Security Council
It was noted that the council would provide similar services to those currently provided by the Joint Operations Command (JOC). The JOC was the supreme organ for the coordination of State security in Zimbabwe. It was highlighted that the JOC would continue to provide operational services while the National Security Council would be responsible for making key polices at the highest level.
Clause 5: Meetings of the Council
Stakeholders applauded Clause 5 of the Bill which makes it mandatory for the National Security Council to meet at least once every three months. Regular meetings would ensure continuity and close monitoring of resolutions. The Committee learnt that in one of the country’s neighbouring countries, the National Security Council has not met in over two years and thus, rendering ineffective the establishment and existence of such an important organ of the Sovereign State. Thus, in essence, Clause 5 seeks to guard against such complacency.
Security Related Matters: State Security vis-a-vis Human Security
Whilst security matters are confidential and are not always discussed in the public domain, as outlined in section 5 (2) of the Bill, it was clear during the Committee’s interaction with the stakeholders, that security matters should not be restricted to purely State security concerns alone. There are many facets of human security that have a bearing on State security, for instance food insecurity, climate change, gender based violence, health issues, among others. A typical example of the nexus between State security and human security was evidenced when the country was hit by Cyclone Idai and the COVID-19 pandemic where members of State security were called upon to assist ordinary citizens in various ways. To this end, the Committee noted that it is important for the National Security Council to be well informed about various aspects that have a direct bearing on human security so that the country plans adequately for security threats that will affect the country in the unforeseeable future.
Relationship between the National Security Council and Parliament.
Section 5 (2) of the Bill outlines that meetings and Committee business are not for public consumption, but the council may inform the public of any of its resolutions which are in the public interest. Notwithstanding the need to observe confidentiality on all security matters, it is the Committee’s position, that the general public be kept informed through the National Security Council’s regular reports to Parliament whenever it is justifiably relevant to do so. This will enable Parliament to conduct its oversight work in line with section 207 (2) of the Constitution, whilst at the same time ensuring that citizens receive relevant information from the supreme policy making entity.
COMMITTEE OBSERVATIONS
The Committee noted the following:
The Bill basically sought to fulfill section 209 of the Constitution that calls for the establishment of the National Security Council. It observed that the Joint Operations Command (JOC) - a combined unit comprising commanders of the security services, was already undertaking some of the functions which the National Security Council would eventually perform. The Committee thus, stressed the need for clearly defined roles and responsibilities of both organs in order to avoid duplication of such roles and functions.
The Committee noted that while the Director-General of Intelligence Services would provide secretarial services to the council, a fully-fledged permanent secretariat would have to be put in place to support the Director General’s office. In the absence of such a permanent support staff, it becomes practically difficult for the council to satisfactorily perform the tasks outlined in section 4 of the Bill, or to implement its decisions effectively and in a coordinated manner considering the diversity of the individual portfolios of each of the council members.
The Committee noted that Section 56 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013) Amendment (No. 20) provides for the need to consider gender parity in public bodies, including in elective positions. Considering the fact that currently, the state of affairs shows male dominance in the occupation of the highest offices across the echelons of the security sector, it remains unlikely to see most women sitting in the National Security Council. While the Committee recognises the sensitivity of most of the issues to be handled by the council, it also values the contribution of women in decision making at the highest levels of society, hence the need for their active presence in the council.
RECOMMENDATIONS
By end of October 2023 the responsible Ministry should consider establishing a fully-fledged secretariat that would be headed by the Director General of Intelligence responsible for the day-to-day operations of the council;
The National Security Council is implored to be mindful of gender parity in its composition as well as in its deliberations on security matters and crafting of policies.
There is need to ensure that the National Security Council reports to Parliament, as and when necessary in line with section 207 (2) of the Constitution in order to keep the public informed of national security related developments.
CONCLUSION
The Committee supports the establishment of the National Security Country and the Ministry of Defence and War Veterans Affairs should be commended for seeking to give effect to its establishment in line with section 209 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20). The Constitution is the supreme law of the country and it is important that its provisions are respected and honoured, as demonstrated through the enactment of this Bill. Furthermore, the Committee would like to encourage all the different arms of State security to work collaboratively for the good of the country. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
HON. BRIG. GEN. (RTD) MAYIHLOME: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for giving me this opportunity to add my voice regarding the National Security Council Bill. I would like to thank the Hon. Minister of Defence and War Veterans Affairs for bringing this Bill to Parliament and giving us an opportunity as a Committee to respond. This is one of the requirements of the Constitution Section 209 that there shall be National Security Council (NSC) in this country. The NSC fills in a very big vacuum that has existed since independence in that some of the things that should have been done by the NSC have been covered rather informally or by other organisations like the Joint Operations Command (JOC). The JOC is chaired by either, Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Defence and War Veterans Affairs or the Minister of State in the President’s Office. This NSC gives responsibility where it belongs. Mr. Speaker Sir, it gives responsibility to the Head of State who is Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. This will give an opportunity as well as a forum for the Commander-in-Chief to have a long term perspective or view of what is happening in the country; in the next 10 years, 20 years or 50 years to come. It may at times, be confused with JOC in that the issues are all operations related or security related but this is very different. The NSC will cover issues that may appear very simple. Issues for example on religious radicalisation, discovery of minerals or lack of, education, climate change, technological development, drug abuse, migration, human trafficking. These are issues that may appear very simple and at times maybe not affecting ordinary citizens but with time; 20, 30 or 40 years from now, may have a long term impact on the country. Hence, we believe that this is a great opportunity for this country to start looking at issues correctly in the eye.
I applaud the Committee for looking at this Bill, giving all its support to the Ministry that tabled this Bill to Parliament. Also, as a major milestone in fulfilling the requirements of the Constitution, Section 209 that there shall be National Security Council Bill and the Bill is fully supported. I wish to thank you Mr. Speaker for giving me this opportunity.
HON. T. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, the issue of national security is an issue of high importance. It has been unfortunately politicised in this country in a manner which does not give it the credibility and responsibility which it deserves. If you go through Section 206 to 209 of the Constitution which talks about the National Security Council, it talks about entire services. Mr. Speaker Sir, the aspect of the JOC which for a very long time we have always known to be the supreme security organ – the issue of JOC must automatically fall away because JOC is not constitutional. The President in his powers being the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces, has the right to summon any commander and be given a report. JOC has become political. JOC is not constitutional. So we cannot have a situation where you have a National Security Council in terms of Section 209 at the same time you say that JOC is superior. The Hon. Member Nguluvhe spoke about JOC being superior, who is JOC when there is a constitutional requirement of 209. JOC automatically ceases away and this is the last time we want to hear JOC because JOC has confused this country. It was formed during the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia time. It is a Rhodesian approach to security, yemakuhwa, yegossip.
Security does not require gossip. Security requires the President to be briefed honestly about the issues of national security. We cannot have a situation where it is very clear that the President himself will chair the National Security Council and so if the President is chairing the National Security Council and receiving reports from the Service Chiefs and Ministers, who then should be more superior to that?
So JOC is not chaired by the President. The President is the number one citizen of this country and should be well informed on all security issues. So JOC ceases automatically. The key issue here is on structures which will ensure that this is efficient. There must be provincial, district, ward and constituency structures of security because the issue of security is an on-going matter. The only way you can get the truth about security is to get information from the bottom to the top. The only organization in this country which can give you reliable information on security is the ZRP.
Hon. Nguluvhe will agree with me that the ZRP is in every constituency and district While the CIO is not in every constituency and district, so, are the prisons. So the police are the only ones who can give you true information because they are with the people. Some of the information coming from the security sector ave makuhwa. Where is your source of information - because the critical issue about security is where is your source of information? – [AN HON. MEMBER: Inaudible interjection.] –
Not only that, you also have ZANU PF which has a Secretary for Security, Hon. Matuke who is here. I am sure CCC has got one. I do not know if they are still putting their structures or they are yet to appoint one but MDC-T has got one. The good thing about this is that all the political parties are aware of the need for security. Maybe Hon. Biti can tell me who the Secretary for Security is. The issue of security is critical to the country especially in a polarized environment like this, the President must be able to get the right information and it must be pretty clear he is getting reports from the Service Chiefs and Ministers. The National Security Council is very important in that it will save the country.
Not only that, Section 207 (2) talks about oversight. For a very long time we have been intimidated that we cannot ask - the Security Council is subject to oversight by this House. This Parliament has the right to summon the National Security Council to answer because it is tax payers’ money. There is no organ that you cannot say is not subject to oversight. Then it is not part of this country, iorgan yemakuhwa. So, let us separate maorgans emakuhwa neenyika. The National Security Council iorgan yenyika and in the Constitution, vanobvunzwa kana zvisingafambe mushe kuti zviri kufamba sei.
This is important because when you lack oversight then there is a problem. Most of the reports which come through fail to have oversight because there is this thinking amongst Zimbabwean people that you cannot invite the CIO, army or police to oversight. Who are they? They are organs of Zimbabwe who report to Zimbabwe through Parliament and that must be understood without fear or favour. The moment that we do not take ownership of organs that belong to us, then we have abrogated our duties as Parliament. That is one thing that I am happy about that they are subject to oversight by us.
Whether it is CDF – Commander Defence Forces, they respect the Constitution. They went to the war to liberate this country so that we can have one man one vote and respect the Constitution but there are people who put them in bad light. People who want to think they gain favours by not inviting them for an oversight by Parliament, which is a dangerous precedent at the end of the day. You know when issues involve the security of this country people are scared. Why should we bring them? Tichati chii and so forth, yet kana vachida mari vanouya munomu. Kana vasingadi oversight ngavasapihwe mari yenyika. Mari yenyika inoda kuti tizive kuti iri kufamba sei uye maoperations ari kufamba sei. Kune nyaya dzevanhu vanenge vanzi vatorwa ne CIO, for example. The CIO must be questioned kuti Dzamara akafamba sei uye zvese zvakafamba sei.
This is the moment for us to exercise our right. There is no individual who must disappear in this country without us knowing how he disappeared. Kana zviri kunzi ioperation yeCIO, CIO ngaishevedzwe before the Committees in this Parliament kuti tivabvunze kuti imi muri kunzi makatora munhu, makatora munhu sei? It makes them clean and it also makes the country clean because if you do not talk about certain things, Zimbabwe is marred with controversy of abducting people and CIO unfortunately, is associated with that. The only way they can clear themselves is to appear before this House and be asked questions to say these people are disappearing, is it you doing it or not? Then they answer and it is on record. For as long it is not on record this country will be tainted badly every day.
No wonder why as we go to elections, Zimbabwean elections are never peaceful no matter what happens because people say there is too much interference of State Organs. What are State Organs doing interfering with politics yet it is one man one vote? So, we need to be very clear about these issues because for as long as we want to be part of this global village there has got to be rule of law. One of the functions of the National Security Council is rule of law.
What is rule of law? Mr. Speaker, you can have peace but peace is not rule of law. There is a difference between peace and rule of law. Rule of law must be observed at all times and this again will do us good with the international community because it is a constitutional requirement and any issues of security can be traced kuti zvinhu zviri kufamba sei uye zvamira papi apa. The issue of peace and rule of law is very important. There is nobody who questions the powers of the President. The President has the right as the Commander-in-Chief, no wonder why the President is known as the President of Zimbabwe, Head of Government, Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces. So, he is supreme and everything is beyond and it is good.
We had a situation before Mr. Speaker, and Hon. Ziyambi who sits in Cabinet will tell you or even Hon. Biti who used to sit in Cabinet, that you could not have the Minister of State Security chairing the National Security Council of this country. So the information he is giving to the President could be true or not true. Iye mbune President wenyika ngaacheye Security apihwe the right information. He does not have to be informed by anybody Mr. Speaker. When he chairs that Committee, he has a true briefing on what is happening on the ground. He does not need a second or third party and that is why we are polarized because most of the reports which were coming through were lies.
They were reports full of lies. Dzimwe dzaienda kufactionalism yemusangano uri kutonga ZANU PF vachinyepera opposition. Saka all of us here have suffered due to misinformation because there has not been a proper structure which is constitutional. These reports are subject to oversight. They must be made public and at the end of the day, I am happy that the National Security Council consisting of the President as the Chairperson, Vice President and such Ministers and Members of the Security Forces and other persons who may be determined in the Act of Parliament will constitute that. There is no better arrangement than this arrangement.
We also want to talk about the issue of national security as just not about politics. National security is not about targeting Hon. Job Sikhala. Those are minor issues. In fact, it is actually a national security threat when the whole system targets one person. It becomes a national security threat. There are more pressing issues in this country than us pursing individuals because of politics. That must end. Today, what do we have? We have the whole world talking about Hon. Job Sikhala. He is more famous than this country today. That on its own is a threat to the national security of the country when we are bent on individuals rather than focusing on the real issues.
The economy and inflation are national security threats and when we have ministers getting houses for US$500 000, a deputy minister getting loans for US$300 000 while MPs who have the oversight role get US$40 000, we saw that as a national threat because this Parliament must be respected and must be well resourced. Where there is a poor Parliament, there is no country. There is no country where you see poor Parliamentarians busy passing the budget for US$350 000. Right now no-one here can call the security agents to answer where the US$350 000 came from. You are all scared but when it was US$40 000 for the MPs, the whole country was talking. I will be asking Hon. Mthuli Ncube tomorrow where that money came from and where it was budgeted for. All these issues are national security issues if they are not attended to.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): Hon. Mliswa, you have five minutes to go.
HON. T. MLISWA: You know Hon. Speaker, when I am like this, I speak on behalf of everyone because most people cannot say what I am saying. In their hearts they are saying thank you and they are also praying for me. So, allow me to do this because the moment they bring this up, they become a national security threat to their party and they are expelled. We do not want that to happen. So Mr. Speaker, the issue of under-funding institutions, not paying civil servants and everyone else the right remuneration is a national security threat.
The issue of this police guy Muvhevi is not about what he did. I am more worried about how many more Muvhevis there are with such a spirit. This is because of poor remuneration. These people have been trained to be soldiers, policemen, State security agents and they committed their whole life to that. Now because of poor remuneration, they are out and the only skill that they have is to hold a gun. He now starts a career of armed robbery because the only thing he knows is a gun. So, the Muvhevi issue is bigger than Muvhevi. We must remunerate our people fairly. Once you do that, it does not become a security threat. So, it is important to look at the symptoms rather than say but look at what Muvhevi did. My concern today is - how many Muvhevis are there in this country? How many police officers and security agents are out of the system? There are those who were in the system for 32 years and they are now going to London to be nurses. When they go there, what do they say? So, we have information leaving this country because of poor remuneration. At the end of the day we must all be remunerated equally and fairly, starting with this House. The National Security Council must understand this House passes laws and has oversight. How can you give MPs oversight role when they have been given US$40 000 allowance for a house in the high density area to have oversight over a Minister who has been given US$500 000 and stays in Mt. Pleasant? Even our skins are different because of where he lives and where an MP lives. So how do you ask questions when you have one car and they are driving two cars and they get books of coupons to do work? MPs do not work and now we are going to elections and they are praying that we do not win because we are not resourced. This is a national security threat and the reason why most of the MPs do not come back is not because they do not work hard. It is because they cannot get to the constituencies since they are under resourced. The next person who is coming is somebody who comes three months, has money and they are given money. When they come in, they never come back here again. So, how can you continue under-resourcing parliamentarians and having this turn-over which is out of this world? Look at the turn-over of MPs sitting there? Most of them become paupers when they leave Parliament and when they die they are not even taken care of at the end of the day.
I am standing here saying this august House is the number one institution in this country. We make laws for the Judiciary; for good governance and we have oversight over the Executive and there is no way that any entity can be more superior to us. It is important that we understand it. I have always said if the Central Intelligence Organisation in this country was doing its job, they were supposed to have briefed the President that MPs are not happy. When they are not happy, how do they campaign for their President? I am saying the truth; though they love the President, they have no resources because they are taken elsewhere.
The plundering of resources in this country is a national security threat. How much of our resources have been plundered? Giving wealth to foreigners is a national security threat. I was in Nigeria and Dangote today has got one of the biggest oil refineries and he is Nigerian.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Mliswa, your time has elapsed.
HON. BITI: Hon. Speaker, I move that the Hon. Member’s time be extended by 15 minutes.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Your time has been extended by another five minutes.
HON. T. MLISWA: Thank you Hon. Members, I appreciate. I was in Nigeria and Dangote was given the biggest refinery. He has got it and he is Nigerian. In Zimbabwe, can we talk about anyone with a mine like the other companies have? Manhize is not giving to Zimbabwe. Why do we not trust our people? Where will they go? The only place they know is Zimbabwe. We went to the struggle to fight for this country and not to give resources to foreigners. Even if they helped us during the struggle, it does not mean we surrender our souls and our resources to the foreigners. That on its own is a national security threat. The resources for this country – the President says nyika inovakwa nevene vayo but how can the owners do that if all resources belong to foreigners?
The President is voted for by the majority of black people here in Zimbabwe because they believe in him. We do not vote in China. Which Zimbabwean today has got a mine in Russia, China or the UK? We must say the truth, they come today in this country and they are revered more than war veterans who have suffered. We are not even prepared to pay the war veterans what belongs to them. War veterans are living in a manner we do not understand. Why are we not empowering our own people? They are taken to court in handcuffs and leg irons in this era to please who – the foreigners? One person went and lied to the President that war veterans were turning against him. Which war veteran would do that after surviving the war of liberation and all relatives were killed? Why would one go to such a point of attacking those who liberated us? It was however not verified that the war veterans had turned against Government. How could they have done that?
The war veterans only went to Hon. Mthuli Ncube to get their money through a court order and they were leg ironed - in this era? This country is spiritual and the war was won, not because they had better arms or tactics. Ambuya Nehanda was involved and that is why you see her statue there. She did not use her spirit for us to be poor and war veterans to be arrested. It was for us to have our own land, so by not following our tradition, it is also a national security threat. Hon. Nguluvhe and Hon. Mayihlome are here, ask them. ZIPRA assets were also taken. Why were they taken? I am glad that the President has started compensating war veterans but compensation is not good enough, they must get their assets back if we are one Zimbabwe. The late father of Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo worked to get those things. If we are one Zimbabwe, allow others to get what they want. A lot of things which have gone wrong in this country is because there is no reliable source of security. The only way the reliable source can happen is through the National Security Council where the President will chair it and chairing it means you will hear it from the horse’s mouths.
You have no people, it is the same thing today and you know Mr. Speaker Sir, the Political Commissar for ZANU PF has been talking about structures which are outside ZANU PF and it is clear they are causing havoc because he is telling them ED for this, ED for that - yet there are proper structures in ZANU PF. The branch has got ‘that’ what they are doing; the district has got ‘that’ what they are doing and so forth.
To me it is another source of National Security where you have people emerging from nowhere. The next thing you will see them in the primary elections. This issue also of people visiting the President all the time when he is on leave at his farm must stop! Let him rest, let him farm, makuhwa chete yet they do not go on the ground doing work but when they see the President, they will smile, they are hypocrites. That is also a national security threat, we do not want hypocrites. So, I would like the President to take control of this.
The only thing I would like to add in the composition - it would also be good if the secretary for security for the ruling party be there as well, as well as the Opposition so that it is seen to be Zimbabwe. It does not mean the opposition must be left out, it is the Government in waiting and there is nothing wrong with having them sitting in there because it helps the country move forward. I thank you.
HON. BITI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Thank you for allowing me to join this debate on the Second Reading of the National Security Council Bill [H.B. 2, 2022].
Mr. Speaker Sir, the enactment of this Bill is long overdue in that this current Constitution became law in May of 2013, so to have this being enacted now when the National Security Council is specifically legislated for in Section 209 almost 10 years later is not good enough. I think the Constitution is very clear, Section 324 of the Constitution makes it clear that constitutional obligations must expeditiously be implemented.
Secondly, I acknowledge that the draft Bill reproduces Section 206 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe because Section 206 lays the foundation of the National Security Policy of Zimbabwe and it says that ‘at the heart and anchor of the National Security Council of the Country is the fundamental rights and freedoms and the democratic values and principles enshrined in the Constitution and the rule of law’. Two points are entrenched by the Constitution: that security is about fundamental rights and freedoms and democracy and the rule of law. Underpinning that foundation is important, because it recognises the changing nature of security which is little understood, with great respect.
Forty (40) years ago, the major national security threat to any country was a physical war. Right now, the world is witnessing a war between the Ukraine and Russia but since the Second World War, intra-State wars have become limited. The chances of Zimbabwe ever going to war with its neighbours are extremely limited. So, the major source of national insecurity is actually domestic issues. Domestic issues have actually become the biggest source of instability.
Mr. Speaker Sir, if you look in the last five years, the biggest forms of instability in our country have included things that we do not control, the issue of COVID. COVID is a national security issue. The issue of floods and cyclones that we do not control, those are major sources of insecurity.
Third and perhaps most importantly is economic instability, unemployment, the fact that 95% of our people are unemployed is a source of national insecurity. The fact that 68% of all people in urban areas are living in rented houses is a source of national insecurity. The fact that our exchange rate is now 1200 and someone keeps on saying zvakarongeka is a source of instability. The fact that 4 million Zimbabweans, 73% of our best people are out in the Diaspora is a source of instability. So, we must recognise the changing nature of national security.
Therefore, the composition of the National Security Council, with great respect, must recognise these new change dynamics of national security. It is not sufficient and good enough that your traditional security ministers must be the dominant members of the National Security Council. If you look at the proposed Clause 5, only the Minister of Finance is added to the Minister of Defence, the Minister responsible for Home Affairs and the Minister responsible for intelligence.
I submit that the Minister of Health must be there for obvious reasons, the Minister responsible for Climate must be there for obvious reasons because the biggest existentialist threat we face as a country is global warming. It is now raining in April because of global warming. Some parts of Zimbabwe are becoming deserts because of carbon emissions; hence that minister must be in the National Security Council. The Minister of Justice who is seated over there must be in the National Security Council because the anchor of National Security Council as I have submitted before is human rights democracy and the rule of law.
So, we must move from a security polity, a security discourse which looks at physical threats or as Hon. Mliswa has mentioned, the National Security Council is reduced to gossip, how many wives does this one have, how many children does this one have, whose girlfriend is that one – that is not National Security. We must incorporate these other threats that have evolved in recent times.
The fourth point I want to make is the relationship between the National Security Council and the joint operation. The Joint Operations is traditionally an operational issue, JOCs are there traditionally for operational issue. If you have a war or you are involved in a war, you need regular briefings on operational issues, logistics, bullets and so forth.
Now, you have a National Security Council given the important function of defining national strategy of the country. This Bill must marry and define the interrelationship between JOC and the National Security Council. This Bill must make it very clear and unambiguously that when it comes to national security issues and strategies, it is the National Security Council, a constitutional body which is superior to any other body. We cannot remain with JOC being quiet, off radar and offline – we must recognise it because nyika isecurity and security inyika. JOC must be recognised in this Bill and the relationship between JOC and the National Security Council must be recognised.
We have a tendency of treating security as shadowy and a treat to citizens. Security cannot be a threat to citizens because the function of security is to protect citizens. Here in Zimbabwe we have reduced and made security synonymous with threats against the citizens. If I see a member of the CIO I run away but that should not be the case at all. We must take security away from nocturnal zones it currently occupies right on the table. That is why I propose that part of the harmonisation of the Constitution is that the Intelligence Service Board which is provided for in the Constitution – that Bill must come. We know of the Police Service Board, we know of the Prisons Board, we know of the Army Board but let us have the Intelligence Service Board. Let us know who the Permanent Secretary is just like we know that there is Bhasera there and there is this one there. In other words, the submission I make is that let us not make intelligence private property. Let us not make intelligence shadowy and nocturnal. It is very important that the individual feels secure in this country.
The fourth thing I want to say is that I used to sit in the National Security Council. One of the things we were very quick to move is issues around leakages in the economy. The economy is hemorrhaging from three things. First, is illicit financial flows; between 2009 and 2013 the country lost $3billion in illicit financial flows. The major culprits in illicit financial flows are multinational corporations, global white monopoly capital, the ZIMPLATS of this world, the Old Mutual of this world. We are losing money through illicit financial flows, through transfer pricing, through thin capitalisation. The National Security Council must have a specialised unit that deals with financial hemorrhage. We must have sophisticated financial experts trained in Oxford, University of Zimbabwe, Makerere University and at Harvard who are sufficiently equal to the thieves at ZIMPLATS, Old Mutual and First Mutual are able to beat. We do not have those people at the present moment.
The second issue is our own domestic corruption, how much has been lost in terms of Command Agriculture. How much has been lost in terms of people who do not deserve, illegally accessing foreign currency through the Dutch Auction System? I said the other day that since June of 2021, the Dutch Auction System has disbursed more than US$3 billion but the country has nothing to show for it. How much has been lost through contracts given to people without delivering? The reports of the Auditor General show massive looting in this country. In 2018, $1.7 billion was lost. In 2019, $3.5 billion was lost and in 2020, $10 billion was lost. Before this Parliament, there are two Bills of unexplained expenditure - $10.6 billion Financial Adjustment Bill, $106bn Financial Adjustment Bill for 2020. Our National Security Council must deal with the issue of internal hemorrhage.
Third, is our minerals; Zimbabwe is rich because we have 63 minerals. Botswana has got one mineral, diamonds. The per capita income of Botswana is US$9 000 and the per capita income of Zimbabwe is US$179. With our 63 minerals, we have nothing to show for it. Lithium has become the world’s most valuable mineral. A tonne of lithium is costing US$80 000. Suddenly we are dishing out lithium left, right and centre as if it is confetti at a wedding. People are coming to Zimbabwe being granted special mining licenses without the US$100 million that is demanded in Section 139 of the Mines and Minerals Act. Hon. Temba Mliswa has mentioned Manhize. Manhize has got rights to US$40 billion metric tonnes of iron ore, one of the world’s biggest iron ore reserves given to the Chinese for nothing and for free. That is a crime against the people of Zimbabwe. That is a crime against millions of Zimbabweans who are yet to be born. They are going to urinate on our graves 100 years from now, for the crimes we are committing now of selling our country to Russians, Belarusians and Chinese.
I submit that these are the things that the National Security Council must deal with and not follow Hon. Mliswa in trying to find out how many children he has. This is a very serious Bill. We must take note of the changing nature of security and we must create, particularly on the membership of this body, a council that recognises that national security issues have moved from physical war. You no longer need a bomb to cause chaos; you just need a smart phone. Today, the Justice Committee was having virtual online hearings on zoom and to prove that cyber security is a national security that zoom meeting was invaded by pornography. If you look at the current composition of members of the National Security Council, some of them do not even have email addresses. If you talk of a mouse they think you are talking of a “mouse” and not a gadget.
We must be wise and I know that the Minister of Justice is listening and I hope our comments can be incorporated.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Firstly, I want to acknowledge the Committee through the Acting Chair who presented a comprehensive report and the progressive recommendations that they gave as well as the Hon. Members that debated the Bill.
Like I said, the Bill is about compliance with the Constitution and I want to acknowledge what Hon Biti said but also indicate that even though we are late but better late than never. At least what has been happening in the Second Republic is to ensure that we catch up with everything that we were required to have done before. This is part of that work, to ensure that we come up with an Act that will give effect to the establishment of the National Security Council.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to thank the Hon. Members. I listened attentively to the debate and it was very robust. The majority of the issues do not speak to what we want to do in the Bill; it pertains to the actual work of the National Security Council.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Minister, may you connect your gadget please.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, I will now proceed. I think those on virtual will pardon me for having been failed by technology. Mr. Speaker, I listened attentively, there was the issue that the Minister of Justice is not part of the architecture of the Bill. In our current set up, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs is the one responsible for Prisons and therefore he is covered in that regard and has always been I think even during your time, he was. He is part of the National Security Council. Also Mr. Speaker Sir, the National Security Council, what it does is not similar to what JOC does and I tend to gravitate to what Hon. Biti said. JOC is operational, the work of the National Security Council is policy and to assess whatever the security threat that may be there. This Organ is chaired by the President. In my considered view, we still need JOC because it is operational but we are now establishing a statutory body, the National Security Council that will now look at security threats, come up with policies and issues that need to be interrogated and then direct the relevant Organ to do that, that is to direct JOC to then do that.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the functions of these two are totally different and I do not believe that JOC should be made a statutory body because we have Acts that deal with these issues - these are the Defence Act, the Police Act and they define what they must do. So, I believe that what was lacking was this top Organ in a statutory form being constituted so that it gives directives and it is established in such a manner that everyone knows that it has to sit once in three months. The reports may actually be made public, it depends on the nature of the report but security reports by their nature, you refrain from publishing them in Parliament but if a report is extremely necessary that it has to be tabled, then it has to be. That is the reason why you find that if the President deploys the military to another country, then he must cause Parliament to know that he has done that within seven sitting days of that particular Parliament.
I believe that this is a progressive Bill that is now going to give effect to everything that Hon. Biti was saying. Our security threats are not only military or conventional, we may have a security council that will primarily discuss about monitory, how they are a threat to the nation and this can also be done.
I also want to thank Hon. Mayihlome for his debate and he was fully supporting the Bill. He indicated that JOC has been there like I explained and that it is very necessary that we have JOC. Also Hon. Mliswa, very passionate debate but I just want to correct him. The larger part of his debate, he was debating issues that must be debated by the National Security Council. We are here to give effect to that, to legislate, to make sure that we come up with that Bill. If there is a security threat to the citizens, then it will be tabled there and debated but what we are doing now is, we are saying let us come up with a Bill that will formalise that structure. I believe that is the essence of our debate. I believe there is convergence in that regard, even those who were critical about certain issues, they are converging that we need a National Security Council Bill that will give and formalise this.
He spoke about issues of poor remuneration; that is the work of the National Security Council to say what is the effect of poor remuneration on our security and come up with recommendations and policies. We are saying let us come up with this Bill and let us pass it into law and then be held accountable because that is all allowed. We are all accountable; we are all answerable and responsible to Parliament. The Vice President, the Minister of Defence or the Minister of State Security can be asked on anything. We are not immune to be asked.
I have already alluded to what Hon. Biti has said that we are bringing this Bill late and I have indicated that it is our desire as the Second Republic to ensure that we fulfill all our obligations we are supposed to satisfy in terms of the Constitution and this is what we are doing. I am sure Hon. Members can allude to that fact that even our universal periodic reviews, our human rights obligations, our reports are now up to date and even our treaties, we are trying to make sure that everything is up to-date and this is part of the work that His Excellency is saying, let us push and make sure that we are a law abiding State.
Hon. Biti also alluded to say that the majority of our security issues are domestic; I agree and I am saying if we set up this, it should be able to deal with those domestic security issues and come up with policies to deal with them, be it illicit financial flows, issues to do with agriculture and so forth, these are the issues that will be deliberated and say to what extent are they impacting on our State security.
He also indicated that the composition of this National Security Council must recognise the new and changing dynamics. We deliberately included a clause that allows the President to incorporate any other so that we do not replicate Cabinet by this National Security Council. The traditional ones, they also undertake surveillance to say these are the issues that are of a security nature. If it is a domestic issue pertaining to climate change, the Minister of Environment will be called upon to say we have this issue, come let us discuss. But we were constrained to say that let us not duplicate but restrict it but open it up to ensure that whenever an issue is being discussed, the President is at liberty to invite any other Ministers.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I have already spoken about the relationship between the National Security Council and JOC and indicated, Mr. Speaker, that the National Security Council, the thrust is policy and national security threats and I have already submitted the other issues that they have indicated about illicit financial flows, the white global monopoly capitalist, the need for a specialised unit to deal with financial hemorrhage and all these which I have indicated that they are also issues that will be dealt with by the National Security Council in terms of formulating policies and looking at the threats that may come to our country.
Having said that Mr. Speaker Sir, in summary, I wish to thank the Hon. Members for the robust debate and implore Hon. Members that this is a very good Bill. We are trying to comply with the constitutional provision, albeit late and move that Mr. Speaker Sir, the National Security Council Bill [H. B. 2, 2022] be read a second time. I thank you.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read a second time.
Committee Stage: With leave, forthwith.
HON. T. MLISWA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker Sir. My point of order really is to commend the Minister. These Bills that he is pushing belong to other Ministers, that is the truth. He is busy doing work on their part. Being leader of Government Business does not mean that you have to work for others because his salary and package does not change. They are given a salary and package and they were supposed to have moved these ages back. He is bringing them now towards the end as he wishes to ensure that the President complies with the Constitution.
Every Minister must understand that for you to be an effective Minister, you must push Bills. It is not about appearing on official opening. They have attended more official opening ceremonies than moving motions here. So we cannot continue like this and I mean this. We have to agree to have all this which was supposed to be done. The Ministers’ question time, they do not come, be it pushing of the Bills they do not come. So really why are they paid? They are adults, they are not children.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Thank you very much Hon. Mliswa.
HON. T. MLISWA: The fact is that they are given a job by the President to discharge duties on behalf of the President, on behalf of the country.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Thank you very much Hon. Mliswa. We need to move forward. We need to go to the Committee stage.
HON. T. MLISWA: So you know Hon. Ziyambi is very kind but I think a report must go to the President that all these Bills were supposed to be moved by certain Ministers who are absent but they are still paid a lot of money. They were given houses worth US$500 000, what more could they want?
COMMITTEE STAGE
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL BILL [H. B. 2, 2022]
House in Committee
Clause 1 and 2 put and agreed to.
On Clause 3:
HON. BITI: Thank you Madam Speaker. I have a few comments. The first one which is a drafting complaint – Clause 3 (1) (i) of the Bill read with Section 11 of the Constitution says any other Minister who the President may from time to time appoint in consultation with any of the Ministers - this is the Head of State we are talking about. The word in consultation is different from after consultation. In consultation means in agreement, so the Head of State cannot be in agreement. In other words, the actions of the President cannot be subject to the consent of a Minister that he appoints. It cannot be after consultation. So the word there must be changed. It cannot be in consultation but after consultation. So that is my procedural drafting complaint.
Another complaint is that I hear the Minister when he says we should not replicate Government, but there are certain issues that are now mainstreamed that are security issues. So if you look at the Bill, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development is there. It is not a traditional security Bill because that is an explicit acknowledgement of the fact that the mismanagement or management of the economy is a mainstream security issue. You cannot keep on saying like I said in my submission in the Second Reading zvakarongeka, zvakarongeka when the exchange rate is now 1:1500. There are two other Ministers who should be included in the Security Council without necessarily reducing the National Security Council to being a mirror of Government. One of them is the Ministry of Health and Child Care. The Minister of Health and Child Care, the last three years the real war we have fought Madam Speaker is COVID-19. The second Minister whom I think should be mainstreamed and because the Minister of Health and Child Care is the Vice President for now, there will not be any physical addition of numbers but in future when another Minister of Health and Child Care is appointed other than the Vice President, I think it is important that he is there. There is TB and we have been fighting HIV for the past 25 years. I think the Minister of Health and Child Care should be there.
The second issue Madam Speaker is the Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Tourism and Hospitality Industry. Global warming is for life. Carbon emissions are with us for life. I think this Ministry should be mainstreamed as a national security issue. If you look at the state of the environmental degradation across the length and breadth of our country, the fact that our seasons have now changed - when I grew up, it used to rain in October, now it rains after Christmas. We used to plant in October now we are planting on Christmas day. So the Minister of Environment Climate Change, Tourism and Hospitality Industry must be there. So in the case of these two ministries, they should be included because they are part of mainstreaming national security. I thank you.
HON. HAMAUSWA: Thank you Hon. Chair. I also want to add on what Hon. Tendai Biti has said, that we now need, as we construct the Security Council, to consider security in its broad sense whereby we are also looking at human security. If you check the issues of environment and issues of health, we are now having challenges with unemployed youth in our country who are actually causing a lot of havoc in the communities. Therefore, the Security Council should focus on the threats to peace and security. Especially in the future, we should look at what is going to happen if this generation is going to be affected by drug abuse. The issue of drug abuse is actually causing a major security threat in the country.
There is also wanton disregard of the law, even in our roads, meaning that the Security Council should have that broader aspect. If we focus on the traditional aspect of security then we are going to miss a lot of major issues that we should consider. I thank you.
HON. T. MLISWA: I want to believe that every political party believes that their party is supreme in its structures. My question here involves the sector for security for the ruling party. If the party is supreme, it means that the security forces report to him if we have to be serious about that. I do not understand when they say the party is supreme but the ruling party security person is not there, who they must report to. That is what I understand ‘the party is supreme’. So, how can it be supreme when their own sector for security is not there? I think this has got to be with every political party at the end of the day. Also, they must include it. That is my proposal.
If you look at Parliament, the Standing Orders Committee, we have got leaders of opposition. Why are we afraid to have the opposition sit in there because in Parliament we have it in Standing Orders? This is what makes us divide people. The leader of opposition sits on the Standing Orders Committee and all that, so why can they not find themselves there? Not only that, the NGOs, there is a Bill which you have done very well Hon. Ziyambi, so what is their threat now? Why not invite them to also be there?
Not only that, there also must be a section that says that the council can invite any person or organisation to appear before them, that is important. They can invite because if there is an issue relating to a matter of national security, they can invite them to come and be asked questions so that the information is authentic, rather than hearing it from other people. The National Security Council has its own reports but in those reports, the people they mention, if it deems necessary they invite them for verification because if we do not have that to verify information, it then becomes a problem. So, there must be that provision to invite a person or organisation.
If we talk about climatic conditions which Hon. Biti talked about, we do not necessarily need a Minister to sit there but they can be invited to explain what it is of national security effect that they think. That will be my contribution.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Madam Chair. On the first point, on the composition, I agree with Hon. Biti. In fact, I would have even wanted to end where it says ‘any other Minister who the President may from time to time appoint’. So, I think the rest is not necessary. So, I am proposing to delete from where it says ‘in consultation with any of the Ministers’. I think it should end ‘any other Minister who the President from time to time appoints’. The reason being that it can be an issue to do with food security, what has the Ministers of Intelligence, Defence and Police to advise the President? He knows about that. He can just do it himself. I think that is in order. I propose that.
Then, I do not agree that we should add the Minister of Health and Child Care and the Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Tourism and Hospitality Industry as permanent members. The reason why I say so is, you can actually have food insecurity, it can be a national security threat. Something can actually – like what Hon. Hamauswa has said, he referred to the issue of drugs. We will end up saying the Minister of Youth must also be within the Committee.
I think let us allow the President, from time to time to appoint a Minister who then sits to deal with that particular issue. That is my submission that if I can have the indulgence of Members on this. Let us give the President, without consulting. In fact, the President always consults but we must not limit him. He may consult his mind and if he is convinced that he is making the correct decision, let us allow him. I believe that the way it is crafted, it takes care of our fears, climate change, drugs, food security, whatever other threat that may come in because these would be discussed if there is an issue that is arising out of that. Those are my submissions and the amendments that I propose.
On Hon Mliswa’s proposal, I respectfully submit that issues of the Executive are different from Parliament. The composition of Parliament includes the ruling party, Opposition and Independent. In the Committee on Standing Rules, you can have independent, opposition and ruling party but it is in the discretion of the President who he appoints to be Cabinet Ministers. The Bill speaks of State Security issues, composition of a National Security Council in terms of the mandate that the President has been given to set up and not in terms of somebody who is an opposition leader in Parliament. I submit Madam Chair.
HON. BITI: Madam Speaker, out of an abundance of caution, I propose that we add a proviso that says the National Security Council is the apex Organ in Zimbabwe on National Security Council matters. Thank you very much.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Madam Chair, if you look at the composition of the council, like he is rightly saying, it is chaired by the President. Any other Organ is not chaired by the President, so the supremacy of this is already there – [HON. BITI: Inga mange mabvuma wani.] – I am not seeing any reason – [HON. T. MLISWA: Inaudible interjection.] – JOC is not chaired by the President. So this council is chaired by the President. Its supremacy is already there – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (HON. MAVETERA): Hon. Members, I think this has to be put in Hansard. May you please take the floor.
HON. T. MLISWA: Madam Chair, once you have this arrangement from a constitutional point of view, you cannot entertain any other security organ. JOC was chaired by the Minister of National Security. The President, once there is this council, JOC falls away because if they have to put together operational clusters, that is up to them. JOC being part of it and the President saying you will do this and you will come to us and not to have a National Security Minister and the DG reporting to the President, it creates problems. That is where the confusion starts and we have seen it. We do not have to point out names. When you have a Director General of CIO, he is good enough in the President’s office and deals with the President. What do you need a Minister to also give the same report? He has got all these Service Chiefs whom he can be talking to but the President has the right to invite and talk to them. We cannot have a parallel structure. I propose that it is very clear. If they make JOC operational, ndizvozvo. Again, with this whole thing, JOC ceases really. JOC inyaya yesecurity, vanogara vachitaurirana. What we have with JOC are all the Service Chiefs and the Ministers who are in Security as chaired by the Minister of National Security. This National Council is chaired by the President. There is no need because all those people who are chaired by the Minister of National Security are also part of the Committee where the President is. What is the point of another meeting because all of them as you can see are all part of the National Security Council? So, why should we have another meeting? The Minister is there and must say whatever they are saying to the President, the Commander Defence Forces might say whatever they are saying and so forth vari pamwe chete. The difference is that the President now chairs it, which is the right thing to do. Vose imomo hapasisina makuhwa kuti uyu anoenda uku, uyu oenda achinyepa. Minister vanotaura, Commander Defence Forces, Commissioner General of Police, DG ibambazonke ipapo. Mukuru wenyika aripo hapasisina imwe meeting.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Hon. Chair, I propose to make an amendment on Clause 3 and have a new Clause 3 (1) that reads, “The council shall be the apex Organ for National Security matters.” The other sub-clauses will be renumbered accordingly.
Hon. Chair, I have another amendment in my name. On Clause 3, the old sub-clause 3 (a) on Composition of Council where it says, Composition of Council and it says, the Council consists of the following members; (a) The President.
I propose that it reads (a) The President, who shall be the Chairperson of the Council.
Amendment to Clause 3 put and agreed to.
Clause 3, as amended, put and agreed to.
Clause 4 put and agreed to.
On Clause 5:
HON. T. MLISWA: On Clause 5 (1), on the day or days fixed by the President, the Council must meet at such times and places as the President may determine.
Presidents differ and you cannot take this President the same as any other President; they must meet, at least, quarterly and as … - [HON. ZIYAMBI: Zviripo wani, provided that Council meets at least once every three months.] –
HON. T. MLISWA: I think it is clear. Sorry, I had not seen that. I withdraw.
Clauses 5 to 8 put and agreed to.
On Clause 9:
HON. BITI: Madam Speaker Ma’am, I appreciate that security matters are confidential but because the definition of security has changed to include things that are - in fact, the bulk of security we are now dealing with are not operational issues like how many guns do we have? How many troops did we send to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or to northern Mozambique?
I submit that the Minister of State Security must provide an annual report to Parliament, that of course, leaves out sensitive things but should be able to deal with general security council issues like a flood in Zimbabwe; food security, drought and so forth; a general report. If the draft, as it stands, allows the President to present and incorporate in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), a national Security Council report. Let the Minister of State Security present a standalone report, not necessarily on things that are obviously not for public consumption but if we agree Madam Speaker Ma’am, that security has been redefined, then it means that most national issues now are not as sensitive as how many guns do we have? How many soldiers to northern Mozambique? This would be my submission.
So, a carefully worded Section 9(2) can be made that says, the Minister of State Security shall present a report to Parliament which shall be consistent with security interests of the country. I think that would be good enough. Thank you very much.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Madam Chair. Madam Chair, ministers by their very nature, do not bring annual reports of their work to Parliament. So, the Minister of State Security cannot bring a report of that nature because he is not the one who chairs the organ; it is the President. The clause indicates that in his State of the Nation, he can include issues that he believes are of interest.
However, if there are issues that are of interest to Parliament, Parliament has got other ways, in fact, Parliament is allowed to summon any member of the Executive to present a report on the state of any security matter that they deem is of national interest and that can be done. I believe that in the format that it is, Hon. Members can allow it to pass. It is not defective to the extent that members would be prejudiced. I believe that it sufficiently covers, Hon. Biti, what – [HON. BITI: It will create culture of accountability.] – Yes, but culture is already inculcated there. The President, in his State of the Nation, will then have to ensure that some of those issues, he will report on them. The President has always been doing that in terms of issues to do with climate change, food security; those have always been covered.
I believe that it is sufficient in its current format and plead with Hon. Members that the clause be passed in its current format. I thank you.
HON. T. MLISWA: I will go back to Clause 5 – [HON. ZIYAMBI: Procedure does not allow you to do so!] –
THE ACTING CHAIRPERSON: Honourable Member, you cannot do that.
HON. T. MLISWA: I have not finished speaking yet, allow me to finish speaking please; mabva makambira kudai ndisati ndatombotaura. Aaah aah musavhunduke, musavhunduke teererai.
You see, I support Hon. Biti in line with what is already provided for that. The council must meet at least every three months. After that meeting, can we get a report and that was my reference. After they have met, can we get a report - what is wrong with that? It is there already, they are meeting and we must know from an accountability point of view. They have met and what have they come up with and so they cannot keep quiet. That was my whole point.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: I think with the nature of this council, it is being chaired by the President. I think the Constitution is quite clear that the President comes on the State of the Nation unless you have called as Parliament, but it is usually the Vice President. So I am thinking on this one that the President comes and addresses us on the State of the Nation Address and it is quite clear.
HON. T. MLISWA: What I am trying to say is if this report can be tabled by the Leader of Government Business and it is allowed, that is my point Madam Chair. The Leader of Government Business tables the report.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Hon. Chair, if you go to Clause 5 that he made reference to, trying to smuggle in his thinking to Clause 9, it covers what he is saying. It says in sub-clause 2, Clause 5, meetings of the council and of its Committees are not public but the council may inform the public of any resolution of the council where it is necessary in the public interest to do so. So it is there and once the council meets or committees of council meet and there is an issue of public interest that can be done. In my earlier response, I have indicated that if it is an issue of public interest, there is nothing that stops Parliament to summon any Minister or even the President, the Constitution allows that. That is why I pleaded with Hon. Members that it sufficiently covers everything that you are afraid of in the Bill in its current state. I so submit.
HON. BITI: Madam Chair, Clause 5 that the Hon. Minister refers to already says council can go public on matters of national interest. So at the end of the year, let us create a situation where an annual report is presented. I sat in the National Council, you hardly discuss security issues because those are operational issues. You discuss issues which are of national interest like floods in Chipinge. There is nothing wrong in a report being tabled. Institutions and nations are built on the basis of the collective memory of that Nation State and the collective memory is contained in those reports. Researchers and students will work on those reports.
Parliament too has the basis of standing up and debating. There are so many parastatals now under the President like DDF but it lays a report in Parliament. There is nothing wrong in the culture of reports because we already have it. It aids to and abates the culture of accountability. They put a report and we do not want to know how many guns have been bought from China – we are not interested in that. We are interested in these social security issues. What is happening with drought, COVID and floods? I have just seen a video from Hon. Hwende, of a road in Gokwe that looks like a planting field. That is a national security issue. That is our appeal Madam Speaker Ma’am. Thank you.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Hon. Biti, on the issue of DDF, it is a parastatal and this one is a council and not a parastatal.
HON. BITI: It is a constitutional body and it is even bigger than DDF.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Yes, that is what I am saying. So we cannot be able to compare those two and even in terms of chairing.
HON. HAMAUSWA: Thank you Madam Chair. I also want to emphasize on the need for annual reports and also ad hoc Committees if there are some extraordinary issues that might emerge. For example natural disasters, it will be important that the Security Council can issue a report and in the report, you would also want to see the report predicting the nature and shape of threats to security and also highlighting issues that can promote peace and security in our country.
Those reports will guide even issues to do with budgeting. They will be working hand in hand with the Committee on Defence. So without those reports, we will be like moving or sailing on unchartered waters because there is no guidance in terms of supporting and in terms of identifying the new courses that should also be given to our security forces. There are kind of training that needs to be in line with the 21st century threats to security.
If you Google on the National Defence University, even starting with the establishment of the National Defence University, it means the Ministry of Defence is ahead of Parliament and Parliament is way behind in terms of coming up with the laws that will accommodate those changes. If you check at the courses that are being offered, they are offering courses like Strategic Defence and Security. Those are the courses which can be contained in the report because the reports will also look at our borders.
We now have the discovery of minerals like the reports of massive deposits of oil, we do not know whether it is true and what is likely to happen. We know that wherever there are oil deposits, there are also issues to do with insecurities and threats to terrorists. They also follow all areas where we have oil deposits or where oil is being extracted. So what is going to be the future of the Zambezi Valley? Are those people really secure?
The security report will predict that if we are going to extract oil resources in Muzarabani, are we not going to rethink of another way maybe different from the way that was used by the Smith regime, of putting landmines, but it means there is now need for a new method of making sure that the border is secure because back then the border was secured through landmines. So how are we going to secure the border with the ban of the landmines? What kind of security measures do we need to put in place in light of the discovery of oil in Muzarabani? Another issue which is also of major concern, the xenophobic attacks that have been happening in South Africa, it is a major security concern which the reports should actually consider.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Madam Chair, the period where we are debating is over. We are zeroing in on Clause 9 and the issue that was raised by Hon. Biti is about reports. What Hon. Hamauswa is debating is very good, I agree with it but he is out of order.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Order Hon. Hamauswa, we do not want to continue repeating same issues over and over again, this is very clear. If ever there is anything affecting security, it is clear on Clause 5. It is very clear that whenever there is any security concern that will be reported. Now we are going to Clause 9 and this is what we should be debating. When it comes to reports, reports will come on the State of the Nation Address. Is there anything you want to say outside of this? We cannot continue repeating and saying the same things.
HON. HAMAUSWA: Thank you Madam Chair, I do not want to appear as if I am just raising unnecessary arguments, I really appreciate what the Hon. Minister has said. My focus was on emphasising even on the contents of the reports. We should also be able to be guided from the point of law, to say what are the issues that should be contained in the reports; so I was trying to emphasise the real need to make sure that we put more emphasis on the need for reporting and the reporting should come annually or on ad hoc basis. Those are the two points that I have highlighted and to say these are the issues that should be contained, that is why I gave an example of discovery of oil. You can agree with me that the reports should be predictive also to say what will then happen. So those are the things I want to emphasise. If you say it is just a report, then it will be left to those who are reporting on what should be contained. Why not make it somehow closer to exhaustive to the nature of the report? I thank you.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: The issue is so clear that if ever there is any issue – of all those issues that you have mentioned; if there is any security concern, it will be talked about in those meetings and then we will have the communication accordingly. I think we have heard reports from the Ministry of Local Government and all the Ministers when there is any issue of concern. If it is a security issue which is of great importance, it will be tabled in this House and it is clear in this Bill.
Clause 9 put and agreed to
House resumed.
Bill reported with amendments.
Bill referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: (HON. ZIYAMBI): Madam Speaker, I move that Orders of the Day, Nos. 4 to 11 on today’s Order Paper be stood over until Order of the Day, No. 12 has been disposed of.
Motion put and agreed to.
SECOND READING
PRISONS AND CORRECTIONAL SERVICE BILL [H. B. 6, 2022]
Twelfth Order read: Second Reading: Prisons and Correctional Amendment Bill [H. B. 6, 2022].
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, I rise to present my second reading speech on the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Bill. This Bill seeks to repeal the Prisons Act and enact a new legislative framework.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the recommendation to repeal and enact the new Prisons Act was borne out of the realisation that the current legislation is inadequate and out of sync with the current international norms and standards relating to prisons administration. This Bill, Mr. Speaker Sir, seeks to align the existing Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Act with the Constitution of Zimbabwe 2013. The Constitution of Zimbabwe created, in its Part 5 of Chapter II, the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS). The Constitution elevated the status of this institution to be a constitutional entity with a broadened mandate. The broadening of the scope of the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service’s mandate has necessitated the review of the governing Act to ensure that the legislation is in sync with the constitutional provisions. The increased scope of the role of the ZPCS now includes an express provision on rehabilitation and correctional services which was neither categorically provided for in the previous Constitution nor in the Act of Parliament.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the proposed new Act therefore, seeks to modernise the prisons legislation with a view to ensuring that it meets the international norms and standards regarding prisons administration including the way prisoners should be treated. This includes focusing more on restorative justice through rehabilitation rather than incarceration of offenders. The proposed legislation will also ensure that the prison system caters for the needs of the vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, juvenile offenders as well as persons with disabilities and other special categories in society that have special needs. The current system lacks a supporting legislative framework to ensure that these values are entrenched within the prisons service.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the Bill seeks to broaden the scope of the parole system. Under the current legislation, parole is very limited in scope as it only applies to that category of prisoners who are serving extended sentences. The proposed legislation seeks to provide for the eligibility of every prisoner to apply for parole regardless of the nature of sentences they are serving. This would mean that all categories of prisoners would be eligible to be considered for parole at some point whilst serving their sentences.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the current legislation does not provide re-integration plans for a prisoner after serving their prison terms and this generally affects their smooth integration back into their communities thereby increasing chances of recidivism. The proposed legislation seeks to promote community involvement in prisons and correctional service in order to ensure that prisoners will not face difficulties and hostilities in being accepted back into their communities and within their families.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the proposed legislation will also provide for the establishment of correctional community centres throughout the country which essentially will be open prisons. These will be used for providing the prisoners with the necessary life skills through training and rehabilitation as well as ensuring their reintegration back into society. These centres will also ensure the decongestion of prisons as certain prisoners would be released from standard prisons to reside in such community centres. They will serve the purpose of easing the transition of inmates from incarceration life to community life.
The new law will extensively provide for health care services for inmates by guiding principles on health care of inmates. This is in compliance with Section 48 as read with Section 50 of the Constitution on the right to life and rights of arrested/detained person. The proposed legislation goes on further to extend an inmate’s right to consult with a medical practitioner of their choice at their own expense.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the Constitution states that every person has a right to legal representation. Section 50 of the Constitution spells out that any person who is arrested must be permitted without delay to access a private lawyer. In tandem with this constitutional provision, the proposed law affords inmates access to their lawyers before and during their trials. Further to that, the new law provides for a paralegal system in prisons and institutions, in order to assist inmates who cannot afford legal fees.
Unconvicted prisoners have a constitutional right to be tried within a reasonable period of time. As a way to ease prison congestion and avoid lengthy remands, the new legislation proposes that a list on unconvicted prisoners be submitted to the Registrar of the High Court every quarter, giving details as to when they were admitted to prison. Mr. Speaker Sir, I therefore urge Hon. Members to support and pass this Bill. I so submit and move that the Bill be read a second time. I thank you.
HON. BITI: Mr. Speaker Sir, the Bill is very long. We ask the indulgence of the House and the Minister that the debate be adjourned to tomorrow so that we can read. It has got over 85 pages and over 140 provisions. So to do justice to the Bill, we ask that we adjourn now and then we are allowed to debate tomorrow.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 1st February, 2023.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that we revert to Order of the Day, Number 6.
Motion put and agreed to.
SECOND READING
CHILD JUSTICE BILL [H. B. 11, 2021]
Sixth Order read: Adjourned debate on Second Reading: of the Child Justice Bill [H. B. 11, 2021].
Question again proposed.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I wish to thank the Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for their report and observations, as well as an extensive report that they produced. I also want to thank Hon. Members of this House for the positive contributions and for a very vibrant and engaged debate on the Second Reading of the Child Justice Bill. The report and the debate raised relevant pertinent issues which I wish to respond to.
I will start by addressing issues raised in the report of the Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. The Committee raised a pertinent issue on the minimum age of criminal responsibility having been set at 12 years of age, and some concerns raised by the public that 12 year olds may still be too young to be found of having criminal capacity. It is my submission Mr. Speaker that we are in a technological era where children have access to more than we had during our time and are exposed to a lot more due to technology and free access to information. So 12 years is an acceptable age for criminal capacity.
As Zimbabwe is a peculiar case compared to our neighbours, South Africa who according to the South African Child Justice Act of 2008 set out the age of criminal capacity of a child at 10 years. Crime level and its evolution in Zimbabwe is lower and has been at a lower level of evolution in comparison to South Africa, thus making our case peculiar and incomparable to our neighbours. It is necessary to note that there is a provision that leaves room for evidence to be provided or furnished to establish and prove that a child between the ages of 12 years of age and 14 years does not have criminal capacity, which is a reasonable compromise for situations where a child in conflict with the law between those ages can still be found without criminal capacity (if established through evidence). It is encouraging to hear the positive contributions from Hon. Sibanda and Hon. Banda in this regard.
Mr. Speaker, there was also a proposal that the Crtiminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act be amended so that it is in line with the Child Justice Act on age of criminal responsibility. As we are all part of legislative making body and my Ministry being responsible for the legislative alignment process of all legislation to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, it is our duty to see to it that all legislation is aligned. As it stands now, the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act is in the process of being aligned with the Marriage Act.
Regarding the issue raised on the Government supporting and ensuring that resources are availed for the construction of more correctional and rehabilitation centres for juvenile offenders that incorporate health and educational facilities, it is a very crucial point which is our prayer, as it will allow for better operations and effective implementation of the Child Justice Bill if passed. As highlighted by the Law Society of Zimbabwe as provided for by Clause 5 (ix) (j) that the principle must be holistic enough to also include reformation and rehabilitation (not just reintegration) as per Article 17 (3) of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, this can only be carried out through support with resources and capacitation in terms of facilities.
Allow me to kindly address concerns regarding child friendly courts and the diversion process. The Bill’s objective is to meet international standards as provided for in the United Nations Convention on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which address the treatment of children in conflict with the law. The rights of a child like any other accused person must be protected. It is encouraging to see that the Bill has been well received based on the contributions from the Hon. Members.
This Bill has come as a necessity as mandated by Section 19 (1) of the Constitution which provides that the State must adopt policies and measures to ensure that in matters relating to children, the best interests of the child concerned are paramount. Section 19 (2) (c) further gives a critical mandate to the State to adopt policies and measures within the limit of the resources available to it, to ensure that children are protected from maltreatment, neglect or any form of abuse. The establishment of child friendly courts is definitely a milestone in our justice system. Separation of children in conflict with the law from adult offenders protects these children, their rights and allows room for their rehabilitation without being tainted as well as their re-integration.
Mr. Speaker, in the same light, I appreciate the contribution by Hon. Banda, where he has suggested that the protection of children in conflict with the law is enhanced by the public and the press being excluded from trials. The child friendly court system seeks to ensure this is provided for. As for the diversion process, a look at formulating a legislative framework that spells out how the diversion process should be carried out is necessary together with ensuring that there is a speedy process from where the child protection officers begin to the diversion committees to the stage where prosecutors and magistrates become involved. I concur that sentences should show restorative justice which would need to be set out in sentencing guidelines.
The Committee also recommended that training for officers should be established to ensure the protection of the rights of children in conflict with the law from any abuse, violence and mistreatment within the system during any stage of the justice process. Awareness of the law is also necessary to enable the general public, children, institutions, to be well informed of the law and the protections it provides for children as well as prevent children from falling into a life of crime. We will ensure that this is carried out, as empowering people with knowledge of the law is a step towards good governance as required by NDS1 if the Bill passes.
Allow me now Mr. Speaker, to address one very pertinent issue raised by the Committee as well as the Law Society, which speaks to the process of age determination which are said to be too broad. As highlighted in the report, paragraph 34 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment 24 of 2019 (CRC/C/GC/24) 1 provides for assessment of the child’s physical and psychological development to be performed by professionals skilled in evaluating different aspects of development. In Zimbabwe, as is practiced by Social Welfare and many others, it is the practice to use professionals such as dentists who have received the required training to determine such. It is however necessary to highlight that the process of doing so through professionals such as dentists is costly and resource support for such accommodations would need to be taken into consideration.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I would like to commend the Hon. Members for mobilising the public in their constituencies to attend and participate in public hearings. I encourage all Hon. Members to maintain the same energy going forward for this Bill and all others that follow.
Mr. Speaker Sir, allow me to conclude by advising the Hon. Members that this new legislation is progressing in the right direction for our justice system as a country, as many countries already have standing legislation on Child Justice and Child Justice Courts, whereby going forward, we will seek to adopt best practices to make our system conform to the international standard for child justice and child protection. I want to encourage Hon. Members to embrace this progressive step in our justice system whose aim is to protect our children and their rights. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I move that the Bill be read a second time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read a second time.
Committee Stage: Wednesday, 1st February, 2023.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI), the House adjourned at Nine Minutes past Six o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 31st January, 2023
The Senate met at Half –past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE in the Chair)
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: I move that Order of the Day, Number 1 on today’s Order Paper be stood over until the rest of the Orders of the Day have been disposed of.
HON. SEN. MATHUTHU: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
Second Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
HON. SEN. S. MPOFU: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 1st February, 2023.
MOTION
CONSTRUCTION OF SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE AND RECRUITMENT OF ECD TEACHERS
Third Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on challenges affecting early childhood learning.
Question again proposed.
*HON. SEN. MOEKETSI: Thank you Mr. President for giving me the opportunity. I want to say compliments of the new season.
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Order, you are not connected.
*HON. SEN. MOEKETSI: Thank you. I want to add a few words to the motion which was moved by Hon. Sen. Mabika. Mr. President Sir, the Hon. Senator moved a pertinent motion, especially taking note that it is important for mothers because our children sometimes are institutionalised in safe places and they come from preschool with a bit of knowledge of good and bad, what should be done and what should not be done. Let me also say that, Mr. President, this is elementary education. This is where they start to be groomed to know who this is and their significance in their lives. So, I thought that Government should intervene in the zero grade issue. Government should intervene because we are building our children. We are grooming them to grow up to be responsible leaders. I also believe that it is a good thing because our children will be safe in institutions like ECD centres. There is a bad spirit which is circulating. You find small children disappearing, just going inside the house, may be the mother is sweeping, only to find that the child has disappeared. This is not right; this is a bad spirit which is circulating.
A pre-school is a safe haven for children. As a parent, I can do my household chores freely knowing that at a particular time I will collect my child from ECD and bring the child home. It is our plea that as a nation, we need Government to intervene. Government should intervene because this is tomorrow’s leadership. We are growing old and we would not be here for good for the younger generation is coming up. We need to protect them so that we have children who excel in education but they have to come from the zero grade. When they go for grade one, they will be knowledgeable. Going to Form Four, you know that from elementary education this child has the potential and they will succeed or not in their education.
The other issue that I want to raise – we are talking about a very good initiative but the kind of life that we are living is hard. The places where our children are going for ECDs are not healthy. We need to request that Government intervenes because you find that in some ECD centres, there are no toilets and no water. So, it is my plea that Government should intervene so that things would move forward properly. It is important for children to be in a healthy environment. Some take their children to such centres because they would want to do their household chores with no disturbance but some of these places are not good for the children. I just wanted to raise these few words so that Government intervenes. I thank you Mr. President.
*HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to say a few words on the motion which was moved by Hon. Sen. Mabika, which is quite important to us as a nation and as parents. This issue existed in the past. Our children used to go and do role playing and back then there was no ECD. They could play and you could identify the potential and different talents that were invested upon children.
With the advent of technology and development, ECDs were introduced. ECD is just like a house which is being built because when you build a house without a strong foundation, when rains and storms come, that house will fall. That house will not survive strong winds. So, this is the same with the motion that was moved that as a nation, we need to put our efforts in creating a conducive environment for ECDs so that our children are brought up and grounded in elementary education so that when they grow up, they grow and graduate to primary and secondary education.
In the past when going for grade one, a child was left crying at school because the child would want to remain there. They knew that they would just be staying at home, hence it was difficult to adjust to a new environment in school, meeting new people. So, the children would cry but ECD now is creating an environment where children cry at the first instance but when they see their peers of the same age, then they get used to that environment. As they get used to that environment, they become confident and understand the importance of education.
My request then is that the Ministry of Health and Child Care should ensure that every school with ECD is inspected by health officials to ascertain the suitability of the health situation at the school. They need to check whether there is proper food, ablution facilities, clean water and sanitation, whether it is in the rural areas or in towns. If it is in the rural areas, they need to check whether they are using borehole water for the children to get clean water. The health aspect of our children is important.
The other point is that there are some ECD schools which charge monies that are exorbitant and beyond the parents’ capabilities. This results in parents paying higher fees for ECD than Grade Ones. This is the reason why some children drop out of school and some are not going to ECD because the fees are very expensive.
My request is that there should be a law which regulates the fees structures of ECDs so that there are similar fee structures which can be afforded by parents. This eliminates some children from the elementary education stage as their parents are not able to pay the fees which will be required. If the child is monitored at an early stage, it is easy to discover their talent. This is the foundation of leadership. As they go to Grade One up to A’ Level, these talents will be nurtured. That is why in the past you would discover that such children were given bursaries and those who were talented were nurtured. They could not drop out of school because their parents could not afford but there were bursaries to cover such students.
Mr. President, this is a very important motion as a nation because these children are nurtured and their skills are developed. You would find that we would have medical doctors, pilots and specialists in different areas because their abilities will be identified at a tender age at ECD. I want to thank Hon. Sen. Mabika for moving such an important motion and bring it to this august Senate so that we develop our children for posterity. I thank you.
+HON. SEN. A. DUBE: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to add my voice on the motion which was moved by Hon. Sen. Mabika. I would like to thank God for taking care of us over the holidays. Firstly, these infants are important people and I would like to thank Hon. Sen. Mabika for moving this motion.
The development of every child begins at an early stage. It was very difficult long back to see the development of the child but nowadays we see the development of the child at an early stage. That is why there is a saying that a child is taught well at an infant stage. Some other kids are bullies and when they get to school they will not respect their teachers. They want to fight with their teachers sometimes. If a child enrolls at an early stage, they will see the importance of the teacher. It is very important that there should be early child education. Parents should see it important and they have to send their children to school. The child who enrolls at Grade One stage will not be able to catch up with those who started at an early stage. Nowadays we see that the children at ECD are able to speak in English and mingle well with other children without bullying each other. Sometimes we find that children who enroll for Grade One will not be able to respect each other because they would not have done ECD. At times teachers would ask parents to assist in teaching the children at home.
In rural areas, some children learn in open spaces but it is very important for the children to learn in classrooms. They will be comfortable when they are seated on chairs and have desks. This will enable them to have endurance to continue learning. If they are seated on the ground they will not have that endurance. Children should have the necessary material in classrooms. Many schools in rural areas do not have sufficient material for children to use. It is very important for the parents to take their children to ECD so that they develop well. Some parents do not see the importance of taking their children to ECD and they only do so because there is no-one to look after the child at home.
We should thank the teachers who teach children at ECD and respect the teachers who teach our children in schools. The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should provide adequate infrastructure to unfinished schools. They should also take note of illiterate parents in rural areas and consider enrolling them.
When considering the budget, we urge the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to allocate more funds to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. Teachers’ residences, in rural areas are dilapidated. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development should consider increased funding to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education so that rural schools can build more classrooms; and teachers can have cottages.
Mr. President, I would like to thank Hon. Sen. Mabika for tabling this very important motion. Integrated Early Childhood Development Programmes (ECDs) are very important. Many people can now see that ECDs are very important; parents verify the importance of ECDs as children grow armed with positive development. The future of the child will be set at a young age and few fail their Grade 7 examinations. Once again, thank you Mr. President, for giving me the opportunity to add a few words to this very important motion.
HON. SEN. MABIKA: Thank you Mr. President. I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. MATHUTHU: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 1st February, 2023.
On the motion of HON. SEN. MUZENDA, seconded by HON. SEN. TONGOGARA, the Senate adjourned at Nine Minutes past Three o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 18th January, 2023.
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. SPEAKER in the Chair)
THE HON. SPEAKER: I listened yesterday towards the end of the debate on the main motion. One of the last speakers stood up to say, ‘I concur with my colleagues who have spoken before me’. The other one stood up also and said the same. The third one also said the same. I do not think there is need for further debate. You concluded by saying there is no further debate. - [HON. DR. LABODE: Yes, I said that and I gave the final resolution which was not opposed.] – A resolution which was not opposed, yes.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION 2022 PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE DELIMITATION EXERCISE
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the report of the Ad hoc Committee on the analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise.
Question again proposed.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order! Please take your seats. Hon. Biti, can we have some order?
THE HON. SPEAKER: I have four names here. It would appear the Whips agreed on two-two.
HON. RAIDZA: Thank you very much Hon. Speaker Sir and compliments of the new season. Thank you very much for affording me this opportunity to add a few words/remarks to the motion that was moved by Hon. Togarepi in this House in relation to the Delimitation Report.
THE HON. SPEAKER: You are not connected Hon. Raidza.
HON. RAIDZA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, I believe I am connected now. I am connected. The Delimitation Report …
THE HON. SPEAKER: You are not connected Hon. Raidza. – [HON. T. MLISWA: He is using Hon. Priscilla Moyo’s gadget.] –
HON. RAIDZA: No, I am connected.
THE HON. SPEAKER: You are not connected, do not argue with me.
HON. RAIDZA: It is connected.
THE HON. SPEAKER: I must hear your voice here.
HON. RAIDZA: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. I just rose to add my voice to the report that was brought to this House in relation to the delimitation.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the Delimitation Report that was done, in this country we have some aspects that we think the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) really did not do a proper job. When delimitation is done Mr. Speaker Sir, the main purpose is to inspire and encourage our people to participate in the electoral processes of this country. Even the ordinary people of this country have a number of questions that we think ZEC needs to really look into so that at least at the end of the day it becomes an all encompassing and all consultative process …
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Member, put forward those questions please.
HON. RAIDZA: I am putting them forward now Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Come on.
HON. RAIDZA: Thank you, thank you. When we look at Mberengwa East Constituency Mr. Speaker Sir, we have issues around Ward 8. In this ward Mr. Speaker Sir, when they were rationalizing their numbers, we believe that they were rationalizing their numbers but as they were rationalizing their numbers they did not consider or come physically to look into issues of physical features and issues of common interest that I believe other Hon. Members have alluded to.
What happens is that at the end of the day or if this report is adopted – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order! Hon. Members, can you whisper to each other please.
HON. RAIDZA: If the report is adopted in its current form, it will leave our people walking very long distances. ZEC ended up taking people from Ward 7, like some polling stations from Muchipisi area that will cause those people at the end of the day, when we look at post-delimitation effects, to end up walking an average of about 30kms to make sure that they receive services from their representatives like councilors. Those are some of the issues.
In one of the places in Ward 18 Mr. Speaker Sir, ZEC was moving polling stations and not the number of people to make sure that they come up with a ward. We have a polling station called Sihande Mr. Speaker Sir. Those people will end up moving from Ward 18 to Ward 23 in Mberengwa Administration District. These are some of the concerns that we are saying at the end of the day, had ZEC come on the ground; it could have just dealt with these things instead of moving blocks of people in polling stations. They could have moved villages so that at least at the end of the day they would have rationalized their numbers properly.
We also have people who have been asked or moved from places like Jeka to Ward 15 where they will end up crossing big rivers. So, we are wondering what will end up happening in some of these areas…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Ward 15 of which constituency?
HON. RAIDZA: I am speaking around Mberengwa Administration District.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you.
HON. RAIDZA: I am speaking to Mberengwa Admin District Mr. Speaker Sir. The other issue is we know that they were using our 2013 Constitution to do their delimitation and there were a number of variations that other Hon. Members were talking about. I want to talk about issues of the existing boundaries.
We know that with the 2013 Constitution they said that they were rationalizing, even not considering the existing boundaries Mr. Speaker Sir. I believe the issue around chiefs was supposed to have been considered seriously by ZEC because they are telling us that they are not disturbing the boundaries of the chiefs. At the end of the day, if chiefs were left without wards or Ward Assemblies, it means our development agenda or development priorities that we have in rural areas will be affected if the report is submitted in its current format.
Our chiefs Mr. Speaker Sir, get their pride from chairing their Ward Assemblies where they assemble their village heads and councilors together to speak about development. If that power is taken away by this report, it will create a bit of a challenge at the end of the day. Above that, you will find that one chief will be joined with another chief in one ward. Basically, what it means is, one chief will be falling under another chief, thus creating a lot of cultural conflicts amongst our traditional leaders. So, these are some of the issues that I think ZEC really needs to look into.
They were raised in our Ad Hoc Report. So, my prayer is that the report is adopted; the one that was done by our Ad Hoc Committee as it is and make sure that ZEC attends to all the queries that were raised in the report. I thank you.
*HON. PRISCILLA MOYO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. A lot has already been said but I want to support this report by thanking the Committee for …
*THE HON. SPEAKER: You are not connected Hon. Member.
*HON. PRISCILLA MOYO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. A lot has already been said but I want to support this report by thanking the Committee for investigating and analysing the report. Can you now hear me Mr. Speaker Sir?
*THE HON. SPEAKER: Yes, Hon. Member.
*HON. PRISCILLA MOYO: Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Committee for a job well done and for analysing the ZEC report. Without wasting time, I want to look at Mwenezi. We have been voting for long and have a lot of people. So, we are very happy with what ZEC came up with because it has equaled all the constituencies. Many a times we were voting with a lot of people and were being given the same Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the same devolution funds. So, we are happy because the numbers have been equaled in all constituencies and there are also equal numbers in the wards.
There were wards that did not have people and people were put into those wards. We are very happy as constituencies have been added because we were suppressed for a long time. We want to thank the President who initiated the Delimitation Programme. There are certain things that need to be looked at like the places where people are voting and the polling stations, especially Ward 17 or Barbourfields. People are travelling for 30 kilometers to go and vote. So we want ZEC to rectify the polling stations and put more polling stations so that all the people will vote.
The elderly who cannot climb mountains - they should look at those mountains geographically because in Mwenezi there are mountains and rivers which are not passable during the rainy season. These areas should be really looked at especially when it comes to the polling stations. A lot of things have been talked about and I want to thank ZEC and the Ad Hoc Committee for a job well-done. Thank you.
HON. CHINYANGANYA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for giving me the opportunity to add my voice to the Delimitation Report. Let me start by saying the Delimitation Report as tabled by our Ad Hoc Committee, I observed that the Delimitation Report was not in compliance with Section 161of the Constitution. As such, it should not be adopted. I take note especially Section 161 (6) (d) which stipulates that community of interest should be taken into account. I will give an example of Kadoma Central Constituency.
According to the Delimitation Report, the people of the City of Kadoma will be served by three Members of Parliament which does not make sense. By virtue of its size, it should be served by two Members of Parliament as what was obtaining before this current delimitation. If we look closely, part of the Central Business District of Kadoma City was apportioned to Chakari Constituency, which does not make sense.
The people of Mornington and Westview use tap water. They use sewer system and septic, and for them to be given to Chakari Constituency, Chakari is mainly a farming area. They have dip tanks and farms and there is nothing in common between those voters. It will be difficult for the Members of Parliament involved to really allocate their Constituency Development Funds to service those voters. On that basis, for lack of community of interest, I think the Delimitation Report should not see the light of the day.
There is also the issue of complicated coordinate system which was used. Most wards in Kadoma have a complicated coordinate system which will leave voters with difficulties in ascertaining which wards they fall in. In addition, all the ward boundaries in Kadoma were moved and it does not make sense. It will mean that a lot of voter education would need to take place and educate the voters in which wards they fall into. Those are my submissions Mr. Speaker Sir. I propose that this Delimitation Report be thrown into the bin. I thank you.
*HON. PETER MOYO: Thank you Mr. Speaker for affording me this opportunity to add my voice on the Delimitation Report. I want to thank Hon. Togarepi and other Hon. Members for a job well-done. The report was apolitical. ZEC Report is offside and it is not in line with the Constitution. We want the Ad Hoc Committee Report to be adopted and presented to ZEC as it is, so that ZEC will start to do their job afresh. They used to back-date laws to come up with their delimitation exercise. They should start afresh and comply with the law to come up with a pleasing report. ZEC Report is not pleasing anyone including the Church, politicians and NGOs. We want to go for elections to please who? It is like we are doing this report so that we go for elections, but who do we want to please? No one is pointing a gun at us so that we conduct elections.
As we speak, already our elections are disputed before we even hold them and this means we do not have time to rebuild our nation. We have been affected by COVID which was God-given. We have not been sitting as Parliamentarians for more than two years, which means we were not able to fulfill our mandate to legislate and ZEC on realising that we had to go for elections, did a shoddy job by rushing the process. The Government is trying very hard in terms of infrastructure. Should we stop halfway because we are not following the procedure? I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
HON. MAMOMBE: Thank you very much Hon. Speaker for this opportunity. First of all, let me congratulate the Ad hoc Committee for coming up with the commendable report that is now before us. On that note, let me say that I do not want to repeat the points that were said by most of the Members yesterday. I want to associate myself with the points that were raised by most of the Members, especially Hon. Tendai Biti who raised five fundamental points that I am going to buttress at this point in time.
Hon. Speaker, the ZEC delimitation report has to make sure that it emphasises five key points that have been recommended also by many Hon. Members in this Parliament.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Do you want to repeat yourself because you will be in transgression of Standing Order 11 by repeating what has been stated.
HON. MAMOMBE: I am going to say it in my own words Hon. Speaker, not necessarily …
THE HON. SPEAKER: Even in your own words, it is a repetition.
HON. MAMOMBE: Hon. Speaker, I will skip that point and move to the constituency that I represent. Let me also say that the first thing that I have noted on the ZEC report is that according to the figures that were released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in May 2020, there were 5.8 million registered voters. Let me also say that there are women who have actually been recorded to have the highest number of registered voters with a percentage of 53.82%. The point Hon. Speaker that I am trying to drive home is that if these recommendations that are being made by Members of Parliament and the Ad hoc Committee, if they are not being considered, it means that it will also prejudice all these women who have the highest number of registered voters. I want us as Parliament to take note that women constitute the highest number of registered voters according to the 5.8 million recorded on 30th May, 2020. That will be my first point Hon. Speaker.
Moving on to the Constituency that I represent, that is Harare West Constituency, let me give you the picture of Harare Province and how the delimitation was done. You see that there is a lower threshold, the average and the upper threshold. When you go to Harare Province, above 95% of constituencies in Harare Province are almost on the higher threshold. Let me give you an example of Harare West where I come from. We have 33 000 registered voters according to ZEC in the new Delimitation Report, yet the upper threshold has got 33 169. Let me also give you another example in the Harare Province that has less than ten registered voters to reach the upper threshold, that is, Harare East as well as Mt Pleasant Constituency. Hon. Speaker, if you look at Mt Pleasant Constituency, ZEC said that it is going to have 33 153 registered voters. If you minus that from the upper threshold, that is 33 169, you will see that is less than 20 votes to reach the upper threshold. I think Hon. Speaker, ZEC has to critically and deeply look into this matter. It shows that ZEC is not even considering that there were more or additional registered voters from 30th May, 2022 to date.
I also feel that on that point in terms of threshold, ZEC has to look into Harare Province, particularly those constituencies that I have mentioned. Also, it will prejudice my constituency if I do not mention this fact Hon. Speaker. Harare West has got two wards, which are Wards 16 and 41. In Ward 41, we have affluent suburbs like Emerald Hill and Ashbrittle. What did ZEC do to those affluent suburbs? They were trying to address the inequalities in Harare North, where Borrowdale was combined with Hatcliff. In addressing that inequality Hon. Speaker, what did ZEC do? ZEC took out the same affluent suburbs that are almost the same with Borrowdale. In my constituency, I have Emerald Hill and Ashbrittle that were taken out of Harare West and merged with Hatcliff Constituency. I also feel that from the point that was raised by Hon. Markham, this is unfair and it creates inequalities in the communities. The points that were being said by other Members, the common interest, where is it in this particular matter? I feel that my residents that I represent are going to be prejudiced if they are taken away from Harare West and be put into Hatcliff Constituency. They have no common interest at all.
In my conclusion Hon. Speaker, let me say that ZEC at the moment or when they were preparing the delimitation report, were preoccupied by elections but let me correct them to say that delimitation is done after the census. There is a reason why we do delimitation after the census. They are concentrating on elections and this is why they are kind of playing with numbers of registered voters instead of actually looking and taking into account the census report. Hon. Speaker, ZEC has to reconsider and make sure that the recommendations made by the Ad hoc Committee and all of us Members here have to be very much taken into consideration. I thank you Hon. Speaker.
HON. T. MLISWA: On a point of order Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: What is your point of order?
HON. T. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, with due respect, I think there has been repetition of all this, except for Hon. P. Moyo who said something which made sense and outside of what everybody said. We seem to be going back to the same things. It seems Hon. Members are so keen about talking about their constituencies yet this is a national issue. We are not here to speak for our constituents; it is a national issue, so let us deal with the national issue. The Ad Hoc talks about the national issue, not a constituency issue. So, I think we must be very clear on that – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – so that they do not violate Standing Order 111. I thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Chikombo, do you have anything new to say? If you repeat what has been repeated, I will ask you to sit down.
*HON. CHIKOMBO: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Let me start by thanking the Hon. Members who stood in for Parliament in the Ad Hoc Committee on the ZEC Report. I would also want to thank ZEC for preparing the Delimitation Report for 2023. I have this to say; firstly, ZEC did not do their job according to the Constitution of Zimbabwe. If we look at the Constitution, we see that there are steps to be taken when doing the delimitation exercise. If we look here in Parliament they did not take into consideration the people who stay in Harare, their population; this will help when doing delimitation. When we did delimitation in 2007/8, the people who were in Harare were about two million. The wards were 46, now the population of Harare has increased to nearly four to five million but if you look at the report from ZEC, the wards have been decreased.
According to section 161(i), it states why it is important to first know the number of people before they put demarcations for wards and constituencies
*THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Membe,r that was said by Hon. T. Mliswa and other members – [HON. MEMBERS: Zvakataurwa nechirungu saka ivo vakutaura neShona]- -[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- Order, if you say one thing in different languages, there is no difference. You can finish your debate Hon. Member.
*HON. CHIKOMBO: Hon. Speaker, I want to thank you. I can see your wish is that Hon. Members must not waste time repeating but I am here to stand in for the people of Zimbabwe. Let me say that when a councilor is being elected per ward, he does not stand in for those in the voters’ roll only; he stands in for those who are below the age of 18 and those unregistered voters. He also stands in for those who do not want to vote, like churches and other groups. Our delimitation did not look at such issues, that is why you observed that the number of wards in Harare were decreased from 46 to 45.
If we look at our Constitution, section 161(VI), it speaks on community interest. An example is a ward like Kambuzuma, Ward 14 and Ward 5 in the Central Business District. If you look at the interest of the people of Kambuzuma in section 5 and the people in the CBD, they are very different people. They buy in different shops, their children go to different schools and their way of living is different. If a Member of Parliament or councilor would like to give people feedback meeting, it means that he will have to address two different groups. Community interest must therefore take into account things like education, how they see things together as a community, things like roads, buses, et cetera. Do these things have anything in common with the people who stay in the same ward? If you see Ward 8 from Harare East being put in Harare South, despite the fact that Harare East must be split to make two constituencies, it means that ZEC did not do their work properly.
As Members of Parliament, we are seeing that a lot of things must be corrected by ZEC. Despite all these anomalies, the law gives ZEC the power to sit down and follow the recommendations made by Parliament so that this is corrected within the following month and we can then proceed to have free and fair elections. The elections must be free so that those who would have lost will congratulate the ones who have won. We must not do elections that will make people question or where ZEC will be blamed for not doing their job properly. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
HON. TOGAREPI: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I move for the adoption of the report.
HON. T. MLISWA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker Sir.
*THE HON. SPEAKER: You said you have debated enough, what is it now?
HON. T. MLISWA: I wanted to say that the Chief Whip must first of all thank all those who have contributed to the debate before he moves for adoption. People have contributed very well and they spoke very well. I am asking if he can thank the Members.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. T. Mliswa, you have spoken very well, what is good must be applauded.
HON. TOGAREPI: I want to thank Hon. Mliswa. Thank you very much Hon. Mliswa for giving me that advice. Hon. Members, I would like to thank all those who contributed to this debate. I would want firstly to thank the members that were part of the Ad Hoc Committee and also the staff that helped us through to achieve this report. I also want to thank Members here present, Members of Parliament who contributed and added to what we may have omitted during our analysis of the report. So I would like to thank you so much and I think this will enrich this report as it goes to the President onward to ZEC.
After saying that Mr. Speaker, I move for the adoption of the report.
.
HON. CHIKWINYA: On a point of clarification…
THE HON. SPEAKER: No, we do not discuss yesterday’s matters.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Okay yesterday - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-
THE HON. SPEAKER: No, please sit down.
HON. CHIKWINYA: It is your ruling Mr. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Yes, my ruling. It was done yesterday.
HON. CHIKWINYA: It is basically about the proceedings of yesterday’s meeting and I simply need you to restate what was said yesterday if we are going that route. Can you indulge me Mr. Speaker?
THE HON. SPEAKER: What route are you talking about?
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Member. the ruling should have been debated yesterday.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Yes, the Chair of the day said we are going to discuss that at the end of the discussion – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order! In terms of procedure and what others have spoken, there is unanimity in terms of the substance of the Ad Hoc Committee Report and for the sake of completeness, what has been discussed here in the National Assembly and in the Senate will form part of some annexure as part of the report. So all those that spoke their voices will be captured and they will be part of the report. Thank you.
HON. CHIKWINYA: That is what I wanted to hear.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order! Further explanation – because the Ad Hoc Report was tabled as it is in both Houses and it will be presented as one report of the Parliament of the two Houses including what was debated in the Senate, it will be part of the annexures to the report that has been proposed to be adopted now by the Hon. Chief Whip.
Motion that this House considers and adopts the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Analysis of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise put and adopted.
MOTION
RATIFICATION OF THE STATUTORY INSTRUMENT TO REPLACE THE FIRST SCHEDULE OF THE CRIMINAL LAW (CODIFICATION AND REFORM) ACT
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections].
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Members, can the Hon. Minister be heard in silence please.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Mr. Speaker, I move the motion standing in my name:
THAT WHEREAS Subsections (5) and (6) of Section 280 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23] provide that if the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs wishes to give effect to a Statutory Instrument to replace the First Schedule, that is the Standard Scale of Fines to that Act by reason of a change in the purchasing-power of money or for any other reason, he must lay the draft Statutory Instrument before Parliament, and that the Statutory Instrument shall not come into force unless approved by resolution of Parliament;
AND WHEREAS the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has, in terms of Subsection (5) of the said Section 280, made the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) (Standard Scale of Fines) Notice, 2023, on 18th January, 2023;
AND WHEREAS the said Statutory Instrument was, in accordance with Subsection (5) of the said Section 280, laid before Parliament on 18th January, 2023;
NOW, THEREFORE, this House resolves that the said Statutory Instrument be and is hereby approved. I so submit Mr. Speaker Sir.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I rise to add my voice on the motion before the table by the Hon. Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. Hon. Speaker, the scale of fines is very critical and this is going to impact on our members throughout the whole nation as they interact with these fines on their day to day basis depending on the nature of offences they would have committed. I therefore move that we go level by level and discuss it rather than to debate it or pass it as a wholesome. There are sections where we may have the need to vary and that is the reason why these fines are placed before Parliament so that at least Members of Parliament can agree or vary. I therefore propose that the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs takes us through because they were given to us yesterday. All of us were busy concentrating on the Delimitation Report.
I propose that the Minister of Justice takes us through each level of fine between level 1 to level 14, where there are objections, we object and we vary and where we agree, we are going to agree. I seek your indulgence and ruling over that matter.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Mr. Speaker Sir, Hon. Members are free to interrogate the fines schedule and pinpoint where there is need for debate. Hon. Members are free if they so wish. If they have issues with level 1, they can deliberate on them and the House then resolves.
Motion put and agreed to.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI), the House adjourned at Twenty-one Minutes past Three o’clock p.m. until Tuesday, 31st January 2023.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 17th January, 2023.
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. SPEAKER in the Chair)
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order Hon. Members, please take your seats. Compliments of the season Hon. Members. - [HON. MEMBERS: Same to you Hon. Speaker.] -
HON. T. MLISWA: On a point of national interest. Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I hope the other Hon. Colleagues had a good break. Mr. Speaker Sir, I think it is an issue only an independent Member of Parliament can raise. I do not think it applies to the rest of Members of Parliament who belong to political parties.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Are you suggesting that you are speaking to yourself?
HON. T. MLISWA: I am speaking to an issue of national interest. Mr. Speaker Sir, this Parliament is not only made up of political parties. It was seen necessary by the lawmakers to allow independent Members to be part of this august House. Section 139 (4) of the Constitution is very clear in terms of the reflection of this Parliament in whatever it does; be it ad hoc Committees, travelling and all that. I say so, so that the same mistakes cannot be repeated.
When the nation looks at this Parliament, they see a Parliament which represents Zimbabweans. The various Committees which have been set up before, seem to leave out the Independent Member, who by the powers that he has; is not whipped. The rest belong to political parties and they have a Chief whip who whips them so their independence is limited. If at all the lawmakers felt that the independent Member should not be part of the august House, the law must stipulate.
The composition of the Delimitation Committee itself, really is quite disappointing. Firstly, most of the Members in there are conflicted. Their constituencies are part of the problem. So how can they represent the nation when their constituencies are affected? Of course, you must be able to look after yourself. I say so Mr. Speaker Sir, because moving forward, most of the things done without following procedure and the Constitution, which this august House must observe because it is in the business of making laws but they seem to ignore that.
I am not represented, even in the Welfare Committee, for example. Most of the Members of Parliament are represented by their Chief Whips and everything is agreed upon and the Chief Whip has the final say. I do not sit on the Welfare Committee. I am an Independent Member. So am I supposed to agree to what they all agree on without my input? If the law says so, then I respect that. These are some of the issues Mr. Speaker Sir. We are fortunate that we have a Speaker who is quite learned; a Speaker who recently has been appointed to be the Legal Secretary for the Ruling Party, which is important, an Advocate of note.
In terms of all these issues that I have spoken about, from a legal point of view, is it proper to continuously ignore that very same one person? It is not only about me; this House will accommodate one tomorrow. How are they represented? The Constitution talks about there being a reflection of what Parliament is. I just wanted to bring that to your attention from a national perspective because by me not being involved; you are prejudicing my constituents who elected me to represent them. So, if I am not, it means part of these processes that require fairness in terms of composition we are then not violating the Constitution that we are supposed to uphold as an august House?
Your indulgence is sought Mr. Speaker Sir, moreso being a learned colleague of honourables like Hon. Biti, to just name a few. I am sure you will apply your legal mind to that. I thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you Hon. Mliswa. I think the Hon. Member must be fair to himself and the august House. The Hon. Member should have predicated his observation on the historical fact that at one point, material time, he was chosen to be a chairman of a portfolio committee where he excelled until he found himself out of that chairmanship for reasons best known to himself. So that historical fact must be taken into account that it has been in the nature of this august House to extend the inclusivity of Member of Parliament, including the Independent and not only that but also when we were discussing the welfare of Members of Parliament. Again, it behooved the head of Parliament to ensure that the Hon. Independent Member was part and parcel of that Committee, where again he contributed exceptionally well but that does not mean that, that should be a foregone conclusion at all times. The Constitution, clearly in Section 3, indicates that we are a multi-party democracy and unfortunately, my Hon. Member does not qualify as a multi-party individual.
In the past, this House has taken into account his potential for leading in the committees of this House. Therefore, his observation must be tainted with graciousness in terms of the historical factor. I am happy that in his presentation, he indicated that for the future, a member who is Independent should be considered. Indeed, in the future, the member will be considered as the member has been considered in the past. So this House has a very good track record in that regard.
Finally, whatever a Select Committee presents to this august House; what the findings of a Select Committee presents to the House are not a fait accompli because it is open to debate; where everyone else who is not in that Committee will debate. So there is no prejudice in terms of debate on a report of a given committee including the Ad Hoc Committee. I am sure the Hon. Member will have opportunity to debate accordingly in this House. So the horses have not bolted, the stable is still open - [HON. T. MLISWA: A point of correction Mr. Speaker Sir!] – Yes, please do not elaborate on my ruling.
HON. T. MLISWA: Yes, it is a point of correction.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Yes.
HON. T. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, when I was elected and I know, you are probably not privy to this…
THE HON. SPEAKER: When you were elected to what?
HON. T. MLISWA: When I was appointed to be Chairperson of the Mines and Energy Committee, it was because that position belonged to ZANU PF and Hon. Matuke the Chief Whip, came and spoke to me about it; took me to higher offices because of the work that they thought I had done in the Second Republic, in being in power …
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Member, I thought you were coming up with something fresh - [HON. T. MLISWA: What I was trying to say Mr. Speaker is …] – Order, order, the fact of the matter is you were appointed…
HON. T. MLISWA: No, Mr. Speaker Sir that is the reason why I was removed and replaced by a ZANU PF person…
THE HON. SPEAKER: No, no, no.
HON. T. MLISWA: The current Chief Whip did not like me, he removed me, put a ZANU PF person. Hon. Matuke realised the role I had played and rewarded because I played a big role but after that it is a party position. As you know, the Committees Chairpersons are allocated party-wise. It was the generosity of Hon. Matuke, who is a gentleman, who appreciated the role I played in the Second Republic.
After that when I wanted to then expose law on that, I was taken out. Hon. Mkaratigwa from ZANU PF moved in; it is a ZANU PF position Mr. Speaker Sir, it is not for the Independent. Thank you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order, that is incorrect because your chairmanship Hon. Mliswa was debated in the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders - [HON. T. MLISWA: Inaudible interjection.] – Order Hon. Member. It was debated in the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders and I remember clearly Hon. Ziyambi moving the fact that let us give him an opportunity and that opportunity was given. It is not Hon. Matuke - [HON. T. MLISWA: Inaudible interjections.] – Order, order Hon. Member, do not advocate for your removal from this House. - [HON. T. MLISWA: Inaudible interjection.] – Order, order! – [HON. T. MLISWA: …stood for me but you were outnumbered!] – Order, order!
HON. MUSHORIWA: On a point of priviledge Mr. Speaker Sir!
THE HON. SPEAKER: Can you proceed quickly please?
HON. MUSHORIWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Mr. Speaker Sir, I rise on a point of priviledge and my point of privilege relates to the passage of the Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) Bill in this august House during your absence on 16th December.
Mr. Speaker Sir, as a Member of Parliament representing Dzivarasekwa, I want to state that my rights and privileges as a Member of Parliament were violated in two contexts…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order! Hon. Member, please sit down. You had room to object at the material time.
HON. MUSHORIWA: That is the reason why I have risen because you are here. You should hear what I am saying. I said that at the material time…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, I have not recognised you and can you sit down please. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - do not argue with my ruling. Sit down please!
HON. MUSHORIWA: But it is unfair.
THE HON. SPEAKER: You had all the time in the Committee Stage and so on. So sit down please!
MOTION
SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER NO. 53
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF INFORMATION, PUBLICITY AND BROADCASTING SERVICES (HON. PARADZA) on behalf of THE MNISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Hon. Speaker. On behalf of the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, I am here to give the notice of Motion on the Provisions of Standing Order No. 53 regarding the Automatic Adjournment of the House at Five Minutes to Seven o’clock p.m. on sitting days other than a Friday and at Twenty-Five Minutes Past One p.m. on a Friday...
THE HON. SPEAKER: Can we correct one thing. Chief Whip, has the Hon. Member designated Acting Leader of Government business?
HON. TOGAREPI: Yes.
THE HON. SPEAKER: You should let me know. Okay, the Hon. Minister is here now and he can proceed.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): He can proceed, I had made the arrangement.
THE HON. SPEAKER: You are there now and let us be procedural. Can you proceed Hon. Minister?
HON. ZIYAMBI: Mr. Speaker Sir, it is allowed. I had rushed to the Senate to give a motion...
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Minister, can you be connected and go ahead.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Mr. Speaker Sir, it was very procedural for him to give the notice. I can see that there is a spirited effort to rubbish him standing in to continue. It was very correct.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Minister, I had not been told that he was acting in your place and that is why I stood him down. So please proceed.
HON. ZIYAMBI: They are now acting like they are the Chairs. Tell them to keep quiet so that I can hear you.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, Order! Please proceed.
HON. ZIYAMBI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I move that the provisions of Standing Order No. 53 regarding the automatic adjournment of the House at Five Minutes to Seven o’clock p.m. on sitting days other than a Friday and at Twenty-Five Minutes past One o’clock p.m. on a Friday, be suspended in respect of the debate on the Report of the Ad hoc Committee on the Analysis of the 2022 Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise. I thank you.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION 2022 PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE DELIMITATION EXERCISE
Second Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Report of the Ad-hoc Committee on the Analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise.
Question again proposed.
THE HON. SPEAKER: I have been given a list so that we do not get confused. The Independent shall speak without any list. I have been given a list of those who would like to contribute. May I indicate that we have the Ad hoc Committee Report before us as tabled on the 13th January, 2023. Therefore, our debate should be pointed and if you have to add anything, refer to the ZEC Report vis-à-vis the Ad-hoc Committee Report. I will not entertain general statements.
HON. CHIKWINYA: On a point of order, Hon. Speaker Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: What do you want to clarify my friend when things are so clear?
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. There is material that we were given from the first day when we began the proceeding of considering the Delimitation Report and it came via our emails. As properly indicated in the ad hoc Committee report, it is not legible and I want to refer to the maps. It will be difficult for me to contribute with regards to the maps when they are not even legible as they are presented on soft copy. So I wanted to understand if there is a provision that we can actually get this soft copy, perhaps on print they can be legible. As they are on email, they are not legible and it was actually pointed out in the ad hoc Committee Report.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you very much for that observation. Please be guided by the description in the report, as well as, Annexure 1 to 10.
HON. CHIKWINYA: We only have three annexures, 1 to 3.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you Hon. Chikwinya. I was checking two things; whether or not ZEC actually sent it on their website, where one can check and also our Papers Office, whether they sent it on our website, which should be the case. I have asked them to resend it.
HON. ZWIZWAI: So, how do we debate?
THE HON. SPEAKER: You will debate in terms of what you have before you – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - Order, order. I am told at least three annexures were sent. The rest I think will be sent right away, now. If you can check with your gadgets, you should be able to follow.
HON. MADZIMURE: Will we be given a second bite of the cherry, considering that we have debated before receiving the information - will we be allowed to debate again?
THE HON. SPEAKER: Yes, tomorrow. May I ask Hon. Tekeshe to second the motion before we start debate.
HON. TEKESHE: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to first of all thank Hon. Togarepi for tabling the motion on the findings of the ad hoc Committee. ZEC was supposed to base its report on the Constitution. It is very clear that ZEC did not follow the Constitution. ZEC was supposed to use the population census but they chose to only use the voter registration – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – This delimitation is not only meant for... – [HON. ZIYAMBI: Taura nerurimi rwaamai.] – VaZiyambika musadaro. Aiwa kani ndoda kutaura nechirungu ichocho.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order Hon. Members.
HON. TEKESHE: Sorry, he is disturbing me Hon. Speaker. I was saying ZEC only chose to use the voters’ registration. The Constitution in Section 161 says it must use the population census. By using the voters’ registration, you will disadvantage a lot of people like the young and those who are not registered. We do not only use this delimitation for voting only, it is also used for administrative purposes: CDF and devolution funds are supposed to be distributed equally as per the numbers of wards in a constituency.
Another thing is that ZEC was supposed to use national statistics instead of using provincial. There are some provinces which now have few people but they still maintain the number of their constituencies. If they had done it at national level, they would then subtract those numbers from what they have now and make an adjustment to those wards whose population has increased. The wards were done haphazardly, for example in Nyanga South and North. They took Ward 8 from Nyanga North and it was moved to Nyanga South, and another Ward from Nyanga South to Nyanga North. You must go through another constituency to get there; you pass through Nyanga South but this ward is now in Nyanga North but you must go through Nyanga South to get to ward 27.
I want to say that ZEC should have asked for a deferment of the delimitation process because of the requirement of the population census. Even now the census report is not yet out; they should have deferred the delimitation till the census report is out. They said they used a preliminary report which I think a preliminary report is subject to changes to corrections and the like. I thank you Mr. Speaker, that is my contribution.
HON. MUSIKAVANHU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for this opportunity to contribute to this very important debate. Let me start off by thanking His Excellency, President E. D. Mnangagwa for creating an enabling environment for us as Parliamentarians to add value to this very important process bearing in my mind that – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – that this process is happening at a time – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Mr. Speaker Sir, I would like to reiterate my position that I feel obligated to thank His Excellency, President E. D. Mnangagwa for affording us an opportunity to debate on this issue which is of national importance – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Mr. Speaker Sir, I make this observation bearing in mind that our country is still under the siege of COVID-19 and notwithstanding that His Excellency saw it important that we observe this constitutional important step in the process of transitioning towards 2030.
Having said that Mr. Speaker Sir, I would like to make the observation that we have gone for a while without having the delimitation process. If my records are correct, we are five years out of step– [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –and the fact that we are five years out of step indicates to the fact that a lot of legislators here are very rusty as to the processes involved in the delimitation exercise – [HON. BITI: We are not rusty.] – We know that delimitation is not a daily occurrence and I want to make the observation Mr. Speaker that when ZEC went ahead...
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, can we refer to the report – [HON. MEMBERS: Yes.] – or the Ad hoc Committee and the ZEC Report please.
HON. MUSIKAVANU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I was giving a background to my point – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – I will get to my point and my point Mr. Speaker is that in the interest of making this document totally user-friendly, the polling points stated by ZEC in their report must have been reduced to names that people can relate to. Using codes in the report creates potential confusion in people who will read the report.
I will therefore advocate Mr. Speaker Sir, that bearing in mind that this is a preliminary draft report, there is a double action there; preliminary draft, it follows that there is room for improvement in the report and my submission Mr. Speaker is that the polling points must be stated in the names that we normally relate to. I thank you very much – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order Hon. Members. I repeat, let us not discuss the process, the process has been outlined clearly in Section 161 of the Constitution and the report of the Ad Hoc Committee is very clear, just go to the paragraph where you think there must be some additions, that is all.
HON. CHIKWINYA: On a point of clarification Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: A point of what?
HON. CHIKWINYA: A point of clarification on your earlier ruling about the 10 annexures which we are still waiting for. Is the voters roll part of the 10 annexures considering that it is a primary source document which must inform our debate?
THE HON. SPEAKER: No, it is not part of the report.
HON. CHIKWINYA: But how do we debate without a primary source document?
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order Hon. Member. The ZEC Report has the narrative and annexures 1 to 10. That is all. That is what is tabled before the House. Thank you.
HON. BUSHU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Mr. Speaker Sir, the House is appropriately responding to the report by the Ad Hoc Committee that this House set up in order to analyse the ZEC Report. I think the Committee did a very good job and this House must commend the Committee for having worked very hard on a good report like this one. The Committee produced a well balanced report and I think that this House must consider that report very seriously.
However, Mr. Speaker Sir, I would like to only concentrate in an area where I am competent to comment, which is Mashonaland Central and particularly what came out as a pointer to Pfura Constituency which was of course delimited, which had numbers that were lower than the threshold. This thing runs through the whole report where some areas have larger numbers and some areas have lower numbers, but Mr. Speaker Sir...
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order Hon. Member. Please take a seat. The Committee has indicated that in detail, and I want you to refer to the report and say page so and so, paragraph so and so – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Order, order! I want the Hon. Member to proceed accordingly.
HON. BUSHU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I stand corrected by your direction but I refer to section 4.14 (b) (2) which is under Mashonaland Central and here is where I refer to both Pfura RDC, Mt Darwin West, Ward 19 as well as Ward 4 of Bindura North Constituency.
Mr. Speaker Sir, all I want to say is; I think that consideration was appropriately given to the geographical spread, the considerations related to the population distribution and I think that those wards remained in place and appropriately so. I would like to say that where considerations like these have been made throughout the country Mr. Speaker Sir, these pointers should be considered by ZEC for adjustment and these pointers are important that they remain in place if they are considered by ZEC and also influence the final result so that we do not have municipalities overflowing from one municipality to the other.
I would like to say this also applies to Chaminuka RDC which is under Shamva District where wards from Shamva were taken to Bindura and wards from Bindura were taken to Mt. Darwin. Administratively, that is going to cause a lot of problems and those observations must be considered seriously as pointed out by the Ad Hoc Committee on the analysis of the report. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order! What we are going to do is; we are going to have the hard copies there so that those who want to quickly refer can refer.
HON. T. MLISWA: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. My contribution really is bent on procedure in many ways. The critical issue is the census itself. I was hoping that the Hon. Members would have dealt with the Census Report. The preliminary report is out, so on what basis would you really debate on delimitation without the results of the census? The census is critical in planning and without the census, you cannot plan. So I hasten to say the report was not supposed to have been tabled before the census report. Not only that, I believe this august House has got Portfolio Committees which are responsible for oversight and knowing that elections are coming through, they were supposed to then be checking in terms of the timeframe and that again…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order. Hon. Member, the report of ZEC which you must interrogate vis-à-vis the one for the Committee is whether or not the report did take into account section 161 of the Constitution, in particular subsection 6 which deals also with population, existing electoral boundaries, the registered voters, the physical features, communication, community of interest - these are the issues that you should be saying are they ventilated in the report. It is not for you now to start talking about population. Indicate whether or not the report did take into account those items mentioned in Subsection 6 of Section 161 of the Constitution.
HON. T. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, exactly my starting point in terms of the population. Once the population is out, then you move to other issues but the final census is not out, how then can we go to do boundaries and communicate without the final census being out. What we have is a preliminary report…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order Hon. Member. What is your recommendation which ZEC must take into account?
HON. T. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, if you let me correct, I was talking about procedure, which is critical in us reaching to a logical conclusion. Here procedure was not followed, the first is the population itself, the census; the results are not out. Them not being out, it has an effect on planning; how the wards come in, constituencies’ boundaries and all that. I am saying they did not at all have figures of the census before even doing anything. I do not know if you now understand me.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Now you are talking.
HON. T. MLISWA: In terms of that, the issue of the census final report being out, ZEC would then have to be able to plan properly. I now move on to something which is critical.
We know that the elections were coming. The various Portfolio Committees know that. Each Portfolio Committee as you know, we have oversight of all these institutions. At what point did we invite them, knowing that elections are coming to say how far are you in terms of A, B.C, D? I feel that the Portfolio Committees did not play their role because oversight was critical because they are the engine room. ZEC would have gone and corrected.
We seem to want to debate on something which should have been corrected already. The law is clear and it is this institution that is not following the law. You have Portfolio Committees who are responsible for inviting them. I did not see any Portfolio Committee. The Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, inviting ZEC and say you are rushing to do this, where is the final figure of the population. I am saying this because if that had been done, a lot would have been corrected and we would not be where we are right now.
The Budget and Finance is also quite critical in terms of census because the population has an effect on the economy. When you bring in numbers, Budget and Finance are in because it is an economic nature. They were also supposed to say in view of planning in terms of the budget, the population figures are here, what do we do. That was not done and I am trying to say that Parliament itself was supposed to also ensure that the aspect of oversight by the Portfolio Committees is done not to get here.
I also want to bring in the COVID issue. It will be amiss for us not to understand the impact of COVID worldwide. The effect of COVID, if at all we were serious about these elections, we were supposed to consider COVID, why, there are resources needed. Most countries globally certainly have suffered from an economic point of view. Should we just have elections for the sake of having elections or we should have elections following procedure. Elections are very expensive. What then happens to people in terms of the resources? I also feel that the COVID aspect was supposed to be factored in from a national point of view; from a global point of view and indeed while others would not agree with me, if elections have to be postponed because of COVID, so be it. That has to be considered at the end of the day because of the effect it has on the economy.
Not only that Mr. Speaker Sir, the very same Members of Parliament were restricted from going to constituencies because of the COVID situation. We could not meet people, so how then can we push for election when we are the key to communication and cannot get to the people. So to me, that was supposed to be considered as well. As legislators are responsible for communicating with people but we could not because of COVID. So then, how do we move forward without us communicating with the people – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, please can the Member be heard in silence?
HON. T. MLISWA: So these issues are critical in terms of us doing so. Clearly while the Constitution, Section 169 (1) talks about 10 years in terms of delimitation and all that; Section 161 (2) talks about ‘not having elections if the census report is out in less than six months’. Clearly, there is no point. If we are all doing our mathematics, the final one is going to come out in less than six months. So what are we debating on because already we are in violation of the Constitution? It says in less than six months, you have to go back to the original boundaries, if I am not mistaken Mr. Speaker Sir. So, less than six months, if you look at the calendar, elections are in July/August and when is this report supposed to be really be final? It will be less than six months, unless there is somebody who has spiritual power of changing dates and the calendar and so forth. They must tell us that are they going to move the calendar forward or not. That is all we want in this Parliament, somebody who has that gift to say dates are going to change, continue. Already it is also a waste of tax payers’ money. Coming here is tax payers’ money and people are questioning where were we all this time, why are we rushing? We must serve people honestly Mr. Speaker Sir.
The other issue, which I think is quite important, is the issue of elections. Elections are very important. One of the issues about elections is to ask ourselves; does this process we are doing guarantee a free, fair and credible election or we are just rushing to just make sure that it kicks the box. Mr. Speaker Sir, as you usually say with your favourite saying, it seems the horses have already bolted. From a legal point of view, this is where condonation appeals are done in view of circumstances beyond the country; COVID and all that.
There is also the aspect of finance which I spoke about, which I think we do not have those resources at the end of the day. My contribution really is the horse has already bolted. The report has been submitted just on the basis of ticking the box but if seriously we were looking at the Constitution, most of these issues were not supposed to be part of this august House because of our role of oversight. I will say that we were not supposed to have entertained this report. The various Portfolio Committees were supposed to have played their role, knowing that we have got elections.
So, I would want to say that other than that, the delimitation exercise is a very important exercise but again the population, the census nobody knows what it is. So, what really, finally are Members debating on, when they do not know what the population is because it is critical for purposes of planning and all that. I would like to rest my case by saying that we need, from a procedural point of view, from circumstance beyond the country and the global economy, which really did not do well as a result of COVID, it was important for us to put that to the table.
The dynamics again of the Ukraine/Russia war are also critical from an economic point of view; it is an unforeseen situation and it being unforeseen, it happened. How has it affected the economics of the country and so forth? Would we not spend this money in making sure that the welfare of the people is better? Food security, where are we standing or we just want to have elections but people continue to suffer – that is food for thought. Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you very much. I want to emphasize again, the manner in which finally Hon. Mliswa had to debate. These are issues to be taken into account by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). So, you are putting forward to ZEC issues that should have been taken into account and then we have not reached the stage where we are debating a final report.
HON. WATSON: Thank you Hon. Speaker for this opportunity to make my comment on the Ad Hoc Committee Report. I only really have one main point, which is that I felt that the Committee did not emphasize sufficiently the aspect of the release of the Voters Roll and/or the release of polling station figures which tie back to constituency figures and Ward figures as at 30th May, 2022, and then to release those same polling station figures after the reconfiguration because without those figures; there is no method in order to check the veracity of the report – that was my point Hon. Speaker. So I felt that in their recommendation, they should have included that and mentioned in their report about transparency and justice - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order!
HON. WATSON: An obligation for justice and transparency and that is one facet of justice and is an obligation of ZEC and therefore, should have been included in the report. Thank you.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Thank you Hon. Speaker for giving me an opportunity to deliberate on the two reports that are before the House. It is an honour Hon. Speaker that - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] -
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order! Hon. Members, can we give opportunity to the Hon. Member who is speaking.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. It is an honour that I participated in the work of the Ad Hoc Committee to look into the preliminary Report of ZEC. Hon. Speaker, I am glad that the Committee made a number of observations and recommendations. From where I stand Hon. Speaker, I would conclude by saying that this report is not a good report, I mean the ZEC Report. It is not a good report but the report is not a bad report and I will expound as I debate.
Some of the observations that were made by the Committee Hon. Speaker, have been debated by my colleagues and these include the fact that ZEC did not consider the final census results because the Census Report is not yet before this House and that is Hon. Speaker, failure to observe Section 161 (1). The section enjoins ZEC to only do its delimitation after the census has taken place.
Hon. Speaker, one believes that the intention of the legislature in putting the delimitation process only after the census would have been finalised was meant to accommodate certain issues. Those issues include the fact that the Census Report is able to indicate to the nation, for example, migration of citizens from certain areas to other areas and therefore when the Delimitation Report is done, it is meant that it should concur with the findings of the Census Report. In the absence of the Census Report Hon. Speaker, it becomes very difficult to validate some of the findings of ZEC.
I will give you an example Hon. Speaker under Bulawayo Metropolitan Province. The ZEC Delimitation Report indicates that Bulawayo Province has lost about 42 000 registered voters between 2008 and 2022. Now, when a Census Report is available, it becomes easy to compare whether the movements of citizens between areas or between Bulawayo and other areas is supporting the findings by ZEC in its Delimitation Report or not.
However Hon. Speaker, even as your Committee made its observations and findings, it made its recommendations on the basis of knowing that the past two to three years were not ordinary years for this country. There was a supervening impossibility; there was a demerger that curtailed the finishing of the Census Report. I am sure the House is aware that almost three Statutory Instruments were put in place in order to try and make sure that there is census being conducted in this country but it could not take place because of the COVID-19 pandemic that visited the whole world.
Hon. Speaker, the question that is currently gripping the nation is whether this report, as it is, should be thrown into the bin or ZEC should be given more time to consider the observations and recommendations that are coming from this House or that the nation should revert to the 2007/8 Report or …
THE HON. SPEAKER: Do you not mean the Delimitation Report?
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: The Delimitation Report, whether we should revert to the 2007/8 Delimitation Report or should ZEC be given more time to attempt to rectify the observations that have been made by your Committee? This is my observation Hon. Speaker.
2007/8 Delimitation Report speaks to the …
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order, Hon. Members, you cannot be standing while the other Hon. Member is debating. May you bring those papers for others please? Order! The Hon. Member Sibanda is making very good points but in terms of our Standing Order No. 111, we should not be repeating what has been said. What you are saying was captured by Hon. T. Mliswa. The question of census, the question of COVID was covered by Hon. Mliswa very adequately.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: The point has been taken Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Thank you.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Hon. Speaker, the question that I want to speak to is that under the current circumstances where...
Hon. Members having been making some noise upon receiving the Delimitation Map.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, Hon. Members. You just need to have a look on what you are seeing and return to your colleague.
HON. P. D. SIBANDA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. The question that I want to speak to is whether in view of the findings, observations and recommendations that have been made by your Committee and as they are going to be either validated or added to by this House, whether ZEC should be given more time to rectify those observations and implement them, or whether this nation as it heads towards its General Elections, should revert to the 2007/2008 Delimitation Report. I submit that the variations or the failure to observe the law that was done by ZEC in its preliminary report are not fatal to an extent that this nation should revert to the 2007/2008 Delimitation Report or that this nation should be forced to postpone elections in order to give ZEC more time.
I will support my assertion Hon. Speaker by indicating that most of the observations that were made by your Committee are actually implementable within the time that is left and to allow this nation to proceed with the elections as planned and as given by the Constitution. I am saying so because the issue of the census report is pardonable because that forced ZEC to act within a particular point of time. It is my submission Hon. Speaker that while this recommendation has been made, there is no way that ZEC can start the process afresh because the horses have already bolted in terms of the first recommendation.
On the issue of misinterpretation and misapplication of the twenty per cent variance, I submit that within the timeframe that is left, ZEC can comply with the recommendations that were made by your Committee and be able to make sure that it finalises the process of gazetting the Delimitation Report without affecting the time within which the elections are scheduled. However, for posterity and it is also important to take note that this is the first time that delimitation has been conducted in terms of the 2013 Constitution.
Therefore, I submit that going back to the 2007/2008 report is not something that is favourable because the 2007/2008 report is overtaken by 15 years and obviously there are a lot of things that have taken place between 2008 and 2022. There have been so much movement of voters between different areas to an extent that the current report could be closer to speaking to the true reflection of the voter population distribution in this country compared to 2007/2008 and for that purpose, I am more amenable to the current report being adopted by ZEC with recommendations that have come from the Ad hoc Committee and from this House and that the nation should go ahead to conduct its elections within the time that it is meant to take place. We cannot at this moment condemn this report and then say let us have the work of moving the elections from the time that they were scheduled. Those are my submissions. I thank you.
*HON. CHIKUNI: I do not have much to say but I want to ask as to how much time we take to move people from this polling station to the other polling station? How will they know that we are on that same polling station because they will not find their names on their local polling stations and they do not know where to find their names? How much time does ZEC have to rectify this? Thank you.
*HON. CHITURA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, for affording me this opportunity to add my voice on this report. I want to thank ZEC for a job well-done. I think that those ZEC officials in the districts did not do their job very well because they consulted the people and the local authorities because they do not know what transpired. For example, Chief Musikavanhu from Chipinge. He was left without anyone to rule, so we are saying ZEC should rectify the issue of chiefs so that they reside with their people. Thank you.
HON. HAMAUSWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I want to begin by appreciating the role that was done by the Ad hoc Committee in analysing the report. They have done a good job in giving us, as Hon. Members, a framework on how to make our recommendations to the ZEC report. My first recommendation is drawn from the Ad hoc Committee Report, item number 4.1.1.3, paragraph c, which raised a principle that when ZEC was collapsing constituencies, it was supposed to collapse constituencies with lower votes, moving them to constituencies with high numbers of registered voters.
I want to refer specifically to Warren Park Constituency. Warren Park Constituency Mr. Speaker Sir, according to the 2018 registered voters, it had 32 186 votes but it is surprising that this constituency was collapsed. It is a deviation from the principle that was raised by the Ad hoc Committee and also which is stated in the report that ZEC also highlighted that they were following that principle, whereby constituencies with high votes were supposed to stand. In this case, one of the wards from Warren Park Constituency, Ward 5 which had 16 095 votes was moved to Harare Central, whilst Ward 15 which had 17 774 votes was combined with Ward 6 of Kambuzuma and it was named Mufakose, which is something that needs to be corrected. My recommendation is that Warren Park Constituency should also be added into the annexure of the Ad hoc Committee Report where they indicated that there are specific situations which need to be corrected.
I also want to refer to another principle raised in the Ad hoc Committee Report item 4.1.1.4, paragraph a, which talks of community of interest. Mr. Speaker Sir, if you check on Warren Park Constituency in reference to the community of interest, you will realise that the constituency, because of the developments such as the establishment of the museum, it was declared a liberation city. Therefore Mr. Speaker Sir, such a liberation city cannot be a city before it is a constituency. Therefore, I recommend that the constituency should revert back to the 2018 status, considering that it got the fundamental features which also include the Heroes Acre, the Provincial Heroes Acre and the Museum. We cannot fight historical legacies that are actually contained in that constituency. Mr. Speaker Sir, this is my recommendation that those principles should apply as also highlighted by the Ad hoc Committee report which cited Section 9 of the Constitution, which said the Commission, when they are doing their work, should apply the principles of fairness, justice, good governance and honesty. There must also be consistency in the application of those principles Mr. Speaker Sir.
I also want to add my voice to the need for the census report and also to the need for the voters roll. It is actually difficult Mr. Speaker Sir, to recommend the passing of this report without really considering the voters roll. The voters roll is very important and also the census report. I add my comment on Warren Park Constituency by also looking at the geographical situations. If you look at the current Warren Park Constituency, there is a linear distribution of the communities – something which is fundamentally changed by the proposed delimitation. If you check Warren Park Constituency, it starts from Rotten Row and ends at Kuwadzana roundabout, which is something that is very easy to administer. It is different Mr. Speaker Sir, from a situation which we now have whereby we have Ward 15 and you have to navigate all the way to Mufakose. It is something that will complicate service delivery issues.
Mr. Speaker Sir, it will not be good also if I do not mention the issue whereby residents in one ward will have to seek administrative services from different district offices. For example, currently in Warren Park Ward 15, you will find people from Warren Park 1 have to pay their bills at Warren Park 1 District Office, yet those in Westlea have to go to Mabelreign. So, when you consider other principles of devolution and the principle of the devolution fund, in City of Harare, they have a policy of 25% retention fund, it will be difficult now to share the 25% retention fund where different people in the same ward have to pay in different offices. This also applies even in the distribution of the CDF fund. I recommend Mr. Speaker Sir that I will be happy and people of Warren Park Constituency will also be happy to see Warren Park Constituency added in the annexure of the critical or specific areas which need to be corrected. Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
HON. BITI: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. What we are doing is to consider the Ad hoc Committee that presented its report on 13th January, 2022. Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that we adopt that report and I move that consistent with the provisions of Section 161 (8) (b), this House resolves that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must reconsider its preliminary report on the basis of the issues and the recommendations that have been made by the Ad hoc Committee. I move that we make that resolution that ZEC should reconsider its interim report on the basis of the findings of the Ad Hoc Committee, that is the constitutional position. Mr. Speaker, the test of whether ZEC did a good job was always going to be measured on three issues. Firstly, procedurally, when they were making the report, did they follow the law? Secondly, whether the interim report is loyal to the principles that are defined in Section 161 (5) and (6), and thirdly and perhaps most importantly, whether the data supports the findings and recommendations in the interim report.
On three scores, on all the three, ZEC failed and failed dismally. On the first procedural issue, ZEC failed to consider the final report of the census and this point is made in the Ad Hoc report. There is a core-relationship between the task of delimitation and the population. That is why Section 160 makes it clear that every 10 years soon after the conclusion of a census there must be delimitation. When you look at the ZEC processes, there is no marriage, there is no nexus, and there is no connection between the interim report and the population.
If you go to Section 161 (VI) in dividing Zimbabwe into wards and constituencies, ZEC must in respect of any area, give consideration to the following features, physical features, the means of communication, the geographical distribution of registered voters and its population. ZEC did not consider the population; they published a list sometime last headed delimitation of constituencies, wards and other electoral boundaries, national provincial and local authority voter registration figures. It was produced in terms of section 161(VI) signed by ZEC Chairperson P. Chigumba and it has a total registered voters of 5 800 376 000 yet this document does not give a provincial, a constituency disaggregation of the population in each of these constituencies and provinces because that is a constitutional imperator. That is failure number one on procedural issues.
Failure number two in procedural issue relates to the failure to produce even to the Ad Hoc Committee, a copy of the voters’ roll that they used. We are just told without verification, without authentification, without validation that the total number of registered voters is 5.8 but the actual voters’ roll itself has not been given.
The third procedural issue picked up in the report is the failure to consult citizens. The Committee report refers to Section 68 of the Constitution. Section 68 codifies the audi alteram partem rule. The rule simply means the right to be heard; ZEC did not consult citizens. ZEC did not consult constituencies, so ZEC produced a report without any paternity, any legitimacy vis-a-vis the citizens. So these things are well made in the report presented by Hon. Togarepi. They failed on procedural issues.
The second issue is whether they paid respect to the factors that are defined in Section 161 (VI), if you look at the areas that were most affected by constituency collapse - Harare, Gutu, Masvingo, Manicaland, Mashonaland East and so forth, the process is autocratic, the process is not based on any formula, it is laying playing tennis with a changing baseline; I know the Australian Open is on right now. When you play tennis with a changing baseline, sometimes you are returning pane space hombe, sometimes you are returning padhuze. In law we call it eclectic, in law we call it cutting and pasting. That is what they did; there is no consistent adherence to a known formula.
I submit Mr. Speaker Sir, that the starting point – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – the starting point…
HON. T. MLISWA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): What is your point of order?
HON. T. MLISWA: Are the Hon. Members clapping hands on the language used; I am not sure – [Laughter.]-
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Member, please go ahead with your debate.
HON. BITI: Mr. Speaker Sir, the starting point must be data. ZEC says the total number of registered voters is 5.8 and ZEC gives a disaggregation of these numbers; the exact figure is 5 804 306 and they give the disaggregated figures as of the 30th May 2022. Bulawayo Metropolitan Province 270 000, Harare 952 000, Manicaland 738 000, Mashonaland Central 536 000, Mashonaland East 641 000, Mashonaland West 661 000, Masvingo 632 000, Matabeleland North 340 000, Matabeleland South 267 000, Midlands 762 000; there are 210 constituencies. So if you divide 210 constituencies into 5.8 it gives you a figure of 27 640 000 The Constitution starting point is that constituencies must be equal, that means the starting point by ZEC should be that every constituency of the 210 must have 27 640 000. When you now go to what they did, even constituencies that were above 30 000 were being collapsed, even constituencies that were bigger than those that were collapsed into were collapsed.
So there is no consistent formula - kwava kukanda hakata nezvinhu zvinofanira kuitwa pa data. That is not good enough Mr. Speaker. As the Committee says in the report, the 20% rule was misinterpreted; the 20% rule is now 27 640%. What ZEC did not do is that they have got a low figure of 22 000 and an upper figure of 34 000. If you subtract 34 000 minus 22 000, you get a variation of 50% when the constitutional limit is 20%. What they must do is to go back to the drawing board, divide the 5.8, marry it with the population and come up with a figure of 27 640. So every constituency now has 27 640 plus or minus but the minus is minus 10 going up, minus 10 going down so that you remain loyal to 20%, and they can do that.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Your time is almost up Hon. Member.
HON. BITI: If you do that Mr. Speaker, it means all the funny games and all the shenanigans that ZEC did, for whatever reason, will go away. Let us be loyal to data, let us be loyal to the figures, and let us be loyal to the statistics. If we do that we are home and dry. They have got time; the law says the report must be done six months before and the six months end on the 28th February 2023. I submit, if they do that desk top process they should be able to complete.
I want to come and give an example of the anomalies...
HON. CHIKWINYA: On a point of order Hon. Speaker.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: What is your point of order?
HON. CHIKWINYA: I move that the Hon. Members time be extended by 10 minutes.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: It cannot be extended unfortunately, I am being guided.
HON. BITI: Thank you. Hon. Speaker Sir, the report does justice to Mashonaland East and Chivhu. The report does justice to Gutu, Binga, Metro Gutu ya Hon. Nduna. I want to add the atrocities in Harare. So for starters, the report says there are 45 wards in Harare when there are 46 wards. Once you start on that basis Mr. Speaker, watodzirasa, you are off side completely because you are doing guess work.
Secondly Mr. Speaker Sir, when you divide the population of Harare which is 952 102 and you use that formula where you divide into 210, it means Harare must actually get 34 seats, instead it is stuck at 36 and one of the anomalies in Harare is that you have got wards, the average councillor in Harare is representing 15 000 people. So the principle of equality is destroyed and destroyed completely.
I want to come to my own constituency Harare East. Harare East comprises currently of three wards – Ward 46 which was totally ignored by ZEC. I do not know what happened to it, it just disappeared. So you have got Ward 46 which disappeared completely then you are now left with Ward 9 and Ward 8. Ward 9 is Greendale, Mandara area. Ward 8 which has got 16 000 people consists of Highlands and Newlands. What does ZEC do in its wisdom or more appropriately in its lack of wisdom, they take Ward 8 and throw it in Harare South, Churu. How does it happen Mr. Speaker? Can you picture Highlands, Chisipite and you place it at the Masvingo tollgate - [Laughter.] – The people of Highlands do not have any geographical communication; they have no common interest with the people in Churu Farm. So the description says you stand by a corner and then go to a stream without a name and then the red house and then you move - it does not make sense Mr. Speaker.
So to be very polite, ZEC did a disastrous job and the Chairman was very soft in his report. It was very diplomatic in his report but the truth of the matter is that it was a disastrous report if the truth be told. So now what we are saying Mr. Speaker, is that this House must resolve that ZEC must reconsider based on the issues that are raised in our report and that the starting point must be the population, the starting point must be equality. Divide 5.8 by 210, get 27 000 then you can play a bit now, just a bit on the 20% and 20% is not 40%, 20% is 20%. I thank you very much Hon. Speaker.
HON. NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I just want to add a few recommendations to the Delimitation Ad Hoc Committee Report. Mr. Speaker Sir, I know for a very fact that having been part of the Ad Hoc Committee, this looks in some areas like an armchair oriented report produced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
Mr. Speaker Sir, when you are on a desktop and you are on an armchair, you are different from somebody who is putting boots on the ground and you are looking at the topography. You are also looking at the terrain Mr. Speaker Sir. You are different from somebody that is practical on the ground. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Members, less noise in the House please.
HON. NDUNA: Mr. Speaker Sir, the reason I say the report distanced itself from the population is because it ignored the key tenets and values of section 161.
HON. T. MLISWA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: What is your point of order Hon. Mliswa?
HON. T. MLISWA: May Hon. Nduna be the last Member of the Ad Hoc Committee to debate because they did the report that people who were not part of it can debate. May he be the last person to debate because he contributed already and we must hear others. That is all I am asking. May he be the last because it was seconded by Hon. Tekeshe and now if Members of the Ad Hoc Committee also debate zvinenge zvakunetsa. Thank you.
HON. NDUNA: Thank you for your protection Mr. Speaker Sir.
*HON. TOGAREPI: Hon. Nduna, take your seat.
*HON. NDUNA: No, I will not sit down.
*HON. TOGAREPI: They are saying you should come last.
*HON. NDUNA: Let me just continue.
*HON. TOGAREPI: Just give him five minutes.
*HON. NDUNA: Let me continue. If I take my seat, the people of Chegutu would not be happy about that.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Five minutes Hon. Nduna.
HON. NDUNA: Mr. Speaker Sir, I touch on the issue of armchair analyst oriented operation that was undertaken because where in particular ZEC was supposed to stick to the issue of community of interest and how people are stationed and how they relate one to another, that was completely thrown out Mr. Speaker Sir. I say this because ZEC in its Act, in particular section 37 (a) of the Electoral Act, are supposed to interact with the community and that was not done. The Act which is sui generis, the supreme law of the land in Section 161 also speaks to that issue that was completely ignored.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I say this because where ZEC on its own volition says the threshold which is supposed to be met at ward level, if that ward meets that threshold, there is no need to touch it, there is no need to disturb it. ZEC went further and disturbed a ward in my constituency, which is Ward 25. Their threshold was 61.8 when there is a 20% variation. They ignored all that. They ignored their own rules of engagement and went ahead and removed a whole ward in a constituency which is called Chegutu West Constituency which ward is Ward 25 and threw it to Chegutu East Constituency jumping over John Bhinya, Masterpiece and Bexley. These are water bodies of note, big water bodies, more than seven. That is Pool Dam, Clifton Dam and they have changed the centre of the wards to be in Chegutu East Constituency. Where, if not in the office using some armchair oriented technical aptitude, can you have such a scenario?
Mr. Speaker Sir, I say where they are supposed to have a threshold meeting, a certain threshold in a ward, that should not be touched because it is a violation of their own law and it is not right. Section 2 of the Constitution says any Act of Parliament that is ultra vires the Constitution should not be repudiated to the extent of its inconsistency with itself. Mr. Speaker Sir, nothing, including an Act of Parliament speaks to what ridiculous modus operandi that was instituted in Ward 25 of Chegutu West Constituency. The Urban Councils Act does not allow the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to be the adjudicators of towns, rural district councils and otherwise. The adjudicator and who he appoints towns and municipality areas is the President in consultation with the Minister of Local Government.
When ZEC went into Chegutu West Constituency, they removed a whole ward and put it somewhere else. Where there were 15 wards, there are now 14 wards. I say this with a heavy heart because this is where the majority of my voters come from. However, now that there are 14 wards, there is need for ZEC to bring the minutes that came from the Minister of Local Government in consultation with the President, in terms of removing a whole ward and leaving 14 wards where there were 15 wards before.
In Chegutu West Constituency, there are 15 wards, three wards in the rural and 12 in the urban. How they chose to actually remove one ward in the rural set up – remove it completely and leave those in the urban set up. It gobbles the mind and should not be entertained. Chegutu West Constituency as at 31st May, 2022 had 31 445 voters above the threshold of 27 000 that they sought to address. It should have been left like that. The ward that I speak to and about had more than 1 800 people above threshold. So, if my Constituency was above 23 000 voters; if it was above 1 800 voters, the ward should be left as is.
There is now another issue of ward…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): Hon. Nduna, your time please.
HON. NDUNA: That is okay Mr. Speaker, I am winding up. Musati kuna Speaker n’inin’ini, ndichiri kutaura, uyu ataura for almost 30 minutes. What I want to say is because it has taken five years to galvanise the support of the electorate, this is the reason why they should be consulted, whether they still want to fall under me or another constituency. Six months or three months is not good enough time to preach to the electorate and to change their mindset and confide in them for them to come in and vote. Politics is not church and you cannot change a mindset through promises. They would want to remain dead with the people who have given them…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Nduna, time please. I have been lenient to you.
HON. NDUNA: I am just winding up. As I wind up, I request that because I meet the threshold in the wards, those wards should remain unadulterated, untouched and ZEC should conform with those recommendations, otherwise going forward, they should stick to Section 161 of the Constitution.
*HON. CHINOTIMBA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I can see that the issue that is being debated in this House is the same thing. Members of Parliament, maybe there are a few who are happy with this delimitation process by ZEC, most of the Constituencies are at war. My first point is delimitation is supposed to be done after 10 years but this delimitation was done after 15years. This means ZEC did not follow proper procedure whether there was COVID but they were three years behind, where they failed to do delimitation. ZEC also did not go to the people to inform them on what they were about to do. They did not also go to the traditional leaders; they are important.
Us as Members of Parliament, we were not informed that we are coming into your area of Buhera to do this and that. I just remember that one day they told me that we shall come to your area but that was the end. Mr. Speaker, I once thought that there was a reason why they were doing this, may be for political mileage. I live in Ward 24 but for voting purposes, my name is in Ward 26, that is far away from where I live. They took Ward 24 and placed it in Buhera Central. They took another ward from Buhera Central and placed it in Buhera South.
Numbers are the same, around 3 thousand something. I wonder what they wanted to achieve. The issue that I have is that I do not want to tell them that do not embezzle people’s funds. ZEC should desist from politics and stick to its mandate as an independent body. Now, when they remove one ward and put into another constituency, then take a ward from that same constituency and put it to the later, it makes no sense. The way they did it as what has been said by Hon. Biti - Ward 17 of Buhera district is in Churu, very far away. They took that number of voters to Buhera South. Now the then Ward 17 was changed to Ward 25 but it is not indicated on their maps, we noticed it ourselves.
If ZEC officials were here, they would hear this for themselves but they are not here. We are just talking among ourselves. The Minister of Finance, when we are debating budget, he will be with his people but we are not seeing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) here. So, we are appealing that what ZEC did, some said that they should rectify then we can postpone the elections to give them time; if it is possible then we can hold elections in 2028, no problem. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Do not say aaah because I am only echoing an opinion that was made to this House or ZEC should return – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
*THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order Hon. Members!
*HON. CHINOTIMBA: Or we should go back because it did not adhere to Section 161 and all that Hon. Biti referred to; they did not adhere to it. So, where are we heading? What I am recommending is that ZEC has failed this time around. If we really want to go for elections we should use the 2018 delimitation because we do not want people who will cry foul after the elections because there is no political party that is siding with ZEC.
Hon. Biti is saying that it is not good and we are saying it is not good. So what we are saying is that we should revert to 2018 and ZEC follows the law, consults the people and do away with this changing of wards in constituencies. Why are you removing certain wards and putting them in certain constituencies and vice versa? I think that ZEC did not do well.
So Mr. Speaker, I support the Ad Hoc Committee 100%, if ZEC was here. I do not see the Hon. Minister jotting down our contributions. So I do not know how he is taking down all the points that are being said here. – [HON. ZIYAMBI: There is my Secretary right there taking verbatim.] - These are my submissions. Thank you.
HON. MARKHAM: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in starting, I would just want to note that I reluctantly accept the Ad Hoc Committee’s Report because I think it is weak on certain issues. There is an issue of irregularities in the numbers supplied to us by ZEC. Despite us not having the Voter’s Roll and despite us not having a Census Report, ZEC gave us a figure for the whole country. I would have done it slightly different because I compared wards, constituency figures and the total in the Voters Roll and there are discrepancies in every factor. I will give you an example. The Mashonaland West figures do not add up by another two thousand (2 000).
Mr. Speaker, if you look at the wards, the ward figures vary when they are put under the RDC to when they are put under the constituency. I have numerous examples which I will not bog the House with but I have done those figures. So, to the Adhoc Committee, I would suggest that a recommendation be put that the figures that ZEC had given are checked on a simple spreadsheet. The figures are grossly misleading.
I then go Mr. Speaker onto the issue of maps. The maps being handed out have no reference point; there is no physical point where you can start measuring your map. The map of my area, you cannot track even with tarred roads there and it is shocking that ZEC had presented this to the Ad Hoc Committee. The Ad Hoc Committee covered it well. However, I would like to say, use the example of the previous- [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order Hon. Members! Order in the House Hon. Members, may you lower your voices please? May the Hon. Member be heard in silence please?
HON. MARKHAM: Mr. Speaker, the maps have no reference point; you cannot tie down a map. So I employed a special planner. I took the ZEC report where they described the boundary and we converted their coordinate systems onto Global Positioning System (GPS) and plotted it including the neighbouring wards. Ward 18 has a serious conflict with Ward 19 whereby it overlaps on the boundary but the worst overlap is actually in the heart of Ward 18 where it goes down Charlottes Brooke almost to Honeybee Lane to Borrowdale Brooke Road and back along Crowhill Road, then Hedsor Road and that has been taken out of Ward 18 and added to Ward 19; the new ward creating Hatcliff Constituency.
So ZEC has ignored the Constitution where it says, common interest. You cannot put low density with high density. I, myself, for Harare North recommended to ZEC the split of Ward 18 as low density with Hatcliff as high density for the simple reason that you cannot look after both as a Member of Parliament.
Secondly, when it comes to devolution funds, how do we distribute it between the rich and the poor? So the issue of the census is primarily so that you can get people of common interest together but it appears to me that ZEC is not driven by the Constitution. ZEC is actually demeaning the urban areas to maximise the number of votes per councilor and maximise the number of votes per constituency right up to 20% and above, and that I have a problem with because they are not following the Constitution. I am afraid that if we appoint Commissioners to an independent body and they are not following the Constitution, what are we doing? We are all sitting here. So, that has to be rewritten in the report.
Mr. Speaker, I would just like to mention the directions. The directions are a major issue particularly in urban areas, peri-urban areas where we have informal settlements. In Hatcliff alone, the eastern boundary alone of Hatcliff, Ward 42 and Ward 19 refer to 19 unnamed roads and two unnamed rivers. How do you judge a boundary like that? You are dealing with a coordinate system that only ZEC has that is very different to what the common man uses. I followed that and believe it or not, I know Hatcliff quite well and you have to point reference on two house numbers that are not registered in order.
So Mr. Speaker, there, I am afraid is not good enough. So, I urge the Committee to strengthen the issue on maps. The maps being handed out to us right now are mutilated; there is no reference point, they are worthless.
Mr. Speaker, I will go onto an issue that has not really been discussed and that is the issue of the population of Harare that was covered by Hon. Biti. I would like to just go down to the real mischief in Harare, and that is the wards. The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works was supposed to take heed of what the stakeholders said. The City of Harare and four Residents Associations, I know stated, we need 55 Wards, we got 45. My problem is this, why lie that you engaged the stakeholders when you ignored everything you tell them?
Mr. Speaker, I have done the figures and the figure is, every council here in Harare has to look after 16 101 people. If we go onto the wards, Mbare is the highest density in Harare and there is no argument about that as a constituency. Mbare has less people than Harare East. The area of Mbare, the council looks after less people and then in Harare East, Mbare fits into Harare East 26 times. So the council has got two councillors for Harare East that has got to cover 26 distances to visit more people than the council. It is a non- starter.
If you take large for large, we have got 16 101. The urban area right next door, high density Chitungwiza, the council looks after 1 644 people. We are looking after three times at the ward level than Chitungwiza, they work for the council and both urban areas are exactly the same. You look at the same thing in rural areas and it is shocking. Lupane Council looks after 452 people only.
Mr. Speaker, in the interest of time, I mentioned stakeholder engagement – my most important issue which is the polling station. Elections are run by polling stations. Knowing the reports, they talk of polling areas. The polling stations are not identified. They should have a GPS and we should know about common knowledge where all our polling stations are. We have had two previous speakers who just spoke right now telling us that they have changed wards. Even now with those polling stations on, we have been ignored. In some instances, I support the Ad hoc Committee providing the resolutions and are strengthened.
I am very anti the unfriendly manner in which ZEC presents its data including maps. It is almost like they do not want to show us. So we think that the lowest thing is blatantly the timing. Why is it that when we are talking about the most important thing facing this nation, that is all done last minute? I understand COVID and I understand the report but we are backing the Constitution. We are using upper-echolon, everything and we are not engaging the public. There are Members of Parliament who have stood up, many of the men and women not knowing what is going on in their constituencies would not be consulted. It is totally unacceptable and that is why I support that Ad hoc Committee Report. I thank you.
HON. MUNETSI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir and good afternoon to you. I want to add my voice to the issue on debate. First and foremost, I want to find out which report was used by ZEC to come up with their delimitation exercise? Which report did they use? If you go to our Constitution, it clearly tells you that after a census then delimitation comes. If there is no report from census, which report did they use to do their delimitation? This would mean to me that ZEC did its work without following the dictates of the Constitution.
If you go to Section 161 and try to find out which part of that section was followed by ZEC, there is none. The ZEC report was not there. If you go down and consider all the other items which must be considered by ZEC, in their report, they did not even mention a single item. There was need to consult stakeholders and there is no mention of any stakeholder that was consulted in their report. There is need to look at boundaries but there is not even any physical feature boundary that they mentioned in their report. There was need to consult interested people and there is not even mention of a single person who was consulted by ZEC.
This to me means that if as Parliament there is a law that is put and some organisation decides to come up with a report that is out of what Parliament has put, then the report is null and void. It is helter skeltter. They are just putting facts down from what they know as ZEC and not from what the Constitution says. There is a reason why the law says after a census report, then delimitation comes. People cannot just put law for the sake of it. They cannot just put a law and people do not regard what the law says and do things on their own. We cannot do that.
As Parliament and law makers, we want the law to be followed. If they do not follow the law, then we do not accept the report because it is not lawful. When they were doing their delimitation exercise, which number of people were they using if they did not have any numbers of people given to them? Where did they get the figures from so that they can put their boundaries? They did not have figures but they put boundaries – where from? If ZEC was here today, I would ask them whether they opened the Constitution and I would say, did you at one time open the Constitution to see whether what you are doing is constitutional? If they can write a report of this nature which is not constitutional, can I be safe to say ZEC cannot run an election and bring authentic results. Can ZEC come up with an authentic result for elections? All they are doing here is from hearsay and we cannot follow that. ZEC must get back and start afresh so that they can come up with something that is constitutional, something that we can read, something that we can refer to the Constitution and then we can proceed. That will be my submission. Thank you.
HON. MATEWU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I want to commend the Ad hoc Committee for the conspicuous report that they made to this House. I believe that some of my colleagues have mentioned most of the legal issues pertaining to the report by ZEC. I just want to touch on Mashonaland East province and some of the mishaps which have been in that province.
Mr. Speaker Sir, in Mashonaland East, we had a meeting with ZEC and all political parties attended. ZEC presented to us their proposals. We were there and we all accepted. The report that they submitted to this Parliament is basically different from what they proposed to us. I want to give you specific examples. Section 161 (6), clause c says the geographical distribution of registered voters and clause d, any community of interest as between registered voters.
I want to go to Hwedza District Mr. Speaker Sir. When we had meetings with ZEC, Hwedza as a district was fit for one constituency. However, in this report Hwedza resorted back to two constituencies. How did they achieve to give Hwedza two constituencies? They had to take five wards from Marondera Rural District Council and put them into Hwedza. One of the wards is Ward 11, which is Mahusekwa Township. It is the centre of Marondera RDC, which is currently Marondera West. That has been put into Hwedza. If you look at the community of interest, most of the people that are in Marondera West constituency actually go to Mahusekwa as their township. They have put that into Hwedza North just to have two Hwedza constituencies. Again, for them now to bolster Hwedza South, they have gone and taken six wards from Chikomba District to make sure that we just have two Hwedza Constituencies. This is a serious gerrymandering by ZEC. I want to say this, when we had a meeting with ZEC, ZEC was very explicit to say we will only have one Hwedza constituency because the registered voters were not enough to form a constituency. They have now gone back and somehow redrawn the boundaries and ensured that we have two Hwedza constituencies.
How did they then come up with the remaining wards in Marondera Rural District? They had to take seven wards from Manyame RDC into Marondera West. These people have absolutely no correlation altogether. In our initial discussions with ZEC, they had actually said, we are going to have two Seke constituencies because Manyame RDC is quite huge. Now, they had chosen to have one constituency in Seke at the expense of the residents of Seke, the voters just to have two Hwedza constituencies, which are not even Hwedza. It is Marondera, Chikomba and Marondera RDC. They have gone to take chunks of wards just to form those two Hwedza constituencies. Mr. Speaker Sir, this is very serious gerrymandering that has been done by ZEC.
In conclusion, I just want to say whilst I do support the Ad hoc Committee’s report, we ask that ZEC makes the necessary amendments to its preliminary report. Thank you very much.
HON. T. MLISWA: I have a point of order.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): What is your point of order Hon. Member?
HON. T. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker, my point of order which I would like the male Members of Parliament to pay attention to is: I received a family today who needed my assistance. They have a daughter who was impregnated by a Member of Parliament. When she came here to seek assistance from another Member of Parliament, she was impregnated again. I had asked them to put them in black and white. I do not know the Members of Parliament but just for you to know. Members of Parliament who are male must be responsible. I will be putting this letter on social media and I would like the Members of Parliament who are involved to quickly support them. We cannot be seen to be abusing children and making them pregnant. Those children need to eat. If you are not able to support a child, do not have a child. Stop abusing the girl child. Thank you.
HON. MUDAU: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I come from Matabeleland South. We received the report from ZEC and we commend the job that they did. However, some of our wards have been taken away from Beitbridge, for example, they took wards from Beitbridge District and added them to Gwanda District. At the end, Chief Tshittaudze is now under another chief. These are some of the issues that are troubling us as Beitbridge residents. This means that we no longer have a chief in Beitbridge West Constituency. The chief is now under the rule of another chief in Gwanda. We were kindly asking that this be rectified. As it appears now, Beitbridge West has no chief. We are also asking that the people that have been transferred to the chief in Gwanda do not know the rules and the laws of that area. They are familiar with the rules and laws of Beitbridge. In Beitbridge we have our own way of honouring our chief which is different from what they do in Gwanda. In this regard, we say that it is impossible for our people to keep on practicing their culture. People will now need to change their identification cards because the 02 code that is used in Beitbridge is different from the code that is used in Gwanda. They will have to travel long distances to go to the polling stations where they registered to vote prior to this exercise. We pray that this should be rectified. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
HON. MAKARI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I just wanted to contribute on this very important debate, specifically to speak on the Ad Hoc report. I guess we can only but congratulate ZEC for trying to do what is needed and to adhere to our Constitution. However, I am going to speak regarding the delimitation. There is a problem in my constituency, that is Epworth. I am going to start by talking towards something that is very sensitive to us as Epworth and myself as someone who stays in the constituency. There is no way you can move Dombo ra Mwari which is geographically significant to Epworth. Kuti uti Epworth, you are talking about Dombo ra Mwari and you move it to another constituency or to another ward. I think the Constitution talks about being sensitive towards geographically features. So that is my first concern. How do you take Dombo ra Mwari and put it in Hunyani Constituency and still remain with Epworth North and South? In all intents and purposes, we no longer have Epworth when you remove such historical features as Dombo raMwari.
The second point that I would like to highlight which was also stipulated in the Ad Hoc report is that the wards are not in sync, we have got certain wards that have 30 000 and other wards that have 33 000 in terms of the population when using the voters’ registration. It is not a secret that Epworth is highly populated. If these numbers are not tallying, then I think we should just overlook the delimitation. We have 7 wards in Epworth, and of the 7 wards, I am going to speak about Ward 2 in particular. Ward 2 sits right behind Epworth Local Board which is the administrative capital of Epworth. It has been moved to Harare South, so the electorate have to walk a distance of about 10 to 15km in order to exercise their democratic and constitutional rights; I do not think this makes sense. Besides just voting, the social amenities, social services, they get these from Epworth Constituency. So, it means now although they sit right behind Epworth Local Board, they have to walk far to get health services and other social amenities that are entitled to them.
So as far as I am concerned, I think the delimitation has to be addressed. They have to take into consideration the historical features. It has to take into consideration other services that our electorate needs to take advantage of. I think those are the major points that I would like to highlight as far as the delimitation report is concerned. To cut the long story short, I think that these issues that I have highlighted are taken into consideration. I thank you.
HON. MPARIWA: Good afternoon Hon. Speaker. I thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak on the report of the Ad Hoc Committee. Let me begin by thanking the Ad Hoc Committee for a job well done in actually analyzing and making our duty easier in terms of understanding the report from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
Hon. Speaker, I will not be long because post of the points and wrongs that the Hon. Members wish the ZEC report should have covered have been highlighted. We are almost two hours and a half debating on this report and several options and recommendations have also been added on to the recommendations and conclusions of the report by the Ad Hoc Committee which I also want to associate myself with and thank the Ad Hoc Committee. Let me also add to say what Hon. T. Mliswa said is rightfully true. If you look at the conclusion of the Ad Hoc Committee, it goes on to highlight the role of Parliament in terms of protecting the Constitution. Here is an institution which was baptized by Parliament, anointed by the President of the country, busy breaking the Constitution and the rules of the country. What do we call such a report? I really wonder whether we should continue debating on this report which is actually illegal. In every aspect, the legal representatives that have spoken and the gurus that were in the Ad Hoc Committee, have highlighted several violations of the Constitution. Chapter 37 of the Electoral Act of the country which is ZEC’s own has been violated by ZEC. We are busy continuing to debate on an illegal report from the onset.
Hon. Speaker, I am going to suggest in a very simple manner, to harness as other Hon. Members have said, that we have to say ZEC goes back to the drawing board with all the inputs from the Ad Hoc Committee and the others that have been added on to the recommendations including also to give them a timeframe. It does not matter whether they work 24 hours a day but they can do a better job if they consider what the Members of Parliament have done.
Why am I saying so Hon. Speaker, we run the risk of losing the important points that have been highlighted in the Ad Hoc report because that is a parliamentary report, it is our report. If we so associate with it, then we need to actually throw back the report of ZEC for ZEC to go and do a better job. This is what we expected from the Ad Hoc Committee’s report and we give them a timeframe.
Zimbabwe is always on the limelight when it comes to elections - why are we saying so? In order for us to come up with undisputed elections, we need to do a thorough job and consider what the members and the Ad Hoc Committee report had said. Therefore, I endorse the moving of the report to be endorsed that was done earlier on by Hon. Biti, I second the endorsement and say this is a working document for Parliament of what we expect ZEC to have actually done. I thank you.
HON. CHIKWINYA: On a point of order.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: What is your point of order?
HON. CHIKWINYA: I think my point of order arises from the debate that has just been made by Hon. Mpariwa and also by Hon. Biti. Hon. Biti proposed that we adopt the report and if you look even into the debate being made by Hon. Members, we are largely conflicting ourselves in terms of Standing Order No. 111 of our Standing Rules, that we are repeating ourselves. Hon. Mpariwa now comes up with the way forward that we have taken note of all the inconsistencies, especially with regard to the Constitution. Why can we not stop, take back the report to ZEC and this actually shows the seriousness of Parliament that we have condemned the report on the basis of inconsistency to the Constitution and we adopt the Ad Hoc Committee Report and perhaps make a resolution that can you relook because we understand that the Constitution allows them to have a final say, can you relook into the inconsistencies with regards to the Constitution and bring back the report to us for discussion, otherwise we are continuously only satisfying a constitutional obligation that we are supposed to debate for two days which I do not think there is any value in it.
So I move Hon. Speaker, that we adopt the report and we take it back to ZEC with the resolution that they must bring it back after addressing the inconsistencies which are in the Constitution as highlighted by the Ad Hoc Committee. Thank you Mr. Speaker.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: I think it would be very unfair of me to deny other Hon. Members who would want to contribute. I do not think all the Hon. Members that are to come from now will be actually repeating the points that have been raised so far. What I can simply do is actually to guide those that I call not to repeat the points that have been raised. I am here to listen to new points that you have actually seen worthy to bring to this august House. Thank you very much.
HON. SACCO: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I would also like to raise some points of interest around the ZEC Preliminary Report, especially around the issue where I feel not enough consultations were made bearing in mind that in the Constitution, there are many factors that need to be considered but ZEC considered only the issue of registered voters, trying to balance out numbers as per ward, as per constituency. This in itself makes the whole process against the Constitution because there are six factors that should have been considered but they focused only on one, causing chaos and confusion because in my constituency, we have a certain place called Matsvukira Business Centre which is currently in Ward 22 but was moved to Ward 12 which is 45km away.
It does not make sense because when you distribute inputs for example, or when you have services being provided, one area is moved to a ward which is 45km away. We have seen wards being moved from one constituency to another. Ward 1, for example Cashel Valley in Chimanimani being moved to Chimanimani West, Ward 7 of Chimanimani East being moved to Chimanimani West and then one ward being moved from Chimanimani West to Chimanimani East. If it is about numbers, why do we need to move two wards to one side and then take one ward and move it back? There is obvious gerrymandering by certain people who had influence on the process.
Consultation was not done across the board. Why consult certain people and not others? Traditional leaders were not consulted, even DDCs, the DAs themselves were excluded from the process. Why should they have been excluded from this process? So it is evident that it was not done with proper consultation. It was a rushed exercise. Not enough time was taken and it was done with certain interests being taken into consideration looking towards council elections where Matsvukira Business Centre has a sitting councillor who is being moved from his ward to another ward to create confusion and conflict amongst people who want to represent those different wards.
I strongly feel Hon. Speaker, as was part of the Ad Hoc Committee Report, that ward 1 Cashel Valley should remain in Chimanimani East, Ward 7 can be moved to Chimanimani West but then Ward 17should be moved back to Chimanimani West as well. This will then make it remain Chimanimani East and West, otherwise moving these wards, we will end up having Chimanimani North and South. We will have to change the names of the constituencies because they are no longer Chimanimani East and West. They now become Chimanimani North and South.
In conclusion, I feel this process has been rushed. It has been done using only one issue, which was looking at the number of registered voters. I think it should be as a proposal but looking towards implementing it in 2028. I thank you,
HON. KWARAMBA: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to say most of my points have already been mentioned, so I will repeat just a few that ZEC never consulted primary requirements like geographical location, community of interest, languages, common interests and so on and also lastly to say traditional leaders were not consulted. They were left with no wards and also polling stations were moved to far away places such that it would take people a long time to visit those polling stations. Now if those people are not afforded transport, it means they will not go and vote, hence affecting election results. Thank you very much.
HON. MADZIMURE: Thank you Hon. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will start with the issue of one requirement which mandates the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works to publish or to gazette the wards before delimitation starts. This is so important for people to understand the wards. This could have cured this mischief where we now have some wards now belonging to even two local authorities. I can give an example of Epworth where we now have Epworth Ward 3 now grouped together with Ward 8 of Harare to form Manyame. You now have Ward 3 which is under Epworth local authority and this other ward under Harare and according to the principles of delimitation, this is not allowed. It should not have happened. How this could have been solved was that the Minister of Local Government and Public Works should have gazetted the boundaries of the wards before delimitation. That is one issue Mr. Speaker I would want to be addressed.
The other issue Mr. Speaker, is that Harare itself, what ZEC was concentrating on was on condensing the constituencies and sometimes creating corridors to link wards so that they would form constituencies. A typical example is Ward 36 which is part of my constituency and which is in Mufakose. Ward 36 Mr. Speaker, ends where Ward 14 starts. On the other end, there is Ward 15 which is Warren Park. The other ward is Kuwadzana. For them to link Ward 36 to Ward 15, they had to cut through Ward 14 which is Kambuzuma. They are now dividing a cooperative which is already there, Leopold. They are going through the middle of Leopold Cooperative and their description is that you drive down High Glen Road, you get to house Number 409, turn on the right of that boundary of a house. You go up an unnamed road. You then go into Kambuzuma and to Jumbo Road. Here is Kambuzuma, you are now dividing Ward 36 which is going to be Warren Park and Ward 14. Jumbo Road is that road from Section 5 Kambuzuma going to Mereki and you are going to say the people of Kambuzuma now belong to two constituencies. Some remain in Kambuzuma while the others are going to Ward 36. The same applies to Joshuwa Nkomo Cooperative. Again, you are dividing the people on the basis of an imaginary boundary and this is what they say – hanzi imaginary line. How do you find an imaginary line?
Not only that Mr. Speaker, you then go to Ward 14. They want to link Ward 14 to Harare Central. Hanzi you go down Kambuzuma Road into Makoni which is in Rugare. Makoni is the first Road parallel to Kambuzuma Road. Here is the heart of Rugare. The poor people of Rugare and you have now a boundary that says the other part is now Ward 13 which is Southerton and the other part is now Ward 14 Kambuzuma. Actually it is not Kambuzuma, it is now Ward 5 which is the Belvedere area. You know how you come to VID, that is where that constituency is going to be. The relationship and the community of interest between the people of kubva kuseri uku Mr. Speaker, coming through here and going to places like Belvedere up to Kambuzuma and call it a constituency – what relationship is there between those people.
Mr. Speaker, the people of Milton Park now are part of Harare Central which includes Kambuzuma. What relationship is there between the people of Milton Park? Here are business people, affluent people, people who are rich. So it does not make sense Mr. Speaker. The other issue that needs to be addressed is the exponential population growth in Harare. Mr. Speaker, how can you have Harare starting from 45 wards instead of 46? You have already reduced a Ward for Harare but the population for Harare has been growing exponentially. When we talk of exponential growth, that is a growth that has a line that is going up like this. It is not going almost parallel, it is actually going up and the population of Harare has been growing. Why would then Harare have its wards reduced and you are increasing a constituency. There is evidence that population is growing and the threshold of Harare is around average of 31 thousand people per constituency when you have got other constituencies that have got 22 thousand. Look at the difference. The difference is now beyond the 20%. Why they are talking of equality in representation is because the resources will be distributed in that particular manner.
The CDF has to be distributed equally. No constituency should get more than another one but if another one has 32 000 and another constituency has 22 000, there is a misnomer. You are not sharing the resources equally. My recommendation is that as the Committee said, there are a lot of corrections that have to be made by ZEC. Take into consideration what Members are saying here because this is the same confusion that is out there. The issue of saying unnamed road, unnamed river, imaginary line, that is not good enough. You are not describing the boundaries. If you look at the example of the 2008 reports, they were very clear.
It had all the data that was required. What we were given today was a preliminary report by ZEC to its stakeholders. This is what Chegutu was in 2008 and this is what they produced first. Thereafter, they then produced a map that was well labeled with roads and rivers but not the imaginary things that ZEC is talking to us about.
Lastly Mr. Speaker, ZEC is an independent board but it is only independent when it is abiding by the rules respecting the Constitution. No one would want to interfere with ZEC’s work but ZEC must then respect the people. Simply following the Constitution, you will be respecting the people and the people will applaud you for that. Thank you very much.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Let me also take this opportunity to only thank the Ad Hoc Committee for the report that they submitted. Suffice to say that I thought they could have used their teeth to extract certain information. I view of the fact that they missed an opportunity; for example, we should by now as Members of Parliament be equipped with the voters’ roll and they mentioned it in their report that it was an essential raw data which was supposed to have been provided for to the MPs.
Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of this Session, I pointed through a point of order to the Hon. Speaker who was in Chair that the information that we were supplied with was firstly, not legible and secondly was not enough. Pursuant to that, physical information was them given to us. This 595 paged book, we have it in our soft copy, so there is nothing new. The maps that we were given, we had them, so there is nothing new. I remain and I want to take this opportunity to say the 10 annexures that were referred to – I do not think that condition has been satisfied. Suffice to say that I was taking a look because it is now a physical map, I could see better on the physical map than on the electronic map. The physical map for the 2023 boundaries as proposed, Mbizo Constituency is not there and I had thought that it was because of the electronic illegibility but even on physical paper, Mbizo Constituency is not there. Mbizo Constituency then appears on the provincial map for 2023 but be that as it may, the polling stations as plotted under Mbizo Constituency are so dotted close together, not even making any meaningful sense for one to be able to analyse. Hon. Speaker, what I am trying to speak to is that the information that has been given to Members of Parliament to analyse does not make sense. It then makes this House to become a rubber stamping institution yet we were supposed to be given data to analyse and make recommendations for the good of making laws for our own country.
A fundamental error was made by ZEC. Section 161 (3) provides that the constituencies are supposed to be divided into equal number of voters, in terms of the 210 national constituencies and it is then supported by Section 161 (6), which then gives the 20% variance. Now, ZEC did not use the national formula. It used a provincial formula. So they went into Harare Province, found that there are 952 000 registered voters, then they divided that by 29 constituencies and found a provincial average, where they then effected a 20% variant. It is my fervent view and submission that, that was a misinterpretation of the Constitution.
They went into Midlands, found out that there are 738 000 plus registered voters, divided that by 28 constituencies and got a provincial average and then effected a 20% variance. I do not think that is the spirit of the Constitution. The spirit of the Constitution is to establish equal number of voters throughout the whole country and then you effect a 20% variance as expounded by Hon. Biti to have an effect of 10% above and 10% below, not to have a provincial average but rather a national average.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Members, please do not take the maps with you. They are a record of the House.
HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I will also point out to the issue of unspecified ‘may’ scale. The Ad Hoc Committee rightly points out so that the maps that we were given – one of the particular features of a map is to have a scale so that you can know the sizes of the areas being mapped. So a map is basically a form of reducing what is on ground to a particular readable diagram on paper but then without a scale you are not even aware. This is why they talk of imaginary boundaries like what was explained by Hon. Madzimure. If we had a scale, one of the principles of Section 161 (3) is to have equal boundaries and equal number of voters. Considering all the six features that are mentioned in subsection 6 of Section 161, I move Hon. Chair that in adopting this report, I am not sure, on this one I need your ruling Hon. Speaker.
HON. PRISCILLA MOYO: On a point of order. As Masvingo, we do not have the maps; we do not know what others are talking about. Can we also get those maps?
HON. CHIKWINYA: Hon. Chair, I seek your clarification here as I wind up. Are we allowed as Parliament to make a resolution? I understand we are allowed to make recommendations but are we allowed to formulate a resolution which we then submit to ZEC and that requires answers? My constitutional understanding is that we make recommendations, give them to the President and the President passes them on to ZEC but ZEC has the final say.
So, this process that we are doing can literally be misinterpreted to say we are simply talking and then ZEC has the final say. I can then propose that the Ad Hoc Committee sits again and make resolutions coming out of what we are currently discussing to say we resolve that you do this by this certain time because point number one, we need to be compliant with the Constitution in terms of doing elections. We also need to guide ZEC. In terms of Section 119, we are an institution which superintends all other Government agencies and commissions.
Given those powers, can we not make resolutions which we are then going to give to ZEC, giving them what we expect them also to do in terms of compliance to Section 119? I need your clarification on that. Perhaps you also want to seek clarification from legal counsel so that at least it will guide us as Parliament. We clearly understand that there are also matters of litigation before you. As a House, we understand that the litigation is directed to the Speaker of Parliament but we also know that the Speaker of Parliament is also representing all of us as a House. So we need to move together with him to comply with litigation issues, to comply with the Constitution. My question is; can we make a resolution or can we task the Ad Hoc Committee to go back and make resolutions which we are going to adopt and give to ZEC because we have certain expectations which we want from them?
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: I feel that it is only proper to come up with that question that you have raised after we have given every Member who would want to contribute time to contribute, then we can now consult our legal counsel, whether it is actually permissible for the House to make some recommendations but that is a very important point. Thank you very much for that.
*HON. P. ZHOU: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to the debate in the House. I also want to add some comments onto the Ad Hoc report. Actually I support the observations and everything they said. What people debated on shows that ZEC was quick to do their work without doing much ground work. By so doing they made many errors. The report is full of flaws; serious errors. They were inconsistent. What they did in one constituency, they did not do the same in the next constituency, meaning they did not use any formula at all.
Many constituencies which they delimitated fall outside the permissible threshold. If you try to follow a formula they used in one constituency and try to apply it in another constituency, it could not work. There is need for consistency, which lacked in this case. In Midlands, had there been consistency, we would have remained with four constituencies in Mberengwa and had they done it in accordance to the Constitution, at least before using the numbers, you should use primary factors to see that if I change here, what will happen to the ward? How will people access polling stations? What changes will be brought if we change polling stations?
I think ZEC conducted this delimitation exercise from their offices and did not go to the ground in order to ascertain what it means to move someone from ward 1 to ward 4; they did not consider any of this. This is my opinion and that is why I say that there are a lot of mistakes.
So, I want to support the Ad Hoc Committee Report and recommend that they go back to the ground and look for consultants with the expertise on delimitation. They should not rush this exercise as this is a very big thing. We were only stopped because of COVID and we waited for more than 10 to 15 years. So when you are doing it, it should not be like child’s play. I am saying that fundamental issues have been raised here. The report shows that there are a lot of corrections that should be done. When you are writing an assignment, in college you are told to rewrite or redo. This is what I am endorsing on this ZEC report that they should rectify the errors because I do not know how we can adopt this report.
The other mistake that they made was lack of consultation. Most legislators, just like myself, did not hear anything about the exercise. When I finally heard about the exercise, ZEC had their answers already; they had their own formulas that they are changing from constituency to constituency and we do not understand it. It is a bowl of confusion. Even the map reading is confusing because you cannot locate the polling station that is being mentioned.
Also the Commissioners, I heard that some of the Commissioners distanced themselves from the report and refused to sign it; it went through and only two Commissioners signed, that is, the Chairperson and her deputy. Why did the other Commissioners refuse to sign? Later on, we heard that those who did not sign disowned the report. So who are we to accept and endorse a disowned report when the owners are refusing? Thank you.
*HON. CHIKUKWA: Thank you for according me this opportunity. A lot of things have already been said but I want to address the issue of educating people because the people who are concerned do not know about this delimitation exercise. As parliamentarians, we come across a lot of people; I am talking as someone who represents the urban constituency. People hear on social media that there are new wards but what I have observed is that when listening to people debating and also on the report of the Ad Hoc Committee, I have seen that ZEC did the delimitation mathematically. They calculated from their offices and did not go to the grassroots.
When I am talking about Masvingo, I should go to Masvingo and physically see the mountains and rivers. I should ascertain whether what I have written is corresponding to what is on the ground. I can give an example that many people were talking about common interest but my personal opinion is that we do not look at common interest only but should look at, for example geographical positions. When I am here, there is Seke Road that goes to Chitungwiza and there is another road that comes from Mbudzi round-about that goes to Chitungwiza and it is labeled. There was a lot of gerrymandering. Wards 23 and 21 are together but they skipped that and went to another ward that is far off.
I think we should look at all the area angles and also involve the people in those areas. We know that we will not be able to please everyone but we should do things so that our country develops; a thing that will be used in posterity. So I am in support of the report that has been tabled by the Ad Hoc Committee; maybe we put them under pressure. So, I think that we should give them more time.
I heard a former speaker saying that the other Commissioners refused to sign the report. I think they should be given a chance to look at the report, taking into consideration what Hon. Members pointed out because we are representing the people out there. The report together with the recommendations should be put together so that they rectify the concerns that have been raised. I thank you.
HON. TOFFA: Thank you Hon. Speaker Sir for giving me this opportunity as I stand to support the report by the Ad Hoc Committee. In particular, that they must be given …
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order, Honourable may you connect your gadget please?
HON. TOFFA: Thank you Hon. Speaker Sir for giving me this opportunity as I stand to support the report by the Ad Hoc Committee - [*HON. NYABANI: You are not audible Hon. Member.] - Thank you Hon. Speaker, I will start again. I believe I am not speaking loud enough.
Hon. Speaker Sir, I thank you for this opportunity to support the report by the Ad Hoc Committee. In particular, to say that they should revisit the report that they have given us to correct all the irregularities by not following the Constitution because as Parliament, our mandate is to protect the Constitution. In saying that, I support the Ad Hoc Committee, I think it is important as well that I must state that it was not a gender sensitive committee.
Hon. Speaker Sir, when we look at what happened as many other Hon. Members have spoken about their constituencies and their provinces that Section 161 (6) (d), community of interest as between registered voters. When you look at what happened in Bulawayo, you find that a low density area and a high density area were put into one ward even though they were not neighbours. They had to cross through other constituencies to become a ward. In particular, I will speak about Bulawayo South which had Ward 7 and Ward 5. That is Makokoba and South World in Bulawayo South. When you look at the ward retention fund or you look at the devolution as has been spoken to, that becomes a problem.
We also look at Cowdry Park where you have Ward 6 and Ward 28 which is on the far end of Bulawayo and Ward 6 being in the low density suburbs. As I support this report, it is important to note that the Ad hoc Committee also adds by accepting or agreeing to go into this process without having the Constitution and without having the census report because they were relying on information from ZEC whom we are all condemning that they did not follow the Constitution. So the Ad hoc Committee as well did not follow due process. It is important in future that whenever any Ad hoc Committee is put in place, they must follow due process.
We also have situations where according to the Constitution, wards should not be split. So you have some wards in Bulawayo that have been split such as Entumbane, part of Mpopoma and Matshobane which have been split into two. That is all I have to say Mr. Speaker Sir and I support the recommendations by the Ad hoc Committee.
HON. NOWEDZA: Mr. Speaker Sir, I am standing down for debate because my point has just been mentioned by someone.
HON. DR. LABODE: Mr. Speaker Sir, just like my sister who said her points have been spoken – what I am saying is that a lot of issues have been raised, discrepancies, anomalies and so I am just in a minute saying to the House - I think what we ideally should do now is to take this report back to ZEC and ask ZEC to wait for the census – simple and straightforward. Thank you.
THE MNISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I move that the debate do now adjourn. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] -
HON. MAMOMBE: Are we able to debate tomorrow?
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): Yes, you will debate tomorrow.
HON. MAMOMBE: Thank you Hon. Speaker for the clarification.
THE MNISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 18th January, 2023.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI), the House adjourned at Two Minutes to Six o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 17th January, 2023
The Senate met at Half-Past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE in the Chair)
MOTION
REPORT OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION 2022 PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE DELIMITATION EXERCISE.
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise.
Question again proposed.
*HON. SEN. MBOHWA: Thank you Mr. President for giving me the opportunity to debate the report that was brought forward by the Ad Hoc Committee which was set after the report from ZEC, following the delimitation exercise. I want to thank you because I saw that they did a wonderful job. Mr. President, from the findings of the Ad Hoc Committee I would want to add a few things to this report which I find a bit uncomfortable about the work done by ZEC.
Firstly, we are aware that it is the duty of ZEC as per our Constitution to do delimitation in accordance with the voter registration. For me, that was not a problem. What becomes a problem from our communities is that after COVID-19 which almost took 2 years, there was a complete lockdown. You even know Mr. President that schools were closed. This did not leave a chance for our children to have an opportunity to register to vote by acquiring birth certificates and national identity cards. Soon after COVID restrictions were lifted, ZEC quickly started voter registration and meeting young people who did not have official documents to register to vote. My submissions are that if it was possible, the Registrar General’s Office should have moved ahead of ZEC so that it was going to capture all who did not have birth certificates. I support this because from May 2022 when there was a deadline for delimitation, I am assured we now have almost 400 000 new registered voters. This indicates that the registration that was done for delimitation excludes a number of people who were still willing to register as voters.
Secondly, if we are to focus on delimitation, you can correct me Mr. President, I believe that we have what we call primary concerns which should be factors considered for delimitation. For example, we consider Chiefs as the custodians of our land and as such, they should be consulted so that we hear what their opinions are because they have the power to preside over their communities. They have development that they champion in those communities. I am not saying we want to discriminate tribes but if you take the Ndau and put it to Karangas, it will be like we are suppressing the Ndau’s because we have brought them together with another tribe. This factor was not considered.
Let me go to Mberengwa District. There is Chief Mposi and Chief Mudavanhu. Chief Mudavanhu is proud of his community through his ward assemblies. Then you want Chief Mudavanhu during ward assembly consultations to go and ask people from Chief Mposi to do as he does in his area. How can his people go to another chiefdom to talk about development in his ward? This did not go well with our chiefs and ZEC did not consider all this. I wish chiefs could have sat down and discussed the issue to come up with a solution. I want to give you another example from Chireya, Nyaningwe and Madzivazvido in Gokwe area. If the headman had been consulted, he would have told them which village to move depending on the closeness of villages to the polling stations. It would seem these people were working from an office desk and just removed villages willy-nilly without giving consideration to distances to be travelled or the other primary factors. They would just look for the village with small numbers such as 345 and move it. Those are some of my observations.
Now, looking at Runde, there is Ward 13 and Ward 18. Ward 8 was short with two people to meet the minimum requirement. If they were looking at primary concerns they could have just ignored the two people. However, what they did was move the whole polling station and these people from Ward 8 would pass through their old ward to get to the new ward that they were given. It is clear they did not look into this intently. They would remove the tail-end of one ward and it would pass through its old ward to go to the new ward. That is a very difficult scenario. Also looking at the geographical features, it happened in many areas such as Chirisa, Gokwe South, etcetera. You have to pass through the game reserve to get to the new ward, yet right by the corner there is a ward which was supposed to be moved. So it is sequential but there was no consultation and it did not happen as such. In other areas where things were done properly, the ZEC team made consultations but where they did not consult is where we are having these contentious issues. We are well aware that the only thing ZEC cannot change are provincial boundaries but they are able to change everything else. Even looking at Mberengwa, in the olden days when it was still called Belingwe, it used to encompass some people who are now in Zvishavane. They were again put back by delimitation. So, all I can say is, we were supposed to move wards according to their closeness. They were supposed to take 10 000 people and get into Shurugwi until they got the required number. They would have the numbers because of the number of people in Zvishavane. So, they would go back to the way they used to live because they used to live together and they know each other. They have the same town – Zvishavane, they meet in the same mines and they are people who already have relations and would not have seen it as amiss to come back together unlike dissolving the constituency and move it somewhere else because Midlands still has the same number of constituencies. It was just a matter of pushing each other while the boundaries changed and this would not have caused any problems.
Mr. President, in conclusion, I am not too sure how we can align the census with delimitation. We have places that are so backward such as the area visited by the First Lady Mrs. Mnangagwa. The people in that area did not know something called a birth certificate or national identity card. They are so backward but they are in Zimbabwe and they also need development. It means if we count those people, maybe the constituency there was short of the minimum required yet it has 70 000 people, so we dissolve it because it has 16 000 registered voters without taking into consideration the population in that constituency. They move it to the one that has the required threshold. You will make it difficult for that MP and there will be no development because that MP will have over 100 000 people while the other has 25 000 people. We then come to Parliament and get $2 for development. I do not think we will have weighed properly what we are doing if we divorce the whole population from the delimitation of registered voters. I do not know, but I was thinking that there is need to relook into the delimitation because it is only done after 10 years. Ten years of suffering and you cannot get to the ward centre because of a mountain. No-one goes there because travelling 34km in the rural areas on those roads, a person would need $20 to move to and fro the ward centre. The seed that one is going to collect is not supposed to be paid for. So, it would be better to use that money to buy a 10kg bag of mealie-meal. That is how bad this delimitation exercise was. My plea is for this process to be looked into again because the person who is going to suffer is the child of Zimbabwe. Let us not look at parties but let us look at what will benefit and disadvantage the Zimbabwean citizen. What is the point of accepting something that will hurt our people for all those years because we just want to say the process was done well? Those are my brief words that I would want to add to the Ad Hoc Report that we received. I thank you.
HON. SEN. MWONZORA: Mr. President, this country has a Constitution which was made after very wide consultations by the people of Zimbabwe. One of the most important things about this Constitution is that it sets out Independent Commissions which are contained in Chapter 12. These include the Zimbabwe Election Commission. Therefore, as a Parliament and a people, we must always make sure that we safeguard the independence of ZEC. So, it is critically important that it remains independent.
Secondly, this Constitution talks about the duty of Parliament, which is to make sure that the Constitution is observed. So, this Parliament must protect the independence of ZEC. It must protect the rights of the people of Zimbabwe as set out in the Constitution.
Now, on this delimitation, there are clauses in the Constitution that deal with that delimitation. The first clause which is Section 161 (1), says that delimitation must follow a census. Why is that important? Because the population of the country is important.
Now, what the ZEC did in this case is that after the census ended, I think in July, they started delimitation. They equated census to counting. Census has a number of stages. There is the counting of people which happened from May to July and then there is the production of results. The census ends with the declaration of final results. Just like voting; when we say election, we are not talking about polling where people mark their papers. We are looking at polling, tallying the results and declaring the results. In this case ZEC did not consider the final results of the census because the final results of the census of Zimbabwe do not exist.
Mr. President, after the population census ended in August, the Central Statistical Office or whoever in charge, announced provisional results. When we were in the Ad Hoc Committee, the term provisional and preliminary was interpreted by none other than the Chairperson of ZEC herself. She said preliminary means ‘temporary’ subject to change and she was totally correct. It is not anybody’s fault that the Census delayed. It is because this country was under lockdown and that is why the first notice of census is in 2019, another one in 2020 and then there is another notice in 2022. This was responding to an exogenous fact which was COVID.
So the population census, not registered voters is important. This is because delimitation is not only for purposes of voting. Delimitation has other functions, chief among them which is the distribution of national resources. We do not distribute national resources only to registered voters. We distribute national resources to the Zimbabwean population irrespective of age, political or religious persuasion. When we distribute resources under devolution, we send these resources to wards and in those wards they are not given to registered voters only. They target everyone. So, ZEC totally disregarded the national population and therefore, this delimitation is faulty.
In law Mr. President, we say every clause you see in a legal instrument serves a purpose. There is never a clause drafted for the funny of it. When the drafts people who included me said it must follow population census, we wanted to protect all the people of Zimbabwe and cover all the people of Zimbabwe, including non-voters but ZEC totally disregarded that. As we speak, we do not have final results of the census and therefore to carry delimitation on this is to lie to ourselves. So, that was totally wrong.
Then the second issue is that there is a clause called Clause 161 (3) which says when you are delimiting, you must make sure that there is a size you can achieve. There is equality of the number of voters in all the constituencies in Zimbabwe. In other words, the delimitation must look at what is called a national average. We divide our country into the number of constituencies that are there. If the registered voters are one million, divided by 210, then we have an average. That is not what the ZEC considered. ZEC considered provincial averages. There was an average for Manicaland which was different from the average of Masvingo, which was different from the average of Matebeleland South and North, Bulawayo, Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland West yet in our Constitution; I think in Section 2, Zimbabwe is a unitary State.
What ZEC did here is effective cessation without knowing it. That is why you have a different standard for different communities. Then you end up with an average where you have a constituency with 20 000 people. In another part of the country, another constituency has 33 000 people, about 11 000 difference; you allocate national resources equally to them. In a guise of equality, you are actually promoting inequality because if my constituency has a 100 000 population and in her constituency we have 2 000, when CDF comes, CDF per capita in my constituency is $1 and in her constituency is about $5 000 or even more. So, it was very wrong for ZEC to use different averages in one country.
This Constitution envisages a situation where people migrate in the course of time. They migrate from one province to the other or from urban to rural areas. Because of that, you do delimitation which must follow the population and that was not done by ZEC. We do not suggest that they were malicious because this is their first time to do delimitation. I do not think there was malice. We did not see evidence of malice but they were unable. We see evidence of inability to interpret simple things.
There is a clause in the Constitution that says when you are delimiting the constituencies; you look at a number of factors and these factors include community of interest, geographical spacing of the voters, existing boundaries and the population. When we asked ZEC, they said the primary consideration is the registered voter, not the population. Why does the law provide for the population if it is irrelevant? Inasmuch as they did not consider this, they were very wrong.
We have heard examples given by Senator Mbowa in the part of the country she talked about. I want to give you an example of Nyanga where I come from. I come from a constituency called Nyanga North. At this point in time, Nyanga North has 13 wards including Ward 8 and in terms of the provincial average, Nyanga North as it stands passes the bar. Then there is Nyanga South adjacent to it. It is made up of 18 wards which then are 9 to 31, a continuation from Nyanga North. Looking at the provincial averages, they both are okay as they are. So, as the Americans say ‘if it ain’t broken do not fix it’. Now, what did ZEC do? ZEC removed Ward 8 from Nyanga North and put it into Nyanga South and in place of it, it took Ward 27 and put it in Nyanga North.
Just to give you an insight for those who do not know Nyanga. Nyanga North starts from a place called Regina near Nyamaropa going north. Nyanga South starts from there up to a place called Brondesbury. For you to move from Nyanga North to Brondesbury you cross the entire Nyanga South. Ward 27 is in Brondesbury, so you travel from the rest of Nyanga North via Nyanga South to the end of Nyanga South and that ward is allocated to Nyanga North. Absolutely, no logic and some parts of the world are at war because of such kinds of demarcations.
For example, Palestine and those who have seen the map of Palestine, it has two pieces of land. The first one is called the West Bank and the second one the Gaza Strip. When you come from the West Bank you pass through Israel and go to Gaza. That is why they are fighting. You take Nyanga North, remove a ward arbitrarily for absolutely no reason or maybe there are reasons and you move it to another area. If you are the Member of Parliament for Nyanga North, you will have a ward centre. So, Nyanga North centre to Ward 27 is 150 km. What was the purpose or the need to do that?
Mr. President, there are a number of examples that we did see but we were worried that the ZEC report that we were given was not signed. The Ad Hoc Committee made that observation. Why it was not signed, we are not so sure. We then said we do not want to be involved in conspiracy theories. Let us look at other delimitation reports to see whether they were signed or not. We looked at the last delimitation report which was in 2008 and it was signed by all the Commissioners. There may be a number of explanations for that.
It is a fact that this country has had disputed elections, probably since independence. We need to break that jinx. We must have a situation where after elections and the declaration of results, Zimbabweans go to peace and shift to development. They will then go to elections again after five years. It is critically important for this country that there must be no disputed elections and it is critically important because Zimbabweans need to be integrated into the international community of nations. Right now, we are asking Zimbabwe to rejoin the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth are talking about the conditions and so forth. One of them is the absence of disputed elections.
Now, under this report, if we are to use this report, already the election is disputed because of what it looks like. There are two scenarios that are created by this report. The first scenario is what should we do? The first scenario is that we just go to election with this report with its injustices as we have already seen subject to dispute and the dispute is credible or we go to the Constitution where it says we use the existing boundaries. When the Constitution was written, it presupposes a regular delimitation and the regular delimitation is delimitation after every ten years and that is why there was no issue about delimitation in 2018. It is because the last delimitation took place in 2008 and to 2018 we are within 10 years, absolutely no issue. Unfortunately, for factors that are beyond ZEC’s control, the current boundaries are 15 years old. So, to go to election under the current boundaries is to patently go to elections under false boundaries open to dispute again. We will go to the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court again, and so forth. So, there is a problem there.
This report creates a conundrum for the people of Zimbabwe. If I may say so Mr. President, we want independence of ZEC. We do not want to take delimitation out of them. We do not want to take election management from them. We want them to do the correct thing. The only way out of this conundrum is for ZEC to redo this thing and to re-delimit our country using the correct data. The Central Statistical Office has to make the data available. It is not their fault that there was COVID and they tried to rush in order to meet the time. Again, that is not their fault but they created something that will plunge this country into further turmoil. I thank you Mr. President for the time that you have given me.
+HON. SEN. CHIEF MTSHANE-KHUMALO: Thank you Mr. President for allowing me to debate on the report from ZEC on local authority boundaries and constituencies. Let us not forget that the current structure of communal land is as follows: village head, chief and councillor. This report touches all people on the ground and we would have passed it but ZEC did not consult people on the ground, including chiefs. It looks like they forgot that the structure in the communal lands starts with the village head, chief, councillor and so on. All this was not observed and ZEC operated in their accord.
Mr. President, allow me to speak about my constituency. There are wards and 23 councillors. They took Ward 8 which is 70 km away and put in the central or township where people will vote. They also took two villages namely Village 5 and 6 in Ward 11; Villages 4, 5 and 6 are called communal lands and there are plenty of people constituting this communal land. We have seen the report but we are saying the report is not tallying with the situation on the ground. The people in the township are different from the ones who stay in the communal land – their lifestyle is different. The people in the townships do not know that there is a chief or headman. They only know the chief executive officer at council and how to pay rates. People from the communal land are related and they know their area. ZEC officials should have sat down with the chiefs and headmen so that they would come up with one thing. Ward 11 has 7 villages and there is also a resettlement area. We cannot take Village 2 and 5 and put them in that place. We are not in agreement with that because we were not consulted. Constituencies and local authority wards did not change. What changed is the number of voters.
In the campaigns, I do not know how long it will take but people should be allowed to register to vote for 2023. This report did not look at the people who registered at the time when we campaigned for the registration. It simply looked at the statistics from the censors which are very low. When will the people who are registered going to be consulted? The numbers on the report do not reflect the people who registered. We need to relook at this because this will cause disputes amongst people because they live different lives - township and communal. With these few words Mr. President, I thank you.
*HON. SEN. CHIMBUDZI: Thank you Mr. President for giving me the opportunity to debate. I support the contributions made by the majority that as we are debating we are removing what is bad from the report in anticipation that this will be rectified. The problem of wards affects our chiefs because each chief will be having his boundary of authority and it is disappointing that you take some of the boundaries of one chief giving it to another. This brings a lot of disputes but I am confident that ZEC will rectify this problem. As many have said that this is a first activity of its kind after the new Constitution, we anticipate a number of mistakes as something being done first time.
As Senators, I was thinking that delimitation started being talked about last year and I think we did not take it seriously as legislators so that we could have sat down with ZEC and came up with a framework which could align how ZEC was going to do its delimitation. I am supporting the opinion that we afford ZEC the opportunity to rectify its report. Thank you Mr. President.
+HON. SEN. A. DUBE: Thank you Mr. President for affording me the opportunity to debate on the report that has been brought up by Hon. Sen. Muzenda and seconded by Hon. Sen. Mwonzora. I think this is a report which everyone is supposed to put much emphasis on. I recognise that all the senators that contributed have made similar contributions. This shows that in all the areas, people have the same echoes on this issue. I also want to thank ZEC that has made a tremendous job. Looking at this report, we recognise that it was done within a short period of time as they were trying to produce the report within the stipulated time. They managed to do it though they did not do a perfect job where most of the people have their own opinions. It is caused by the fact that they were given a short period. They did not also follow constitutional recommendations that are there in preparing this report.
We are supposed to follow our Constitution religiously when we are conducting our business. We also had an enemy which is COVID-19. For the past two years, people were affected by COVID. If it was not the issue that people were affected by COVID-19, ZEC would have had the opportunity to go around correcting the errors that we are noting in this report. In 2013 after the Constitution was revised, there are some issues that they did not take up to hand when ZEC was preparing their delimitation report. Most of the areas are saying the same issues. We are not saying ZEC did not do a professional job but since it was their first time of doing such a job, there are some issues that they made an oversight, that they did not take into cognisance. They were also supposed to consult legislators so that they could assist them in following the Constitution religiously. Also in conducting the census, looking at the rural areas, they told themselves that in conducting the delimitation, they were supposed to use the census report but for the delimitation, they were supposed to use the number of voters that are registered but they did not follow up and consult as it is stated in the Electoral Act that they are supposed to follow the procedures.
Firstly, they are supposed to consult the grassroots people and the leadership, the traditional leaders and everyone who is part of the grassroots leadership. They are supposed to be consulted so that people can move within the same page and understand each other. I understand that this was not done. This has now led to the issue that we are seeing that there are discrepancies and some processes that were not followed duly in conducting these issues. Looking at Section 161 of the Constitution, when conducting the Delimitation Report, ZEC has an obligation of looking for all the important people that are supposed to be consulted when conducting such a report. We have got a lot of questions that are being asked by people in our constituencies. They are asking that since you are our leaders, our constituencies are being divided, what is happening? What is taking place? We need to understand what is happening within our constituencies.
In response, we tell them that we do not know what is happening because we were not consulted. If they had even announced to us that there were supposed to be consultations on conducting the delimitation report, we could have mobilised the traditional leaders, the chiefs so that they could convey the message to the people and people would have been mobilised to go and vote so that when this delimitation exercise is conducted, people would know. We want them to understand that this delimitation is not only for voting but also for development. Even though we are going to devolution; it also includes the issues of delimitation.
Looking at the area that I come from, Tsholotsho Urban, which is in Tsholotsho South Constituency, the delimitation exercise has now shifted it under Tsholotsho North. The distance is now more than 80km for them to go to the nearest councillor. This means they now have to travel long distances so that they can also get the services that they are supposed to get within their wards. We understand that this delimitation is now taking us from our closer areas of services taking us to areas that are far away.
Looking at Tsholotsho South also, Ward 8 in Tsholotsho from Umguza who are agrarian farmers, which includes cabbage and cotton, they now have a councillor who is far away from them, who is a hundred plus kilometres away. Can they manage to air their issues concerning development from an area which is more than 100km away? This now leads to a number of unanswered questions pertaining to development. If consultations were done with the traditional leaders, this could have been avoided whilst people were seated together and conversing. It is common cause that delimitation was done before but of importance is that when this particular delimitation was conducted, people did not put into cognisance the importance of consultation.
Looking at our traditional leaders like the chiefs, they are the ones who do not understand what is going on but they are the custodians of our culture and traditions. They do not understand that subjects who were once under Chief Deve are now under Chief Gampu. How will they understand it and be able to relate with the new chief? This has caused a lot of conflict amongst the people. This was not taken into cognisance. ZEC was supposed to follow Section 161 of the Constitution. Everything that is stated in Section 161 should be followed. The time was really short. If they could go back on the ground and rectify this issue, it would be of great assistance. People who were registered to vote after the census were not included and there are quite a number of people that were registered after the census. Looking at it now, these people do not appear on the roll.
ZEC should go to the traditional leaders and educate them on how this process was conducted and how it is going to help them. We can talk of modern maps which are in SADC but we need to understand that ZEC needs to go and educate our people in the rural areas that this is the new norm that is being used in other countries in SADC region. ZEC needs to go back to the drawing board and sit with the chiefs and educate them that we are taking people from this chief and we are transferring them to this other chieftainship so that they could balance the figure of the people that are within the chiefs, then it would be of great importance.
As it is right now, people are now in conflict because they do not understand this exercise. If it was possible, they could convene meetings with the chiefs and the chiefs would be told that we are cutting this portion so that we can increase the number of voters within this other constituency. That way, it would make sense because people do not want to see the boundaries being altered before they have been consulted. The chiefs are not pleased to see their people being shifted to another area without consultation because they are wondering how development would take place in different areas. People do not understand who is going to champion development since they have been transferred to another chief. Everyone who is in that area is supposed to benefit but the people need to be told how this is going to work.
We need people to register to vote and also we need them to understand this process of delimitation. People need to understand the figures that are mentioned from the national level whether they are proportional with what is going to be distributed within the provinces and rural areas. If the ward coordinator from this area is shifted to another area, they need to understand who is now going to be responsible to cover them in as far as development is concerned. ZEC really did their job but they failed to understand the obligation of the Constitution from the first step to the second step. If they had followed the Constitution religiously, they would have never missed a step because the Constitution clearly stipulates what they are supposed to do.
I would not want to dwell on what others have said pertaining to the issues that the report did not go well in most areas because a lot of people have been separated especially within the rural areas. It is now for the traditional leaders and kraal heads because they know their people on issues that relate to the economy and development. If a person is transferred from one chief to another, it may seem as if we are shifting people from their places of origin.
I thank ZEC for preparing the report but I would urge them to go back to the drawing board and address these issues. I also thank them that they did this report within a short period of time but this delimitation must have been given a longer period in order for them to attend to these issues. Maybe it is not their fault because they were affected by COVID-19. After they realised that time was not on their side, they tried to rush through the process but they failed to do a meticulous job. May I say that the one who is running is the one who falls but the one who is standing does not fall. These people were rushing through so that they could present their report to Parliament but they missed a lot of points that are important that they were supposed to cover.
I wish ZEC to go back and prepare a diligent report. I am not saying that they erred but they made an oversight on some important issues especially when we are talking of grassroots, we need them to know the importance of the kraal heads, chiefs and village heads. These are the people that could help them in dividing the local authorities. They can be assisted by chiefs who can use their wisdom on how to separate the areas.
I am proposing that they could be given another opportunity so that they could go and prepare this report effectively. If they do not consult, it would not be feasible for them to produce an effective report. They need to consult all the stakeholders including everyone who is affected by this issue. Even those who registered to vote are supposed to be present so that they could put their heads together and understand each other on what could be done in order to conduct this delimitation effectively. If they had known that this was the criteria used to conduct this delimitation process, they could have gone and registered to vote and also made their input.
The way we relate with our traditional leaders has been affected by the way this delimitation report was conducted. If they are given the opportunity, they are supposed to go and prepare it diligently. I thank them but I am asking that they go and prepare it nicely so that we can have peace within this nation. The traditional leaders are the ones that can assist us so that we can have peace. If people are the ones who are going to say we do not want to go to this chief and that chief, there will be havoc. We want our chiefs to be consulted so that they can sit down with the people and explain to them what has happened in a peaceful manner because every process which is done will affect everyone. We want to always have peace. Our country is a peaceful nation but if the MPs are the ones that are complaining about lack of consultation, then it becomes a challenge because people in the rural areas are the ones who are saying they were never consulted and MPs are saying they were not part of this process. It shows that there is a lot that has not been analysed and put in place. What they did is wonderful for this report as well as the census report. However, what is wrong is that people thought they were going to use the census report in preparing the delimitation report but it did not go that way. Our plea is for them to follow our recommendations for it to be effective. I thank you.
HON. SEN. DR. MAVETERA: Thank you Mr. President for affording me the opportunity to add my voice to this very pertinent discussion on the output of ZEC. Before I go on, I think we need to understand that ZEC is a creature of the statute. What it means is, it has to act according to the law. Anything outside that will be wandering outside its mandate. It cannot add or subtract what is provided for by the Constitution. Just to buttress my point, I will try by all means not to repeat what has already been debated by my colleagues.
If we look at our Constitution, it is actually what guides us. The ZEC report is a technical document which is governed by rules and the supreme rule is the Constitution. Section 1 of the Constitution, my Hon Member said that Zimbabwe is a unitary State. What it means is that we have one law for everyone. So, these are some of the principles which ZEC has to adhere to. Section 2 of the Constitution goes on to buttress the point to guide us because without the Constitution, we end up acting on our own and partisan interests. It talks about the supremacy of the Constitution and it says this Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Any practice or conduct which is at variance with the Constitution is invalid to the extent of its inconsistence. Therefore, we need to interrogate ZEC’s report under that mirror. The constitution, Section 2, gives an obligation for every person, whether a company or natural person and all agencies of government, which ZEC is, to abide and the way it was quoted there, I think the writers of the Constitution knew it is not may but must abide by this Constitution. So ZEC must and not may. Therefore, wherever they strayed and went on the may side, that is invalid to the extent of that in the Constitution. Before I continue, I think this ZEC report is a very fundamental document to us as a people. It is very sad that Zimbabwe for the past few years or decades, has been labeled as a nation which cannot conduct free, fair and transparent elections. I do not think this time around we would allow the enemies of Zimbabwe to continue peddling that falsehood. So, the mandate is on us to ensure that we shame our detractors.
Conduct of elections does not occur on the day of elections. It is a process and this process starts with delimitation and this is where we have problems. Already we are arming our enemies to say 2023 elections are not free and fair and we cannot say they were free and fair if we can willfully violate our Constitution and allow ZEC to proceed with this as a template for conducting elections in Zimbabwe. I think it is everyone’s duty and one of Parliament’s role is to protect this Constitution. When we were sworn in, we said we would live and abide by this Constitution. I did not say I will live and abide by my party position but a national position and I appeal to all Hon. Members here to take this as a national objective and as a national duty which the people of Zimbabwe; where we derive our power bestowed on us, to respect them by doing the simplest, to protect the Constitution and ensure that whatever agent of government strays out of the constitutional mandate must be brought to order. ZEC, in its report, violated a number of sections of the Constitution.
It is treating one constituency differently from the other. We are like a federal State but we are a unitary State. So, why should ZEC treat people like that and try to induce or promote, as alluded to by Hon. Sen. Mwonzora, a spirit of secessionism because we have got other regions of the country we said we are discriminating. If we then allow such a thing which is patently discriminatory, then I think we are arming them and they will be correct. So, they will not be enemies of the State but they are the people who will actually be protecting this Constitution. By treating constituencies differently, ZEC has deviated from one of our founding principles of our Constitution, which is to ensure that there is coherent unity in Zimbabwe.
Mr. President, one of the principles in Section 3 provides for principles of good governance and I will pick subsection (d), electoral systems based on free and fair elections and adequate representation. When we say one constituency has got 20 000 and the other one with 50 000 - is it adequate representation? The Constitution made it very clear for ZEC to move within the framework but for some strange reasons, there was a very simple primary error in terms of what would be the margin of the variance between constituencies.
Some variances actually constitute a constituency on its own, which means you have actually disadvantaged that constituency which was supposed to be two constituencies and now lumped as one when one can go with 22 000. The other one is almost the other end. As legislatures, the custodians of the Constitution, this is now the time for us to defend this Constitution. The Constitution will live beyond us but partisan politics will disappear. Some will be formed and some will go into extinction but our Constitution which is the bible of our laws in the country will live.
Mr. President, I have said ZEC in doing all its work, we appreciate the number of work it was supposed to do but it should have adhered to the principles of the Constitution. Section 56 talks about discrimination and the definition of discrimination is also provided in section 56 which says, if any person gets treatment which is different from what is done to the other, that is discrimination. If you look at the ZEC report, you will find out that there were so many unfair treatments by virtue of my location and where I come from and that cannot be allowed in a democratic country which believes in constitutionalism, which is one of our founding values.
The role of Parliament, I have said is to observe the Constitution and we are the monitors to see whether any agencies of the Government are behaving constitutionally. That is our purview. We supervise the Executive and all these Independent Commissions. Yes, they are independent and we should not interfere in whatever they do, provided that they are acting constitutionally. Here, we have got our ZEC which by error or omission, failed to abide by the constitutional principles which we so much value as a nation.
ZEC falls under Chapter 12 institutions, which is actually the objective of Independent Commissions which is under Section 233 (c), which is to promote constitutionalism. That is to stick, promote and adhere, and act within the four corners of the Constitution. Anything outside that is not Zimbabwean because Zimbabwe is a creature of the Constitution and when we violate it, I do not know what other country we will be talking about. It is another country and I do not think we as legislators are here, using the corporate word, to liquidate Zimbabwe as a company. We are here to protect our motherland by doing things which are very proper and consistent with the Constitution.
Before I sit down, one of my elementary teachings at probably primary level, they used to say garbage in-garbage out. When you input wrong data, do not expect good results. ZEC is probably trying “kuti munyika yeZimbabwe muite minana”. We can never have a peaceful, fair and transparent election when you are acting unconstitutionally. So, our output as we speak, assuming but I am quite confident the Hon. Members will do justice and advise the Hon. President accordingly and the President will act in the best interest of our country because he is the number one person who should guard jealously the Constitution. If we were to go into election with this thing, already election is rigged because you are acting anti-constitutionally. Already people are starting to complain and things like that.
If you look, there are certain areas which do not even appear on the ZEC framework. Is ZEC there to disenfranchise citizens? That is a serious issue which we have to consider. Every citizen has got a constitutional right to participate and vote in an election and that cannot be withdrawn by a body which is a creature of statutes. Mr. President, I think I can go on and on but I want to stand here and appeal to fellow Zimbabweans and fellow Hon. Members to say veduwe taneta nedisputed election in Zimbabwe. Vamwe tatochembera tichitadza kuendesa nyika mberi and if this ZEC report is going to go like it is, it is actually a recipe for disaster. We will have contested elections and our lives being disturbed for unnecessary reasons and we will have failed to get the last chance to restore or reboot Zimbabwe as a prosperous nation. I thank you Mr. President.
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: I urge Hon. Senators to avoid tedious repetition. If you want to debate, please debate something new. I think the main points have been made.
HON. SEN. MOHADI: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to just add a few things. First and foremost, I want to thank Hon. Sen. Muzenda for moving this motion in this august House. I also want to thank ZEC for producing this report which is tabled here today. Mr. President, you will forgive me. I do not want to repeat what others have said but you will find that similarities will always be found. Meanwhile, we appreciate what ZEC has done in a short space of time. Some things did not happen in the correct way. Let me just take you back a little bit on traditional boundaries and I will give an example of Matabeleland South, its wards and districts. It has got six wards. The traditional leadership, Beitbridge in particular - we have got only two constituencies which are Beitbridge West and East. Beitbridge West is the one which was affected by population census because it had only 14000 people. This Constituency could not fulfill the requirements. To our surprise, three wards were now transferred to Gwanda which is the other District. Our traditional leader, Chief Sitaudze was also given an area in Gwanda. Now we do not know whether Beitbridge now remains with only one chief. There was a constituency created in Gwanda which is now called Gwanda-Sitaudze. This is where the mistake or question is; people at grassroots level do not understand how it was done. Everyone does not understand how this was done because Beitbridge West was affected – the population could not make a Constituency but it is still there and three wards were removed from Beitbridge West to Gwanda leaving Beitbridge West with less population and also another Ward was taken to Beitbridge East whereas this had enough people to create its own Constituency. We are left in a dilemma where we do not even understand how things are happening.
In the same area, there are wards from urban areas which were transferred to rural areas as well – others to the west and east. Some of the wards which were being transferred to other constituencies by pass here in town. How? You cannot understand. This leaves a lot of people confused. As a result we are no longer in good books with our people because they are saying this transpired whilst we as legislators were there and we said very little about it.
As we speak of the population in Matabeleland South, most of them are surrounded by neighbouring countries like South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique. Most of our youths have crossed these boundaries and are in these countries seeking employment hence making the numbers on the census report very low. Instead of getting people from other areas, most of our people are being transferred to other areas. It leaves us wondering.
Those are the few comments that I wanted to add to what other Hon. Senators have alluded to. I would not want to repeat the same things that have already been said. Beitbridge was affected and I would like it to be reported because we do not have an answer to people’s questions. I thank you.
HON. SEN. CHIEF SIANSALI: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity so that I can share one or two words. Mr. President, you will bear with me realising that this motion is repetitive on its nature. The indicators are just the same. Whosoever has the anxiety to stand will repeat on what the previous speaker spoke about. However, I will try by all means not to repeat what has been said – by any nature, it will be by way of emphasis.
I would like to thank ZEC for the voluminous book that it produced. Realising from the magnitude of pages and size of the book, it shows that the work was so intense and stressful. It needed more time and dedication. We hear a lot of noise from social media and the communities even from the institution I come from – that is traditional leaders. That is solely because of lack of consultation. If consultations where done extensively. Most of the issues that are being raised by members here would have been minimised or avoided. But because ZEC chose to go solo, or consulted a few people amongst a pool of many, here is what we are facing now.
I only came to know about this whole exercise when it was already done and finished. I come to wonder that if a whole Senator Chief does not know of any exercise happening in a District, let alone in my own area or chiefdom – then who could have known in my area. I think no one else. That is very dangerous.
Other constitutional provisions that give a legal mandate to the whole process of delimitation – there is Section 161 (6) stretching from a to f; if ZEC had at least followed the prescriptions of that section, again they could have minimised all the clamoring and noise that is being found within the communities. The spirit in which that section was put and tabulated point by point was to make sure that when delimitation is done, it is done thoroughly. It is done leaving no many issues and noise coming from people. Inasmuch as they cannot go 100% but at least they should have gone above my rating of around 75%.
I stand guided by mathematicians and statisticians, the calculations that were done by ZEC and getting their average which then determined their mean and their highest does not give me a range of 20%. The deviation when you calculate through my primary mathematics gives me close to 40% which if we were to take that, a Constituency with 22000 people against a Constituency with 33 000 – the range is not 20%. It does not encourage equality but otherwise. I think the spirit in which ZEC did the whole exercise was only centered on elections. This could be very ill informed because delimitation does not only inform elections but among others, it is the benchmark and guide for all developmental projects that thereafter follow. Delimitation is not done like elections per five year term – it is done after ten years; which then means if we are to do it wrong now, we will live with the wrong for the next nine to 10 years. Are we prepared for that? ZEC should have consulted, I repeat. At least this could have been minimised so that be it any wrong, it could not have been a wrong that impacts detrimentally on the people.
Mr. President, it defies my logic to say in an administrative district which has got registered voters according to them, of 70 000 plus voters getting about 25 wards against another administrative district that has got about 33 000 and getting 23 wards, which is quite less than the other district. From my knowledge, allocation of resources for purposes of devolution is done according to the number of wards in each administrative district, which in this case some districts have already been marginalised. They have got the highest number of people even though I do not agree that we should have used voters solely because for purposes of development and allocation of resources, a census report would better inform on how many people we have in each district. Again, using the voters, marginalisation still features. Those guides in the Constitution were not just put on paper Mr. President. They were put to uphold the tenets of good governance among others to promote transparency and fairness.
Mr. President, even here in Parliament, constituency development funds are allocated to sitting Members of Parliament for their constituencies and they are given as a flat figure. If one MP that has got a constituency with 22 000 registered voters is given $2 million and another with a constituency with 33 000 voters is given $2 million, where is the fairness? How is he going to account the discrepancy of 11 000 voters? Therefore, one is made to feed a few people with $2 million and the other one to feed many people with the same $2 million. ZEC did not take all that into account.
Mr. President, I may go on and on but as you said, tedious repetition is not promoted in this House. All this could have been avoided Mr. President or minimised if ZEC had sufficiently consulted. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. MABIKA: Thank you Mr. President. I want to thank you for the opportunity that you have afforded me to debate the Ad Hoc Committee Report that was presented in this Parliament. Without much ado, I want to say that during the process when they were doing this exercise – I have got an example of Chipinge. It is a district with five constituencies and amongst those five constituencies they have a threshold that they reach. They cannot be subdivided neither can they be increased. They have got the exact number that is required. Looking at those that are said to have a number that is not expected, those that we say are okay, for example Chipinge Central; if one ward is removed from Chipinge Central and added to another constituency with a shortage of one ward, if the same exercise is done to another constituency, then our question is - why are we subtracting a ward from a constituency, for example Chipinge Central if all the wards were equal?
When we look at Musikavanhu and Chipinge West, Musikavanhu has very few people in that constituency for them to reach the expected number. The next ward is Chipinge South. It also falls under Chief Musikavanhu. Ward 24 falls under Chief Musikavanhu. Is it not prudent for us? When we look at the community of interest, the Chief will feel very much disadvantaged because of such an exercise. That exercise will not sit well with the Chief in which the ward that would be removed falls within his jurisdiction. If there is a problem on the issue of wards and constituencies and the issue of numbers where there are high numbers in a ward or constituency, this is where we are saying we should retain the name.
Chipinge West has very low numbers but when it was dissolved and absorbed they took the name Chipinge West and had to do away with the name Musikavanhu, which is the name of the chief from Chipinge. May we kindly look at that particular issue? Some wards were taken and put to Chipinge. May we look at this issue, the effect of Chipinge South, Chipinge Central and Chipinge West which were affected by the movement of wards? We do not understand why this was done. We actually go back to the issue of movement wards. They never looked at the mountain between these two constituencies. We are looking at Waterfalls Mountain that is dividing Ward 6 and Ward 2. It means the ward centre would be behind the mountain and these people will have to go round the mountain. We have mentioned this issue so that we pay attention to the issue of Chipinge as well as we rectify these issues.
This exercise has shifted people from their geographical locations with regard to chieftainship. People are moving from Musikavanhu to Chief Mutema. Others are also moving from headman Chindukunya to another headman. It is our humble plea that when you look at this issue of wards and constituencies, where we see it fit that everything is normal, let us not destabilise that scenario. Let us leave it as that but where we have a problem, we need to rectify accordingly.
Still on that issue, we would like to look at Mutare North. It has Wards 5 and 35 that are close to Gimboki near Dangamvura. Mutare North has 37 000 registered voters and it wants to remove 4 000 voters. If we look at physical features as well as community interest, Ward 35 is very small. We would just take Ward 35 but we removed Ward 2 and sent it to Makoni District. Ward 2 that was removed is under Chief Marange and it was sent to a district under Chief Makoni whilst we also have a physical feature in the form of Tungwizi River. This is a major feature on the map. There is already a traditional leadership dispute between Chief Marange and Chief Chiduku.
If you go to Odzi, there is a big stone that was marked by these chiefs to divide these places. If we are to go by this report, are we not fuelling the already existing land dispute? I suggest we focus on Gimboki and Dangamvura. If it was possible, I would suggest that each district must come up with its own wards and constituencies in order to address these discrepancies.
Looking at everything that has been mentioned, it is my humble plea Mr. President that ZEC as a Commission be given adequate time to work on this particular issue. They should not rush through this report. There is a provision in the Constitution to say if you are not yet done with delimitation, you are allowed to go to elections using the old boundaries and by so doing, we can give ZEC ample time to work on these boundaries. We are neither forcing nor hurrying ZEC to finish this document in any way. People are not happy and do not understand this document. During COPAC outreach, there were wide consultations and I wish ZEC could do the same. I am kindly asking ZEC to use all the time they have to work on this document without hurrying towards the cut-off date of 30 May. People did not manage to register to vote in time. They should be given ample time and they should not rush through the report.
*HON. SEN. MANYAU: Thank you very much Mr. President. I would like to add just a few words to this debate. I would like to focus on the issue of those who are disabled in this country. Those who are disabled and registered to vote in this country are just but a few. Looking at this process, we discovered that we have the right to vote just like any other people who are living in Zimbabwe.
Looking at what ZEC has done, it actually makes it more difficult for those who are disabled because it is as good as if we have been removed from voting. Disabled people have psychological maps which they have developed and they know which voting station they are supposed to go to. These are the boundaries they know for a very long time. So, after all these changes to say can you go and accompany me to go and change my polling stations because it has changed through this exercise, it is actually very difficult.
For those in the rural areas and disabled, there is no road for them to use. Mobility is very difficult for those who are disabled. For us to say go and vote at a place which is 300km away, who will accompany these disabled people to these new polling stations? This is why some people say people with disabilities do not see the importance of voting. It is because of the circumstances where they start thinking of distances. We have people who are disabled in Zimbabwe who are willing to go and vote but with such distances it will be a toll order.
If we go back to census that was conducted last year, the way they were asking their questions from disabled people was something that was not proper. As people who are disabled, we are disgruntled.
I agree with my fellow Senators in this House that ZEC should be given ample time to work on this delimitation issue so that everyone is well catered for. I thank you.
HON. SEN. CHIEF NGUNGUMBANE: Thank you for the opportunity that you have accorded me. I feel honoured and privileged to contribute to this very important debate on the delimitation report. It will go in the annals of Parliament as the first Parliament that has undertaken this exercise. I will not dwell much on the issues that have been raised by my colleagues but I would like to refer this House to one of the founding values and principles. As Africans, we are defined by our values, ubuntu or hunhu, that guides us as human beings.
If you open Section 3 (1) (e) of the Constitution, it says Zimbabwe is founded on respect of the following values and principles. I will jump the rest and go to (e). It says recognition of inherent dignity and the worth of each human being. So it puts us as equal people and as an individual, if you want to destroy somebody, just take away their dignity. This Constitution provides that even in case of a State of Emergency, you cannot take away the right to life or inherent dignity. If ZEC has not consulted the totality of the Zimbabwe population, it has taken away those people’s inherent dignity. Those people feel worthless because they have not been consulted. Various stakeholders have raised that issue of not being consulted and the institution of traditional leaders is one of them. In any societal structure, if one is not consulted, it creates suspicion and it brings instability to that organisation. From what I have heard, this report as it is, could in a way bring some instability in this country if we were to use this Delimitation Report tomorrow to hold elections.
If you look at Section 172, it says the Constitution provides that Parliament, among other things is to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of Zimbabwe. So indirectly, Parliament has an obligation to promote and maintain peace in Zimbabwe at all times. No wonder why this same provision provides that if the President is to declare war, he should come and seek authority from Parliament. It therefore underscores the point that as this august House, we have an obligation to maintain peace. As it is, this report has brought a lot of suspicion, hearsay and people are not sure. If people are not sure of tomorrow, generally there is no peace within them. So, what constitutes instability in my argument? Firstly, it is that ZEC did not properly educate the citizens of Zimbabwe towards this exercise. It failed to note the misconception that if we talk of registration, we are talking of elections. I was not aware but this is a lesson to me that when we talk of delimitation among other things, we want to cut the national cake so that everybody referred to in Section 3 of the Constitution, the worth of each human being, and ZEC, among other things provides the knife that will cut. But if you cut and give more to one constituency and give less to another, then there is no equal development. You are destroying the fundamental principles.
Mr. President, I remember the 2008 report; it noted the 2008 elections report. It noted that only 20% of the population voted in 2008. If we were to take that and use it in research methodology, then we are saying that this report directly or indirectly catered for those people that participated because the impression that ZEC has brought is to say we only allocate resources to or the delimitation report will only provide resources for those people who have registered to vote. What about the majority that have not registered? I think it is one of the flaws that ZEC should have taken note of. Even the process itself, people were confused and they did not know. There was the mobile voter registration blitz that was carried out by the central registry. In certain areas you would find that central registry would come in after ZEC had done registration and for you to register one of the inputs you are supposed to have an I.D. but some people did not have the necessary requirements for them to be registered, which forced them to move to district centres yet the majority of the people in the rural areas cannot afford. To them it is not a basic need because they have other pressing issues that they need to look at.
I feel that ZEC needs to be given time so that people will only have this exercise when there is voter registration by central registry coming to provide birth certificates. ZEC will then come at the end but in most cases, we have ZEC coming in and that created a lot of mishaps. I think that as much as we are a Constitutional democracy we cannot run away from the political realities on the ground. I am not saying that ZEC should become a political animal but in executing its mandate ZEC should have looked at what is prevailing on the ground and not use a formula that will create problems and bring instability on the ground. It is my hope and prayer that ZEC goes back and redo this process.
I remember, as traditional leaders in our various provinces, we received information on where wards were moved to. You would find people from Chief Ntabeni were moved, the polling station as it is to Chief Ngungumbane’s area. The question is, have these people from Chief Ntabeni’s area moved to my area of jurisdiction. We were told that ZEC did not come to create new boundaries for traditional leaders but it has left a lot of questions than answers. When it comes to the allocation of these national resources, these people will have to come to my jurisdiction. They are from Chief Ntabeni with a different village head that does not fall in my register. Are we not creating a war between these two chieftainships because chieftainship is all about control of people and its resources? My so called people from Chief Ntabeni are benefitting resources that have been allocated to me. Are we not going to have problems of jurisdictions where one chief says because people have been given to me, I will then create bigger boundaries? Those are some of the issues that ZEC should have consulted traditional leaders on and see how best they could rationalise people from one polling station to the other.
The report itself will take fundis to read and understand and the majority of us here might fail. Think of people in the rural areas, some of the few that had read had a problem that election polling stations are no longer referred to their original names. We had polling station A but what now appears is not that name but a special code. If a constituency has 20 or 30 polling stations. Will the people be able to refer those polling stations to their codes? I think it is an exercise Mr. President that was artificial. It did not look at the realities on the ground and I hope that this would be corrected. Mr. President, thank you very much for affording me this time to make my voice heard on this very important process.
+HON. SEN. NKOMO: Thank you Mr. President for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Delimitation Report that was tabled by Hon. Sen. Muzenda and seconded by Hon. Sen. Mwonzora. Mr. President, I do not have a lot of words as other Hon. Members and I would say a lot has already been said that is entailed in this report about the delimitation which we feel is not in accordance with the Constitution. This highlights that legislators have been awakened by ZEC and are standing on feet to defend this Constitution from the breach that has been done by ZEC; it is clear that the Hon. Members have defended the Constitution through their debates.
Mr. President, it was realized that ZEC should be there to undertake this mammoth task of voter registration. It was good that ZEC should be there. My question is; ZEC is a Commission but who is supposed to whip and correct ZEC so that they would not have taken a half baked report to His Excellency the President? My question is; who is in charge of these Commissions? If you check from this Delimitation Report, you will realise that ZEC has made a lot of mistakes in this report. Before ZEC submitted the report to the most important person, His Excellency, someone should have gone through the report. ZEC can make mistakes like anyone else but ZEC should be in a position to identify these mistakes before they take this report forward.
I come from Matebeleland South and most of these constituencies have been removed. In Matebeleland South, some of the wards have been moved to Mangwe or Umzingwane and all this is an indication that these mistakes should be rectified. On the same note, we are not saying that they have done the greatest mistake but mistakes are mistakes. Therefore, I propose that this Committee should go back and rectify the mistakes that they have done in this delimitation report. We really want ZEC to operate like other Commissions in other countries but it should be very professional.
As other Members have said before, there is a disaster in these constituencies. How do you remove a ward from Mangwe to Matopo South crossing Sebukwe River more than 70 km. As some have said, there is a lot of suspicion. It is likely that there is someone behind this jeopardy. As we heard people talk about delimitation and the registration we do not look outside election. In everything that happens in relation to delimitation and registration, it is in line with elections. Therefore, ZEC should demystify this only through education so that the whole of Zimbabwe can know that delimitation and registration is not primarily on elections but also for development.
Right now as we speak as Hon. Members, people in the rural areas are waiting to hear how we are going to solve this problem. Everyone is so shocked by what ZEC has done and they want a quick remedy to this. Like what one Hon. Member has said that it will not take us a lot of time, it can be stopped and we rectify the mistake whilst we use the 2018 boundaries. As I have alluded to earlier0, I will not take a lot of time, I thank you.
+HON. SEN. N. KHUMALO: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to this debate. Firstly, I want to thank ZEC for it has done the job that it was supposed to do. However, ZEC did this work in a most disappointing manner. Why am I saying it is a disappointing manner, it is because ZEC used the Constitution of 1979 yet we have a new Constitution which is a Zimbabwean Constitution. There was no reason for ZEC to use the 1979 Constitution. This is what contributed to its failure to execute its mandate constitutionally.
What also makes me think that ZEC did disappointing work is that I come from Umzingwane and from Umzingwane ZEC took two wards, Wards 7 and 13 to Insiza which is a distance between Insiza and Umzingwane. This contributes to a lot of quarrels among people, especially towards elections. When you tell the people in Insiza that you are now going to vote in Umzingwane for this particular MP, there will be a lot of quarrels amongst our people but for administrative purposes, I think they can still continue doing so. There was need for voter education. Another ward in Umzingwane was taken to Matopo. This is also another thing that this ZEC report is so disappointing.
I will move to Zaka Constituency which has Zaka East and West but to our surprise, ZEC has merged these two to come up with Zaka South. How do you dissolve two constituencies to come up with another constituency? If we say another MP has to preside over Zaka South, you will realise that this MP will have to move around a long distance. This will result in the electorates failing to find representation in Parliament because of the distance ZEC has given these electorates. It was going to be beneficial and better that we are now towards elections and we use the old delimitation. However, the old delimitation has been affected by almost 15 years, which is not in accordance with our Constitution. We look forward to the current delimitation but we cannot use it because we did not use the Constitution. Therefore, these two delimitation reports cannot be used for elections because one is very old and the other one is not in accordance with the Constitution. ZEC should go back and come up with a correct and good delimitation report.
What do we do since we are close to elections? I suggest that ZEC should not take time to rectify its report and come up with a good report so that whenever we have elections in future, no one will contest the elections. I think it will be good that elections can be taken forward for sometime so that we give ZEC enough time to set out its mess. ZEC has a lot to do to rectify its report. I thank you.
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: Hon. President, I would like to thank all Hon. Senators for debating very positively to my motion and giving it explicit examples which I think have enriched the analysis. I now move that this House considers and adopts the Report of the Ad hoc Committee on the Analysis of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise.
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: By virtue of Senate debating that report and adopting it, it becomes a report by Parliament.
HON. SEN. KAMBIZI: I second.
HON. SEN. CHIEF CHARUMBIRA: I would like to seek clarity about the report. Are we agreeing with report and recommendations of the report?
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Yes. It means we have adopted the recommendations of the report. Now the report will go to the President. His Excellency will refer it back to ZEC but we are basically saying the analysis which was done by the Ad Hoc Committee is spot on. I think it was summarised very incessantly by the Hon. Sen.
Motion put and adopted.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR MASHONALAND CENTRAL PROVINCE (HON. SEN. MAVHUNGA), the House adjourned at Five Minutes Past Five o’clock p.m. until Tuesday, 31st January, 2023.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Friday, 13th January, 2023
The Senate met at Twenty Minutes to Ten o’clock a.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. PRESIDENT OF SENATE in the Chair)
THE HON. PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Compliments of the season Hon. Members. I am happy to meet you this year sound and alive. I think there are some preparations that are being undertaken.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION 2022 PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE DELIMITATION EXERCISE.
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: I move the motion standing in my name that this House considers and adopts the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Analysis of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise.
HON. SEN. MWONZORA: I second.
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: On Friday, 6th January 2023, the Acting President, announced that the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders has appointed the following Members of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on Delimitation Exercise:
- C. Madiwa;
- C. Mpame;
- K. Musanhi;
- Sen. T. V. Muzenda;
- Sen. D. Mwonzora;
- M. Ncube;
- A. Ndebele;
- D. Nduna;
- Sen. Dr. D. P. Parirenyatwa;
- Sen. Chief Siansali;
- P. D. Sibanda;
- D. Tekeshe; and
- P. Togarepi
Hon. Togarepi to be the Chairperson
1.0 INTRODUCTION
On Friday, 6th January 2023, His Excellency, The President, Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa summoned Parliament to sit to receive and consider the 2022 Preliminary Delimitation Report in terms of Section 110(2)(c). The Report was tabled in both Houses by the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Ziyambi Ziyambi. Consequently, the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders appointed an Ad Hoc Committee on the Analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise.
The Committee was tasked to conduct a detailed analysis of the Report concerning the provisions of section 161 of the Constitution and present its findings and recommendations in the National Assembly and Senate on Friday 13th of January 2023. The report would form the basis for debate by the Houses on 17 and 18 January 2023. Parliament would then submit its Report on the findings and recommendations on the ZEC 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise to His Excellency, the President by 20th January 2023 for on Ward submission to ZEC. These processes were to be completed within 14 days in terms of section 161 (8) of the Constitution.
This Report, therefore, is an outcome of the analysis by the Committee and contains findings and recommendations by the Ad Hoc Committee as mandated by Parliament.
2.0 TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE AD HOC COMMITTEE.
The Ad Hoc Committee’s Terms of Reference are as follows–
- To analytically consider the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise and that it complies with section 161 of the Constitution; and
- To report its Findings and Recommendations to the National Assembly and the Senate on Friday, 13th January 2023.
3.0 METHODOLOGY
During its work, the Committee conducted a review of legal instruments, which are relevant to the delimitation exercise, and looked at the previous delimitation report for 2007/8. Given the technical nature of the delimitation exercise, the Committee engaged a consultant with expertise in delimitation issues and public policy. Furthermore, the Committee received oral submissions from ZEC to get an appreciation of how they conducted the delimitation exercise. The Committee also received written submission from Members of Parliament on their concerns on the delimitation exercise. The Committee analyzed the Report together with the oral and written submissions and came up with a report for presentation to both Houses. It is critical to note that the Committee was working within a tight schedule as it had only seven days within which to discharge its mandate.
The Committee expresses its greatest appreciation to ZEC for the time and effort invested in this exercise, and the expertise they continue to share. The Committee also expresses its gratitude to Members of Parliament, the Secretariat and the consultant, the people of Zimbabwe and any other stakeholders for their critical contributions toWards the delimitation process.
4.0 FINDINGS AND OBSERVATIONS
4.1 The Committee would like to acknowledge with great appreciation the work undertaken by ZEC in fulfilling its Constitutional mandate, considering that this was its first delimitation exercise after the enactment of the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe. In its analysis, the Committee however, came up with key findings and observations which include the following:
- Ward boundaries that were delimited above and below the maximum and minimum thresholds,
- insufficient information in descriptions of Wards,
- a highly complicated coordinate system,
- unspecified map scale,
- unlabeled Wards,
- topographic features not presented on the maps,
- maps that do not show old and existing boundaries,
- lack of justification on changes in boundaries in specific Wards and constituencies,
(i) polling stations not indicated on the maps,
- use of preliminary census data; and
- possible misinterpretation of the minimum and maximum threshold.
Cellphone having rung.
THE HON. PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Order. If I may remind Hon. Senators that we are listening to the report and we do not want anyone to disturb us by cell phones. We are in serious business. Can you please continue.
4.1.1 LEGAL COMPLIANCE ISSUES
4.1.1.1 Legal Provisions Governing the Delimitation exercise
Sections 160 and 161 of the Constitution and Section 37A of the Electoral Act provides for the legal basis for the delimitation of electoral boundaries.
4.1.1.2 Link between Population Census and the Delimitation Exercise
(a) Section 161 (1) of the Constitution requires delimitation to take place as soon as possible after a population census. Population is a crucial consideration for delimitation and is listed in section 161(6)(f) as one of the factors to be considered in attaining equal number of voters in a constituency or Ward. The population census contemplated in this section is the final census report. The Committee noted that ZEC considered the registered voters’ population and not the total population. According to the report, they only used the census preliminary report to correlate the registered voters’ population with the adult population. The use of the selective segment of the population census which is referred to as the adult population in the ZEC report is perceived to be a nonconformity to the constitutional values and principles enunciated in section 3 (2) (j) and (k) which relates to the equitable sharing of national resources, including land and devolution funds, respectively. A population census measures the entire population including non-voters and children who are also affected by delimitation of electoral boundaries in respect of service delivery.
(b) The Committee took judicial notice of the fact that the final census report is yet to be finalised and published, and acknowledged the impediment of Covid 19 pandemic as a factor that delayed the holding of the population census at the time it had been scheduled which had a bearing on the timing of the delimitation exercise. In light of this, the Committee noted that ZEC purportedly considered the available preliminary census report in an effort to comply with the constitutional obligation of delimitation.
4.1.1.3 Distribution of Registered Voters to WWards and Constituencies
(a) The Committee noted that the report shows evidence of violations of sections 161 (3) and (4) of the Constitution providing for equal number of voters in the boundaries of Constituencies and Wards. The Committee observed that this provision was not fully adhered to as there are instances where some constituencies and Wards had more registered voters than others within the same province. A case in point is Binga district which had 70,988 voters but had the same number of Wards with Tsholotsho District which had 38,619 voters, and Bubi district which had 33,295 voters.
(b) In addition to the above, the report shows evidence that the considerations listed in subsection (6) such as the means of communication within the area, the geographical distribution of registered voters; community of interest as between registered voters were not fully complied with. In order to give effect to the considerations, the subsection must be read together with the constitutional values and principles as well as national objectives and devolution provided in section 3 and Chapter 2 of the Constitution, respectively.
(c)The Committee noted that in the spirit of promoting and observing the principles of good governance that encompass transparency, justice and fairness, the report should have provided justifications for collapsing constituencies and Wards. The Constitution in section 68 provides for administrative conduct or decisions that are both substantially and procedurally fair. Section 9 of the Constitution talks about good governance wherein Commissions and other bodies established by or under the Constitution should carry out their functions conscientiously, fairly and honestly. The collapsing of constituencies and Wards affects the legitimate expectations of stakeholders who may be adversely affected by that decision. The explanation by ZEC during the oral evidence was that Constituencies with fewer registered voters were collapsed to give in registered voters to the Constituencies which had more numbers of the registered voters.
However, in some instances, the formula was not applied consistently as Wards or constituencies with more registered voters were collapsed to boost numbers in Wards of constituencies with fewer numbers. The case in point is Chikomba Central which had 16 611 voters which was collapsed to cede voters to Chikomba East and Chikomba West which had 14 240 and 30 187, respectively. A similar case was Gutu South with 18645 voters which was collapsed to cede voters to Gutu Central and Gutu East which had 21700 and 16822 voters, respectively. ZEC confirmed to the meeting that it was those constituencies with lower voter population which were being collapsed to meet thresholds in bigger constituencies.
4.1.1.4 Consideration of Factors in Section 161(6)
(a) The Constitution requires that all factors listed in subsection (6) must be considered. These are namely, community of interest, means of communication, physical features, geographical distribution of registered voters, existing electoral boundaries and population. This will also require stakeholder consultations of the affected voters. The Committee noted that the formula or criteria used as well as justifications of the decisions were not provided. The observation of the Committee was that there was possible misinterpretation by ZEC of the twenty percent variance provision in subsection (6) as some Wards and constituencies ended up having a variance of up to 40%. This therefore, defeats the spirit of the Constitution in trying to achieve equality of voters. The Annexure to the Report clearly demonstrate how the standard deviation in certain instances was well above the 20 percent variance.
(b) In applying Section 161 of the Constitution, ZEC had an obligation to take due regard of other Constitutional provisions such as Section 3 (2) (j) which provides for the equitable sharing of national resources, including land and section 264 (2) (e) which speaks to the equitable sharing of local and national resources. In addition, in terms of Section 233 (c), ZEC has an obligation to promote constitutionalism and ensure that injustices are remedied.
4.1.1.5 Stakeholder Consultations
Section 37A of the Electoral Act requires stakeholder consultations. The Committee noted that stakeholder consultations were not fairly done considering that there are certain areas wherein key stakeholders such as traditional leaders were not consulted. Section 161(6) (d) of the Constitution provides that when dividing Zimbabwe into Wards and constituencies, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must, in respect of any area, give due consideration to any community of interest as between registered voters. This issue of non-involvement of key stakeholders is drawn in areas wherein registered voters were moved from their traditional leaders. To this end, the Committee’s view is that, if stakeholder consultations were widely conducted, the community of interest issues should have been avoided.
4.1.2 OBSERVATIONS MADE ON MAPS
(a) Complicated Coordinate System
The Committee noted that the coordinate system used by ZEC was too complicated for ordinary citizens to understand and interpret spatial data represented on the maps. It is the Committee’s considered view that ZEC had an option to use a simpler geographic coordinate system that represents location in terms of degrees, minutes, and seconds, such that users can simply enter the coordinates on google maps to identify locations in their respective Wards and constituencies. ZEC indicated that it used the Geographic and Projected system which is modern and also adopted by other countries in the SADC region. The coordinates on the maps are meant for experts while the descriptions were for use by the general public.
Whilst the coordinate system used by ZEC was in line with new models of mapping in the SADC region, ZEC should have considered other user-friendly methods which can be understood by ordinary citizens. In the Committee’s view, it was not prudent to prioritize regional benchmarks without considering the interest of citizens. We do not know whether the benchmarks being referred to by ZEC also extend to how electoral commissions must choose coordinate systems.
(b) Map Scale Not Defined in the Description in Annexures
Section 161(12) asserts that if there is a discrepancy between the description of any Ward or constituency boundaries and the map or maps prepared by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the description prevails. However, ZEC neither provided any description of the scale in its report nor did it indicate or specify the scale on the actual map.
Therefore, it is within ZEC’s obligation to describe the map scale used in each map in their description. The absence of clarity on the map scale used made it difficult to compute average walking distances to get to the polling stations. For example, ZEC indicated on the maps that the maps were digitized from a scale of 1:50 000 and 1:250 000 but did not indicate the actual scale in which the data on the maps was presented. The Committee was unable to obtain clarification from ZEC on the specific map scale that was used.
(c) Some Wards Defined in the Description but Not Labelled on the Map
Section 161(7) (b) of the Constitution asserts that, ‘After delimiting Wards and constituencies, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must submit to the President a preliminary report containing – a map or maps showing the Wards and constituencies. ZEC provided maps where some of the Wards were labelled and some were not labelled, making it difficult for one to identify those Wards that were unlabelled.
Due to limitations on scale, the coordinate system used and the absence of topographic features on the map, it was difficult to identify these Wards using just the descriptions provided by ZEC. A few examples are, in Mashonaland West, Hurungwe RDC that has 26 Wards, five of them were not labelled and identified on the map. In Mashonaland Central, Guruve RDC and Mazowe RDC, four Wards were not labelled and identified on the map by means of their Ward numbers.
ZEC indicated that all Wards have numbers but, in a case, where a Ward number is not appearing, it may be a question of placement. It may not be visible on a small map but would be visible on a separate blown out map.
(d) Descriptions Refer to Topographic Features that are Not Reflective on the Map
While Section 161 (12) of the Constitution provides that, ‘If there is a discrepancy between the description of the boundaries of any Ward or constituency and the map or maps prepared by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the description prevails.’ ZEC provided descriptions that referred to topographic features that were not indicated on the map, making it difficult to relate their descriptions with the physical features on the ground. For example, an excerpt of the description of Bulawayo province, Ward 8 says ‘In an area of land bounded by a line drawn from the intersection of Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Railway line and an unnamed stream at stand 32577 Entumbane Township (Entabeni Primary School) so as to exclude it …’ Without the topographic features on the map, the Committee’s analysis was limited to such descriptions.
A specific issue arises on how an ordinary citizen, reading such a description from Harare, would identify a railway line, an unnamed street, stand 32577 of Entumbane Township in Bulawayo when they have never been to such a place unless if three conditions were satisfied, that is, if such topographic features are presented on the map, if an ordinary coordinate system based on degrees, minutes and seconds allows them to obtain coordinates that can be used on google maps, and if the map scale is indicated on the map.
ZEC indicated that it produced thematic maps which relate to its function but for effective analysis, the thematic maps should be used in conjunction with topographic, hydrological and population maps. They however did not include the topographic features to avoid clutter on the maps. However, the Committee is aware of the overlaying of maps that do not create clutter as there are options for design and colour to make every feature easily visible on the maps. Annexure 2 to the Report clearly illustrate the previous ideal map which is more detailed than the ones produced by ZEC.
(e) Population Density Map
Section 161 (6) (c) (f) asserts that in delimiting, ZEC must give due consideration to (c) the geographical distribution of registered voters and (f) its population. As part of its maps or descriptions, ZEC did not provide information about population density and distribution making it difficult to relate population figures, their distribution and how they affected specific boundary or polling station decisions. ZEC provided information that pointed to the fact that they considered preliminary results from the Census in analysing the relationship between population and registered voters.
(f) Descriptions Refer To Polling Stations that are n]Not Indicated on the Map
The Committee found it important to compute average walking distances between polling stations, particularly in remote areas where there have been reports of long walking distances to the polling stations. Roads are a means of communication, and section 161(6)(b) provides that ZEC must give due consideration to the means of communication within an area. The descriptions provided by ZEC in its report refer to polling stations that are not indicated on the map. For example, in Ward 1 of Binga North Constituency, in Binga RDC, ZEC argues in its report that there are 8 polling stations, but only one is indicated on the map. There are many more examples that relate to this scenario.
Even though section 161(12) provides for the supremacy of the description over the maps, insufficiently labelled polling stations make it difficult for any analysis to compute average walking distances within the buffer zones of polling stations. Walking distances are a means of communication, and ZEC also did not describe the physical features that affected the setting up of polling stations in certain areas with plateaus, national parks, or dams etc. ZEC explained that polling stations were uniquely identified by using a polling station code system.
4.1.3 DRAWING OF BOUNDARIES
(a) Old, Existing Boundaries Versus Proposed Boundaries
Section 161 (6) (e) mandated ZEC to give due consideration to the existing electoral boundaries. The maps or descriptions provided by ZEC did not give illustrations or descriptions of how old or existing boundaries were moved to the newly proposed boundaries. The Committee in its analysis found it difficult to relate to a new boundary description, or a new boundary on the map, without connecting them with the old or existing boundaries. For anyone to make sufficient comparisons between a new and an old boundary, they ought to understand the old and existing boundary.
The Committee noted that maps for previous delimitation exercises contained detailed information compared to the ones being proposed by ZEC. Some of these features included topographical features such as dams, rivers, mountains and geographic distribution of population. These features could have assisted in confirming the use of other factors espoused in Section 161 (6) of the Constitution. ZEC pointed out the need to avoid cluttering the maps and indicated that the old boundaries could be obtained in the 2007 and 2008 delimitation report. The Committee underscored the need to have superimposed the old and current boundaries over the proposed boundaries to provide justification for the new boundaries. In the current form it is difficult to confirm whether Section 161 (6) was fully complied with.
(b) Justification of Proposed Boundaries
The descriptions provided by ZEC appeared to the Committee as mere definitions of how the boundaries were drawn, but the descriptions do not justify why specific boundary changes were made, and other than just the statistical balance of figures, why such boundaries would make a better contribution to the country’s developmental agenda or that of local administration of societies. For example, a boundary drawn to protect a community of interest such as the communities and activities around ZCC Mbungo in Masvingo, Platinum or Lithium mining activity would provide such reasons as justifications in their descriptions. It was not helpful to the Committee’s analysis, and will not be helpful to citizens, to read a description that merely defines the location of a boundary in text, and does not explain why such boundary was adjusted from its original path.
ZEC pointed out that whilst the justification for new boundaries were not reflected on the maps, they however considered the old boundaries in determining new boundaries. They also pointed out that the justification of the proposed boundaries were included in the descriptions, but the Committee did not find the evidence of the justifications of why specific boundary changes were made.
ZEC also provided merely the description of Wards, and not the description of Ward boundaries as provided by the Constitution in Section 161(7)(a) that says, ‘After delimiting Wards and constituencies, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must submit to the President a preliminary report containing – (a) a list of the Wards and constituencies, with the names assigned to each and a description of their boundaries.
This section clearly provides for the provision of the description of boundaries and just the list of Wards, not the description of Wards. Instead of providing the descriptions of boundaries for which changes were made, ZEC provided descriptions of all Wards including those Wards that were not affected by boundary changes. One such example is Chitungwiza municipality Ward 17 that reads:
“It is an area of land bounded by a line drawn starting from where Hadzinanhanga Road crosses an unnamed stream which separates Unit J and K (296939, 8006442), then generally south-eastWards along Hadzinanhanga Road to its intersection with Mharapara Road, then generally south-westWards along Mharapara Road to its junction with new Chitungwiza Road, then north-westWards along New Chitungwiza Road to where it crosses an unnamed stream which separates unit J and K, then north-eastWards along the unnamed street to where Hadzinanhanga Road crosses it, the starting point. The area is bounded by the following Universal Mercator (UTM) zone 36 South (36S), based on the modified Clarke 1880 Spheroid (SA) coordinates:
296937.79, 8006447.13; 297473.62, 8006026.01; 296785.28, 8005545.76; 295290.66, 8005033.38; 294935.64, 8005549.40; 296532.36, 8006214.02.”
4.1.4 POSSIBLE MISINTERPRETATION OF MINIMUMAND MAXIMUM THRESHOLDS
(a) Wards Delimited Above Maximum Thresholds
Section 161 (6) asserts that ZEC may depart from the requirement that constituencies and Wards must have equal numbers of voters, but no constituency or Ward of the local authority concerned may have more than twenty per cent more of fewer registered voters than the other such constituencies or Wards. The Committee noted that some Wards were delimited above their thresholds.
(i) Manicaland
In Manicaland province, Makoni RDC, Headlands Constituency, Ward 8 was delimited at 3,231 above the maximum threshold of 3,185.
In Manicaland province, Makoni RDC, Makoni West Constituency, Ward 12 was delimited at 3 274 above the maximum threshold of 3,185.
In Manicaland province, Makoni RDC, Makoni West constituency, Ward 13 was delimited at 3202 above the maximum threshold of 3,185.
In Manicaland province, Makoni RDC, Makoni West Constituency, Ward 16 was delimited at 3226 above the maximum threshold of 3,185.
(ii) Mashonaland East
In Mashonaland East Constituency, Marondera Municipality, Marondera Constituency, Ward 9 was delimited at 3057 above threshold of 3051.
(iii) Mashonaland West
In Mashonaland West, Zvimba RDC, Zvimba East Constituency, Ward 1 was delimited at 4,675 above the permissible maximum threshold of 3,912.
(iv) Matabeleland North
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange West Constituency, Ward 2 was delimited at 2267 above the maximum threshold of 2211. ZEC also used a wrong maximum threshold of 2211 instead of 2188, but the Wards were still above maximum threshold of both values.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East constituency, Ward 17 was delimited at 2213 above the maximum threshold of 2188.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East Constituency, Ward 11 was delimited at 2390 above the maximum threshold of 2188.
In Matabeleland North, Tsholotsho RDC, Tsholotsho North, Ward 8 was delimited at 2096 above maximum threshold of 2086.
In Matabeleland North, Victoria Falls municipality, Hwange West Constituency, Ward 4 was delimited at 2416 above maximum threshold of 2400.
(b) Wards Delimited Below Minimum Thresholds
(i) Manicaland
In Manicaland, Makoni RDC, Makoni West Constituency, Ward 25 was delimited at 2111 below the minimum threshold of 2123.
(ii) Mashonaland Central
In Mashonaland Central, Bindura Municipality, Bindura North Constituency, Ward 4 was delimited at 1559 below the minimum threshold of 1570.
(iii) In Mashonaland Central, Pfura RDC, Mt. Darwin West, Ward 19 was delimited at 2028 below the minimum threshold of 2033.
(iv) Matabeleland North
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, ZEC used the wrong averages, and maximum and minimum thresholds.
For a population of 36,481 and 20 Wards, the actual average was 1824 against the ZEC 1842. The actual maximum threshold is 2189 against ZEC 2211, and actual minimum is 1459 against ZEC 1474.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East Constituency, Ward 8 was delimited at 1019 below the ZEC minimum threshold of 1474 and the actual minimum of 1459.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East Constituency, Ward 12 was delimited at 1411 below the ZEC minimum threshold of 1474, and the actual minimum of 1459.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East Constituency, Ward 18 was delimited at 1438 below the ZEC minimum threshold of 1474 and the actual minimum of 1459.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East, Ward 19 was delimited at 1294 below the ZEC minimum threshold of 1474 and the actual minimum of 1459.
In Matabeleland North, Victoria falls municipality, Hwange West Constituency, Ward 3 was delimited at 1593 below the minimum threshold of 1600.
(v) Matabeleland South
In Matabeleland South, Gwanda RDC, Gwanda South Constituency, Ward 20 was delimited at 1524 below minimum threshold of 1585.
In Matabeleland South, Matobo RDC, Matobo Constituency, Ward 14 was delimited at 1104 below minimum threshold of 1105.
4.1.5 APPENDAGE OF SIGNATURES BY THE COMMISSIONERS
The Committee noted that there was a provision for Commissioners to append signatures but they did not proceed to sign off the document. This observation was made in view of the fact that the 2007 Final Delimitation Report was signed off by all commissioners save for, one.
4.1.6 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRELIMINARY DELIMITATION REPORT
The Committee noted that previous delimitation reports contained sufficient detail in terms of descriptions compared to the current ZEC report. ZEC could have maintained the same style which is user friendly for the ordinary citizens.
4.2 SPECIFIC ISSUES WHICH REQUIRE CONSIDERATION BY ZEC
The Committee considered all the specific concerns raised by Members in relation to the delimitation exercise. The issues are provided as an Annexure to the Report and require consideration by ZEC before finalisation of the delimitation exercise.
5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 The Committee recommends that ZEC should take due regard to the census population in its totality in the delimitation exercise and not just the adult population. ZEC was supposed to use the final census results. This is because Wards and constituencies serve other purposes apart from elections, for instance, distribution of devolution funds and constituency development funds.
5.2 Where the factor of community of interest between registered voters was not considered, the Committee recommends that ZEC should revisit the factor and ensure that it is taken into consideration.
5.3 ZEC should ensure that there is equal number of voters in constituencies or Wards as provided for in terms of Section 161 (3) and (4) of the Constitution. Where there was a departure from the permissible variance of lower and upper limit of 20%, ZEC should rectify and ensure that it remains within the allowable variance.
5.4 Where collapsing of Constituencies that had more voters was done to give in to those that had fewer voters, it is the Committee’s considered view that ZEC should use the same principle of maintaining those with more votes and collapse those with fewer voters.
6.0 CONCLUSION
The Committee’s findings in its analysis of the 2022 Preliminary Delimitation Report provide a basis for its conclusion on the 2022 preliminary report on the delimitation exercise. While the Committee appreciates that it is not possible for ZEC to meet the expectations of all the stakeholders in this exercise, it is the Committee’s considered view that all the issues raised in this Report, particularly, those that are inconsistent with provisions of section 161 of the Constitution will be resolved before the finalisation of the Report on the delimitation exercise. As espoused in section 119 of the Constitution, Parliament has an obligation to protect the Constitution and ensure that the State and all institutions and agencies of Government at every level act constitutionally and in the national interest.
Annexure 1
Number |
Constituency |
Concern |
1. |
Chimanimani East |
Non-consideration of population Inadequate consultation • Machukira Business Centre was taken from Ward 22 to Ward 12 • Ward 1 Cashel should remain under Chimanimani East due to community of interest such as irrigation and Cashel border post • Ward 7 can be moved to Chimanimani West for equal distribution of voters to Ward and constituencies |
2. |
Chimanimani West |
Ward 17 Biriri should remain under Chimanimani West because of geographic location and accessibility |
3. |
Insiza North |
• Disregard of physical features • Community of interest • Distribution of registered voters into Wards (Ward 7 and 13 of Umzungwane). |
4. |
Gutu South |
Collapsing of Gutu South Constituency • ZEC pointed out in its report that Gutu South was collapsed because it did not meet the required threshold to make a Constituency yet none of the Constituencies in Gutu District met the minimum required threshold at the time ZEC conducted the delimitation exercise save for Gutu West. • Gutu South actually had more registered voters than Gutu East and Gutu North at the time ZEC conducted its delimitation. Gutu South had 18, 6453 registered voters, Gutu East 16, 822, Gutu North 15,359, and Gutu Central 21, 700. ZEC was supposed to abide by the principle of fairness and use similar formula which it was using in other Provinces, Constituencies and Wards that those with low registered voters than the others in the same Constituency or Province would be collapsed to give in to those that had more registered voters as at the time ZEC conducted its delimitation exercise. • Proposal is that ZEC should move Wards 31 and 41 to Gutu South which were part19 of Gutu South prior to creation of Gutu East, Central. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alternatively, Wards should be drawn from Gutu East which was part of Gutu South previously |
|
|
|
Community of interest of the between registered voters in Gutu South was not considered as some registered under a certain Chief are now under two different Constituencies. |
5. |
Bikita East |
|
Unjustified movement of Musiiwa polling Station from Ward 4 Bikita West to Bikita South Constituency. Musiiiwa polling station should be returned to Ward 5. |
6. |
Mberengwa |
|
Unjustified movement of Wards in Mberengwa to Mkoba |
7. |
Maramba Pfungwe (Zvataida RDC |
|
Ward 7 polling station in Maramba Pfungwe is being moved to Uzumba without due consideration to physical features. The recommendation is for ZEC to consider the people from Ward 6 and Ward 17 which are closer to Ward 7 than transferring them to Uzumba Constituency |
8. |
|
|
Case of Ward 10 moved from Mutasa North to Mutasa Central |
|
|
|
There is no justification based on the formulae used by ZEC to remove Ward 10 from Mutasa Central to Mutasa North |
|
|
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The difference between the total votes between the neighbouring constituencies is unjustifiably big, 6607 voters. |
|
|
|
Taking Ward 10 back to Mutasa Central will improve the situation by reducing the difference to 2585 |
|
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Instead of Mutasa North having 13 Wards and Mutasa Central 11 Wards they can both comfortably have 12 Wards each |
|
|
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Rural Wards are big and having a too big constituency is a disadvantage to the MP and the community (e.g. CDF spread) |
9. |
Binga North |
|
Concern over why ZEC did not create 3 constituencies in Binga North, when the numbers allowed for the creation of 3 constituencies. |
|
|
|
The total voter population was 81,118, and if 3 constituencies were created, the average constituency would have an average of 27,039 voters. |
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|
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The numbers are within the allowable threshold. |
10. |
Chegutu West |
|
Concern over why Ward 25 was moved to Chegutu East |
|
|
|
Argument is that there was no need for Ward 25 to be moved to Chegutu East. It served no purpose because both constituencies were within the thresholds. |
|
|
|
Chegutu West has a total of 27,958 voters and Chegutu East has a total of 30,362 voters. |
11. |
Zvishavane- Runde |
|
There is a proposal in Runde RDC for Wards 1,2,3,4 and 9 to be retained. ZEC is urged to move Hwani Village from Ward 13 to Ward 8, Hwande and Mugabe Villages from Ward 2 to Ward 1 Chikuni, Mafurire and Masuna Villages to Ward 2, Ndebvu, Ndirishe and Dumbu from Ward 9 to Ward 4, and last moving villages 11, 13, 14 from Ward 14 to Ward 9. |
|
|
|
Ward 18 with a 2118 voter population against a maximum threshold of 2116 should be retained as the 2 voter variance is negligible. Accordingly, the Baradzamwa Primary School polling station with 306 voters should not be moved to Ward 16 which already meets the threshold. |
|
|
|
Ward 8 Runde RDC has a shortfall of 2 voters. It has 1409 as opposed to the minimum threshold of 1411. The two voter variance is negligible. There is no need to move voters from Ward 13, Welezi Primary School polling station to beef up voters in Ward 8. Furthermore, there is no community of interest between voters in Ward 13 and 8. There are two mountain ranges and two rivers between the two Wards. |
12. |
Zvishavane- Ngezi |
|
Recommendation to move 10,000 voters from Zvishavane-Ngezi to beef up numbers in Mberengwa and create one constituency called Mberengwa-Zvishavane. |
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|
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Concern that ZEC moved a polling station from Jeka Business Center under Chief Mudavanhu to cross big Mwenezi river to Ward 15 in Chegato area under Chief Mposi. |
|
|
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The issue of moved polling stations must be investigated by ZEC |
13. |
Nyanga North |
|
There was no need whatsoever for ZEC to move either Ward 8 or Ward 27 from their original constituencies. |
|
|
|
Ward 27, Nyanga RDC has 1,954 voters and Ward 8, Nyanga RDC has 1,550 voters. Nyanga North constituency is comfortably within thresholds at 28,100, and Nyanga South Constituency is comfortably within thresholds at 29,710. |
14. |
Bindura North |
|
Recommendation is that section 161(6)(a) indicates that when ZEC is dividing Zimbabwe into Wards and constituencies, ZEC should give due consideration to Zimbabwe’s physical features and this was not abided by for instance in Wards 1, 2, 3 and 19 of Bindura RDC which have a physical feature of Ruya River. ZEC found it fit to delimit the Wards 1, 3 and 19 to Mazoe Central Constituency and Ward 2 to Mount Darwin West Constituency crossing Ruya River a huge physical barrier that has been overlooked. |
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|
|
There is a record of people across Ruya River to aid voters from the aforementioned delimited Wards to Mazoe Central and Mount Darwin West constituencies. |
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|
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Wards must either move along rivers and roads, but must not cut across rivers, dams or mountains. |
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|
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ZEC did not comply with the provisions of section 161(6)(a) |
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|
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ZEC must investigate and consider the physical features such as Ruya River. |
I thank you.
I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. MATHUTHU: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 17th January, 2023.
On the motion of HON. SEN. MUZENDA, seconded by HON. SEN. MATHUTHU, the Senate adjourned at Eighteen Minutes to Eleven o’clock a.m. until Tuesday, 17th January, 2023.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Friday, 13th January, 2023
The National Assembly met at Half-past Nine o’clock a.m.
PRAYERS
(THE ACTING SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE ACTING SPEAKER
SWEARING IN OF A NEW MEMBER
THE ACTING SPEAKER (HON. DR. MAVETERA): I have to inform the House that Parliament received communication from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) notifying the nomination of Nowedza Eulysses as a Member of Parliament for Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, with effect from Friday, 6th January, 2023, to fill the vacancy that occurred following the death of Hon. Ophar Ncube.
Section 128 (1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe provides that before a Member of Parliament takes his or her seat in Parliament, the Member must take the Oath of a Member of Parliament in the form set out in the Third Schedule. Section 128 (2) states that the Oath must be taken before the Clerk of Parliament. I therefore call upon the Clerk of Parliament to administer the Oath of a Member of Parliament.
NEW MEMBER SWORN
HON. NOWEDZA EULYSSES subscribed to the Oath of Loyalty as required by the Law and took her seat – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order Hon. Members! Do we want to chase each other out of the House – [AN HON. MEMBER: No.] – So, let us respect each other. This is a special meeting that all of us need to be involved in but if you continue talking, I am going to chase you out.
(v)HON. MUSARURWA: On a point of order! I would like to seek clarity on the issue of the letter that was circulating on the social media, before Hon. Togarepi presents his report.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: The letter you are speaking about was an administrative issue and the Hon. Speaker has taken note of it and has dealt with it accordingly.
(v)HON. MUSHORIWA: Given the contents of the letter, surely Hon. Members deserve to know administratively as you may want to say, but I thought it is actually a matter of public importance.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Thank you very much. I am being advised here that this was a legal issue and Hon. Madhuku wrote to the Speaker as the head of Parliament, so he responded accordingly.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION 2022 PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE DELIMITATION EXERCISE
HON. TOGAREPI: I move the motion standing in my name that this House considers and adopts the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Analysis of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise.
HON. TEKESHE: I second.
HON. TOGAREPI: Order of Appointment and Mr. Speaker’s Announcement:
On Friday, 6th January 2023, the Acting Speaker announced that the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders had appointed the following Members of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022
Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise:
- C. Madiwa;
- C. Mpame;
- K. Musanhi;
- Sen. T. V. Muzenda;
- Sen. D. Mwonzora;
- M. Ncube;
- A. Ndebele;
- D. Nduna;
- Sen. Dr. D. P. Parirenyatwa;
- Sen. Chief Siansali;
- P. D. Sibanda;
- D. Tekeshe and
- P. Togarepi
1.0 INTRODUCTION
On Friday, the 6th of January 2023, His Excellency the President, Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa summoned Parliament to sit to receive and consider the 2022 Preliminary Delimitation Report in terms of Section 110 (2) (c). The Report was tabled in Houses by the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Ziyambi Ziyambi. Consequently, the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders appointed an Ad Hoc Committee on the Analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise.
The Committee was tasked to conduct a detailed analysis of the Report concerning the provisions of section 161 of the Constitution and present its findings and recommendations in the National Assembly and Senate on Friday 13th of January 2023. The report would form the basis for debate by the Houses on 17 and 18 January 2023. Parliament would then submit its Report on the findings and recommendations on the ZEC 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise to His Excellency the President by 20th January 2023 for onward submission to ZEC. These processes were to be completed within 14 days in terms of section 161 (8) of the Constitution.
This Report, therefore, is an outcome of the analysis by the Committee and contains findings and recommendations by the Ad Hoc Committee as mandated by Parliament.
2.0 TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE AD HOC COMMITTEE.
The Ad Hoc Committee’s Terms of Reference are as follows–
- To analytically consider the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise and that it complies with section 161 of the Constitution; and
- To report its Findings and Recommendations to the National Assembly and the Senate on Friday, 13th January 2023.
3.0 METHODOLOGY
During its work, the Committee conducted a review of legal instruments which are relevant to the delimitation exercise, and looked at the previous delimitation report for 2007/8. Given the technical nature of the delimitation exercise, the Committee engaged a consultant with expertise in delimitation issues and public policy. Furthermore, the Committee received oral submissions from ZEC to get an appreciation of how they conducted the delimitation exercise. The Committee also received written submissions from Members of Parliament on their concerns on the delimitation exercise. The Committee analyzed the Report together with the oral and written submissions and came up with a report for presentation to both Houses. It is critical to note that the Committee was working within a tight schedule as it had only seven days within which to discharge its mandate.
The Committee expresses its greatest appreciation to ZEC for the time and effort invested in this exercise and the expertise they continue to share. The Committee also expresses its gratitude to Members of Parliament, the Secretariat and the consultant, the people of Zimbabwe and any other stakeholders for their critical contributions towards the delimitation process.
4.0 FINDINGS AND OBSERVATIONS
4.1 The Committee would like to acknowledge with great appreciation the work undertaken by ZEC in fulfilling its Constitutional mandate, considering that this was its first delimitation exercise after the enactment of the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe. In its analysis, the Committee however, came up with key findings and observations which include the following:
- ward boundaries that were delimited above and below the maximum and minimum thresholds,
- insufficient information in descriptions of wards,
- a highly complicated coordinate system,
- unspecified map scale,
- unlabeled wards,
- topographic features not presented on the maps,
- maps that do not show old and existing boundaries,
- lack of justification on changes in boundaries in specific wards and constituencies,
(1) Polling stations not indicated on the maps,
- use of preliminary census data; and
- possible misinterpretation of the minimum and maximum threshold.
4.1.1 LEGAL COMPLIANCE ISSUES
4.1.1.1 Legal Provisions governing the delimitation exercise
Sections 160 and 161 of the Constitution and section 37A of the Electoral Act provides for the legal basis for the delimitation of electoral boundaries.
4.1.1.2 Link between population census and the delimitation exercise
- Section 161 (1) of the Constitution requires delimitation to take place as soon as possible after a population census. Population is a crucial consideration for delimitation and is listed in section 161(6) (f) as one of the factors to be considered in attaining equal number of voters in a constituency or ward. The population census contemplated in this section is the final census report. The Committee noted that ZEC considered the registered voters’ population and not the total population. According to the report, they only used the census preliminary report to correlate the registered voters’ population with the adult population. The use of the selective segment of the population census which is referred to as the adult population in the ZEC report is perceived to be a non-conformity to the constitutional values and principles enunciated in section 3 (2) (j) and (k) which relates to the equitable sharing of national resources, including land and devolution funds respectively. A population census measures the entire population including non-voters and children who are also affected by delimitation of electoral boundaries in respect of service delivery.
- The Committee took judicial notice of the fact that the final census report is yet to be finalised and published, and acknowledged the impediment of COVID-19 pandemic as a factor that delayed the holding of the population census at the time it had been scheduled which had a bearing on the timing of the delimitation exercise. In light of this, the Committee noted that ZEC purportedly considered the available preliminary census report in an effort to comply with the constitutional obligation of delimitation.
4.1.1.3 Distribution of Registered Voters to Wards and Constituencies
- The Committee noted that the report shows evidence of violations of sections 161 (3) and (4) of the Constitution providing for equal number of voters in the boundaries of constituencies and wards. The Committee observed that this provision was not fully adhered to as there are instances where some constituencies and wards had more registered voters than others within the same province. A case in point is Binga District which had 70,988 voters but had the same number of wards with Tsholotsho District which had 38,619 voters, and Bubi District which had 33,295 voters.
- In addition to the above, the report shows evidence that the considerations listed in subsection (6), such as the means of communication within the area, the geographical distribution of registered voters; community of interest as between registered voters, were not fully complied with. In order to give effect to the considerations, the subsection must be read together with the constitutional values and principles as well as national objectives and devolution provided in section 3 and Chapter 2 of the Constitution respectively.
- The Committee noted that in the spirit of promoting and observing the principles of good governance that encompass transparency, justice and fairness, the report should have provided justifications for collapsing constituencies and wards. The Constitution in section 68 provides for administrative conduct or decisions that are both substantially and procedurally fair. Section 9 of the Constitution talks about good governance wherein Commissions and other bodies established by or under the Constitution should carry out their functions conscientiously, fairly and honestly. The collapsing of constituencies and wards affects the legitimate expectations of stakeholders who may be adversely affected by that decision. The explanation by ZEC during the oral evidence was that constituencies with fewer registered voters were collapsed to give in registered voters to the constituencies which had more numbers of the registered voters.
However, in some instances, the formula was not applied consistently as wards or constituencies with more registered voters were collapsed to boost numbers in wards of constituencies with fewer numbers. The case in point is Chikomba Central which had 16 611 voters which was collapsed to cede voters to Chikomba East and Chikomba West which had 14 240 and 30 187, respectively. A similar case was Gutu South with 18 645 voters which were collapsed to cede voters to Gutu Central and Gutu East which had 21 700 and 16 822 voters respectively. ZEC confirmed to the meeting that it was those constituencies with lower voter population which were being collapsed to meet thresholds in bigger constituencies.
4.1.1.4 Consideration of Factors in Section 161 (6)
- The Constitution requires that all factors listed in subsection (6) must be considered. These are namely, community of interest, means of communication, physical features, and geographical distribution of registered voters, existing electoral boundaries and population. This will also require stakeholder consultations of the affected voters. The Committee noted that the formula or criteria used as well as justifications of the decisions were not provided. The observation of the Committee was that there was possible misinterpretation by ZEC of the twenty percent variance provision in subsection (6) as some wards and constituencies ended up having a variance of up to 40%. This therefore, defeats the spirit of the Constitution in trying to achieve equality of voters. The Annexure to the Report clearly demonstrates how the standard deviation in certain instances was well above the 20 percent variance.
- In applying Section 161 of the Constitution, ZEC had an obligation to take due regard of other Constitutional provisions such as Section 3 (2) (j) which provides for the equitable sharing of national resources, including land and section 264 (2) (e) which speaks to the equitable sharing of local and national resources. In addition, in terms of Section 233 (c), ZEC has an obligation to promote constitutionalism and ensure that injustices are remedied.
4.1.1.5 Stakeholder Consultations
Section 37A of the Electoral Act requires stakeholder consultations. The Committee noted that stakeholder consultations were not fairly done considering that there are certain areas wherein key stakeholders such as traditional leaders were not consulted. Section 161(6) (d) of the Constitution provides that when dividing Zimbabwe into wards and constituencies, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must, in respect of any area, give due consideration to any community of interest as between registered voters. This issue of non-involvement of key stakeholders is drawn in areas wherein registered voters were moved from their traditional leaders. To this end, the Committee’s view is that if stakeholder consultations were widely conducted, the community of interest issues should have been avoided.
4.1.2 OBSERVATIONS MADE ON MAPS
(a) Complicated Coordinate System.
The Committee noted that the coordinate system used by ZEC was too complicated for ordinary citizens to understand and interpret spatial data represented on the maps. It is the Committee’s considered view that ZEC had an option to use a simpler geographic coordinate system that represents location in terms of degrees, minutes, and seconds, such that users can simply enter the coordinates on Google maps to identify locations in their respective wards and constituencies. ZEC indicated that it used the Geographic and Projected system which is modern and also adopted by other countries in the SADC region. The coordinates on the maps are meant for experts while the descriptions were for use by the general public.
Whilst the coordinate system used by ZEC was in line with new models of mapping in the SADC region, ZEC should have considered other user-friendly methods which can be understood by ordinary citizens. In the Committee’s view, it was not prudent to prioritize regional benchmarks without considering the interest of citizens. We do not know whether the benchmarks that are being referred to by ZEC also extend to how electoral commissions must choose coordinate systems.
(b) Map Scale Not Defined in the Description in Annexures
Section 161(12) asserts that if there is a discrepancy between the description of any ward or constituency boundaries and the map or maps prepared by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the description prevails. However, ZEC neither provided any description of the scale in its report nor did it indicate or specify the scale on the actual map.
Therefore, it is within ZEC’s obligation to describe the map scale used in each map in their description. The absence of clarity on the map scale used made it difficult to compute average walking distances to get to the polling stations. For example, ZEC indicated on the maps that the maps were digitized from a scale of 1:50 000 and 1:250 000 but did not indicate the actual scale in which the data on the maps was presented. The Committee was unable to obtain clarification from ZEC on the specific map scale that was used.
(c) Some Wards Defined in the Description but not Labeled on the Map
Section 161 (7) (b) of the Constitution asserts that, ‘after delimiting wards and constituencies, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must submit to the President, a preliminary report containing a map or maps showing the wards and constituencies. ZEC provided maps where some of the wards were labeled and some were not labeled, making it difficult for one to identify those wards that were unlabelled.
Due to limitations on scale, the coordinate system used and the absence of topographic features on the map, it was difficult to identify these wards using just the descriptions provided by ZEC. A few examples are in Mashonaland West, Hurungwe RDC that has 26 wards; five of them were not labeled and identified on the map. In Mashonaland Central, Guruve RDC and Mazowe RDC, four wards were not labeled and identified on the map by means of their ward numbers.
ZEC indicated that all wards have numbers, but in a case where a ward number is not appearing, it may be a question of placement. It may not be visible on a small map but would be visible on a separate blown out map.
(d) Descriptions refer to topographic features that are not reflective on the map - while Section 161 (12) of the Constitution provides that, ‘If there is a discrepancy between the description of the boundaries of any ward or constituency and the map or maps prepared by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the description prevails.’ ZEC provided descriptions that referred to topographic features that were not indicated on the map, making it difficult to relate their descriptions with the physical features on the ground. For example, an excerpt of the description of Bulawayo Province, ward 8 says ‘In an area of land bounded by a line drawn from the intersection of Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Railway line and an unnamed stream at stand 32577 Entumbane Township (Entabeni Primary School) so as to exclude it …’ Without the topographic features on the map, the Committee’s analysis was limited to such descriptions.
A specific issue arises on how an ordinary citizen, reading such a description from Harare, would identify a railway line, an unnamed street, stand 32577 of Entumbane Township in Bulawayo when they have never been to such a place unless if three conditions were satisfied, that is, if such topographic features are presented on the map, if an ordinary coordinate system based on degrees, minutes and seconds allows them to obtain coordinates that can be used on Google Maps, and if the map scale is indicated on the map.
ZEC indicated that it produced thematic maps which relate to its function but for effective analysis, the thematic maps should be used in conjunction with topographic, hydrological and population maps. They however did not include the topographic features to avoid clutter on the maps. However, the Committee is aware of the overlaying of maps that do not create clutter as there are options for design and colour to make every feature easily visible on the maps. Annexure 2 to the Report clearly illustrates the previous ideal map which is more detailed than the ones produced by ZEC.
(e) Population Density Map
Section 161 (6) (c) (f) asserts that in delimiting, ZEC must give due consideration to (c), the geographical distribution of registered voters and (f) its population. As part of its maps or descriptions, ZEC did not provide information about population density and distribution making it difficult to relate population figures, their distribution and how they affected specific boundary or polling station decisions. ZEC provided information that pointed to the fact that they considered preliminary results from the Census in analysing the relationship between population and registered voters.
(f) Descriptions Refer to Polling Stations that are Not Indicated on the Map
The Committee found it important to compute average walking distances between polling stations, particularly in remote areas where there have been reports of long walking distances to the polling stations. Roads are a means of communication, and section 161(6) (b) provides that ZEC must give due consideration to the means of communication within an area. The descriptions provided by ZEC in its report refer to polling stations that are not indicated on the map. For example, in ward 1 of Binga North Constituency, in Binga RDC, ZEC argues in its report that there are eight polling stations, but only one is indicated on the map. There are many more examples that relate to this scenario.
Even though section 161 (12) provides for the supremacy of the description over the maps, insufficiently labeled polling stations make it difficult for any analysis to compute average walking distances within the buffer zones of polling stations. Walking distances are a means of communication, and ZEC also did not describe the physical features that affected the setting up of polling stations in certain areas with plateaus, national parks, or dams, etc. ZEC explained that polling stations were uniquely identified by using a polling station code system.
4.1.3 DRAWING OF BOUNDARIES (a) Old, Existing Boundaries versus Proposed Boundaries
Section 161 (6) (e) mandated ZEC to give due consideration to the existing electoral boundaries. The maps or descriptions provided by ZEC did not give illustrations or descriptions of how old or existing boundaries were moved to the newly proposed boundaries. The Committee, in its analysis, found it difficult to relate to a new boundary description, or a new boundary on the map, without connecting them with the old or existing boundaries. For anyone to make sufficient comparisons between a new and an old boundary, they ought to understand the old and existing boundary.
The Committee noted that maps for previous delimitation exercises contained detailed information compared to the ones being proposed by ZEC. Some of these features included topographical features such as dams, rivers, mountains and geographic distribution of population. These features could have assisted in confirming the use of other factors espoused in Section 161 (6) of the Constitution. ZEC pointed out the need to avoid cluttering the maps and indicated that the old boundaries could be obtained in the 2007 and 2008 Delimitation Report. The Committee underscored the need to have superimposed the old and current boundaries over the proposed boundaries to provide justification for the new boundaries. In the current form, it is difficult to confirm whether Section 161 (6) was fully complied with.
(b) Justification of Proposed Boundaries
The descriptions provided by ZEC appeared to the Committee as mere definitions of how the boundaries were drawn, but the descriptions do not justify why specific boundary changes were made, and other than just the statistical balance of figures, why such boundaries would make a better contribution to the country’s developmental agenda or that of local administration of societies. For example, a boundary drawn to protect a community of interest such as the communities and activities around ZCC Mbungo in Masvingo, platinum or lithium mining activity would provide such reasons as justifications in their descriptions. It was not helpful to the Committee’s analysis, and will not be helpful to citizens, to read a description that merely defines the location of a boundary in text, and does not explain why such boundary was adjusted from its original path.
ZEC pointed out that whilst the justification for new boundaries was not reflected on the maps, they however considered the old boundaries in determining new boundaries. They also pointed out that the justification of the proposed boundaries was included in the descriptions, but the Committee did not find the evidence of the justifications of why specific boundary changes were made.
ZEC also provided merely the description of wards, and not the description of ward boundaries as provided by the Constitution in Section 161 (7) (a) that says, ‘After delimiting wards and constituencies, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must submit to the President a preliminary report containing – (a) a list of the wards and constituencies, with the names assigned to each and a description of their boundaries.
This section clearly provides for the provision of the description of boundaries and just the list of wards, not the description of wards. Instead of providing the descriptions of boundaries for which changes were made, ZEC provided descriptions of all wards including those wards that were not affected by boundary changes. One such example is Chitungwiza municipality ward 17 that reads:
“It is an area of land bounded by a line drawn starting from where Hadzinanhanga Road crosses an unnamed stream which separates Units J and K (296939, 8006442), then generally south-eastwards along Hadzinanhanga Road to its intersection with Mharapara Road, then generally south-westwards along Mharapara Road to its junction with new Chitungwiza Road, then north-westwards along New Chitungwiza Road to where it crosses an unnamed stream which separates Units J and K, then north-eastwards along the unnamed street to where Hadzinanhanga Road crosses it, the starting point. The area is bounded by the following Universal Mercator (UTM) zone 36 South (36S), based on the modified Clarke 1880 Spheroid (SA) coordinates:
296937.79, 8006447.13; 297473.62, 8006026.01; 296785.28, 8005545.76; 295290.66, 8005033.38; 294935.64, 8005549.40; 296532.36, 8006214.02.”
4.1.4 POSSIBLE MISINTERPRETATION OF MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM THRESHOLDS
(a) Wards Delimited Above Maximum Thresholds
Section 161 (6) asserts that ZEC may depart from the requirement that constituencies and wards must have equal numbers of voters, but no constituency or ward of the local authority concerned may have more than twenty per cent more of fewer registered voters than the other such constituencies or wards. The Committee noted that some wards were delimited above their thresholds.
(i) Manicaland
In Manicaland Province, Makoni RDC, Headlands Constituency, ward 8 was delimited at 3,231 above the maximum threshold of 3,185.
In Manicaland Province, Makoni RDC, Makoni West Constituency, ward 12 was delimited at 3 274 above the maximum threshold of 3,185.
In Manicaland Province, Makoni RDC, Makoni West Constituency, ward 13 was delimited at 3202 above the maximum threshold of 3,185.
In Manicaland Province, Makoni RDC, Makoni West Constituency, ward 16 was delimited at 3226 above the maximum threshold of 3,185.
(ii) Mashonaland East
In Mashonaland East Constituency, Marondera Municipality, Marondera Constituency, ward 9 was delimited at 3057 above threshold of 3051.
(iii) Mashonaland West
In Mashonaland West, Zvimba RDC, Zvimba East Constituency, ward 1 was delimited at 4,675 above the permissible maximum threshold of 3,912.
(iv) Matabeleland North
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange West Constituency, ward 2 was delimited at 2267 above the maximum threshold of 2211. ZEC also used a wrong maximum threshold of 2211 instead of 2188, but the wards were still above maximum threshold of both values.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East Constituency, ward 17 was delimited at 2213 above the maximum threshold of 2188.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East Constituency, ward 11 was delimited at 2390 above the maximum threshold of 2188.
In Matabeleland North, Tsholotsho RDC, Tsholotsho North, ward 8 was delimited at 2096 above maximum threshold of 2086.
In Matabeleland North, Victoria Falls Municipality, Hwange West Constituency, ward 4 was delimited at 2416 above maximum threshold of 2400.
(b) Wards Delimited Below Minimum Thresholds (i) Manicaland
In Manicaland, Makoni RDC, Makoni West Constituency, ward 25 was delimited at 2111 below the minimum threshold of 2123.
(ii) Mashonaland Central
In Mashonaland Central, Bindura Municipality, Bindura North Constituency, ward 4 was delimited at 1559 below the minimum threshold of 1570.
(iii) In Mashonaland Central, Pfura RDC, Mt. Darwin West, ward 19 was delimited at 2028 below the minimum threshold of 2033.
(iv) Matabeleland North
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, ZEC used the wrong averages, and maximum and minimum thresholds.
For a population of 36,481 and 20 wards, the actual average was 1824 against the ZEC
- The actual maximum threshold is 2189 against ZEC 2211, and actual minimum is 1459 against ZEC 1474.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East Constituency, ward 8 was delimited at 1019 below the ZEC minimum threshold of 1474 and the actual minimum of 1459.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East Constituency, ward 12 was delimited at 1411 below the ZEC minimum threshold of 1474, and the actual minimum of 1459.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East Constituency, ward 18 was delimited at 1438 below the ZEC minimum threshold of 1474 and the actual minimum of 1459.
In Matabeleland North, Hwange RDC, Hwange East, ward 19 was delimited at 1294 below the ZEC minimum threshold of 1474 and the actual minimum of 1459.
In Matabeleland North, Victoria Falls municipality, Hwange West Constituency, ward 3 was delimited at 1593 below the minimum threshold of 1600.
(v) Matabeleland South
In Matabeleland South, Gwanda RDC, Gwanda South Constituency, ward 20 was delimited at 1524 below minimum threshold of 1585.
In Matabeleland South, Matobo RDC, Matobo Constituency, ward 14 was delimited at 1104 below minimum threshold of 1105.
4.1.5 APPENDAGE OF SIGNATURES BY THE COMMISSIONERS
The Committee noted that there was a provision for Commissioners to append signatures but they did not proceed to sign off the document. This observation was made in view of the fact that the 2007 Final Delimitation Report was signed off by all Commissioners save for one.
4.1.6 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRELIMINARY DELIMITATION REPORT
The Committee noted that previous delimitation reports contained sufficient detail in terms of descriptions compared to the current ZEC Report. ZEC could have maintained the same style which is user friendly for the ordinary citizens.
4.2 SPECIFIC ISSUES WHICH REQUIRE CONSIDERATION BY ZEC
The Committee considered all the specific concerns raised by Members in relation to the delimitation exercise. The issues are provided as an Annexure to the Report and require consideration by ZEC before finalisation of the delimitation exercise.
5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 The Committee recommends that ZEC should take due regard to the census population in its totality in the delimitation exercise and not just the adult population. ZEC was supposed to use the final census results. This is because wards and constituencies serve other purposes apart from elections, for instance, distribution of devolution funds and constituency development funds.
5.2 Where the factor of community of interest between registered voters was not considered, the Committee recommends that ZEC should revisit the factor and ensure that this is taken into consideration.
5.3 ZEC should ensure that there is equal number of voters in constituencies or wards as provided for in terms of Section 161 (3) and (4) of the Constitution. Where there was a departure from the permissible variance of lower and upper limit of 20%, ZEC should rectify and ensure that it remains within the allowable variance. When we met ZEC, they indicated that they were going to make those changes should they come from Parliament. They are amenable to making such changes.
5.4 Where collapsing of constituencies that had more voters was done to give in to those that had fewer voters, it is the Committee’s considered view that ZEC should use the same principle of maintaining those with more votes and collapse those with fewer voters.
6.0 CONCLUSION
The Committee’s findings, in its analysis of the 2022 Preliminary Delimitation Report, provide a basis for its conclusion on the 2022 preliminary report on the delimitation exercise. While the Committee appreciates that it is not possible for ZEC to meet the expectations of all the stakeholders in this exercise, it is the Committee’s considered view that all the issues raised in this Report, particularly those that are inconsistent with provisions of section 161 of the Constitution, will be resolved before the finalisation of the Report on the delimitation exercise. As espoused in section 119 of the Constitution, Parliament has an obligation to protect the Constitution and ensure that the State and all institutions and agencies of Government at every level, act constitutionally and in the national interest.
Annexure 1
Number |
Constituency |
Concern |
1. |
Chimanimani East |
Non-consideration of population Inadequate consultation • Machukira Business Centre was taken from Ward 22 to Ward 12 • Ward 1 Cashel should remain under Chimanimani East due to community of interest such as irrigation and Cashel border post • Ward 7 can be moved to Chimanimani West for equal distribution of voters to ward and constituencies |
2. |
Chimanimani West |
Ward 17 Biriri should remain under Chimanimani West because of geographic location and accessibility |
3. |
Insiza North |
• Disregard of physical features • Community of interest • Distribution of registered voters into wards (Ward 7 and 13 of Umzungwane). |
4. |
Gutu South |
Collapsing of Gutu South Constituency • ZEC pointed out in its report that Gutu South was collapsed because it did not meet the required threshold to make a constituency yet none of the constituencies in Gutu District met the minimum required threshold at the time ZEC conducted the delimitation exercise save for Gutu West. • Gutu South actually had more registered voters than Gutu East and Gutu North at the time ZEC conducted its delimitation. Gutu South had 18, 6453 registered voters, Gutu East 16, 822, Gutu North 15,359, and Gutu Central 21, 700. ZEC was supposed to abide by the principle of fairness and use similar formula which it was using in other provinces, constituencies and wards that those with low registered voters than the others in the same constituency or province would be collapsed to give in to those that had more registered voters as at the time ZEC conducted its delimitation exercise. • Proposal is that ZEC should move wards 31 and 41 to Gutu South which were part19 of Gutu South prior to creation of Gutu East, |
|
|
|
Central. |
|
|
|
Alternatively, wards should be drawn from Gutu East which was part of Gutu South previously |
|
|
|
Community of interest of the between registered voters in Gutu South was not considered as some registered under a certain Chief are now under two different constituencies. |
5. |
Bikita East |
|
Unjustified movement of Musiiwa Polling Station from Ward 4 Bikita West to Bikita South Constituency. Musiiiwa Polling Station should be returned to Ward 5. |
6. |
Mberengwa |
|
Unjustified movement of wards in Mberengwa to Mkoba |
7. |
Maramba Pfungwe (Zvataida RDC |
|
Ward 7 polling station in Maramba-Pfungwe is being moved to Uzumba without due consideration to physical features. The recommendation is for ZEC to consider the people from Ward 6 and Ward 17 which are closer to Ward 7 than transferring them to Uzumba Constituency |
8. |
|
|
Case of Ward 10 moved from Mutasa North to Mutasa Central |
|
|
|
There is no justification based on the formulae used by ZEC to remove Ward 10 from Mutasa Central to Mutasa North |
|
|
|
The difference between the total votes between the neighbouring constituencies is unjustifiably big, 6607 voters. |
|
|
|
Taking ward 10 back to Mutasa Central will improve the situation by reducing the difference to 2585 |
|
|
|
Instead of Mutasa North having 13 wards and Mutasa Central 11 wards, they can both comfortably have 12 wards each |
|
|
|
Rural wards are big and having a too big constituency is a disadvantage to the MP and the community (eg. CDF spread) |
9. |
Binga North |
|
Concern over why ZEC did not create three constituencies in Binga North when the numbers allowed for the creation of three constituencies. |
|
|
|
The total voter population was 81,118, and if three constituencies were created, the average constituency would have an average of 27,039 voters. |
|
|
|
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|
|
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The numbers are within the allowable threshold. |
10. |
Chegutu West |
|
Concern over why ward 25 was moved to Chegutu East |
|
|
|
Argument is that there was no need for ward 25 to be moved to Chegutu East. It served no purpose because both constituencies were within the thresholds. |
|
|
|
Chegutu West has a total of 27,958 voters and Chegutu East has a total of 30,362 voters. |
11. |
Zvishavane- Runde |
|
There is a proposal in Runde RDC for wards 1,2,3,4 and 9 to be retained. ZEC is urged to move Hwani Village from ward 13 to ward 8, Hwande and Mugabe Villages from ward 2 to ward 1 Chikuni, Mafurire and Masuna Villages to ward 2, Ndebvu, Ndirishe and Dumbu from ward 9 to ward 4, and last moving villages 11, 13, 14 from ward 14 to ward 9. |
|
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Ward 18 with a 2118 voter population against a maximum threshold of 2116 should be retained as the two voter variance is negligible. Accordingly, the Baradzamwa Primary School polling station with 306 voters should not be moved to ward 16 which already meets the threshold. |
|
|
|
Ward 8 Runde RDC has a shortfall of two voters. It has 1409 as opposed to the minimum threshold of 1411. The two voter variance is negligible. There is no need to move voters from ward 13, Welezi Primary School polling station to beef up voters in ward 8. Furthermore, there is no community of interest between voters in ward 13 and 8. There are two mountain ranges and two rivers between the two wards. |
12. |
Zvishavane- Ngezi |
|
Recommendation to move 10,000 voters from Zvishavane-Ngezi to beef up numbers in Mberengwa and create one constituency called Mberengwa-Zvishavane. |
|
|
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Concern that ZEC moved a polling station from Jeka Business Centre under Chief Mudavanhu to cross big Mwenezi River to ward 15 in Chegato area under Chief Mposi. |
|
|
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The issue of moved polling stations must be investigated by ZEC |
13. |
Nyanga North |
|
There was no need whatsoever for ZEC to move either ward 8 or ward 27 from their original constituencies. |
|
|
|
Ward 27, Nyanga RDC has 1,954 voters and ward 8, Nyanga RDC has 1,550 voters. Nyanga North Constituency is comfortably within thresholds at 28,100, and Nyanga South Constituency is comfortably within thresholds at 29,710. |
14. |
Bindura North |
|
Recommendation is that section 161 (6) (a) indicates that when ZEC is dividing Zimbabwe into wards and constituencies, ZEC should give due consideration to Zimbabwe’s physical features and this was not abided by, for instance in wards 1, 2, 3 and 19 of Bindura RDC which have a physical feature of Ruya River. ZEC found it fit to delimit the wards 1, 3 and 19 to Mazowe Central Constituency and ward 2 to Mount Darwin West Constituency crossing Ruya River, a huge physical barrier that has been overlooked. |
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|
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There is a record of people across Ruya rRver to aid voters from the aforementioned delimited wards to Mazowe Central and Mount Darwin West constituencies. |
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Wards must either move along rivers and roads, but must not cut across rivers, dams or mountains. |
|
|
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ZEC did not comply with the provisions of section 161 (6) (a) |
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|
ZEC must investigate and consider the physical features such as Ruya River. |
I, therefore move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. MUTSEYAMI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. With the indulgence of the House and yourself Mr. Speaker, I need to put it on record that we have a problem with our Members of Parliament in terms of them debating to this Preliminary Delimitation Report. In that regard, most of our Members, regardless of their willingness to debate, are being forced to go on virtual. Why? Because we have a challenge with Treasury and the Administration of Parliament, in terms of accommodation for Members of Parliament and that is a big problem.
So now with this position with regard to the report, Members are supposed to debate on the 17th and 18th. The challenge we have is that of network across the country because of the load shedding challenge which is a big issue. So Members have to come to the House and represent their constituencies and the people that voted for them so that they will debate physically. My prayer is for the Administration of Parliament, Treasury and our Hon. Minister of Justice to give us a clear commitment that our Members will be allowed to be in the House physically and debate on 17th and 18th. That is my prayer. Thank you.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Thank you for having raised that pertinent issue. We need to make sure that the Administration of Parliament looks into that issue and I do hope they are actually doing that and Members will be advised before the 17th. Thank you.
HON. MARKHAM: Mr. Speaker, can I confirm points of clarities will be on Tuesday.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Yes.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI), the House adjourned at Twenty-one Minutes to Eleven o’clock a.m. until Tuesday, 17th January, 2023.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Friday, 6th January, 2023
The National Assembly met at Nine o’clock a.m.
PRAYERS
(THE ACTING SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE ACTING SPEAKER
PRESENCE OF ZEC CHAIRPERSON AND DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON
THE ACTING SPEAKER (HON. DR. MAVETERA): Order, compliments of the new season. I wish to recognise the presence in this Chamber, of the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). You are welcome.
TABLING OF THE PRELIMINARY DELIMITATION REPORT
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am and good morning. I rise to move that whereas Section 161 (1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe states that once every ten years on a date or within a period fixed by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission so as to fall as soon as possible after a population census, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must conduct a delimitation of electoral boundaries into which Zimbabwe is divided.
AND WHEREAS ZEC commenced the delimitation process in June 2022 and submitted its preliminary report to His Excellency, Cde. Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa on 26th December, 2022;
AND WHEREAS Section 161 (7) (c) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013), states that the President must cause the preliminary report to be laid before Parliament within seven days, for Parliament consideration and referral of any issues to His Excellency, Cde. Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa for ZEC’s consideration;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, do hereby lay the ZEC Preliminary report before the National Assembly for consideration. I thank you.
MOTION
LEAVE TO MOVE FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF AN AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION 2022 PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE DELIMITATION EXERCISE
HON. TOGAREPI: Thank you Madam Speaker. I seek leave of the House to move that an Ad hoc Committee on the analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise be appointed in terms of Standing Order Number 25. Madam Speaker Ma’am, this is in view of the limited time within which Parliament is expected to consider the report and present its findings and recommendations to His Excellency the President.
HON. BITI: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am and compliments of the season to you. Madam Speaker Ma’am, I have read Standing Order Number 25. It is clear that a Member can move a motion pushing for the establishment of an ad hoc committee. Hon. Togarepi is within his own right to do so but I would like, in his motion, to clearly define the terms of reference. Standing Order 25 (1) makes it clear that the terms of reference must clearly be defined, so roughly the Ad hoc Committee must look at legal compliance. Was the Constitution complied with? Were all the laws complied with?
Secondly, the terms of reference should include whether Section 161 (5) has been respected. Section 161 (5) says all constituencies must be equal. There is a margin of error of 20 per cent of that criteria that is set out there. In other words, is the data justifying what is in that report we have not seen? My appeal is that let us have clarity and certainty on the terms of reference so that there is no ambiguity. I thank you very much Madam Speaker Ma’am.
THE ACTING SPEAKER (HON. DR. MAVETERA): Hon. Togarepi has requested for a notice for him to be able to move his motion. That is the leave that he is asking for. Whenever he is going to be presenting the motion, indeed he is going to be outlining the references and everything that is supposed to be happening.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
APPOINTMENT OF AN AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION 2022 PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE DELIMITATION EXERCISE
HON. TOGAREPI: Thank you Madam Speaker. I move that an Ad hoc Committee on the analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise be appointed in terms of Standing Order Number 25.
Madam Speaker, I would also want to present the terms of reference of the Ad hoc Committee as follows:
To analytically consider the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise and to report its findings and recommendations to the National Assembly and Senate by 13th January, 2023.
HON. MUSHORIWA: Madam Speaker, I do not have a challenge in terms of having the Ad hoc Committee set. I think as previously stated by Hon. Biti. We need the terms of reference to be clear. To simply say an analysis, I do not think it is actually proper. Let us have the proper terms of reference to say what is it this ad hoc committee is going to do, so that when the ad hoc committee reports in this august House, we should be marking it on the terms of reference, but if you give them just simply ‘analysis’, it does not make sense. Let us have the proper terms of reference. Thank you.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Mushoriwa, I think it is quite clear. I think you know what analysis means. It means that you need – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- Order, order! I am saying yes, that is it. It is an analysis and that is the point of reference. Thank you.
HON. BITI: Madam Speaker!
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order Hon. Biti. I am still indulging Hon. Mushoriwa. Order! I am still communicating to Hon. Mushoriwa.
HON. MUSHORIWA: Madam Speaker, when you say ‘analysis’, the definition of analysis differs. I do not know your definition, my definition and the definition of all the Hon. Members here. What we are asking for Madam Speaker is very simple. I think it does not destroy anything. Let us just have proper terms of reference. You do not want to send a Committee to just do and then they do any other thing that they want to do. Let us have the proper terms of reference and the Constitution is clear. Delimitation is a product of the Constitution. Let us say this section - has it abided by this section and the like? That is what we need, not just a blanket statement to simply say an analysis. The term ‘analysis’ by its nature, you cannot define it and have a consensus on that definition.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Noted, I am sure I will get a response soon.
HON. MPARIWA: Thank you Madam Speaker. Let me also join others in complimenting you for the new season and every Member here. We thank the Lord for having sailed from 2022 to 2023.
Madam Speaker, I also agree that an ad hoc committee be set up, but my appeal is on the composition; if you may also consider the gender balance in terms of the Committee. If it is a member of 30, we also seek to have 50/50 as reflected in the SADC Protocol on Gender and the African Union, the Charter on Gender Balance. It is an appeal that women have got to be reflected in that particular Committee because we matter, we have constituencies and we have women who stand for communities. Thank you Madam Chair.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Thank you, that is noted.
HON. MARKHAM: Good Morning Hon. Speaker. Compliments of the new season. Madam Speaker, on the terms of reference, I think two issues must be clear. Hon. Mushoriwa pointed to issues that should be identified and two of the things in the terms of reference, the variance of 20% should be allocated and viewed carefully, particularly in constituencies where they have already maxed out at virtually 20% more than the average. The reason being there is a lot of rural to urban migration and this plan should be for the next 10 years. So that must be carefully looked at in the constituencies that are already at the maximum that they are not going to overrun.
The second issue Madam Speaker, for a term of reference…
HON. TOGAREPI: On a point of order Madam Speaker. I would like to say what the Hon. Member is saying is going into a report which we have not yet seen. I think if you can allow the tabling of the report.
HON. MARKHAM: Madam Speaker, I am prepared to give the floor provided they give us the terms of reference now. Thank you.
HON. DR. MASHAKADA: Thank you Madam Speaker. My point of contribution is that in the event that the Delimitation Report is tabled as it is going to be those Members who may be found to have been affected or constituencies that may be found to have been affected, may not be part of the ad hoc committee because that would be a conflictual position. They will have a conflict of interest. Thank you.
HON. CHIBAYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. As you are aware that when ZEC was doing delimitation they used the voters’ roll, so as Members of Parliament…
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order. You are out of order. You are going to comment on that when you are reporting and you are going to be debating. Thank you, you can sit down.
HON. TOGAREPI: Madam Speaker, the Committee’s terms of reference will include whether the report satisfies all the requirements of the Constitution as defined in section 161. So it is everything.
Motion put and agreed to.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE ACTING SPEAKER
APPOINTMENT OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE ZEC PRELIMINARY DELIMITATION 2022 REPORT
THE ACTING SPEAKER: In anticipation of the motion by Hon. Togarepi, the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders nominated the following Members to serve on the ad hoc committee on the analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 preliminary report on the delimitation exercise:
Hon. C. Madiwa, Hon. C. Mpame, Hon. K. Musani, Hon. Sen. T. V. Muzenda, Hon. Sen. D. Mwonzora, Hon. M. Ncube, Hon. A. Ndebele, Hon. D. Nduna, Hon. Sen. D. P. Parirenyatwa, Hon. Sen. Chief Siansali, Hon. P. D. Sibanda, Hon. D. Tekeshe and Hon. P. Togarepi.
Hon. Togarepi will be the Chairperson - the terms of reference of the Committee have already been mentioned.
HON. L. SIBANDA: Compliments of the new season Madam Speaker and all Members of Parliament. Madam Speaker, the composition of the ad hoc committee is not okay because there are only two women in that ad hoc committee. Please can gender be considered? I thank you.
HON. MARKHAM: Madam Speaker, on a point of clarity. My point of clarity is that women are actually the majority in the country. Women are 51% of the population and there are two on that Committee. That is unacceptable.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order Hon. Sibanda. You said I am ignoring people from virtual, my apologies I will recognise you.
HON. MUTSEYAMI: Thank you Madam Speaker compliments of the new season to you and the whole House. Madam Speaker, I think it is important to note that the debate which will come up as a result of the Ad Hoc Committee which will feed back to the House, most of our Hon. Members will be on virtual and there is a serious challenge as we speak today with regard to network versus issues of electricity. This Delimitation Report is a very critical issue which affects all Members of Parliament, inclusive of people they present. The issue of network is a challenge. I call upon the House, with the involvement of the Administration of Parliament, to address this critical issue of accommodation for Members just for the purpose of debating this Delimitation Report so that everyone will have a chance to air their voices to the constituencies that they represent. Further to that Madam Speaker, with regard to this Delimitation Report, I do not know how practical it is as we speak today for Hon. Members to have physical access to this report whilst the Ad Hoc Committee which will be dealing with this, a Member will be dealing with the report at his own pace. When the debate comes in with the feedback from the Ad Hoc Committee versus what Hon. Members would have gone through, that will merge to bring up something. So my prayer is for the House, through the Administration for Members to have access to this Delimitation Report whilst our esteemed Ad Hoc Committee will be working on it and I pray as well that this Delimitation Report is on electronic copy. The electronic Delimitation Report must be accessed by all members. This is my prayer to you Madam Speaker and I seek your response to that, I thank you.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Thank you very much in response to that, the facility that is there currently is for us to distribute it electronically and I think as Parliament, we have gone electronic a long time back and that is what is there. It is unfortunate we do not have hard copies - we only have electronic copies which have already been distributed. – [HON. MARKHAM: And on the issue of virtual.] – On the issue of virtual, I think Parliament is attending to that...
An Hon. Member having stood up
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order Hon. Member, you cannot be up standing whilst I am giving a ruling. I am saying we are going to debate this on the 17th and 18th and Parliament is making a facility to make sure that is put in place. I thank you.
HON. MATEWU: Thank you Madam Speaker and compliments of the new season. Madam Speaker, whilst we get this Delimitation Report on electronic form, it is also important and imperative that the raw source document...
THE ACTING SPEAKER: You are not connected Hon. Member.
HON. MATEWU: Thank you Hon. Speaker. I was saying that the raw source document for the Delimitation Report is imperatively the voters’ roll; this is where the Delimitation report was derived at. For Members to have proper debate and analysis as you said, we need access to the electronic voter’s roll. Give us pure data and to see how exactly the report was derived at. There can be absolutely no debate without actually having the electronic voters’ roll send to all Members. I thank you.
HON. MARKHAM: On a point of clarity Madam Speaker.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: What is your point of clarity?
HON. MARKHAM: Madam Speaker, I have downloaded some of these maps, there are illegible. Can these maps be made available for us to pick up, at the Papers Office or at ZEC in detail so that we can see what is going on? From these maps we have here, we cannot see where our boundaries are. I thank you.
(v)THE TOFFA: I am making a follow up on what Hon. Mpariwa raised that the Committee has only two women (Network failure)
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Thank you Hon. Members, I am being advised here that in the Standing Rules and Orders, even Hon. Mpariwa, you raised that issue; this is a Committee that has been appointed by the Standing Rules and Orders and I am sure we will all understand and appreciate that these issues were raised and I think we are quite clear that this a Committee which was agreed upon in the Standing Rules and Orders. I thank you.
(V) HON. CHIKWINYA: Thank you Madam Speaker, I have just opened the material send to us by ZEC and I am not sure if everyone has managed to open. It is just one map nothing else, no figures, no information no details. I do not think that is a report Madam Speaker with all due respect. It is not a report, it is just a memo, they actually acknowledged that due to the voluminous nature of the report, we cannot send you and we have only sent you a link of this map. So how are we going to analyse and to make an informed decision from a map with no figures? How many people are in this constituency and how many people are in Kwekwe Central, how many people were shifted from this ward to another ward? How are we going to make that analytical analysis? It is just a map Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker are you with me?
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order, I am communicating with them I also need to have a copy so that I speak from an informed position. I will respond to you just now. I am getting a copy so that I see what has been sent so that we can all agree. I thank you – [AN HON. MEMBER: Hon. Chikwinya respect the Chair.] -
HON. MADZIMURE: Thank you Madam Speaker. The fact that you are going to respond, I wanted to say is it because ZEC has a challenge in producing a physical map that we will go through and see where the boundaries lie. You cannot analyse something that is produced in a manner that then confuses you as an individual.
Madam Speaker, we have been attending ZEC meetings without a physical map that tells you where the boundaries are; there is no analysis that we will be talking about. So without that, we cannot proceed Madam Speaker if the report does not include physical documents in terms of the maps; and also the census report must accompany that report because for you to delimit, put something into wards or constituency, you need wards to have boundaries, and also the census report that has the numbers; that is the only way we can proceed. So you cannot go on to conclude the delimitation without the physical boundaries and also the figures that must accompany the report.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Thank you. Hon. Members, what has been sent are reports, annexures and also maps to all Hon. Members emails. It is not just maps. Thank you.
HON. MARKHAM: Madam Speaker, in order to help the debate or the problem, can they confirm, in the reports that we are receiving that in each ward, the polling stations that are there and those that have been established are listed for each ward? So in my Ward A, there will be 20 or 30 polling stations - are they listed in these reports because that is the criteria and the basis of the delimitation because ZEC has moved everything around pertaining to polling stations; which is a good idea but we need to know which polling stations are in which ward in order to assess a delimitation?
The second problem is; I presume this is done on the basis of the Voters Roll that will be released.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Thank you. On what has been sent, I see national wards map; there is actually a wards map that is there and if ever anything is lacking, we are going to be debating this on 17th and 18th. Order, Order Hon. Markham.
What we need to do is to give recommendations and if there is anything lacking, we indulge and then that will be part of the recommendations that we forward so that we have a comprehensive report that is then tabled.
HON. MARKHAM: Thank you Madam, that is clear. However, my question was, are the polling stations in each ward listed? That is all I need to know. Thank you.
(v)HON. WATSON: My point of order is that one of the reports sent on email is a PDF document that will not open. So, of what value is it?
My other point is that we were denied when we had our final meeting with ZEC, the information that relates to polling station registered voter figures. We were given constituencies and wards, pre-delimitation and post delimitation but not actually polling stations. Voter registration is polling station based. It is my personal view that it is impossible to ascertain the veracity of the figures given and the report without those polling station figures. So, if they are not included in this report, which I cannot now see, we need these in order to establish veracity.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Watson, this is exactly what I am reiterating that we have an opportunity and a chance to give all the submissions. I am glad you are saying that you indulged ZEC at one point and communicated about that. So, I am sure as we go, these are some of the recommendations we will give so that at least we can then be able to have a comprehensive report. Thank you.
(v)HON. PHULU: Hon. Speaker, my point of order is about Members on virtual; there is no mechanism for Members on virtual to vote …
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Members on virtual - what?
(v)HON. PHULU: To vote; remember when we make those resolutions, you were saying what is the House saying, Aye or Nay? We have to go to a certain…
THE ACTING SPEAKER: I have already indulged you. The reason why I am even communicating with you now shows that I have already indulged you but of course…
(v)HON. PHULU: Madam Speaker, I am saying when we debate, we have to vote and our virtual systems do not have the mechanism…
THE ACTING SPEAKER: You are out of order Hon. Phulu. ((v)HON. PHULU: But Madam Speaker, how are we …) You are out of order, bye bye!
HON. GONESE: Thank you very much Madam Speaker Ma’am. I was listening to the Hon. Government Chief Whip when he outlined his motion and made reference to the issue of the timeframes which I am very cognisant of. We are in agreement with the establishment of an Ad hoc Committee but we must also be aware of the fact that we have an Ad hoc Committee which does not usurp the powers of this House.
When we look at the Constitution, the reference is to Parliament. When we look at the recommendations that are going to be made, the comments that are going to be made, are going to be made by Parliament and when we talk of Parliament, we are talking of the two Houses. I believe that because of the limited timeframes, it is important that we raise all the critical issues at this juncture so that we are in a position to debate meaningfully on the 17th and 18th January. We are not going to meet again before 13th January, which is next Friday. So, it is imperative that all the critical issues are raised at this point in time.
In your response to some of the Hon. Members who have already contributed, you did not make reference to the issue raised by Hon. Madzimure; that is that of the census. When we look at the provisions of the Constitution in Section 161, it makes reference to several factors that have to be taken into account by ZEC in presenting the preliminary report and one of those critical issues is the movement of the population and also the census. I believe that question has to be answered because we cannot meaningfully debate whether that preliminary report is in compliance with all the provisions of the Constitution without access to that detailed census report so that we can cross-check. It is not just about registered voters; that is a factor that is mentioned specifically, the population which is not the voter population but the population in the country; there has to be some co-relation between the population, voter registration and whatever delimitation and the final outcome of that delimitation. So I believe Madam Speaker, it is critical that we get a response as to when they have access to it.
When we look at the timeframes, it is very clear that if we get those documents say on 13th, we will not be in a position to debate meaningfully on 17th and 18th; and I believe that these are questions that must be answered now so that before we disburse, we are aware that all the issues that will enable us to comply with the provisions of the Constitution are addressed; that will be my point Madam Speaker and I believe that it will not be appropriate for us to adjourn without a response as to how and when we will get access to the census report as well.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Thank you, that is noted Hon. Gonese. I still insist that what we have here was the tabling of a report and the presentation of the Ad hoc Committee Constitution. I am now saying what we need to do as a House, is for us to submit all these concerns so that at least we now know that there is something lacking. If there is anything lacking, then at least we will be able to see how best we are able to get that. Those are some of the recommendations we will be able to give.
So as it stands, what has been given is what is available and anything that is lacking, that is part of the submissions that we have to give to say, we have not noted this, we have not noted that, we feel this is what needs to be done. In that way, those are some of the recommendations we are giving to say, we feel that there is something that is lacking; that means even as much as we are going to debate, if that is lacking, then there is nothing much to say. I think to that effect, I am sure we will be able to go forward.
HON. GONESE: I hear you Madam Speaker. What I was simply explaining is that when we present the report, we will not have a second bite of the cherry. The point being that if we are going to make substantive recommendations, they must be informed by all the issues which are referred to in Section 161.
Again, let us bear in mind that Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is required to publish a final report and they will not revert to us. That is the reason why I am saying all the documentation which we will require in order to make those appropriate recommendations must be availed to us in good time. After the 13th, we will not be able to meet again. We will only meet when we come to the debate. That is the point which I was making. Otherwise it will be pointless to say on the 18th, we have no access to the Census Report – it will have no meaning or benefit to anyone because we will not be able to say we believe this should not have been done this way because remember ZEC will then take into account our submissions in order to decide whether to adjust or amend the preliminary report before coming up with the final one.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Thank you. I continue saying the same statement that what has been availed is what is available now. As a team, we just need to work on that which is available and we give recommendations. That is one of the recommendations; like I said if you are saying that the Census Report is missing then that is part of the recommendations.
HON. MUSHORIWA: I rise in terms of Standing Order Numbers 72 and 73 in respect of point of privilege. My point of privilege relates to the passage of the PVO Bill [H.B. 10A, 2022]. I want to raise on Order Number 53 – you will recall that the…
THE ACTING SPEAKER: This is an extraordinary sitting which is specific to the Delimitation Report. If ever there are any issues that you want to raise, you will raise on a normal sitting day.
On the motion of HON. TOGAREPI seconded by HON. TEKESHE, the House adjourned at Five Minutes to Ten o’clock a.m. until 13th January 2023.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Friday, 6th January, 2023
The Senate met at Half Past Nine o’clock a.m.
PRAYERS
(THE ACTING PRESIDENT OF SENATE in the Chair)
TABLING OF THE PRELIMINARY DELIMITATION REPORT
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. President Sir. I rise to move that whereas Section 161 (1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe states that once every ten years on a date or within a period fixed by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission so as to fall as soon as possible after a population census, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must conduct a delimitation of electoral boundaries into which Zimbabwe is divided.
WHEREAS ZEC commenced the delimitation process in June 2022 and submitted its preliminary report to His Excellency, Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa on the 26th December 2022;
WHEREAS Section 161 (7) (c) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe states that the President must cause the preliminary report to be laid before Parliament within seven days for Parliament consideration and referral of any issues to His Excellency, Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa for ZEC’s consideration;
NOW, THEREFORE, I the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, do hereby lay the ZEC preliminary report before the Senate for consideration. I thank you.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
LEAVE TO MOVE FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF AN AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION 2022 PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE DELIMITATION EXERCISE
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: Mr. President Sir, I seek leave of the Senate to move that an Ad hoc Committee on the analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 preliminary report on the delimitation exercise be appointed in terms of Standing Order Number 24. This is in view of the limited time within which Parliament is expected to consider the report and present its findings and recommendations to His Excellency the President.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
APPOINTMENT OF AN AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION 2022 PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE DELIMITATION EXERCISE
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: Mr. President Sir, I move that an Ad hoc Committee on the analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 preliminary report on the delimitation exercise be appointed in terms of Standing Order Number 24.
HON. SEN. DR. MAVETERA: I second Mr. President Sir.
Motion put and agreed to.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE ACTING PRESIDENT OF SENATE
APPOINTMENT OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE ZEC PRELIMINARY DELIMITATION 2022 REPORT
THE ACTING PRESIDENT OF SENATE (HON. SEN. CHIEF CHARUMBIRA): In anticipation of the motion by Hon. Sen. Muzenda, the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders nominated the following Members to serve on the Ad hoc Committee on the analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission 2022 preliminary report on the delimitation exercise: Hon. C. Madiwa; Hon. C. Mpame; Hon. K. Musanhi; Hon. Sen. T. V. Muzenda; Hon. D. Mwonzora; Hon. M. Ncube; Hon. A. Ndebele; Hon. D. Nduna; Hon. Sen. Dr. D. P. Parirenyatwa; Hon. Sen. Chief Siansali; Hon. P. D. Sibanda; Hon. D. Tekeshe and Hon. P. Togarepi. Hon. Togarepi to be the Chairperson.
The terms of reference of the Committee will be as follows:
- a) to analytically consider the ZEC 2022 preliminary report on the delimitation exercise; and
- b) to report its findings and recommendations to the National Assembly and the Senate by 13th January 2023.
On the Motion of THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI), the Senate adjourned at Ten Minutes to Ten o’clock a.m. until Friday, 13th January, 2023.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday 20th December, 2022
PRAYERS
(THE HON. PRESIDENT OF SENATE in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE HON. PRESIDENT OF SENATE
BILLS RECEIVED FROM THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
THE HON. PRESIDENT OF SENATE: I have to inform the Senate that I have received the following Bills from the National Assembly: Finance (No. 2) Bill, [H. B. 13, 2022], Appropriation (2023) Bill [H. B. 14, 2022] and Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill [H. B. 10A, 2021].
SECOND READING
FINANCE (NO. 2) Bill [H. B. 13, 2022]
Second Order read: Second Reading: Finance (No. 2) Bill [H. B. 13.2022].
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Madam President and members of this august House, I have the honour to present the Second Reading for the Finance Bill which has already gone through the Lower House and I am now bringing it here to the Upper House. The Upper House should make the final decision on the Bill.
Madam President, this Bill seeks to support the raising of resources and to finance our 2023 national expenditure budget of ZWL4.4 trillion. This Bill seeks to target specific areas of focus that will help us in economic transformation and take the economy and the country towards Vision 2030 that of an upper middle income economy by that year. One of the areas that the Bill seeks to support is the issue of economic growth and stability. With such a growth rate of 3% next year, at least it is an improvement. So for you to go above 3.8, this budget is needed for that to be accelerated. It also seeks to make sure that there is proper coordination to the fiscal and monetary authorities as we seek to stabilise the economy and drive our growth forward.
Madam President, the Bill also seeks to support the promotion of value chains. This will lead to higher productivity, higher levels of beneficiation and job creation. All these contribute to the economic growth, especially in the critical areas of SMEs support, mining sector, manufacturing sector and agriculture sector. The Bill also seeks to support the building of confidence in our governance institutions which are necessary for defining the rules of games for commerce and other rules to societal or socio economic interaction.
Madam President, the Bill will also support the optimisation of value from our natural aspects, be they tourism assets or mining assets, maximising value in terms of productivity, job creation and growth but also maximising revenue for the public sector from those kinds of sectors. The Bill also seeks to promote the use of digital economy, the ICT sector and information dissemination and general infrastructure development which has been key to drive the economic performance.
In this regard Madam President, there are specific areas that perhaps one should highlight. One of the areas for example is the reduction of the IMTT tax for those transacting US dollars from 4% to around 2% in line with the Zim-dollar IMTT level. The Bill also seeks to enhance revenues and sources for the health sector by increasing levies on sugar drinks so that we can then capacitate our NCD Fund for non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension subsidising the costs of drugs for those afflicted by those NCDs.
The Bill also seeks to make sure that we do not give undue advantage over other sectors. For example, a mining sector, we say that any other sector could receive special economic zone status except for the mining sector where we feel that there are already enough incentives for that sector and therefore there is no need for those privileges to be extended to that sector and that should be reserved for other sectors.
Madam President, we have sought to further formalise the informal sector and they should fiscalise as well, they now have mobile devices even the mobile phones can allow them to fiscalise; hence we talk of virtual fiscalisation. We have also in this Bill submitted that companies ought to submit both their Zimbabwe dollar as well as US dollar tax return. It is clear as to how much tax they are paying and it will be easy for our authorities to assess the taxes payable. It will also be easy for the company as well to make their arguments when there is that clarity.
In this Bill, we have also improved upon the tax free thresholds for our hard working employees, both in the public and private sectors. We have increased the threshold for 0% income tax payment from the 0-900 000 to a limit of 1.1 million.
Finally, we have sought to support our hard working Members of Parliament (MPs), including Members of this august House as they work so hard and have put away monies in the pension fund. We have argued and proposed that those who have served at least two terms and are still serving a third or fourth term, when they hit the age of 65, they ought to be allowed to access their pension or else they will just continue contributing until the day God takes them away. All they would have done is contributing and benefited those who are younger than them and lost elections and those who kept on winning elections have not enjoyed that privilege – we seek to correct that and support our long serving MPs. I thank you Madam President.
*HON. SEN. KOMICHI: Thank you Madam President for giving me this opportunity to debate on this important Bill. I hope this Bill addresses the concerns of the people of Zimbabwe. Civil servants’ salaries are too little and not sufficient for one to embark on a project or even build a house. It is not enough even for food. Your budget should address this issue.
I hope your budget is also addressing unemployed youths who are now abusing drugs. Some of them do not even have identification particulars. You should at least promise them jobs or projects so that they are occupied.
You have tried to repair roads but you have stalled this project. There are a lot of potholes on our roads, especially this rainy season. We have no hope that our roads in the high density suburbs are going to be repaired.
Last year you could not find any drugs, not even Panadol at our major hospitals and you had to buy on your own. We hope this budget is now at 15% as per Abuja Declaration.
We also wish that the Minister arrests the black market. This makes our life very difficult. May the Minister try by all means to come up with measures to curb this challenge?
*HON. SEN. CHIMBUDZI: Thank you Madam President for allowing me to debate on this Bill that the Minister of Finance brought forward. This Bill has a lot of good ideas.
The New Dispensation which is being led by His Excellency, Cde E.D. Mnangagwa is working hard but because of sanctions, things are not working well. If we do not unite and speak against sanctions, we will not go anywhere, we will continue suffering because we are the ones who requested for sanctions.
SMEs are prevalent in our country and a large percentage of our population are engaged there. We are happy about that and hope that the Minister is going to do something about this. We have Mupedzanhamo Market there at Mbare and we hope it is going to be operational very soon so that our economy is revived.
In the mining sector, there is small scale sector where a lot of people are engaged. We used to have problems with artisanal miners – there were a lot of disputes and people were fighting over ownership of mining rights or claims to work on. We hope that in 2023, Government will rectify this. Miners should plant trees after digging holes at Mukaradzi in Mt. Darwin, Kitsiyatota in Bindura and Jumbo Mine in Mazowe. The Minister of Mines once visited some of these areas. We want these areas to be reclaimed in terms of the environment. The areas must be rectified so that youths can go and start earning their livelihood because they earn their livelihood from there. I would like to applaud you for supporting that sector which I believe is very key to the restoration of the economy of this country.
HON. SEN. KAMBIZI: I also want to point out a number of positives that I realised from this Bill but maybe before I do that, I also want to express my disappointment on our failure as Zimbabweans day in, day out, to speak against sanctions. In fact, I have heard that all other countries in Africa are speaking against sanctions every day but we Zimbabweans, some of us who went to call for those sanctions remain silent. Madam President, we are struggling to develop this country because of these sanctions that we called for as Zimbabweans. Therefore, I urge all Members, before we go anywhere, let us demonise these sanctions and demand their unconditional removal.
I would then go on to the positives that I noted in the budget. Firstly, the Minister talked about the reduction in IMTT tax from 4% to 2% which is a positive direction. Taxes yes, they bring revenue to the Government but as long as they come hard on our people, then we will not be going anywhere.
Issue number two which is very critical and important is the issue of the informal sector which has contributed much to the development of this country. The only way to go is to formalise them so that they operate well and are well supported.
Thirdly, I would want to commend the Minister for increasing the threshold for all our workers. At least if a large number or large chunk of the small packages that they get is untaxed, at least one could buy a loaf of bread.
Lastly, the support to the parliamentarians; I am very optimistic there. All along, there was no pension and some would die without even a single cent. The fact that the Minister factored in the point of pension goes a long way although I would like to urge the Minister to look at it much closer again because 65 years with the way we are living these days is a bit on the upper side; probably if it could come down the better.
+HON. SEN. DUBE: Thank you Madam President for giving me this opportunity to say a few words on the Bill brought by the Minister of Finance. I would like to thank the Hon. Minister for bringing this pertinent Bill. We also appreciate all measures that are being put in place. People here in Zimbabwe and outside the country are complaining that sanctions are hurting the country. The President is trying his level best for the country. We appreciate what you are doing and the way you distribute the funds to the various departments.
We wish if you can look at health again and education is also important. Children should go to school. We realise that you looked into the issue of education. We would want to thank His Excellency who realised that education is pertinent and has said from 2023, basic education would be free. We appreciate all the measures that are being put in place by the Second Republic. What we request Hon. Minister is; if we could have the funds being distributed timeously so that the departments are able to meet their priorities.
This Bill is important and I can see that the Second Republic is working well being guided by the Lord. We have gone for two years without anything happening because of the COVID pandemic. As a country, we face difficulties because of sanctions. There have been problems in the business sector, especially the SMEs as things were not moving well. We thank you for the budget because we have since realised that there is need for them to be catered for. They are important as they are the very people who are able to make things move in the country. Without these SMEs, things will be tough.
We thank the Minister for this Bill that he has brought. We thank you for the way you have done your things. We do have problems but our Minister is trying his best to bring out something. We pray that the Lord be with us so that these sanctions can be lifted and Zimbabwe will excel. We appreciate your budget and thank you Hon. Minister. Thank you for bringing the Bill at the right time. I thank you.
HON. SEN. MOHADI: Thank you Madam President for giving me this opportunity to just say a few words to this Bill which has been brought in by the Minister of Finance. First of all, allow me to thank the Minister for taking time preparing this budget. I do not think it was easy because we are just from COVID whereby most of the budget was diverted to COVID and as a result, most of the planned projects that were done...
An Hon. Member’s gadget having gone loud and disturbed the debate.
THE HON. PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Aah, Hon Member, order. ICT, can you please help. Hon. Sen. Mohadi, if I call for order, you take your seat. Please take your seat. If it is sorted Hon. Member, you can resume your debate.
HON. SEN. MOHADI: Thank you Madam President. I was saying that we went through a very difficult year because we had so many problems. However, I do appreciate the budget but my main concern is on the disbursements of funds. The plans for use of funds might be very good but when it comes to disbursement, you find that some of the preparations are not met. There is a lot of delay in that area.
Also looking at the SMEs, I think it is high time they graduate and look at the bigger picture in light of their projects, especially when looking at the women’s side. Most of the times they have been engaging in small projects but it is high time they should think big and they should be assisted in a big way. Madam President, looking at the budget on education in resettlement areas, there is need to re-plan if the plans were ever there. I am looking at the component of the ECD. Schools in these areas are far away from each other and the children who go to ECD are between 3 and 5 years and can hardly walk the 5kms.
Let me thank the President of this country Dr. E. D. Mnangagwa whose mantra is not to leave anyone or any place behind. Now, looking at the set up of the resettlement areas, we need to work harder and put more effort in those areas because those children need our help. As we talk about ECDs in the resettlement areas, the children go to school when they are between 6 and 7 years and they cannot even walk to those schools because of the distances that they are supposed to cover.
Then looking at our Beitbridge Border Post; let me thank the Minister for the border post and the road that leads to the border. If you go there today, you will think that you are not in Zimbabwe. You can even get lost because you may not know which road to take. The decorations that were done are so beautiful. However, even though the border post is so beautiful including those roads, some of us who stay there would really want the Ministry of Home Affairs to take into consideration the security that is there because the border has been completed and it is beautiful but those who are manning the border are putting in place a lot of road blocks. I do not know whether they are necessary or not. Even if they are necessary, there should be an improvement there because the whole system ends up delaying people who are crossing the border. The roadblocks are so close to each other, it is unbelievable. We have to look at reducing the number of those roadblocks, whether they are authentic or not. We have to look at the issue seriously so that we continue with the good things that we are doing. So far our border compared to that of South Africa is outstanding and so beautiful. People are commending the good work done. So let us not spoil the good work that we have achieved. With these few words, I thank you Madam President for giving me the opportunity to just add a few comments on this motion which I so support.
HON. SEN. C. NDLOVU: Thank you Madam President for the opportunity to also contribute to the Bill presented by the Hon. Minister. I have two or three issues that I would want to contribute on. Firstly, I want to touch on the SMEs. Our country is a highly informalised economy and it is important that we have a deliberate budget to address that. We no longer have the industry that we used to have and it is only the small man in the street that needs to be supported with the relevant sister ministries that can ensure that the programmes of SMEs are supported properly. There is incubation and monitoring of these SMEs so that they can grow into bigger companies. That can only happen if we have got a clear programme of action that we follow. I am an advocate for entrepreneurs and we can only do that if we support them as opposed to creating more good employees.
The second issue is the issue of expectation that we have raised in our communities with budget consultations that preceded this Bill that is being presented today by the Minister. The activities happening in communities especially the road construction, which I believe are a life line for some communities should be completed. Government should not spend money on programmes that they start and abandon midway especially on roads. It is when the road is about 80% complete that the work is abandoned and drivers go on to use the road and when the teams that are supposed to be carrying out the construction come back, they have to start from scratch. I am not sure whether at this stage the cost of reconstruction is passed on to Government or is met by the construction company. If the bill is borne by Government, I think we will be wasting money doing the same job twice. My appeal is let these programmes be completed on time Hon. Minister.
My last contribution Hon. Minister would be on devolution funds. My understanding at this stage Madam President is that we do not have an enabling Act that would make sure that the funds that are being distributed are used properly and they are monitored adequately by the relevant people. If we continue to waste resources in that manner where we are not able to monitor as to how those resources are used, I think it is improper for us to continue doing the same things. We need to bring the issue of devolution into finality so that even as the Minister budgets for these, we know that the funds are going to be in proper hands and will be properly accounted for. Minister, it is my appeal that before we get into the next budget, this should have been done so that as you distribute the funds, we know exactly where they are going. I thank you Madam President.
+HON. SEN. D. M. NDLOVU: Thank you Madam President for giving me this opportunity. I also appreciate the motion from the Minister of Finance. I have five issues that I would like to touch on. First and foremost, it is on health. This is an important issue. If there is no health, it means everything is useless because you are not able to use whatever resources that are in place because you are not healthy. We appreciate that for appreciating the Minister of Health. It is so painful to take a patient to the hospital hopeful that you are going to restore the patient’s health. On arrival there, you find it is worse. There is nothing because there are no resources. You get a prescription to buy medicine which is priced in USD - because you do not have money, you are then stressed. We are happy if enough allocation is given to the department of Health.
Secondly, I want to talk about education. Education is very pertinent because without it, you are just like an animal or a bird without wings. You cannot fly and ants and other insects bite you. If you are not educated, you may not be able to communicate properly. You just go there in Kenya as a tourist but because of the impediment of lack of education, there is nothing you are able to learn so that you can be at the same level with other countries. Education is very important. We are here in the august House through policies but if you do not understand anything, there is nothing you can change. You just come here to sit. Education is very important because it is the one that is able to help you in all other languages. If you are a bit educated it is better, we appreciate that. The Education sector should be assisted.
Thirdly, it is the issue on pension. I would like to support Hon. Sen. Kambizi. If the age limit could be reduced. We request for that because of the environment that we are living in. There are a lot of things that reduce our living standards. If you do not have enough medicines, when we have diseases one dies early and because of that we request that the pensioners’ age be reduced a bit. Again on education, it leads to the reduction of the age. If someone is not educated, he does not know anything and may decide to take drugs. That causes problems and reduces the life expectancy of that person. The person becomes a vagrant who sleeps everywhere as a result of lack of education. An educated person would differentiate what is good from what is bad. We are not saying if you are not educated you are not a human being but education enlightens you.
Fourthly, other Senators talked about sanctions. None here in Zimbabwe wants those sanctions. There is the mantra that, ‘a nation is built by its own people’, nyika inovakwa nevene vayo.’ Sanctions – it is just like a family set up with the mother and children while the father is away. If you anger each other and if you do not think properly, things will go wrong. People will realise that we have made mistakes - we should not behave like that. Here in Zimbabwe, no one wants sanctions even though they were requested. They cause corruption. Everyone has got problems and they want to help themselves. Someone approaches me to say please go to Parliament and guess, here is USD100 which cannot take me anywhere. I will take it and really because I would have left home without anything. I will think of buying maize and paying fees for the children. Corruption is there. Teachers at school are not getting enough because things are difficult economically. If we can all sing from the same hymn book, I think we will move forward.
Then on the threshold, we are happy with that one because the monies that we are receiving here in Zimbabwe is not much. If these monies are taxed, we remain with nothing. If you look at it, it is like you are taxed three quarters and you are left with one quarter. That makes life difficult and at the end of the month, one develops stress because the money is just little.
Lastly on the SMEs, those SMEs should be helped because they are the backbone of our industry in this country. We should not under rate it. Some big companies came from SMEs. If they can be helped, I think this country can move forward. If you look at the women, they shoulder a lot of responsibilities in this country. If a woman goes to find something, she brings back something but if a man manages to get US$5, he says I cannot take this money home, I will use it anyhow. Women should be helped with resources.
Our Committee once went out to find out about women who access loans. We encouraged them to go and look for those loans. After opening their accounts, they were looking forward that they would get something, but up to now, they are still crying. They opened those accounts but nothing happened. If money could be given to that department, all problems could be solved. There is no country which is 100% perfect. With those few words, I thank you.
HON. SEN. DR. MAVETERA: Thank you Madam President for giving me the opportunity to comment and to thank the Minister for bringing his well thought-out budget. I have a few areas which I want the Minister to probably explain or pay his attention to. Our budget is Zim dollar denominated and I do not know how the Minister expects or is proposing the ministries will manage that budget in view of inflation. We may operate it as a Zim dollar budget but in their books, do they say Ministry of Health - we have given you US$2 million and on the day of disbursement you will get an equivalent because if that is not what is happening, it means at the end of the day, Government ministries will not operate under such a budget. I want to know Hon. Minister because this budget will leave us with so many gaps and for a lack of a better word ‘worth discussing’ because it is an aspiration and not practical.
On the next issue that I will touch on, I am sure it has been raised by other Senators here or in the other House. The issue of early disbursements, I think if we just take a cursory look at the disbursement which we got, on average we can say 35% to 40% of the money allocated to ministries was disbursed during the past budget year. If you look at the proposals of the ministries and what they were allocated, - if a Ministry proposes say ZW$100 billion, Treasury would give ZW$20 billion. When he disburses 50% of that ZW$20 billion, effectively he is giving ZW$10 billion. There is need for early disbursements and the need to denominate it as US dollars so that ministries will not be short-changed.
On the same issue, on several occasions our Minister has said ZIMRA is doing very well in terms of revenue collection. For the past two years, ZIMRA almost surpassed its target in terms of revenue collection; where the problem now lies, because our budget is financed by ZIMRA collections, if ZIMRA is performing so excellently, how then do we get to the end of the year with ministries not getting the required money? Where is that money sitting? Where is the bottleneck? I hope the Minister will answer that question and clarify so that we understand the technicalities of that issue.
At the end of the year ministries will only have got 30% of their disbursement but we are told ZIMRA has collected enough money and when we go to our next budget, the money goes back to Government. I have never for these years seen a situation where the Minister says because ZIMRA has collected enough and from my elementary accounting knowledge, I would expect a balance brought forward which will act as a start. I have never seen it for the past years I have been in Parliament. Where is that money going to because it is already collected? I hope today the Minister will answer me and I will get to rest. Those are the challenges which I have with this budget. I feel very sad for the various officers who are working in various Government ministries to try to reconcile and work with this budget. It is a difficult budget to implement.
We appreciate what we are going through as a country in terms of our economic performance but if we look at most of our ministries, monies allocated were mainly for recurrent expenditure. Almost all the budgets of the Ministry, about 70 to 80%, go to recurrent expenditure which means in terms of capital development, the budget does not encourage growth.
I will go to the Ministry of Health in particular Madam President. The Ministry is very much underfunded, I think it is a common secret that our hospitals are underfunded and equipment antiquated. Now when you look at the budget, money which was allocated to the Ministry of Health and Child Care for capital expenditure cannot even support one single hospital.
Therefore, our budget is basically saying we are employing people to come and sit when they are not performing. It is like having 100 000 soldiers and you do not give them bullets and you are under attack - this is the sort of scenario we are having. Health is actually the determinate of all the other parameters of our economy.
If it is underfunded like in this case, I think we have got a serious problem. All our discussions concerning economic rejuvenation will actually be just an aspiration rather than a reality. So we want a practical budget because there is no justification for the Minister to employ 20 000 people when they are not working, do we really need that? I understand that they were given a moratorium for social ministries to continue recruiting. Why are they recruiting those people when they do not have tools of trade?
I want to urge the Minster; it may be too late now but when you come to your supplementary budget, make sure that supplementary budget is earmarked for capital development in Health, otherwise retrench all the staff. I come from that environment, there is nothing as frustrating for you to be in front of a patient and you have nothing to treat them with. It is actually torture.
Unfortunately, you are not providing psychological care for those health workers. I think we need to take that seriously. I know you are working with a small wallet but those are real issues and they need real attention rather than spending money on recurrent. If you retrench, we will understand you because you are employing them but you are not doing anything, you are just giving salaries.
The other issue is of our foreign debt. I think the Minister is doing a sterling job in trying to make sure that we honour our external debt. It is not a bad idea, if you borrow, you should learn to pay back – it is a good behaviour.
However, I have a problem Madam President, if I borrow from you Madam President and you want me to pay back but you go around and encourage other people not to lend me money that will enable me to generate more money so that I pay you back, it is not good. At the moment what we are facing as a country, the Paris Group of Financial Institutions are the ones we owe more money but for the past two decades, they have not given us money yet they want us to pay. Not only that, they go around the world saying do not pay Zimbabwe. You will hear that Zimbabwe has got its image tainted, it is not tainted by anyone but it is being tainted by those Paris Club Financial Institutions but the Minister is going around in trying to get money to pay them, what for?
I think the issues which we are facing as a nation such as shortage of drugs, children are not going to school yet we want to spend our hard earned dollar paying those debts. Let us put them on hold, probably we will never pay them, nyika haigone kutorwa, we will defend, and we buy guns from our friends for our defence. Definitely those are the issues which we need to articulate, this budget is actually burdening the Zimbabwean populace.
As a nation, we do not need to pay IMF, we do need to pay World Bank because since I was a little boy and now am old; 20 years they have not given us anything. Yes, if you borrow and you do not pay back, they do not have to go around telling everyone to say: do not give him and then you come demanding your money. Those are our enemies, if I were to declare, I will declare them enemies of the State. We do not need them.
Therefore, Hon. Minister, you are spending energy on the wrong things. That is my comment as a citizen and as someone who has suffered from those policies. We do not need to perpetuate those ones. Yes we have got an obligation to pay but the timing is wrong when we do not have drugs, when we are dying and have got hunger.
Madam President, I do not want to keep going on and on. I think those are the few areas which I wanted to highlight vis-a-vis the budget and the motion which has been brought forward by the Hon. Minister of Finance.
I hope the Hon. Minister will do justice and reconsider allocating enough resources to Health. Otherwise next time, we may not be here after we would have passed on because of lack of medical attention. This is not a threat but a reality. No matter how rich you are, if you are involved in an accident, your first port of call is Parirenyatwa or Mpilo casualty department before you are taken to the Avenues clinic or outside the country. At these hospitals, resources to use are not available, so let us assist each other. Hon. Minister, even if you do not give other ministries money, it is okay because all other things come when we are in good health. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. CHINAKE: Thank you Madam President. I have a few words that I want to talk to the Minister of Finance about concerning the budget that he presented in this House. Minister, when we debate the budget, the whole country is listening and when we go to our communities, people will ask us some questions which we will not be able to answer. We are going to go out for outreaches and we are going to be asked on how the budget is progressing.
There are ministries that are considered to be key in this country. This is not to say other ministries are not important but there are some ministries that affect everyone. One of those ministries is Agriculture. When we talk of agriculture, we are saying we are engaged in farming but here we do not have the farming inputs. We face challenges engaging in farming and we end up selling our livestock in order to get money to buy fertiliser. People are cultivating the land on their own because they cannot afford agro-chemicals that deal with the weeds.
Minister, we are requesting that you look into the budget and should be supportive of the farmers especially when it comes to farming of maize. The farmers are concerned about the pricing system of their produce. It is insufficient and they cannot embark on farming in the next season. Furthermore, it also takes time for them to access the little money that they get from the GMB. Firstly, the money is insufficient, secondly disbursement of funds is delayed. How can someone go back into farming?
Those who are formally employed look forward to getting their salaries end of the month. Those people in the rural areas are also looking forward to selling their grain and use that money to pay school fees or buy uniforms for their children. Once they do not get this money it affects them negatively. Secondly, Zimbabwe is known for being the former breadbasket of Africa and other countries were dependent on us but now we are no longer the breadbasket. What I said Minister is the reason why we are no longer the breadbasket of Africa.When we look at what is happening with the farmers, there may be 800, next year they will be 100 and that number will continue reducing because of these challenges.People should be happy with their farming and should be rewarded the relevant amount.
Minister, we need to look at the Ministry of Industry so that there is production. A country without production cannot develop and is not sustainable. If we are going to import from other countries and sell, we are saying that if we are working 24hours, we are giving them 24 hours to work and supply us. Due to challenges in power, our Ministry does not have production. We need to reduce on our importsforthat will develop our nation. As I speak Minister, what it means is that if we look at the trend in terms of our budgets, it started off in thousands, then it went on to billions and now we are having a budget in trillions because the ministries are not being supported. This is why our figures continue to increase in terms of zeros.
Let us ensure that what we are talking about here is done. Let us implement it. Even if it means people will suffer for some time, it is okay but I am sure if we adequately finance our agriculture and industry we will be able to develop. Zimbabwe has the best soils ; it has the best minerals. If we are to make use of our natural resources we will live a happy life in Zimbabwe. Minister, next year we want the budget to be reduced to billions because once we engage in production through industries and engage in productive farming, it means our currency will gain strength.
Our local currency will become stronger because of production. Our request is yes, the money is inadequate but there are certain things that can be done in order to revive the economy. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. CHIRONGOMA:Thank you Mr. President. We want to thank our Minister for the budget that he brought to this House. Hon. Minister, you have brought a good budget and we realise that you put a lot of effort into crafting this budget. We had a time where we faced challenges as a country in terms of inflation and our currency lost value but the Minister considered this and came up with measures to ensure that our currency does not lose its value. Currently, our nation is stable.
The statement brought by the Minister is commendable. We have issues that we want to mention. Minister, we are facing challenges in terms of sanctions. We have those who do not like us who thought that the country would come to a halt but you have worked hard. We have realised that the roads that we travel, there has been road rehabilitation and the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development has worked very hard. If you look at areas throughout the country, the road network is being rehabilitated. If you look at the Beitbridge-Harare Highway, it is being rehabilitated, so we want to thank the Minister. We know that for the Minister to be able to perform, the money was coming from the Ministry of Finance.
Hon. President, there is an issue that we have realised and we want to thank you for that issue. Our artisanal miners were facing challenges but you were able to finance them. For the artisanal miners, youths and women, we have noticed some growth as well as improvement in livelihoods. We implore you to continue looking into such issues. We will support you Hon. Minister in this Budget for our country to develop.
I also want to talk about the issue of education. The schools were experiencing challenges but you came up with measures. Currently, our children are coming from ECD and progressing. That is only possible through the Budget that you have put in place. You budgeted for primary and secondary education, higher and tertiary education. Our universities are making us proud. This is because of the money that you are allocating to them.
I also want to look at the issue of agriculture. Our farmers, as others, have already said are working very hard in Zimbabwe but the challenge that they face is on the pricing system. For us to pay them their money, I think you need to go back to the drawing board and ensure that they get some of their money in local currency and some should be given in foreign currency so that they enjoy farming. Because of the Pfumvudza Programme, our country is producing well and we are also receiving good rains. We implore you to continue looking at the issue of agriculture so that our people do not struggle.
When we looked at the issue of education, when we heard that teachers are now wanted in other countries, we were all worried. The Minister is trying all that he can to ensure that all people have a source of livelihood. In rural areas, people appreciate that. Hon. Minister, we implore you to continue allocating funds on time for the different ministries. The Ministry of Finance is there to disburse funds. Hon. Minister, we are happy with the work that you have done. With these few words Mr. President, I want to thank you for such leadership. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. TONGOGARA: Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to also add my voice to the Budget that has been brought by the Minister of Finance in this august House. I want to start by thanking the Hon. Minister for the good job that he is doing in this country because issues to do with finance are always a challenge, especially if the funds are not adequate. He is doing his best with his counterparts to ensure that with the little that we have, our country continues to progress and develop.
Mr. President, I want to thank the Minister on the issue of agriculture. Our agriculture is progressing because they have put in measures together with the Ministry of Agriculture. They have built dams and this has enhanced irrigation schemes. We are aware of the effects of climate change and irrigation schemes assist in this regard. The Pfumvudza Programme is also assisting in terms of farming. Under this scheme, holes are dug and water is retained in these holes and people are able to harvest.
My request to the Minister is that he should work together with the Minister of Housing in terms of building houses. We know there are a lot of measures that have been put in place in terms of building houses. However, they should also look into building houses for uniformed forces. If you are to look at the places where they reside, they are not dignified. My request is that his priorities should be on uniformed forces. As we are seated in this House, we say we are experiencing peace and forget that these are the people who maintain peace in the nation for us to enjoy the peace and tranquility that we enjoy today. Still on that issue, they should know that when there is peace and tranquility, this is the period to train our uniformed forces so that should there be any threat in terms of security, they are readily available to deal with the threat.
Mr. President, I also want to thank the Hon. Minister for the creation of the war veterans league. That brought together the different people who fought for the struggle and are now in the Government system. They have been recognised that they are the ones who fought the liberation struggle. I want to request the Hon. Minister that when we talk about war veterans, we are talking about these people who are making us enjoy the peace and tranquility that we have. They also gave birth to the country Zimbabwe. We are aware that war veterans were struggling in the past. They were not remembered as the liberation fighters. There were statements such as the war veterans should go and ensure that we are colonised again, then we will ensure that we liberate it ourselves. I want to thank the Hon. Minister because he has recognised that the war veterans are the ones who liberated this country for us to enjoy the rights that we have today.
Mr. President, there is the issue of State enterprises. My request to the Hon. Minister is that each and every year we are told that they are making losses and we always hear the Government bailing them out. Hon. Minister, my request is that these companies must be interrogated and investigated as to whether they are operating. It should be known that they are State companies and they should be able to make profits. If there is a loss, the Government should then take measures to ensure that Government funds are not abused through bailing them out. So measures should be taken that if there are losses, it has to be addressed for those companies to be viable. If they are to be assisted, they should obtain assistance for them to start making profit that should then find its way back to the fiscus.
I want to thank the Hon. Minister for addressing the issue of inflation which had become unbearable in this country and I want to thank him for the introduction of the gold coin - this will deal with the issue of rising inflation. We want the inflation rate to even decrease further. We urge him to continue working hard so that inflation reduces. Initially the exchange rate was 1:1 but now it is very high, so we expect the Hon. Minister to look into it so that it goes down to 1:1.
I want to thank the Hon. Minister for Higher Education for introducing Education 5.0. A lot is happening under that module in terms of addressing issues as well as resources. My request is that agriculture which is the backbone of the nation; there is need to address the issue of agrochemicals that are expensive. My request is that you engage Hon. Minister Prof. Murwira to ensure that you address the issue of agriculture as people are facing challenges in terms of dealing with the weeds as well as fertilisers that are needed for our crops to do well.
This will assist us because crops will grow well and this increase their yields, inputs must not be very expensive. Currently, maize seed is very expensive. I request that the seed houses be engaged to ensure that you address the issue of the high seed costs. It is produced here in Zimbabwe but people cannot afford it. This is derailing the agriculture sector.
In conclusion, the work that is done by the Hon. Minister is commendable and we are happy. Still on that issue, we must have foresight as to when we are going to use our own currency and not the US dollar. Other countries, when you visit with US dollars, they tell you to go and change and use their local currency. We are also looking forward to a day where we will also be able to use our local currency. The money will be deposited in banks and it will be controlled by the Reserve Bank not US dollar notes that are kept at home. We need measures to ensure that we return to our local currency. I want to thank you Hon. President for this opportunity you gave me to support the budget that was brought by the Hon. Minister. We want to applaud him for the work done especially in this difficult condition. I thank you.
(V)HON. SEN. B. MPOFU: Thank you Hon. President of the Senate and I thank the Hon. Minister of Finance for the Budget Statement. I would want to contribute on a few items. I think 3 of them, SMEs, REITs and I also wanted to highlight the issue of roads. On the first item, I would like to thank the Minister and I wanted to comment that I hope with the budget that we have approved this time around, come mid-year, the necessary distributions would have been made because if I look at the history of our Ninth Parliament, we made approvals to a number of budgets but the allocation and distribution has not been consistent with the approval and I hope this time it will not happen.
The other issue is, I am happy that that Minister of Finance has highlighted that they have allocated quite an amount of money to the SMEs and to ensure that they do well in the coming budget year. My concern is that we are pumping a lot of money in terms of loans and the banks that are assisting SMEs. I do not think that the SMEs need that. If you look at the ecosystem of banks or the business ecosystem in Africa now, most of the countries are doing very well with SMEs especially helping informal enterprises to become formal. South Africa, Botswana and Malawi have got what they call SEDA which means Small Enterprise Development Agency, which are not there to provide financial assistance. They are there to provide mainly incubation to SMEs, helps them from being informal to formal. If we are talking about the economy being driven by about the informal sector of more than 80%, in Zimbabwe we need SEDA, a development agency that will go and help SMEs in terms of incubation, growth, marketing rather than giving them money which is happening. I remember when we called the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise to talk about incubation; in Zimbabwe we incubated about 30 companies throughout the country. If you look at Botswana and South Africa, South African is incubating over a million using SEDA. I hope that the money the Minister is going to give to the Ministry, they are going to use that money to establish something like that and an agency to help incubate rather than to fund small enterprises.
The market was very excited at the launch of the REITs in Zimbabwe which is a strong property alternative asset class which will increase investor choice within Zimbabwe. Where REITs thrive in most developed countries and in South Africa in particular, they have not encountered property asset class restrictions. I am not sure why we have done that in Zimbabwe. In fact, there is a width and breath of options that has an incentive for investors to provide REITs as an alternative. They use diversification to promote higher retains for restrictions. I am not sure why we went for the restrictions because due to non-existence of asset class restrictions in South Africa, we have seen REITs capitalisation move from 340 billion in 2013 to 650 billion this year which is over 25% in terms of providing - [technical fault] - growth as well as returns to investors. I was therefore very disappointed that in this budget statement, the Minister of Finance restricted Zimbabwe rents to shopping malls, student accommodation and hotels. I believe that while capital attraction in Africa rents have been slow due to investor fatigue, restricting to Zimbabwean rents might result in a red step. I therefore encourage the Minister of Finance to consult players and experts in order to reunite enthusiasm that this asset class has bought to the market. It is my considered view that it will bring the much needed capital to the residential market and help mop up increase and continuously a deficit. I hope that the Minister of Finance really considers that issue of rents.
Finally, I would like to say there should be some effort to be made towards ensuring that the roads around the fore that service that tollgate are actually in good order. I look at the Beitbridge-Bulawayo Road, there are about three tollgates but the road between Nickleson and Beitbridge, I encourage the Minister to go and see that. I am disappointed. Apart from that, I am happy with the rest of the budget and thank you Mr. President for allowing me to make some contributions towards this budget. Thank you.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Thank you Mr. President for the opportunity to listen to the wonderful contributions to this budget debate which I could respond to their inputs, queries and questions. Let me start with the contribution from Hon. Sen. Komichi. First of all, he mentioned that more needed to be done to support the incomes of our civil servants, the employees but also those in the private sector and also our youth in terms of youth employment. On incomes, in this budget we proposed that the income bands be adjusted. We adjusted them upwards so that the threshold for taxation starts from incomes above ZW$1.1 million going upwards.
For Government employees specifically, you notice sometimes the analysts and some of the commentators tend to leave aside what Government pays in USD allowance which right now is USD200. They just focus on the ZW$ component only. You should take the two together. I think you will find that Government really tried its best under the circumstances to improve the salaries for civil servants. We have not missed our bonus payments since 2018, since I declared that bonuses will be paid as a 13th cheque every year this time of the year except that we have changed a little bit for those who are in the positions of director and above. They will only be paid upon performance assessments which will take effect from January/February next year for 2022 performance and that is when those bonuses will be honoured. The rest of the civil servants, these bonuses are being honoured.
On youth employment, we still have our programme, the Youth Employment Tax Incentive Programme is in place where we give tax rebates to companies that employ members of the youth. This is still in place and we have not withdrawn it. I think we will do so when we think it has stopped working. Also for those who seek to be active in entrepreneurial, we have the support in terms of access to funding from Empower Bank and we have increased the budget for Empower Bank but also the Women’s Bank for female youthful members as well, again there is an allocation for that.
We also have the National Venture Fund in place as well to support the youth but also, I must say something that we have done this year is to budget for the Youth Service Programme. We have set aside ZW$5.5 billion for the Youth Development and National Youth Service Programme.
I now turn to the comments from Hon. Sen. Komichi regarding roads, the state of roads and potholes that perhaps we would have a stop-start situation. Yes, in some of the areas that is correct, because we have had a bit of pours while we implement the value for money concept where we were worried that that this was contributing to instability; Government overpaying for contracts because contractors were overcharging Government and using the exchange rate that will be on the official exchange rate and therefore fuel the parallel market and reducing the purchasing power of domestic currency.
So we had to act and introduce this value for money process. I am pleased to say that the process is going well and right now payments are being made but there are some that still need to be cleared. Once a contractor has been compliant, we pay whatever is required. He also mentioned the issue of drug shortages in hospitals that we should target 15% Abuja target going forward. I agree with him that this has always been our target but because of the resource envelope, we tend not to get to the 15% using Government resources. If you add what development partners are also putting on the table, we find that we get closer to the 15% target.
When you put everything together, you find that the budget for the health sector is not too bad. I think where we need to work harder is on resource deployment, time the budget releases but also prioritisation by the Ministry of Health is also key. I am proposing to say come January 2023, we establish a Coordination Committee between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance which just targets budget utilisation. This Committee would sit every week and see where we are in terms of priority programmes - be it equipment, drug acquisition, physical infrastructure or whatever it is, we will prioritise and make sure the budgets are released. This kind of process is already in place when it comes to the Ministry of Agriculture and it has worked very well.
We have also started doing the same with the Ministry of Transport and now I am proposing that we do the same for the Ministry of Health and that is an internal Government process. It is not for approval by Parliament. I thought I should let you know as a strategy for dealing with the budget for this important Ministry. I now turn to comments by an Hon. Senator that I did not quite catch her name maybe because of the distance, I could not quite see properly; she eloquently expressed that we have this issue of sanctions and these sanctions are holding the economic growth back. We are still trying under these circumstances to come up with a budget and support key programmes that will support the country’s development.
The Hon. Sen. also mentioned the issue of SMES that they need support. I agree with her because they are looking at the infrastructure development which we have budgeted for, whether looking at access to finance for SMEs from SMEDCO, this again we have a budget for that. Some of these SMEs are led by women, so there is access to the Women’s Bank or indeed by youth, they also have access to the Empower Bank as well as the National Venture Fund but SMEs are critical and we should support their formalisation and this budget is trying to do that. Even in terms of payment of taxes, you supported me last year with the introduction of what we call location tax for SMEs, even if the SME is not registered for tax, but the landlord is registered for tax.
So the landlord is then designated as a tax collector. We appoint them as an agent and they collect a presumptive tax from the SME who is renting accommodation and shelter under their building provided the building has got an address, the owner is known and they are registered. I think we have made considerable success in that direction using that model. It is never easy to implement taxes for the informal sector but those are some of the schemes we have put in place.
On the issue of Mupedzanhamo, that it should be opened – I have listened and I will have conversation with the Minister responsible for SMEs and also the Minister of Health because some of the reasons being advanced have to do with COVID and so forth.
The Hon. Senator also eloquently explained the role of our small scale miners. Here as a Government, we have created a US$10 million special fund which by the way you created last year – you supported me in this regard. We set aside US$10 million from the SDRs; that programme is under implementation now and we have identified the first five goal centres that will support the small scale miners. Each goal centre costs about US$1 million. We decided that the first US$5 million will target the five goal centres. The second US$5 million should be used as resources for equipment credit programme run directly by the Minister of Mines where they buy equipment and lend that equipment to the SME gold miners who will then pay back. I hope that the difference will be felt in the not so distant future. The first goal centre was launched in Bubi area just after the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport on the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road. We have targeted areas such as Mazowe, Mashonaland Central; Makaha, Mashonaland East and also Penhalonga, Manicaland and some areas in the Midlands and so forth.
I now turn to Hon. Sen. Kambizi who again spoke eloquently about sanctions and their negative impact on the economy. He also welcomed the reduction of the IMTT tax for USD payments from 4 to 2%. He also spoke eloquently about the need to keep looking at the informal sector and see how it can always be better formalised. I agree with him there. He also welcomed the consideration on the tax thresholds to support our employees right across the economy. He also expressed support for the changes we are making to the pension scheme for our legislature. But he said, can we look at this threshold of 65 years and try to lower that. We will look into it – often these issues need a bit of time to analyse. The experts who are called actuaries by profession are the ones who help us in trying to see whether we have any actuarial challenges, should we lower the age to below 60 or 55; whatever makes sense. I will take it back and we analyse. May be I will be able, at supplementary budget stage or even this time next year 2024 budget; come back with another proposal with a lower threshold. We will study it though it takes a bit of time.
I will now turn to Hon Sen. Dube who basically expressed happiness with the efforts we are making in the budgetary process as a driver of economic development. You also highlighted the issue of supporting the health and education sector – that the budget should speak loudly on these. We tried our best and the education sector received the highest budget.
You spoke again eloquently about the need to release cash timeously and the negative impact of sanctions. On the issue of timely releases of cash, we are always cash constrained because we run what we call a quasi-cash budgeting system where we use whatever cash we receive from tax payers to advance Government programmes or we borrow internally and externally. We do not have access to easy credit lines or direct donor funding that comes into the budget because of sanctions as well as arrears. I am happy to share that when I look at the Budget expenditure so far, if you look at the figures just before I presented the budget, they look like they were on the lower side but ministries have accelerated the use of their budget to the point where some have run out of money. For example Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Defence and many more used their budgets properly and some ran out and Treasury is assisting them through unallocated reserves. That is a good situation - after all, we are midway through the last month of the year. Maybe it should be like that. There are some who have used their budgets quite efficiently. I agree that where we are having delays, we will ensure that we support timeously.
Hon. Sen. Mohadi, thank you for your comments, interventions and appreciation of the effort of preparing the budget. It is quite an effort. If you recall last year, we improved in budget rankings to number 3 in Africa. That is no mean achievement and it is all due to the effort or just the process itself, from the consultations that you as legislators do with our citizens and how we try to go back to citizens afterwards. All of that is measured and then we are ranked globally. It is quite an effort and we try our best. She also mentioned the issue of timely disbursements and I agree with you. It is quasi-budgeting system which is cash dependent. We really try our best and some ministries are performing better than others. I spoke about a Coordination Committee for example, which has worked well with the Ministry of Agriculture – all those things work but I cannot set up a Coordination Committee for every Ministry. We set up this Committee for maybe five key ones that also have large budgets and also whose impact is often felt very quickly by the citizens. That is what I will try to do but wherever I can, I will set up this kind of structure. This is at officials’ level where I do not have to be involved – even the PS does not have to be involved except the Finance Director who has a structured meeting which we monitor.
Turning to the eduction sector, again you were eloquent in explaining that in the resettlement areas, the schools are few and far between. Children at ECD level who are aged 3 to 5 years have to walk long distances to get to schools and you want this issue to be corrected. I agree with you that as we seek to locate these schools, we target these and leave no one behind.
On the border post, thank you for your positive comments on border posts. Beitbridge is certainly a quality facility and I urge all to go and see it. Thank you very much and this border post was built on the back of what we call a build-operate-transfer arrangement where we do a deal with the private sector. We give them a twenty-five year concession to find the money and build the facility, operate it and recover the loans from that. The company borrowed US$300 million. What we have done is we found US$300 million and poured all of that into a small town called Beitbridge. That is an amazing investment in a small place called Beitbridge which will cease to be small as we go forward.
You will see the growth coming through but you did bemoan the too many roadblocks that are making the place rather inefficient and you would want this to be dealt with. I will raise the issue with the Minister of Home Affairs but I am happy to report that we are also trying to look at a single window system to really deal with that congestion which we ourselves create through these multiple stoppages for travellers.
We are also working with the same company to again improve the Chirundu Border Post because we have to find a way to manage traffic end to end, whether it is originating from the DRC side, minerals heading to Durban and they are passing through Beitbridge or the other way round, all the way to Beitbridge, Zimbabwe to Katanga Province or wherever they are headed. We need to manage traffic end to end and so; the same company will assist us in making that Chirundu Border Post more efficient. We will move quickly also to deal with the Forbes Border where we know there is a complicated area.
What we are seeing now is that the number of cars passing through Forbes Border Post now exceeds that of Beitbridge. It is a thousand cars and trucks per day and Beitbridge is now 600. So Forbes Border Post has grown and that is where we have a bigger problem now and it needs to be dealt with. I hope this company will work with us and deal with it. We know in designing that you can expand that border post easily, it is very constricted. We have to come inland and develop almost like a dry port internally near the Chiadzwa area and also deal with the challenge at Christmas Pass because it is very difficult for trucks to come up or go down into Mutare because of the steepness of that section of road. We need to find a way to deal with that. There are certain designs that are being considered.
I now turn to questions and input from Hon. Sen. Ndlovu who again delved into the issue of SMEs that they need support and the budget must speak loudly to that kind of support, especially around incubation. I know exactly what she is talking about. This is something that I used to do for a living personally before I took this job which is running innovation and incubation facilities for SMEs. I know exactly what you are talking about and we will work hard to do exactly that and incubate these SMEs so that they grow formalised and they become medium if not large companies going forward.
It does require also re-engineering certain things and really creating what we call a full entrepreneurship ecosystem. These SMEs operators, some of them need training to upgrade their businesses with simple things like budgeting, marketing, development and strategy and proper business planning. They need those skills so that they can acquire those skills and on the back of those, they receive further funding and they are incubated with that kind of support. Once they are incubated with that kind of support, that process also involves setting up even a network of more experienced business people who can then mentor them if we are really serious about upgrading. That is what it takes so I understand what Senator Ndlovu is talking about.
On the budget consultations which have raised expectations around road construction; why the roads have slowed and not been completed. As I explained, this had to do with managing our procurement processes. Those roads are going to carry on and we will finish them. On devolution funds, there is mention of the Bill which needs to be expedited so that it can give us the legal framework to be able to release funding. For now, we are making use of the Finance Bill and the Appropriation Bill themselves to say these are also Bills of Parliament. So, they are giving us authority to disburse funds and so forth but I agree with you that this Devolution Bill needs to be finalised and we should be able to do it during 2023.
I now turn to Hon. Sen. Ndlovu who is one of the most eloquent people I have ever listened to in Ndebele. Those of you who speak the language, I think you will agree with me. She is very colourful. I was asking Hon. Chiduwa to say what do you call someone like that in Shona? He said munhu ane hunyanzvi pakutaura/umuntu oligabazi ekukhulumeni. Thank you for your linguistic prowess and you were very eloquent on a lot of areas; be it health, the issue of making sure we give adequate support to the sector and the issue of education which I agree with you. You were also happy with the pension proposals that were put across and also the need to really acknowledge that sanctions are hurting us but nevertheless, we have to keep going.
You also spoke on the issue of corruption and the tax reductions we have done, the changes in thresholds but also the IMTT tax reduction. Also, you spoke about the need to support SMEs which I have already tried to speak to, particularly women entrepreneurs. I do not know when you last checked about the default rates or let me call it repayment rates at the Women’s Bank. The Women’s Bank has a higher repayment than the other banks that are meant to support target groups. When we give women money, they pay back and that is something that we should applaud. I agree with you that the more resources we use to support entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, the better as we have no risk of losing money and we tried to do that in this budget.
Hon. Sen. Mavetera talked about denominating the budget in ZWD but that inflation will then overtake us, and causing these numbers to keep going up and we are already in trillions. In constructing this budget, we have already taken into account the inflationary expectations and that is why these numbers are large. You see inflation is both real but also technical when you report it. It is technical in the sense that if you have got a low base the previous year and inflation just moves up slightly, the impact is a very large figure because the base is low. If your base was high and you have got even a large increase, the impact will be less in terms of reported inflation because the base is higher so the base matters.
Right now, we are suffering from a base problem which is what has slowed down the movement of prices. You see that in the month-on-month inflation which is falling, the annual inflation is still high because of the base effect when you compare the index this year compared to the same time last year. Sorry for going back and forth but that is what is really going on. That is both a technical effect and real inflation effect but we have taken that into account Hon. Senator.
On timely disbursements as I said, it looks like they were slow at the beginning of the year but we accelerated and some have even finished their budgets but it is an issue that we continue to watch and I will set up these coordination committees for some key budget users, Ministries that are budget users. On revenue collection, ZIMRA exceeding targets but the cash is not flowing. As I said, we are dealing with this matter in terms of these coordinated meetings and also following up on utilisation in key ministries.
On rolling over budgets, this one Senator, we cannot do that because you all know the laws that you passed here. I just came in as Minister four years ago and assumed the use of those laws that do not allow us to do that. So, every year is a new year. What we do is what we call zero budgeting. If you do not consume all your resources, they go back to Treasury and the following year we start afresh. That is why even in the circulars where we ask the ministries to submit their bids and so forth, they start afresh. We do not say where were you last year as a Ministry? Let us just build from there. We start from zero and there are roll-overs that we do.
On the issue of the health sector and so forth, I am not so sure if it is really about the level of resource allocation. It is about the utilisation of the budget and I have a proposal for dealing with this in terms of the coordination committee but you talked specifically about the capital budget. I will look into that to see whether we should be allocating more towards the capital budget, which is equipment. It is a very valid point but there is something that as a doctor he should help us with. I am not expecting him to answer but I want to introduce him. Have you seen the number of new small private hospitals that are mushrooming all over Harare? Dzakawanda. Then you say it yourself, so private hospitals are growing but public hospitals are suffering, what is really going on? You then visit these private hospitals and they have good doctors, good equipment, medicine is available and of course it is expensive but the public hospital has all the challenges that the Senator mentioned. So are we not able to find a model where the private sector players and the public sector hospitals work together in public/private partnerships so that ordinary citizens can also access services from the private hospitals, maybe even under a subsidy programme where we say to a medical doctor, every month we want you to treat 10 ordinary citizens who cannot afford your services? For that, government will give you a subsidy. I am just thinking aloud because I am failing to reconcile these mushrooming private hospitals. Actually, if you look around you really wonder whether we have a real health crisis or what we have is access to health services by the vulnerable. But those who can afford are getting good services. I think we somehow need to find a bridge between those two. In a sense it is homework for us in government and not for the Hon. Senator. I was just being loud about my suggestions.
Then on the foreign debt, the Hon. Senator was eloquent that perhaps we should not be paying these token payments because we are getting nothing from these parastatals but we are getting something. Only that they do not wish to put those resources through central government but want to use other structures such as UNDP and so forth. The monies are coming but it is not at the same level as before, so it is a lot smaller but it is coming. Our view was that we cannot clear our debts if we do not even begin to show that we are good debtors. It is important to make these token payments and it is not strenuous on us as a government because we are able to make these small payments. That has made the mood and relationship between us as a country and the Paris Club better. It has really changed a lot of things and I feel it. I get invited to the Paris Club to discuss, speak and participate. It is as if we have cleared the debts from the way they receive us as a country. It is very interesting. I think we should continue to make these token payments. It is not strenuous and helps us with conversation regarding our arrears clearance and we have a strategy that we are currently implementing. We have asked the President of the African Development Bank to act as a champion and he is doing a good job. We also asked the former President of Mozambique Joaquim Chissano, assisted by the former Prime Minister of Mozambique Madam Luisa Diogo to help us with the whole process of managing our arrears. We had the first meeting on 1st December at the HICC and we will have our second meeting on the 27th January, 2023.
I now turn to Hon. Senator Chinake who talked about support for agriculture and to make sure we have the right prices and also to ensure we pay on time. I agree with him that we need the right prices but I think that also as government, we are making sure we are sensitive to where the market is in the first place and make sure we offer prices that are as close to the market prices as possible. We do not want a situation where maize from GMB is more expensive than imported maize. As a result, companies will then prefer to import than buy from GMB and that causes confusion and disequilibrium in the market. We are making sure the prices are as close to the market prices as possible and that is the right thing to do and certainly we will ensure we endeavour to make payments on time.
We are doing well in agriculture. In the last winter season, our wheat output was the highest in a very long time, probably since 1960 when we are talking about a tonnage of over 350 000 metric tons of wheat, which is really impressive in an era where every other country in the world has trouble finding wheat because of the global tensions. We would want to continue with this kind of record, going forward. We need to support industry. I agree and we have made an allocation to IDC which has moved down in the last couple of years. We are pleased with this and their budget utilization as a Ministry by the way has gone up to more than 80% and it is going in the right direction.
I now turn to Hon. Sen. Chirongoma who has expressed happiness with the budget and the policies we have implemented which have brought stability on the macro-economic front. We also acknowledge the negative role of sanctions, the road construction being positive; we will continue to accelerate there and then, the need to continuously support the education sector and agriculture again through this budget. We have tried hard to support those two critical sectors.
Then Sen. Tongogara expressed happiness in the agricultural sector, particularly around dam construction. If you look at it now, basically every province has a major dam that has been constructed. We have left no province behind. Some of them have a lot more dams and we want to complete the Gwayi-Shangani dDam. Chivhu Dam is virtually done and still to be completed is a small spillway which will cost about US$3 million, we will clear that and then it will be commissioned. By the way, that Chivhu Dam has got the most advanced water treatment plant for any dam in the country. It has all computer controls, mixes its own chemicals, does all manner of things with no human interaction. It is really advanced in terms of technology. There is a dam that we have set aside for the private sector to assist us with, which is the Runde-Tende Dam. We were trying to raise funding, working with some private sector players from outside because we believe that dam could support South Africa in terms of water access, especially the Limpopo Province which is drier. So, we believe that by being able to get into those commercial arrangements that will allow us to access funding working with the private sector to develop the Runde-Tende Dam. Tuli-Manyange Dam is also underway and we will push it forward. For the other remaining dams, we need to accelerate the irrigation development. That is very critical getting that water onto the land, Tokwe-Mukosi, Muchekeranwa and Chivhu. For some of them we have made progress. Chivhu already has an irrigated area which involves ownership by the community. In fact, I think the best model is in Lupane, with the Bubi-Lupane Dam where the community has shareholding in the irrigation scheme. They also provide labour and they get paid salaries every month. It is incredible how that has transformed that part of the country. We now have wheat growing out of sand. We never thought wheat could grow in that type of sand and high temperatures such as in the Lupane area.
On the housing sector, Sen. Tongogara said that I should support the Ministry of Housing to enable them to provide houses to our uniformed forces. I agree with her and we have tried hard to accelerate housing development in areas like Dzivarasekwa but also in certain barracks where houses are really dilapidated such as William Ndangana Barracks in Manicaland and also the Amaganyana Barracks in Plumtree. I am highlighting those two because they are really in a bad state and we are going to accelerate the housing development.
Turning to war veterans, Hon. Sen. Tongogara mentioned that our commitment to war veterans’ budget is a statutory issue. It is a constitutional issue. That budget/action is non-negotiable. We always support war veterans’ salaries and allowances and other support areas. We are determined to do that. Note that in the Budget, we have set aside ZWL41.4 billion for the allowances and then just over ZWL2 billion for those who were injured during the war. That is a statutory issue. I can assure you continued support. They need to support State owned enterprises so that they contribute fully to the growth of the economy. You also expressed happiness to the gold coins and now we have issued the smaller denominations so that citizens have more access to this product. I really agree with you in getting Ministry of Higher Education supporting them to develop technologies for chemicals and fertilizers to support the agricultural sector. That Ministry has already requested for support in projects in the Mwenezi area where there is a large coal deposit. They believe that researchers could come up with the technology for turning that coal to develop fertilizer. We believe them, they are good researchers and we are going to support the Ministry and follow up on your proposal.
On that one day we should just use the Zimbabwe dollar and not USD, I agree with you. One day this will happen. We are only going through a transition. I did not quite hear all of Sen. Mpofu’s contributions but I was able to pick up the contribution around SMEs that we need to support SMEs which I agree with. He also mentioned something about the property sector where this House supported me when first of all we declared that Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), are investment instruments that are meant to support investments in the property sector. The company called Tigere which has developed the Madokero Mall which was commissioned by the President on Friday last week; have also developed the Highlands Mall along Enterprise Road. That company is the first company to issue REITS and those REITS are going to transform the property sector and drive some of the urban development that you see. That is really positive and I heard that he wanted us to do more and even promote the development of property funds and I agree with him.
Mr. President, I would like to stop here with responses. We have covered quite a bit and I now therefore move that the Bill be now read a second time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read a second time.
Committee Stage: With leave, forthwith.
COMMITTEE STAGE
FINANCE (NO. 2) BILL [H. B. 13, 2022]
House in Committee.
Clauses 1 to 23 put and agreed to.
House resumed
Bill reported without amendments.
Third Reading: With Leave, forthwith.
THIRD READING
FINANCE (NO. 2) BILL [H. B. 13, 2022]
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON PROF. NCUBE): I move that the Bill be now read the third time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the third time.
SECOND READING
APPROPRIATION (2023) BILL [H. B. 14, 2022]
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): The Appropriation Bill seeks to support the budget of $4.4 trillion that I presented on the 24th of November, 2022 with Vote Appropriations of $3.7 trillion, and the Constitutional and Treasury Appropriation which includes pensions, inter-governmental transfers of $781.3 billion.
Section 3 of the Appropriation 2022 Bill, charges the Constitutional Revenue Fund with a sum of $3. 6 trillion which relates to the 2023 Vote Appropriations. Section 4 of the Appropriation 2022 Bill charges retained funds with a sum of $46, 6 billion which relates to the 2023 Vote Appropriations.
Mr. President, the purpose of this Bill is to give effect to the 2023 estimates of expenditure that were presented to the National Assembly. I seek approval for the National Budget of $3. 7 trillion to cater for provisions and reforms towards the achievement of 2030.
Mr. President, in line with the NDS1, the 2023 National Budget priorities areas such as economic growth, stability and strong collaboration between fiscal and monetary policy authorities, it seeks to buttress the current fiscal and monetary policies that are anchored on maintaining and sustaining the stability that we are currently experiencing.
It seeks to support the productive value chains that will also promote the growth of SME’s and other critical sections of our economy. It also seeks to support the effectiveness of our institutions of governance and strengthening and build these institutions such as the Anti-Corruption Commission, or indeed the Office of the Auditor General.
The budget also seeks to support the image building efforts, re-engagement and engagement by supporting the Ministry of Information and Publicity and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs to carry out those mandates.
The budget also seeks to optimise value for natural resources in order to benefit from value addition opportunities arising from the abundance of our natural resources and recovery of strategic minerals like lithium which presents opportunities to the economic transformation and inclusive growth.
The Bill also seeks to support infrastructure development, ICT sector development and the whole digital economy. Finally, the Bill seeks to promote empowerment programmes for the youth, women and also to support social safety nets for vulnerable citizens of our society.
Mr. President, Section 6. 1 of the Bill empowers the Minister of Finance and Economic Development to transfer funds already approved by Parliament between Votes in respect of a function or responsibility transferred between ministries and departments during the course of the fiscal year.
Section 6.2 of the Bill allows discretion of the Minister of Finance and Economic Development to transfer funds from the Unallocated Reserve which appears on the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Vote to any other Vote as and when the need arises in order to meet inescapable expenditures.
In addition and if necessary, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development can virement the amounts so transferred by taking back some surplus for re-allocation to other ministries of need in order to again to accelerate the implementation of Government programmes.
I am therefore presenting to this august House, the Estimates of Expenditure for 2023 and the accompanying Appropriation (2023) Bill for consideration and approval by Hon. Members. Mr. President, I move that the Bill be read a second time.
HON. SEN. MUZENDA: Thank you Mr. President. I have here the Appropriation Bill 2023 and some figures are in red, for example for the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. May I please be enlightened on what that means? I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): I thank Hon. Tsitsi Muzenda for her query regarding the figures that are in red. It was just meant to highlight those ministries where we adjusted the figures in the Lower House. It was just for emphasis, those red figures are in fact the new figures because for example in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs that she referred to, we increased the amounts that were allocated to the welfare of prisoners under that Prison Department. I thank you.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read a second time
Committee Stage: With leave, forthwith.
COMMITTEE STAGE
APPROPRIATION (2023) BILL [H.B. 14, 2022]
House in Committee.
Clauses 1 and 2 put and agreed to.
On Clause 3:
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Sorry Chair. Under Clause 3, under the section on power of Minister of Finance and Economic Development to authorise transfers between Votes, I just want to highlight that on the second paragraph, where it says in the case of monies appropriated by Section 3 in respect of Unallocated Reserve, Vote 5 - Vote 5 is the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Vote, amounting to $69,506,170 000. That figure, I was informed by the staff of Parliament that in the version of the Bill that you circulated, it was just a typing error but all of this has now been corrected. I just wanted to make sure…
An Officer of Parliament having approached the Minister of Finance.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Madam Chair, I withdraw what I have just said. They have corrected me again. I thank you.
Clause 3 put and agreed to.
Clauses 4 to 7 put and agreed to.
Schedule put and agreed to.
House resumed.
Bill reported without amendments.
Third Reading: With leave, forthwith.
THIRD READING
APPROPRIATION (2023) BILL [H. B. 14:2022]
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): I move that the Bill be read the third time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the third time.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE), the Senate adjourned at Half past Five o’clock p.m. until Tuesday, 31st January, 2023.