Source: ZANU-PF government undermines Parliament | The Financial Gazette June 29, 2017
IN July last year, Local Government and Public Works Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, railroaded the Local Government Amendment Bill through Parliament, courting the ire of opposition legislators who felt the amendments were meant to target opposition councillors in several of the country’s local authorities.
The Bill, which has since been passed into law, amended provisions of the Rural District Councils Act and the Urban Councils Act to give him sweeping powers to fire or suspend mayors or entire councils.
The minister has gone on a warpath since the Bill became law, firing the entire Chitungwiza council and threatening many others.
The passage of the law highlighted President Robert Mugabe’s government’s disdain for Parliament, whose views have often been ignored and which has only been viewed as useful in rubberstamping government programmes and legislative changes.
The government has failed to nurture Parliament into an organ that effectively and democratically administers its oversight role in the country.
Early this year, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa tried to use Parliament to railroad the first amendment to the 2013 Constitution, which sought to give the President power to unilaterally appoint the chief justice following the retirement of the now late Godfrey Chidyausiku.
The Vice President’s critics say the amendment is meant to serve his factional interests within the party, as it would have enabled Mnangagwa to influence the appointment of a favoured individual without going through the interview process as required by the Constitution.
Ignoring public concern over failure to align over 300 laws with the national charter, which came into force in 2013, government seems intent on acting only on laws that further its narrow goals.
ZANU-PF ministers have perennially shown lack of respect for national issues, preferring to honour party programmes that add little, if any, value to the economy.
This disrespect was quite glaring last Wednesday when government ministers absconded the National Assembly’s question and answer session to attend an extraordinary meeting of the ZANU-PF’s Politburo, where they spent hours deliberating on Kasukuwere’s fate in the party.
Kasukuwere, who skipped Parliament despite not taking part in last Wednesday’s politburo deliberations, stands accused of plotting against Mugabe.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda, a ZANU-PF politburo member who led the investigation into allegations against Kasukuwere, was predictably absent from Parliament.
Leader of government business in Parliament, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and his counterpart, Phelekezela Mphoko, who are required by the Constitution to attend every question and answer session, were also not in Parliament last Wednesday.
Higher and Tertiary Education Minister, Jonathan Moyo, attended the politburo meeting, where he put up a spirited defence of Kasukuwere.
Some ministers, such as Ignatius Chombo and his finance counterpart, Patrick Chinamasa, deployed proxies, who clearly struggled in the roles, to field questions on their behalf.
The status of the legislative agenda for this fourth session of the eighth Parliament of Zimbabwe reflects the executive’s disdain for the lawmaking process.
Officially opening the current session of Parliament, Mugabe said government would bring 36 Bills and four international agreements to Parliament for approval in terms of section 327 of the Constitution.
The Bills cut across all sectors of the economy, but with the session nearing its end, just three of them – namely the Deeds Registries Amendment Act, the Judicial Laws Amendment Act and the National Competitiveness Commission Act, have been signed into law.
The Deeds Registries Amendment Act seeks to principally restrict the powers of attorney only to those witnessed and signed by a legal practitioner, notary public or justice of the peace and the signature of such legal practitioner, notary public or justice of the peace.
The Judicial Laws Amendment (Ease of Settling Commercial and Other Disputes) Act seeks to amend the High Court Act (Chapter 7:06), the Magistrates Courts Act (Chapter7:10) and the Small Claims Courts Act (Chapter 7:12), with a view to speeding up and otherwise facilitating the settlement of certain suits or actions, especially those of a commercial nature.
The National Competitiveness Commission Act repealed and replaced the National Incomes and Pricing Act (Chapter 14:32) and provided for the establishment of the National Competitiveness Commission.
It also seeks to enable a competitive environment for Zimbabwean businesses through the development, coordination and implementation of key policies.
All three Bills were part of a raft of proposed laws meant to create a conducive investment climate by focusing on the ease of doing business in Zimbabwe.
And of the three international agreements, which were to be put before Parliament for approval before ratification by the government, only two have been approved.
The Paris Agreement on climate change was approved, albeit a year late.
The international loan agreement for the rehabilitation and dualisation of the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu highway was also approved.
But the Nagoya Protocol on Genetic Resources, which aims at promoting sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way among United Nations member States, is yet to be approved by Parliament.
Yet it has been a recurring item on the legislative agenda for the last three years.
The eighth Parliament actually inherited some Bills from previous Parliaments.
“Without accountability, these people will continue to do what they want because once we elect them into office, we leave everything to them,” said Parliamentary Monitoring Trust director, Sibanengi Ncube.
“There is no system that gets ministers to account to the public on whatever they are doing despite Constitutional provisions to that effect. It’s a pity that a legislative agenda is set and there is no delivery and there is comfort on the part of government because no one holds them to account,” Ncube said.
Executive director of the Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust, John Makamure, said individual legislators and civil society could rescue the situation by bringing in private members’ Bills as provided for by section 130 of the Constitution, which encourages them to “initiate, prepare consider or reject any legislation”.
“They can come up with draft Bills and bring them to line ministries and responsible Parliamentary committees,” he said.
Political scientist, Ibbo Mandaza, said the behaviour of Cabinet ministers clearly showed that there was no separation of power among the three arms of the State, namely the Executive, the judiciary and the legislature.
“It only shows that the Executive is disdainful of the legislature. This is a big issue because they only see power as residing in the executive and nowhere else,” Mandaza said.
University of Zimbabwe political science professor, Eldred Masunungure, weighed in, saying: “There is real danger that the whole Parliamentary process will lose credibility in the eyes of the public if President Mugabe does not address the issue of truancy by members of his Executive. They need to immediately deal with the legislative agenda and effectively carry out its representative and oversight functions.”
Ministers have ignored recent calls to attend the question time session.
Parliament last year had to petition Mugabe over the matter, who then instructed ministers with issues to present themselves to the august House, but the situation has not improved.
Strong parliamentary institutions help to ensure democracy, the rule of law and protection of human rights.
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