Public Interviews of Candidates for One Gender Commission Vacancy 

COMMISSIONS WATCH 9/2020

Source: Public Interviews of Candidates for One Gender Commission Vacancy – The Zimbabwean

ZIMBABWE GENDER COMMISSION

Public Interviews of Candidates for One Gender Commission Vacancy

PLEASE NOTE

This bulletin is a corrected and slightly expanded version
of Commissions Watch 8/2020 dated 29th June.

The corrections are that the public interviews will take place on
Friday 10th July, not Friday this week, and the bulletin number becomes 9/2020.

The additional material can be found at the end of this bulletin.

Parliament’s Committee on Standing Rules and Orders [CSRO] has published the self-explanatory notice set out below.  It notifies the holding of the public interviews to be conducted on Friday 10th July of candidates to fill one vacancy on the Zimbabwe Gender Commission.  The vacancy arose because a male Commissioner, a lawyer, had resigned.  The five candidates named in the notice below are those shortlisted by the CSRO from the candidates nominated by the public and/or the President [see Commissions Watch 4/2020 [link] for the CSRO’s invitation to members of the public to submit nominations of suitably qualified persons].

The interviews will run from 3.30 pm to 5.10 pm on Friday 10th July in the Senate Chamber at Parliament.  Each candidate will have 20 minutes, as indicated in the list of candidates in the CSRO Notice below.  Public attendance will necessarily be limited by the need to observe COVID-19 restrictions – but the public will be able to follow the proceedings from home or office on social media platforms ZOOM, Twitter, Facebook livestreaming etc [details in the notice below].

THE CSRO NOTICE

NAMES OF CANDIDATES SHORTLISTED FOR THE

ZIMBABWE GENDER COMMISSION (ZGC) INTERVIEWS

The Committee on Standing Rules and Orders (CSRO) is mandated, in terms of Sections 237 & 245 of the Constitution, to nominate candidates for appointment by His Excellency, the President, to serve on the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, as provided for in Chapter 13, Part 5 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. Parliament was advised of a vacant position in the Commission following the resignation of a male serving member, who was a lawyer by profession. In line with the aforesaid mandate, an advertisement was placed in both the print and electronic media in the last week of February 2020, requesting the public to nominate persons for possible appointment with a view to filling the said vacant post. The nomination process closed on the 27^th March, 2020. The interviews could however not be held earlier due to the lockdown occasioned by the COVID19 pandemic.

In terms of the Constitution, members of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission must be chosen for their integrity, knowledge and understanding of gender issues in the social, cultural, economic and political domains, and genders must be equally represented on the Commission.

On Wednesday, 17^th June, 2020, the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders (CSRO) also carried out an exhaustive analysis of the nominated candidates to decipher their suitability for consideration to serve on this Commission. The following five (5) out of the seventeen (17) nominated candidates were shortlisted for interviews to be held on the Friday, 10^th July, 2020 in the Senate Chamber, at Parliament Building, corner Third Street and Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, Harare as appended below:

All the above listed candidates are advised to be seated in the National Assembly Chamber, Parliament Building by 1430hrs. Candidates who are not in the Chamber by the commencement of interviews will be disqualified. They must be wearing facemasks and shall be expected to adhere to all COVID19 protocols as directed by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

Members of the public are advised that due to the COVID 19 restrictions only a limited number of Members of the public will be allowed into the gallery to witness these interviews. In this regard, Members of the public can follow the day’s proceedings from home through the following social media platforms: ZOOM, Twitter, Facebook Live streaming, etc. Links to these platforms can be obtained by visiting our website www.parliament.gov.zw. We sincerely apologise to our valued stakeholders for having to take this route as we thrive to prevent and minimize the spread of the corona virus.

The CSRO would like to thank all those who responded to our public nomination advert. In addition, Parliament also wants to thank all those who accepted the public nomination to serve on this Commission as we thrive to make our democracy work.

GOD BLESS ZIMBABWE.

__________________________________________

What Must Happen after the Interviews?

After the CSRO has conducted the interviews it must prepare a list of nominees for appointment, and then submit the list to the President [Constitution, section 237(1)(d) and (e)].

The list must contain at least TWO nominees – “at least two” because the Constitution would require at least twelve nominees if there were seven vacancies to be filled [Constitution, section 245(b)(i)].

The President must choose his four appointees from the list submitted.  His choice is restricted to the persons on the list; there is no provision allowing the President to request the CSRO to compile a fresh list.

Other Public Interviews on Friday 10th July
for Media Commission Vacancies

On Friday 10th July 2020 the CSRO will also be conducting public interviews of candidates to fill vacancies on the Zimbabwe Media Commission [eight vacancies], to be covered in a separate bulletin.  The Gender Commission interviews will take place after the Media Commission interviews have ended.

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.