http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Chengetai Zvauya, Senior Writer
Tuesday, 18 October
2011 08:23
HARARE - Members of Parliament, staff and journalists
attending a public
hearing on electoral reforms fled for dear life yesterday
as a Zanu PF mob
turned violent and disrupted proceedings in
Marondera.
This comes after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s tour
of the Mashonaland
East capital was almost derailed over the weekend by
bussed militia from the
former ruling party, in what signals an undying
inclination for violence by
Zanu PF.
“This is the usual barbarism
that has been associated with Zanu PF. It is
clear these hooligans were
acting on the instructions of their leaders,”
Douglas Mwonzora, chairman of
the portfolio committee on justice legal
affairs, constitutional and
parliamentary affairs said after the abandonment
of the
meeting.
“Zanu PF does not want these public hearings but we shall
continue holding
them. I am disappointed with the absence of the police
because the MPs were
exposed to political danger without their protection,”
said Mwonzora.
MPs running for dear life jumped into a waiting Parliament
bus to escape
marauding militants who had been angered by contributions by a
member of the
public suggesting tips for a free and fair
election.
The MPs included Zanu PF MP for Mudzi Eric Navaya, Misheck
Shoko (MDC)
Chitungwiza South, Dorothy Mangami (Zanu PF) Gokwe South, Pishai
Muchauraya
(MDC) Makoni South, Paul Mangwana (Zanu PF) Chivi Central and
Shepherd
Mushonga (MDC) Mazowe West.
The Bill seeks to ensure that
election results are announced speedily and to
establish new mechanisms to
prevent politically-motivated violence and
intimidation before and after
elections, as well as introduce greater
transparency in the counting and
collation of votes.
The ugly scenes and tense atmosphere at Marondera
Hall marked the start of
the portfolio committee’s outreach programme to
solicit public input on
proposed changes to electoral laws.
Trouble
started when youths aligned to Zanu PF started heckling a person who
had
identified himself as a representative of the Elections Victims
Association
after he spoke against violence.
A group of people, who identified
themselves as war veterans, led the
attacks together with youths wearing
Zanu PF regalia who tried to eject him
out of the hall.
He resisted
the moves resulting in pandemonium. The mob advanced towards the
high table
where MPs were seated.
MDC MP Innocent Gonese tried to appeal for calm
and allow the person to make
his contribution but his plea fell on deaf ears
as the rowdy youths
continued heckling.
Sensing danger, the MPs
sneaked through a backdoor without informing the
crowd that the meeting had
been abandoned.
Gonese, who was chairing the meeting, said the legislators
were left with no
option but to abandon the meeting and run for
life.
“We had no option but to stop the meeting because people were
clenching
their fists disrupting the meeting,” said Gonese.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
18
October 2011
The ZANU PF led Affirmative Action Group (AAG) is under new
leadership,
after divisions within the group led to a vote of no-confidence
in its
national executive.
The group is now being headed by Robert
Mugabe’s nephew Philip Chiyangwa.
Over the weekend, former AAG head Supa
Mandiwanzira resigned from his
position, along with four other senior
national executive members.
Mandiwanzira, Tafadzwa Musarara
(secretary-general), Elfas Mashaba
(treasurer-general), Farai Mutangamira
(legal advisor) and Mrs Masuku
(second vice-president) said the decision was
motivated by the desire “to
stay away from petty leadership
squabbles”.
In a statement, the five said they would not continue serving
at the highest
level of the institution “that certain individuals continue
to think it is a
personal political pet project”.
They said they
would continue pursuing their black economic empowerment
agenda from a
different platform and they would be making further
announcements in due
course.
In a letter to the AAG founding members, members from four
provinces had
said they were unhappy with the leadership of the national
executive. They
accused the executive of “not interacting with the
grassroots” membership.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Godfrey Mtimba
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
11:40
MASVINGO - Government blew $50 million on travel by President
Robert Mugabe,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, their deputies and cabinet
ministers last
month alone, according to finance minister Tendai
Biti.
Biti told people gathered for a budget consultative meeting in
Masvingo that
top government leaders had ignored his advice to cut on travel
as well as
the large number of entourages that accompany government
executives.
Residents who attended the meeting asked Biti to control
runaway travel
expenses, particularlythose involving Mugabe.
The
minister said he was powerless to stop the trips.
“I do not understand
why those who travel continue to go with huge
delegations. It’s actually
blatant, the size of delegations for outside
trips should be minimised but
these guys continue to do that,” he said.
“But I do not have the power to
stop them as the minister of finance as such
issues are approved by
Cabinet,” Biti said, adding that so costly were the
trips that Treasury paid
out $50 million on foreign travels alone in
September. The figure is
equivalent to the money needed to buy Aids drugs
for people living with
HIV/Aids for the next five years, according to health
officials.
Dr
Owen Mugurungi, the Director for HIV and TB in the Ministry of Health and
Child Welfare, told a special parliamentary committee last week that
Zimbabwe needs about $50 million in the next five years to take care of more
than 1,1 million people living with HIV/Aids. These include 100 000
children.
Infuriated Masvingo residents told Biti that uncontrolled
spending by top
government leaders showed government’s lack of
priorities.
Mugabe, Tsvangirai, their deputies, ministers and senior
government
officials have travelled extensively since the formation of the
coalition
government in February 2009.
The residents blamed the
rampant travel for creating a hole in already
depleted government
coffers.
One of the residents, Farai Chinobva told Biti that the
coalition government
should put a stop to Mugabe’s travel excesses because
he is abusing tax
payer’s money.
“We want to know why you continue to
allocate huge amounts of money to the
President and his ministers when the
country is reeling under a severe
economic crisis. We want you to cut the
expenses as they are not justified,”
Chinobva told Biti.
“We cannot
continue to watch these guys travel with big delegations getting
allowances
from government when Treasury is said to be broke. So we are
saying that
must be stopped,” said Chinobva.
“The big amounts of money used by these
guys on foreign trips could be used
to address hunger in drought-stricken
areas such as Chikombedzi. People
there are on the brink of losing life but
you hear that millions of dollars
were used to finance the President’s trip
accompanied by over 20 ministers
and other government officials plus
security details,” said Chinobva.
http://www.radiovop.com/
By Nkosana Dlamini, Harare, October 18, 2011 –
Zimbabwe’s troubled national
carrier Air Zimbabwe is operating at an
appalling loss of US3,5 million a
month while its debt has surged to nearly
US$138, the airline’s boss has
revealed.
“Our cost of operating
the business sits at about US$6 to US$7,5 million,”
Air Zimbabwe Chief
Executive Officer Innocent Mavhunga said Tuesday.
“Our income is between
US$2,5 and US$3,5 million. So simple mathematics
would tell us there is a
deficit averaging US$3,5 to US$5 million every
month."
Mavhunga was
presenting oral evidence before Parliament’s Portfolio
Committee on State
Enterprises and Parastatals chaired by Zvishavane-Runde
legislator Larry
Mavhima on the state of affairs at the airline.
Mavhunga said the
parastatal’s debt to date is sitting at US$137,7 million.
He attributed
this to government restrictions on charging in foreign
currency during the
Zim-Dollar era, shortage in foreign currency and “the
devastating effects of
sanctions” felt by the air line.
Of this debt, US$112,7 is owed to local
creditors.
In 2006, Mavhunga said, the airline’s debt was sitting at US$6
million but
ballooned over the last five years.
The Air Zimbabwe boss
also cited a recurrent strike by the company pilots,
high operational costs
for its aging aircrafts, diminishing passenger
confidence and continued
interference into its operations by government as
some of the factors
militating against the smooth operations of the company.
Mavhuma said the
impact brought by the recent prolonged strike on the
airline will take up to
a year to repair.
According to Mavhunga, Air Zimbabwe has seen a turnover
of 12 successive
CEOs in the past decade who have all failed to rescue the
company from its
worsening financial burden due to continued under
capitalisation.
Currently, the airline is operating eight aircrafts and
of these, three have
been grounded due to the fact that they are now beyond
service.
The airline is also trapped with a bloated workforce of over
1000 employees
and is appealing for government funding to pay retrenchment
packages to 400
employees most of whom have agreed to the retrenchment terms
proposed by
their employer.
Air Zimbabwe last paid its workers in
June this year while the continued
flight of passengers from the airline has
forced it to shrink its
destinations.
The airline is servicing three
routes regionally namely Harare-Johannesburg,
Harare-Lusaka,
Harare-Lubumbashi.
Internationally, Air Zimbabwe flies from Harare to
countries, Malaysia,
China and London while flying from Harare to Bulawayo
and Victoria Falls
locally.
The Air Zimbabwe boss appealed to
government to inherit the entire debt of
the airline or give the airline at
least US$40 million to restore viability
in the next six months.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
18
October 2011
Fears are rising for the wellbeing of a Zimbabwean activist,
set to be
deported from the UK this week.
Shamiso Kofi, also know as
Caroline Shamiso Tagarira, is an active and
recognisable member of the
London based protest group the Zimbabwe Vigil.
Last month, she was arrested
and detained by UK immigration officials who
tried to deport
her.
Vigil coordinator Rose Benton told SW Radio Africa that Shamiso was
put on a
Kenyan Airways flight out of London, but she put up such a fight
that the
pilot refused to take her. She was removed from the plane and has
since been
detained at the Yarls Wood detention centre.
“I am not
allowed to tell her full story, but she told me she is still in
pain from
her experiences. She said she went through hell and just feels
like dying.
She is also extremely frightened,” Benton explained.
Shamiso’s
deportation has now been moved to Thursday, and she is set to be
deported on
a Virgin Airways flight out of London. The Vigil has launched a
campaign
calling on the public to pressure Virgin not to allow this to
happen. A
petition has also been started asking the Home Office to halt her
removal,
on the grounds that she might not be safe back in Zimbabwe.
People are
also being urged to write to the UK’s Immigration Minister Damian
Green, the
Home Secretary Theresa May and the MP from the area where Shamiso
lives,
Stephen McPartland.
Benton meanwhile added that letters have been sent to
Virgin boss Richard
Branson, asking why he is allowing his airline to deport
people to a country
under control of a dictator that he wanted out of
power.
It was revealed recently in a leaked diplomatic cable from the US
Embassy
that Branson was involved in discussions aimed at trying to find a
way to
remove Robert Mugabe in 2007. According to the cable, released by the
WikiLeaks website, Branson had meetings with Jonathan Moyo, Gideon Gono and
top African statesmen about how to make this happen, and then move the
country forward.
The billionaire businessman has confirmed these
details. He told the UK’s
Independent newspaper the plan fell apart when he
and his colleagues started
questioning whether Moyo and his supporters were
the right people to partner
with to rebuild Zimbabwe.
The Vigil’s
Benton said that Branson therefore “must be aware that Zimbabwe
is not a
safe place to return nationals who have participated in activism
against the
human rights abuses in that country.”
You can sign the Vigil’s petition
and get details on other ways to campaign
for Shamiso by following this
link:
http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/vigil-news/campaign-news/339-campaign-to-stop-deportation-of-shamiso-kofi
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Lance Guma
18 October
2011
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara is costing tax payers
thousands of
dollars every week flying business class between Zimbabwe and
South Africa.
Mutambara lives in the posh Sandton suburb of Johannesburg
with his wife and
two kids but flies to Harare every Monday to do his job as
Deputy Prime
Minister. Every Friday evening the former student leader flies
back home to
South Africa.
SW Radio Africa has information that
Mutambara is dropped off at Harare
Airport every Friday night and takes
business class flights back to
Johannesburg. In South Africa members of the
Zimbabwean embassy have to come
and meet him at the airport. We are told
they are not too amused by this
weekly ritual.
In one incident last
year embassy staff arrived late and Mutambara allegedly
blew his top and
made such a fuss he was warned about his behaviour by
officials from the
South African Foreign Affairs Department. Mutambara was
told if he repeated
his behaviour he would be barred from entering South
Africa.
Not only
is Mutambara chewing up much needed taxpayer dollars with his
weekly
commutes, but SW Radio Africa has information he is second only to
Mugabe in
his expenditure on foreign trips. One trip to Davos, Switzerland
gobbled up
over US$67,000 for his entourage. Other trips to the United
States and the
United Kingdom have only added to his ballooning bill.
SW Radio Africa
put this information to Mutambara in order to get his side
of the story and
he told this reporter: “Washaya nyaya here? (Are you
desperate for
stories?). He said he had no time to spend on commenting on
‘useless
stories’ and that if we wanted comment on ‘developmental issues’ we
can
contact him any time. Before we could explain the importance of our
story he
ended the call.
In July Finance Minister Tendai Biti warned that
government had blown US$30
million in foreign travel between January and
June. Four months later that
figure is expected to have grown. Biti said the
amount was unjustifiably
high given sectors like health and education were
in desperate need of
money.
“I appeal to the leadership of this
country to strongly and boldly desist
from unnecessary travel or reduce
their entourage,” Biti said. To curb this
unnecessary expenditure Biti said
he would be drafting a Public Finances
Management Bill in order to try and
restrict official spending to manageable
levels.
In July SW Radio
Africa reported how Mugabe overshot his annual travel
budget by a massive
133 percent in just 6 months. He spent a total of
US$20.6 million of the
US$30 million cited by Biti. The 87 year old has been
to the Far East
several times seeking medical attention and other endless
summits across the
globe. He regularly travels with an entourage of more
than 70 people each
time he flies out.
Meantime in Zimbabwe Mutambara lives in ‘quite a small
house’ in Marlborough
which he bought when he was still outside politics and
working in the US. An
‘official’ house in Chisipite along Steppes Road is
reportedly being built
or renovated by the government for Mutambara. It’s
not clear if he
eventually moved into this house whether his weekly commutes
to South Africa
would end.
Mutambara remains Deputy Prime Minister
despite not leading any political
party and despite not winning a single
election. This year in January the
smaller faction of the MDC replaced him
at its congress, but instead of
stepping down as DPM to make way for the new
leader Welshman Ncube in the
coalition government, Mutambara has continued
to refuse to vacate the
position.
The move prompted an angry response
from the MDC led by Ncube, who later
claimed that they had ‘donated’
Mutambara to ZANU PF. The matter is now
before the courts, after a few
Mutambara loyalists challenged the congress
that elected Ncube as President.
The matter has continued to boil over,
especially during SADC mediated
inter-party talks, given Mutambara does not
represent any party.
http://www.radiovop.com
Roy Chikara, Masvingo,
October 17, 2011 - The Masvingo City Council is
failing to recover US 20
million owed by government departments of which
half of it belongs to the
Army and Police.
Sources in the city council which is led by the Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai Movement Democratic Change (MDC-T) told Radio VOP
that the
Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) had
not paid
for their water tariffs and other services rendered by council
despite
efforts by the city fathers to engage them.
The sources said
the money owed had accumulated since the inception of the
multi currency
system in the country in 2009 when the government of national
unity came
into being.
“The city council is owed a lot by the army and the police
and several other
government departments. They are refusing to pay their
water tariffs and
other services they get from us, using their military
muscles,” said an
insider who declined to be named.
He added that the
issue had been discussed at length in council meetings but
the council could
not take any resolution because they are afraid of the
soldiers.
It
is alleged the city council cannot resort to disconnecting the water at
the
army’s HQ4 brigade and 4:1 infantry battalion as it can be turned into a
security issue.
“You see if they try to take any action to the army
or the police the issue
is turned to an issue of national security threat.
So they do not have any
option to deal with this guys but this is impacting
negatively on the
operations of the institution,” he added.
Masvingo
City Mayor, Alderman Femias Chakabuda, confirmed the stand-off but
could not
shed light on the exact figure the army, police and the government
owed the
city council.
“We have been trying everything possible to get the money
paid. The city
council is owed a lot of money by the government departments
and the
military institutions but I am not sure about the exact amount you
can check
with the city treasurer," Mayor Chakabuda told Radio
VOP.
“You seen at times we do our budgets and include such debtors
assuming that
they will pay but they don’t so all our plans are affected
negatively. We
need money to deliver quality service for the residents and
these people.
Sometimes we this is affecting our residents who are innocent
as they pay
their dues in time,” he added.
Efforts to get a comment
from ZNA provincial spokesperson, Warrant Officer,
Kingston Chivave were
fruitless as his mobile was not reachable while his
counterpart, ZRP
provincial spokesperson, Inspector, Tinaye Matake refused
to comment and
referred all questions his boss in Harare, Police
spokesperson Assistant
Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena.
“I can’t comment to you call the PGHQ and
speak to Bvudzijena,” said Matake.
Efforts to get a comment form
Bvudzijena were not fruitful.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Tendai Kamhungira, Court Writer
Tuesday, 18
October 2011 09:26
HARARE - MDC youth assembly chairperson Solomon
Madzore, facing murder
charges, should remain in remand prison because he is
likely to flee if
freed on bail, the state has argued.
Prosecutor
Edmore Nyazamba yesterday filed papers opposing Madzore’s High
Court bail
application after the matter had previously been postponed on two
occasions.
He argues that Madzore is not a suitable candidate for
bail. The matter is
expected to proceed today before Justice Hlekani
Mwayera.
Madzore, who is represented by Gift Mutisi, is part of 28 people
arrested
for allegedly murdering a policeman, Petros Mutedza, in Glen View
in May.
He is part of nine suspects who are still in custody in
connection with the
murder after 19 others were granted bail by the High
Court.
The state alleges Mutedza had gone to Glen View 3 as part of a
team that was
assigned to disperse a group of alleged MDC
supporters.
The group allegedly fought running battles with the police,
before Mutedza
was struck with a brick.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
18 October
2011
MDC-T youth leader Solomon Madzore will have to wait until Thursday
to find
out if he will be set free from custody on murder
charges.
Madzore was arrested two weeks ago and is facing trumped-up
charges of
murdering police inspector Petros Mutedza in Glen View, back in
May. Police
arrested onlyMDCsupporters, claiming party activists killed the
cop at a
local pub, despite evidence many were not even at that location on
the day.
The urgent High Court bail application by Madzore was first
postponed from
last week Wednesday to Friday. On Friday it was postponed to
Monday after
the State prosecutor said he was not ready.
On Monday
Justice Hlekani Mwayera postponed the ruling to Tuesday, saying
she needed
time to review the state’s response. On Tuesday it was decided
that judgment
will be delivered on Thursday. Unless they find some other way
of continuing
to delay this.
The State is opposing bail claiming that Madzore has been
on the run for the
past five months and that he is a flight risk and has
contacts
outsideZimbabwe.
The youth leader is one of 28MDCmembers who
have been arrested since May on
charges of murdering Mutedzaa police officer
at Glen View 3 Shopping Centre.
The police officer was murdered by unknown
revellers at a night club.
http://www.voanews.com
17 October
2011
National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations Secretary
General
Godwin Phiri said such attacks on NGOs have long been a feature of
Zimbabwean politics
Tatenda Gumbo |
Washington
Zimbabwean Local Government Minister Ignatius
Chombo has accused civic
groups of working with the West to promote
instability and an agenda of
regime change.
Chombo, of the ZANU-PF
party of President Robert Mugabe, was speaking late
last week in Zaka
district, Masvingo province, at a ceremony handing over
food aid under the
government’s Zunde Ramambo ("Chief's Granary") program.
He said
non-governmental organizations should seek to complement government
efforts
rather than, as he charged, trying to destabilize it with the help
of
Western nations.
Chombo said all non-governmental organization programs
should be approved by
relevant government authorities or face
closure.
National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations Secretary
General
Godwin Phiri said such attacks on NGOs have long been a feature of
Zimbabwean politics.
He said it is time ministers avoided such
rhetoric as Zimbabwean
non-governmental organizations are making a critical
contribution to
national development.
ZANU-PF politicians have often
accused International and Zimbabwean
non-governmental organizations of
pursuing hidden agendas, especially in
electoral periods. Before the 2008
elections President Mugabe's government
of the time issued directives
barring most field activities of
non-governmental organizations.
http://www.voanews.com
17 October
2011
PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said teacher representatives have
demanded
that the government urgently address the situation, as some of
rehired
teachers have abandoned their classrooms
Gibbs Dube |
Washington
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe said Monday
that the country's
Public Service Commission owes more than two years of
salaries to more than
1,000 teachers who rejoined the public service in 2009
when the new unity
government declared an amnesty for those who had left the
profession for
various reasons.
PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said
teacher representatives have demanded
that the government urgently address
the situation, as some of rehired
teachers have abandoned their classrooms
and left the country because of
non-payment of salaries.
Zhou said
politics appeared to be a factor in the issue as many unpaid
teachers are
members of the former opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.
He
said the 8,000 teachers who responded to the amnesty were also victimized
because the Public Service Commission only gave them 12-month contracts, not
permanent posts.
VOA Studio 7 was unable to reach Education Minister
David Coltart or Public
Service Minister Lucia Mativenga immediately for
comment.
Zhou said Public Service Commission staff must be held
accountable.
"It is surprising that the government is victimizing these
professionals at
a time when it is looking for teachers in order to revive
the education
sector," he said.
Political analyst George Mkhwanazi
said he believes some Public Service
Commission staff with ties to ZANU-PF
are discriminating against the rehired
teachers.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
VOA 1 hour ago
The
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Authority has held the first of four public
hearings
to scrutinize applications for two commercial radio licenses. But
there are
concerns the licenses have already been awarded to allies of
President
Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, and that the hearings are a sham.
KissFM
was the first of four finalists for two commercial radio licenses to
present
their bid in a public hearing held in Harare. But CEO Musi Khumalo
was
unwilling to speak about the bid, or what the company hopes to achieve
if
their application is successful.
"Really I feel so bad. I am one of you,
but this is a bid under
consideration so it might not be appropriate for us
to speak. Not right
now," said Khumalo.
KissFM would be funded by
regional banking group BancABC, and bank CEO
Douglas Munatsi would be a
major KissFM shareholder.
Another applicant is Radio VOP (Voice of the
People), which currently
broadcasts two hour-long shows daily into Zimbabwe
on Radio Netherlands
Worldwide. The third applicant is ABC, widely believed
in Zimbabwe to be a
project of the Mugabe family. And the last is the
state-owned Zimbabwe
Papers group which publishes The Herald, a newspaper
aligned to President
Mugabe's ZANU-PF.
Some observers say the
Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) has already
decided to award the
two licenses to ABC and Zimbabwe Papers. They say this
would make a mockery
of a requirement in Zimbabwe's 2008 global political
agreement to open the
airwaves to independent operators. That agreement led
to the establishment
of Zimbabwe's unity government.
However, BAZ chairman Tafataona Mahoso
says the process is being conducted
in terms of the law and that the
decision is yet to be made.
"It is a public process and it is done
according to law. As soon as we
finish the adjudication, the adjudication
begins after the last hearing and
then we do the adjudication. This is one
of four I think shortlisted and
they are publicly known," said
Mahoso.
The hearing was disrupted several times by a ZANU-PF-aligned
group calling
themselves Wealth to the Youth. Spokesman Thomas Katewera
told VOA young
people should be the ones who get the licenses.
"Young
journalists should be the ones who actually get licenses to go into
this
sector as an empowerment move," said Katewera. "This is what is
bringing us
here. To lobby for our young journalists who are members of
youth, to enter
this, and licenses should be given to them. This is what we
are talking
about."
Some observers say it is unlikely the licenses will be issued
before next
year. Once that happens, it will break the monopoly of the
state-owned
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.
http://www.radiovop.com/
Harare, October 18, 2011
-Public enquiries for radio licence applicants
commenced in Harare on
Tuesday with Hot Media trading as KISS FM revealing
that when licenced it
will work with the state broadcaster, the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation
(ZBC) for its news productions.
Presenting its roadmap, the aspiring
radio broadcaster’s Chief Executive
Musi Khumalo, told the gathering that
her station when given the licence
will partner with Transmedia.
“Our
Radio station will be predominantly music and entertainment. Our
programming
format has a component of news and we are looking to partner
with the
national broadcaster for some of our news content...".
The public
responded angrily to Kiss Media’s plans to get news from ZBC
citing its bias
to ZANU (PF).
“We do not see the real change which you are going to bring
in the
broadcasting industry if you are going to take news from ZBC whose
credibility is questionable," asked one observer from the public gallery.
"ZBC’s news is unbalanced, inaccurate and biased towards one political party
and for you to get news from them is not going to do any good to Zimbabweans
who are in dire need of professional journalism.”
“We are not going
to use everything from ZBC but taping resources from
there. If you have
issues with ZBC there can be channelled to that
organisation, “she
responded.
Kiss FM also announced that it will be partnering with
Zimbabwe's signal
carrier, Transmedia, in reaching out to the
public.
Transmedia is struggling to service the one and only broadcaster
ZBC by
failing to reach all the corners of the country.
KISS FM
comprises banker Douglas Munatsi(board chair), Musi Khumalo (company
Chief
executive) Sharon Mugabe(non-Executive director) Oliver
Mtukudzi(Non-Executive Director),Joseph Zimuto(Non-Executive
Director),Phibion Gwatidzo(Non-Executive Director),Tony Ndoro
(Head-Programming),George Munetsi(Programs manager),Bertha Charuma(Senior
Announcer and Chris Masikati(technical consultant).
Two more public
hearings are expected this month out of the 14 who applied
for a radio
licence.
http://www.zimdiaspora.com/
Tuesday, 18 October 2011 10:58
Editor News
By Methuseli Moyo
ZAPU calls on the Government to put
in place comprehensive measures to
receive and reintegrate into society
Zimbabwean deportees from South Africa
and Botswana. We are concerned that
the three co-ruling parties do not have
any plan on the table to deal with
the situation.
The deportees return home to face hunger and unemployment,
and may be forced
to resort to illegal and dehumanizing means of survival
such as crime and
prostitution. Some may be forced to reenter South Africa
and Botswana
illegally, risking arrest and harm in the process. Zapu calls
on the
Inclusive Government to immediately deliberate on the problem and
come up
with a programme of detailing, following up and assisting the
deportees
reintegrate into society. This could be through government funded
self help
projects and land allocation in cities and districts for
settlement and
commercial use.
Zapu also calls on the NGO community
to also focus on the problem and come
up with intervention programmes and
projects to alleviate the predicament of
the returnees. Some of them left
the country long back and have no formal
qualifications, no savings, and in
some cases no families.
Zapu calls on the government to allocate land to
the returnees in their home
provinces for them to engage in income
generating projects such as
horticulture, poultry, piggery, among other
short term projects. If the
government does not take the initiative, there
could be problems soon in
some areas such as Matabeleland North and South
where most of the deportees
originate from. To compound the situation, most
productive land in the two
provinces has been allocated to people from
outside the region. This could
soon be a source of conflict. We therefore
call on the government to act
fast on the matter.
Zapu also calls on
the Registrar General’s office to take the initiative and
ensure that the
deportees are assisted to obtain identity documents such as
birth
certificates, identity cards and passports for them to lead a normal
life.
Some of them left Zimbabwe when they were young and never acquired
identity
particulars, while some may have lost parents during Gukurahundi.
No death
certificates were issued out for people killed or kidnapped during
Gukurahundi, making it difficult for their children to obtain birth
certificates.
Zapu calls on the RG’s office to come up with ways of
going round the
problem for the returnees to have a normal life.
The
writer is ZAPU Director Communication, Marketing and Publicity, ZAPU
Southern Region.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
18
October 2011
The MDC-T will run a massive campaign to encourage young
voters to register
for the next crucial elections, now expected in the last
quarter of 2012.
Promise Mkwananzi, the firebrand secretary-general of
the Youth Assembly,
told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that they’ve put in
place a versatile and
robust voter registration campaign targeting three
million new voters.
‘If you look at world events, starting with the
election of Barack Obama,
young voters have been on the forefront for
change. Only recently in Zambia
young voters played a role and got the
change they wanted, so I don’t see
why that cannot work in Zimbabwe,’
Mkwananzi said.
The MDC-T believes a large turnout of young voters, many
of whom are
unemployed, is likely to play a significant role in dislodging
Robert Mugabe
from power.
Though admitting that victory will not come
cheap, Mkwananzi said their
party had endeared itself to young voters and to
voters disillusioned by the
consistent failure of ZANU PF to provide jobs
and deliver better living
standards.
‘We know ZANU PF is all about
violence but the MDC will have in its
possession a much deadlier arsenal in
three million young voters. ZANU will
go into the next election guns
blazing, but young voters could still cause a
major upset.
‘We want
young people to be on the forefront for this drive for change. It
is
incumbent upon them to drive the process of change, they should author
their
own destiny by putting a government in place that will be able to
deliver on
issues and interests of young people,’ the secretary-general
said.
He
said the MDC-T had failed sometimes in the past to transform some of its
support base into votes. He said fear could have played a major part in
people failing to register. But they have set in motion a robust campaign to
ensure every MDC supporters registers to vote.
‘This is a watershed
election whereby the party itself is putting in place
mechanisms to protect
the vote of the people. This will not be an ordinary
vote; this will not be
a meaningless vote.
‘It is a vote that will change the course of history
in the Zimbabwe
politics for ever,’ Mkwananzi added.
Party leader
Morgan Tsvangirai is set to lock horns again with Mugabe in the
next
election, which analysts say is now likely to be held in the last
quarter of
2012.
The MDC-T leader on Sunday urged the 87 year-old Mugabe to step
down from
active politics, warning him he faces a poll drubbing should he
stand as a
ZANU PF candidate. Speaking at a party rally in Marondera on
Sunday,
Tsvangirai said Mugabe risked further denting his legacy if he
contested the
next presidential poll. ZANU PF has already announced that
Mugabe will be
their presidential candidate for the forthcoming
elections.
Tsvangirai also reiterated what analysts believe is the only
possible time
scale for elections, when he told journalists that an election
would likely
not be held until the second half 2012.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Taurai Mangudhla, Business Writer
Tuesday, 18
October 2011 10:28
HARARE - The Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines (Comz) has
called on government to
set a ceiling on interest rates and bank charges,
saying they are too high
and are stifling the sector’s growth.
The
mining body yesterday told a budget consultative meeting that the state
should put a lid on “exorbitant” bank levies to stimulate borrowing for
capital expenditure across the economy.
“I was talking to someone who
works for a bank and they told me that their
bank charges 22 percent for
loans. This is too high and when it becomes
extremely difficult for us to
source funds from these local banks.
“This simply means that for every $1
million the bank gets about $220 000
from interests alone,” said Comz
mineral economist David Matyanga, adding
that it was currently illogical for
the industry to acquire funds from local
banks at huge interest
rates.
Lovemore Pazvakavambwa, an economic consultant, said the Reserve
Bank of
Zimbabwe and the finance ministry should come up with cost
reflective
tariffs in place of the unjustified high interest rates and
levies.
“How then do banks justify their exorbitant rates considering
that Zimbabwe’s
inflation is less than five percent and other international
banks, like
those in London for instance, charge three or four percent above
the
inflation rate,” he said.
“It clearly demonstrates that something
is wrong, there is no
synchronisation between the fiscal and the monetary
authority,”
Pazvakavambwa added.
Comz is led by Mimosa managing
director Winston Chitando.
Banks have come under fire from consumers over
high bank charges with the
John Mushayavanhu-led Bankers Association of
Zimbabwe defending its members
saying the charges are comparable to the
regional standards, although they
differ slightly due to high cost of
utilities.
According to depositors, banks charge an average $3 per
transaction while an
interest as little as 3 percent can be earned
annually.
The Chamber of Mines says its members require between $6
billion and $8
billion to fully restore production over the next five to
eight years.
Zimbabwe has been unable to attract foreign direct
investment due to
policies like the Indeginisation Act which require all
foreign-owned firms
to cede a minimum 51 percent threshold to local blacks,
leaving mines with
no choice but to source the much needed capital resource
locally.
The mines body also expressed concern over the high tax charges
in the
country, saying that they were above regional standards.
Isaac
Kwesu, a Comz economist also said, government tax chewed a huge chunk
of
mines’ revenue leaving the shareholder with very little to
enjoy.
“Government tax and levies alone accounts for 15 percent of our
cost and the
mine owner gets less than 8 percent which is by far below
regional averages
of 22 percent and the international rates of between 15
and 20 percent,” he
said.
Statistics from Comz indicate that the
mining sector accounted for 65
percent of exports in 2010, up from 50
percent in 2009 and accounts for a
third of imports.
The Chamber of
Mines says it expects mineral to account for 59 percent of
the country’s
exports at the end of 2011.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Zimbabwe Election Support Network
chairman, Tinoziva Bere, is the guest on
Question Time. He joined SW Radio
Africa journalists Lance Guma to discuss
preparations for possible elections
next year and some of the laws being put
in place. Is Zimbabwe ready for a
free and fair election? What needs to be
put in place to achieve this? ZESN
also observed elections in Zambia; what
can Zimbabwe learn from
them?
18.10.1107:01am
by SW Radio Africa
Interview broadcast 05
October 2011
Lance Guma: Hallo Zimbabwe and thank you for joining me on
Question Time The
chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network,
Tinoziva Bere, is the
guest on the programme. He joins us to discuss
preparations for possible
elections next year and some of the laws being put
in place.
And we know Zambia recently held its elections and chose a new
president; we’ll
also be getting his views on that particular election. Of
course we asked SW
Radio Africa listeners to send in their questions using
Face Book, Twitter,
Skype, email and text messages and the hope is that Mr
Bere will answer some
of your questions. Mr Bere thank you for joining
us.
Tinoziva Bere: Thanks Lance and thank you for having me on the
programme.
Guma: Okay now the Zimbabwe Election Support Network deployed
a 15 member
delegation to observe the tri-partite elections in Zambia; the
team observed
the pre-election and post-election phases of the presidential,
parliamentary
and local government election. Just as a starting point, how
is it that the
Zambians were able to pull this one off whilst in Zimbabwe,
we generally
struggle?
Bere: Well for as long as Zimbabwe has been
independent, Zambia has been
holding elections and you will remember the
historic elections that were
held by President Kenneth Kuanda and the fact
that he established a practise
then of leaving office after he had been
defeated by Chiluba; that practise
has been accepted and it has been
respected and I think that is what we saw
in place.
So Zambia has
stronger traditions of observing or respecting views of the
people and the
choices of the people than in Zimbabwe. They struggled with
one-party state
but they overcame it and once they overcame it, you saw that
Kaunda left
office, after him, Chiluba left office, and so on and so on and
Zimbabwe has
had one ruler throughout that period so their traditions are
stronger that
ours.
Guma: So as far as comparing Zimbabwe and Zambia is concerned,
Zimbabwe is
still at the Kenneth Kuanda phase?
Bere: I would say that
is where we are and there are many comparisons that
you could make. The only
thing that you found comparable to Zimbabwe was
hate speech through the
national media which was supporting the incumbent
but other than that a lot
of other things were different – there were more
freedoms; civil society was
allowed, the independent media was fairly strong
and independent and you
also found that the police and the army stayed out
of politics, they did not
make any slogans or declarations and on election
day, they allowed people to
vote freely and where there were instances of
violence they responded
impartially. So we do have differences that we can
point to and lessons that
we can learn from Zambia.
Guma: Okay now in June I think we had the
Electoral Amendment Bill or the
draft Electoral Amendment Bill being
gazetted, ZESN has issued a preliminary
statement on this Amendment Bill
drawing on your own observations. In terms
of addressing some of the
problems that we’ve seen in past elections, do you
see the proposed laws
doing this?
Bere: They do so in parts and in other parts they create
problems. Let me
list the problems immediately – the provision that it
provides for five year
imprisonment and creates a crime for announcing
anything that sounds like
results is clearly not modern practise and it
militates against scientific
estimation of what the results are likely to be
and so we are concerned
about that but in other respects it tries to address
the concerns that have
been raised over a period of time. Whether it will
succeed in terms of
implementation is quite another thing.
Guma: Now
from Mutare we have a question from Talent who says there has been
a lot of
discussion on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and his question is
much has
been made about the role of the Secretariat with allegations that
oh it is
packed with CIOs; so his question really is – having the Zimbabwe
Electoral
Commission itself, how different is this from the old Commission
and can
they guarantee a free and fair election?
Bere: I should say that
something positive happened at the Electoral
Commission and it was the
appointment of a new Commission and a new
chairperson. It is something which
ZESN welcomed and over the few months
that they have been in office we have
advocated that they get as much
support as they possibly can. We believe
they should be given a chance but
in respect if the Secretariat, there have
been no changes and the concerns
that have been expressed are legitimate and
our hope has been that the
Commission would reform the Secretariat and grow
its capacity to impartially
implement an election. So the concerns are
understandable and ZESN also has
similar concerns.
Guma: Is it a bit
of a problematic area though when it’s meant to be an
independent Electoral
Commission, because I’ve seen Patrick Chinamasa the
Justice Minister making
this argument that if it is an independent body why
meddle with the
secretariat, it ceases to become independent. Is that a
valid argument to
make?
Bere: If there was no history it would be a valid argument but
because there
is history that argument is not valid. There is history of the
Secretariat
having been determined by only those who are in power at the
time and there
is also history of persons having come out of security forces
to occupy
positions within the Secretariat. And there’s also history that
it’s the
same Secretariat that failed us last time when they refused to
announce
results which they had, so the argument would not be
valid.
Guma: On Twitter we have a question from Jonathan who says they
are not very
clear on whether Zimbabwe is going to have a completely new
voters’ roll or
the old one is just going to be purged and refined so
basically I think they
want to know are we having a completely new roll when
all is said and done?
Bere: The new Section, which is Section 36A which
is being introduced by
Clause 9 of the proposed Bill, envisages the
president on the advice of the
Commission calling for a completely new
registration of voters. Now there is
a possibility but not a certainty, the
Commission may not advise the
president to do so and even on the advice, the
president may not call for a
new voters’ roll.
And going by the signs
and attitudes of the man who controls the voters’
roll but is not controlled
by the Commission, Mudede, it feels like he
believes that the voters’ roll
he is holding is a new one, I mean, is a
clean one, and he is unlikely to
agree to its replacement. But certainly the
election will struggle if the
voters’ roll which has been condemned is not
re-registered.
Guma: Now
there’s a word often used – biometric – we have one listener here
who wants
to understand what does that mean? Do we currently have a
biometric voters’
roll or is this a suggestion for something completely
different? Could you
explain that in detail?
Bere: We don’t have a biometric voters’ roll in
Zimbabwe; Zambia had that
kind of voters’ roll. What it entails is various
ways of capturing the
biological features on a person; it might be capturing
their eyes or
capturing their fingerprints or capturing their image on the
voters’ roll
itself and on the voter identification and it is used to avoid
fraud in
terms of voting several times and so on and having an accurate
voters’ roll
and in Zambia it was used very effectively.
Guma: There
has also been great debate on the issue of ward-based voting. I
remember
reading an article in the Zimbabwe Standard where, Zimbabwe
Independent I
think, where they were basically saying if the MDC agree to
that, Zanu PF
might as well be declared the winner of the election because
they will be
able to use their militants to sway the way people vote. What
is your
position regarding ward-based voting? Are there advantages and
disadvantages?
Bere: ZESN supports the concept as a principle and as
best practise that as
has been used elsewhere but ZESN has also cautioned
against the risk of
abuse. If there’s no elimination of intimidation,
threats and of violence,
the kind we saw in June 2008, then ward-based
voters’ roll can actually be
used to undermine free choice.
Let me
give you an illustration: in my home area, if there is a polling
station and
the voters’ roll is based on the ward, it will mean that it is
me, my family
and our neighbors who will be only be able to go to vote at
our nearby
school and when the streams are determined it will be clear which
box has
Bere family and which box has Mugayi family and which box has Katema
family
and it will then be easy to intimidate people by saying we know who
you
voted for, we will know what you did and we are going to evict you from
this
area or some such threats.
So because of the risk of intimidation it is
felt that within a constituency
it is better for people to choose where they
go to vote than restrict them
and therefore expose them to the risk of
intimidation. But in terms of best
practise and avoiding fraud it is the
best way to do it; that’s the best
practise. So maybe we should focus on
dealing with the threats of violence
and intimidation in order to minimize
the disadvantages that this good
practise or the ward-based voters’ roll
has.
Guma: Now that takes us to the issue of political violence as you
rightfully
point out. A lot has been said about this and Zimbabweans have
gone through
a lot in previous elections. When one looks at the activities
of a vigilante
group like Chipangano in Mbare, it does not look promising
that we will have
another violence-free election, possibly next
year?
Bere: Yah, in fact what has happened is they have perfected the
methods.
Instead of doing it at one time in a very visible way, in Harare,
certain
parts of Harare they have created a culture of fear and intimidation
and
compulsion for people to attend certain meetings and terrorism in the
streets of Harare to avoid any freedom even to demonstrate against something
that people don’t agree and it is said that the police has not stopped this
creation and maintenance of a militia which is called Chipangano and the
other one.
They know who are sponsoring those and they know who is
behind them and they
could arrest them and end it but it has not been
stopped and unless that is
addressed we will see more structures such as
Chipangano created in other
areas for purposes of the election and this time
they won’t deploy a
military person, they have already trained
people.
It will just be these party members who are organized along
Chipangano’s
way, they will stop traffic, they will force meetings, they
will do as they
please and I think it is legitimate to demand security
sector reform before
elections are held in this country and the Chipangano
is evidence of that.
Guma: From Chipinge is an email from Gerald who
wants, I don’t know whether
it’s clarity or just an answer on the issue of
the Diaspora vote; why is it
so complicated to have that included? Lots of
people in South Africa, the
United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, America
who want to participate in
national politics and want to vote – why is it so
hard to put in a Diaspora
vote within our electoral laws?
Bere: I
think it is not that it is hard or impossible; I think it is that it
is not,
it has not been agreed. The parties have not agreed on doing it.
Guma:
Diplomats in different parts of the world are allowed to vote, members
of
the army and police who are deployed in different parts of the world vote
using postal voting.
Bere: That is true and so this is why I said it
is not that it is
impossible. I think it has challenges, it has demands on
resources but there
are no resources that can be spared to allow people a
choice. The reason why
it has not been done and is unlikely to be done soon
is because the two
political parties who have to, the two political
formations who have to
agree, have not agreed.
There’s one in the,
one of the parties who are afraid of the Diaspora vote,
who believe that it
will weaken their position and therefore are opposed to
it so until that is
resolved it will continue to be an issue under
discussion and a
controversial issue but ZESN’s view is that every vote
counts and every vote
must be permitted and certainly the Diaspora vote is a
material vote for
this country, this is their country, they have a right to
make a
choice.
They have gone outside the country, not by choice but by
circumstances; they
are trying to earn a living because our country has been
impoverished for
reasons that everybody knows. So people are trying to earn
a living, they
should not be penalized for going out of the country to earn
a living, they
should be allowed to vote and the mechanism can be put in
place and
fraud-proofing that system is also possible but it is the people
who rule
us – until they agree that it happens, it will look like it will
continue to
be a debate.
Guma: Well finally let’s look at the
relationship between the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network and the
government; the last time I remember quite
clearly government refusing to
accredit you to observe the election and they
threw all sorts of accusations
at you. How would you describe the current
relationship?
Bere: The
relationship between ZESN and all institutions of government, we
believe it
is respectful and professional. There are a few individuals who
may hold
views that are different from that which the government holds but
ZESN
operates legally in the country, it has not been banned, it does not
have to
agree with everybody but we are apolitical and we have insisted that
we
continue to be apolitical and professional in the way we approach the
issue
of elections. We have good dialogue with the ZEC and we want that
dialogue
to continue.
Guma: So you do not foresee any problems next year when they
refuse to
recognize you?
Bere: Well we will deal with it when it
happens but as of now we believe we
are a grouping of Zimbabwean NGOs that
are legitimately engaged in lobby and
advocacy for better elections in this
country and we believe we have the
right to exist and that right has been
respected so far by everybody who
really matters and because of that, we are
quite hopeful that we will
observe elections unless the elections are not
credible elections.
Guma: Well Zimbabwe that’s chairman of the Zimbabwe
Election Support
Network, Mr Tinoziva Bere, joining us on this edition of
Question Time. Mr
Bere thank you so much for your time.
Bere: Thank
you, thank you Lance
BILL WATCH
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES SERIES
[17th October 2011]
Committee
Meetings Open to the Public: 18th to 20th October
The committee meetings listed below will be open to members of the public, but as
observers only, not as participants, i.e. members of the public can listen but
not speak. All meetings will be held at
Parliament in Harare, entrance on Kwame Nkrumah Avenue between 2nd and 3rd
Streets.
Note: This bulletin is based on the latest information released by
Parliament at 1 pm today. But, as there
are sometimes last-minute changes to the meetings schedule, persons wishing to
attend a meeting should avoid possible disappointment by checking with the
relevant committee clerk that the meeting is still on and still open to the
public. Parliament’s telephone numbers are Harare 700181 and
252936. If attending, please use the
Kwame Nkrumah Ave entrance to Parliament.
IDs must be produced.
Apology
This
week’s meetings schedule was released too late to circulate details of today’s
open meetings.
Tuesday 18th October at 10
am
Portfolio Committee: State Enterprises and Parastatals
Oral evidence on the operations of Air Zimbabwe
Committee Room No. 2
Chairperson: Hon Mavima
Clerk: Ms Chikuvire
Portfolio Committee: Industry and Commerce
Oral evidence from the Competititon and
Tariff Commission on its mandate, challenges and successes experienced in
executing that mandate
Committee Room No. 311
Chairperson: Hon Mutomba
Clerk: Ms Matara
Thursday 20th October at 10 am
Portfolio Committee: Small and Medium Enterprises
Oral
evidence from Chitungwiza Municipality on issues related to Stand Nos 3086, 3087 and 3091 St Mary’s.
Committee Room No. 1
Chairperson: Hon R. Moyo
Clerk: Ms Mushunje
Portfolio Committee: Education, Sport and Culture
Oral
evidence from Minister of Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture on
textbook tendering and distribution
Committee Room No. 4
Chairperson: Hon Mangami Clerk: Ms Chikuvire
Veritas makes every effort to esure reliable information, but cannot
take legal responsibility for information supplied
CONSTITUTION WATCH
CONTENT SERIES 8/2011
[15th
October 2011]
The Legislature Part
I
The legislative branch of government is the
branch of government which makes laws for the country. A legislature embodies the idea that people
are the source of political power in the State and should control the law-making
process. It is an institution of
representative democracy under which the people elect representatives to act for
them, as opposed to direct democracy under which the people enact legislation
themselves through referendums or mass assemblies.
In this country the legislative branch is
constituted by Parliament, which is divided into two separate chambers or
houses, namely the Senate and the House of Assembly. Zimbabwe therefore has a “bicameral” or
two-chamber legislature. This was not
always the case. From 1923 until 1969
this country had a single-chamber (or “unicameral”) legislature. Then in 1970 a Senate was established and
legislative power was divided, as now, between the Senate and the House of
Assembly. Zimbabwe continued to have a
bicameral legislature until 1990, when the Senate was abolished and a
single-chamber Parliament was created.
In 2005 the Senate was re-established and our legislature has remained
bicameral.
Now that Zimbabwe stands poised to draft a
new constitution, the structure and functions of the legislature, and its
relationship with other branches of government, must be considered afresh. This
Constitution Watch looks at issues facing the constitution-makers under the
following headings:
1.
Should the
legislature be unicameral or bicameral (i.e. should it consist of one chamber or
two)?
2.
If there are
to be two chambers, what should their relationship be to each
other?
3.
As to the
membership of the legislature:
· Should all
the members be elected?
· Should members of Executive (i.e. Ministers) be allowed to sit and
vote in the legislature?
· If a member leaves the party to which he or she belonged at the time
of his or her election, should that party have the right to have the member’s
seat declared vacant or can she or he “floor-cross”, (i.e. join another party)
or stay on as an independent. Or if a member who won a seat as an independent
joins a party, can he or she remain an MP and represent that party, or should
there be a by-election so that the constituency can decide.
· What
privileges should members have?
4.
As to
legislation:
· Should legislation passed by the legislature require the assent of
the Head of State?
· Should the procedure for passing legislation be laid down in the
Constitution or left to be worked out by the legislature in its standing
orders?
5.
What powers
should the legislature have over national finance?
6.
Should the
Head of State have the power to dissolve or adjourn the legislature and to fix
the dates of its sessions?
These issues will be dealt with in
turn.
1. Should there be
a Bicameral or Unicameral Legislature?
The answer to this question depends on the
answers to two subsidiary questions:
· Are there interest-groups who need to be represented in a separate
chamber?
In Britain
there were historical reasons based on class stratification for having two
houses and Zimbabwe “inherited” the system, but these reasons do not apply in
Zimbabwe. But there may be interest
groups such as women, the chiefs, disabled persons, etc, who may not get
adequate representation in a directly-elected single-chamber Parliament. If they are to be given separate
representation, then procedures must be laid down carefully in the constitution
and the electoral law to ensure that the electoral or appointment processes are
fair and not dominated by the party in power. Alternatively specific representation could be
given to provinces in the Senate; for example the US Senate has equal
representation for all member states and South Africa’s upper chamber is the
National Council of Provinces.
· Would a second chamber, i.e. a Senate, significantly improve the
quality of legislation?
The main justification for a Senate which
has been advanced in Zimbabwe is that it would be composed of mature statesmen
and women who would reconsider legislation passed by the lower house and, where
necessary, curb the excesses of the people’s elected representatives. If that was the hope of proponents of a
Senate, they must have been disappointed.
When one compares legislation passed in the years when we had a Senate
with the legislation passed by a unicameral Parliament, one finds no noticeable
difference in quality. Most of the
amendments the Senate has made to legislation over the years have arisen from
second thoughts on the part of the Government rather than from initiatives by
senators. It has also been suggested
that creating a Senate would prevent the fast-tracking of legislation which
makes Parliament a rubber-stamp of the Executive, but the present Senate been
has not been able to achieve this.
Set against the negligible advantages of
having a Senate in Zimbabwe there is a serious disadvantage: cost. The expense of having a second chamber is
considerable and the country can ill afford it.
The only other reason for a Senate –usually unspoken – is that it has
proved a convenient depository for political parties to reward their
members. This reason does not benefit
the nation as a whole and is no justification for a Senate.
On balance, therefore, it would be better
for the country if the new constitution provided for a unicameral
legislature.
2. Relationship
Between the Chambers of a Bicameral Legislature
If there is to be a bicameral legislature,
the new constitution will have to regulate the relationship between the two
chambers. The present constitution does
this. Generally, both chambers have
equal law-making power and all Bills must be passed by both chambers before they
can be sent to the President for assent and promulgation as Acts of
Parliament. But:
· The House of Assembly has primary
responsibility for initiating and passing “money Bills”, i.e. Bills relating to
taxation and State revenues (para 6 of Schedule 4 to the Constitution). The Senate cannot initiate such Bills and
cannot amend them if they have been initiated in the House of
Assembly.
· If there is disagreement between the Senate
and the House of Assembly over whether or not to pass a Bill or whether or not
to amend it, the Senate can delay the Bill for 90 days only. After that time, the House of Assembly can
resolve to overrule the Senate and send the Bill to the President for assent
(para 3 of Schedule 4).
· The House of Assembly also has the ultimate
say in whether Parliament will accept Parliamentary Legal Committee adverse
reports on statutory instruments.
If there is to be a Senate in the new
constitution, and if most of its members are to be elected by ordinary voters,
its legislative powers should probably be equal to that of the lower House; in
other words, it should have the same power as the lower House to initiate, amend
and reject Bills, including money bills.
Which brings one back to the question – what is the point of having a
Senate?
3. Membership of
the Legislature
Should all the members be elected?
Ever since Independence some members of the
legislature have been appointed by the President:
· In the original Lancaster House
constitution, six senators were appointed by the President on the advice of the
Prime Minister (section 33(1)(d) of the original Constitution), but there were
no appointed members of the House of Assembly.
· When the Senate was abolished in 1989 by
Constitution Amendment No. 9, provision was made for the unicameral Parliament
to have among its members eight Provincial Governors appointed by the President
and an additional 12 presidential appointees
· Now that the Senate has been reinstated, it
contains 10 Provincial Governors appointed by the President and five other
appointed members (section 34(1)(b) & (e) of the Constitution as amended by
Constitution Amendment No. 18). In
addition the GPA has added further appointed members in the form of
Vice-Presidents, the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers and their proxies
(article 20.1.8 of the GPA) and these additional appointees are spread between
the two Houses.
The appointment of members of the
legislature by the President goes against the doctrine of separation of powers,
under which none of the three branches of government should control or unduly
influence the others. In the new
constitution, therefore, neither the President nor the Prime Minister (if there
is one) should have power to appoint members of the legislature. All the members should be
elected.
How they should be elected will be dealt
with in another Constitution Watch which will consider electoral systems. One point should be made here, however: if
there is to be a Senate, there should be some differentiation between the
election of senators and the election of members of the other chamber, otherwise
the Senate will be a clone of the lower chamber. This differentiation may be achieved in
either of two ways:
· By making the electorate different for
senators and members of the other chamber.
For example, senators could be elected on a provincial basis while
members of the other chamber are elected on a constituency basis. Alternatively, some senators could be elected
by institutions such as universities (which is the case in Ireland),
professional associations or other bodies representing important sectoral
interests such as women, chiefs, disabled, etc [see above].
· By providing different electoral systems
for the two chambers. For example,
senators might be elected on a proportional representation system and members of
the other chamber on a first-past-the-post basis.
Should members of the Executive be allowed to sit and vote in the
legislature?
If the doctrine of separation of powers
were to be applied strictly, members of the Executive (i.e. Ministers) should
not be members of the legislature and should not be allowed to take part in
debates of the legislature. The doctrine
cannot be applied so strictly, however, because the executive and legislative
branches of government must co-operate to some extent; the executive must have some way of ensuring
that its proposals for legislation are presented in the legislature. It is also important for the legislature to
be able to question Ministers and hold them to account. Ways of achieving this vary from country to
country:
· In France, Ministers are not members of the
legislature but are entitled to address the Senate and the National
Assembly.
· In the United States, Cabinet members are
not members of Congress, but the Vice-President is a non-voting president of the
Senate, and the President is entitled from time to time to address Congress on
the state of the nation.
· In Britain, all Ministers including the
Prime Minister must be members of one or other of the Houses of Parliament and
the Executive effectively controls parliamentary business.
Zimbabwe largely follows the British
model. No one can hold office as a
Minister for longer than three months unless he or she is a member of the Senate
or the House of Assembly (section 31E(2) of the Constitution) and Ministers are
entitled to take part in the debates of both chambers (section 47). It is debatable whether the new constitution
should change this. It is noteworthy
that none of the draft constitutions that have been put forward to replace the
present constitution – the Constitutional Commission draft, the NCA draft, the
Kariba draft or the Law Society model constitution – seeks to change the
position very much:
On balance, therefore, the new constitution
should probably preserve the current position more or less unchanged: Ministers should be drawn wholly or mainly
from members of Parliament, and they should have the right to take part in the
debates in either chamber.
If this position is unchanged under the new
constitution, ways will have to be found of counterbalancing the influence of
the executive by enhancing Parliament’s independence (perhaps by making it
easier for private members to introduce their own legislation and to alter
legislation sponsored by the executive).
To be continued in Part
II
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