BILL WATCH 8/2023
[14th February 2023]
Coming Up in Parliament This Week
Both the Senate and the National Assembly will be sitting this week.
The Senate has been in recess since 3rd February. The National Assembly, however, continued its current series of sittings last week and the previous week and made some progress on Bills, three of which were sent to the Senate.
Coming Up in the National Assembly 14th to 16th February
Bills
The National Assembly has made considerable progress on Bills since the beginning of the month, not only by sending three Bills to the Senate [see coming up in the Senate below], but also by getting on with other Bills.
The Order Paper for Tuesday 14th February lists the following Bills [those marked with an asterisk* are Bills from the Fourth Session, which with the National Assembly’s approval, have been restored to its Fifth Session Order Paper]:
Insurance and Pensions Commission Amendment Bill [link] – a last session Bill that lapsed at the end of last session. It is listed for restoration to the Order Paper at the stage it had reached previously, which was the beginning of the Committee Stage. For comments on the Bill see Bill Watch 5/2022 [link] containing Veritas comments on the Bill, and the Portfolio Committee’s report on the public hearings [link]
Judicial Laws Amendment Bill as amended – for Consideration Stage, Third Reading and transmission to Senate.
*Child Justice Bill [link]– for Committee Stage. No notices of Committee Stage amendments appear on the Order Paper. Veritas comments are available [link].
Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Bill [“Patriot Bill”] [link] – for delivery of Hon Ziyambi’s Second Reading speech explaining the objects of the Bill. For Veritas comments on the Bill see [link].
Public hearings on this Bill? The Constitution requires public consultations on the Bill to be conducted by Parliament. Parliamentary procedures require a report on those consultations to be presented to the House before individual MPs can begin making their contributions to the Second Reading debate. There has not yet been any notification of public consultations on the Bill – but, if the exclusively virtual public hearings on the Electoral Amendment Bill and Electricity Amendment Bill are anything to go by, they are likely to be virtual only. The Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs [the same Committee which will deal with the “Patriot Bill”] recorded its misgivings over the virtual hearings on the Electoral Amendment Bill in its report on those public hearings; see Bill Watch 6/2023 [link].
Prisons and Correctional Services Bill [link] – for continuation of the adjourned Second Reading debate. The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs delivered his Second Reading speech on 31st January. Next will be presentation of the Portfolio Committee report on the Bill’s public hearings. Then MPs will make their contributions.
Electoral Amendment Bill [link] – for MPs’ contributions to the Second Reading debate. The Minister’s Second Reading speech and the Portfolio Committee’s report [link] were presented on 2nd February; see Bill Watch 6/2023 [link].
Insurance Amendment Bill* [link] – for continuation of the Second Reading stage.
Public Finance Management Amendment Bill* [link] – for the start of the Second Reading stage with the Second Reading speech by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development.
*Children’s Amendment Bill [link] – for continuation of the Second Reading debate.
*Labour Amendment Bill [link] – for continuation of MPs contributions to the Second Reading debate, only two having been contributed so far. The Portfolio Committee report on the public hearings was presented in July 2022 and is available on the Veritas website [link].
*Electricity Amendment Bill [link] – for the start of the Second Reading stage with the Second Reading speech by the Minister of Energy and Power Development. Veritas has commented twice, in Bill Watch 42/2022 [link] and in Bill Watch 52/2022 [link].
*Medical Services Amendment Bill [link] – for the start of the Second Reading stage with the Second Reading speech by Vice-President Chiwenga in his capacity as responsible for the Ministry of Health and Child Care. Veritas has commented on the Bill [link].
Question Time (Wednesday)
Hon Markham has, since 8th February, had several penetrating written questions on the Order Paper for the Minister of Finance and Economic Development. They call for detailed information about various subjects:
- Kuvimba Mining House – its establishment, and structure, place of registration, shareholders apart from the Government, its current asset value, its subsidiary companies, why no reports and results have been submitted in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act.
- ZAMCO – the Reserve Bank company set up in 2014 to resolve the problem of excess non-performing loans (NPLs) of banking institutions in Zimbabwe through acquiring, restructuring and disposal of NPLs. The question is why the Ministry has not shared with Parliament a list of the “end beneficiaries”, i.e., the borrowers, both individuals and companies, whose NPLs were acquired, how they were selected etc, and other information relating to the operations of ZAMCO
- Sovereign Wealth Fund – its performance since its inception, the current Board and its reports, and why there is such a dearth of information available to Parliament and the public about the Fund seven years after the Act was passed. The Sovereign Wealth Fund Act is available on the Veritas website [link] and came into force on 26th June 2015 [link].
ZEC Report on the 7th May 2022 by-elections
This report was presented by the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on 31st January and awaits debate.
Reports awaiting presentation
There are several committee reports on the Order Paper awaiting presentation, among them two reports by the Public Accounts Committee [PAC]: (1) on its analysis of the Auditor-General’s 2020 report on the Harare City Council and (2) non-submission by some local authorities of their financial statements to the Auditor-General. Also due is a report by the Portfolio Committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security Services on its September 2022 benchmarking visit to Namibia on welfare of veterans of the liberation struggle.
Coming Up in the Senate
Bills already sent to Senate
While the Senate was in recess, the National Assembly passed three Bills with amendments which were sent to the Senate in their amended form:
National Security Council Bill – sent 2nd February
Institute of Loss Control and Private Security Managers Bill – sent 8th February
Police Amendment Bill – sent 9th February.
Receipt of the Bills will be announced in the Senate on Tuesday but they will only appear on the Order Paper for their Second Readings on Wednesday 15th February. Consolidated versions of the Bills incorporating the amendments will be posted on the Veritas website as soon as they are available from Parliament.
Draft New Standard Scale of Fines for Senate’s approval
The proposed new Standard Scale of Fines requires the approval of both Houses of Parliament before it is gazetted as law by the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs in terms of the Criminal Law Code – the official short name of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act allotted by section 3(1) of the Interpretation Act. The proposed new scale has already been approved by the National Assembly on 18th January.
Other business New motions are on the Order Paper proposed by Senator Hon S Mpofu and Senator Hon A Dube:
- Deploring the accumulation of filthy garbage and industrial waste pollution in all urban centres and calling on the Government to expeditiously bring it under control in the interests of an environment that is not harmful to health and well-being;
Noting the increasing number of cases of trafficking in women and children and calling on the Government to step up efforts to protect victims of trafficking, by raising public awareness of it, providing State Shelters for victims in all provinces and increase efforts to prosecute and punish perpetrators.
