BILL WATCH 10/2023

[24th February 2023]

Question Time in Parliament 15th and 16th February

Both Houses will  Meet Again on Tuesday 28th February

In Bill Watch 9/2023 of we omitted summaries of regular weekly Question Times in the National Assembly on Wednesday 15th February and in the Senate on Thursday 16th February, but undertook to highlight these in another bulletin. 

Questions and Answers – National Assembly Wednesday 15th February

Questions Without Notice on Government Policy

BEAM payments to schools in arrears

Hon Josiah Sithole raised the perennial problem of schoolchildren enrolled in the BEAM programme Basic Education staying at home because most schools would like to see proof of payment, which the parents were not able to provide.  The Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare [who is the Minister responsible for BEAM payments to schools] answered that “the BEAM programme has 1 800 000 learners registered on it.  These schools already know of the identity of the learners.  Schools are not supposed to turn these learners away because monies have not been remitted to the schools.  That is the policy of Government.  As we push for those funds to be transferred to the schools, the learners should continue to learn.  BEAM was up to date up to the third term of 2022, and we are in the first term of 2023.  There is no reason whatsoever for schools to turn away the BEAM registered learners”.  He added that leadership in Parliament [presumably meaning all MPs] “should help to make sure that message goes out to all the schools so that they do not turn away learners because that money is coming to the schools”. 

Schools selling school uniforms [sourced from shops] at exorbitant prices

The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education was asked whether it was Government policy for both primary and secondary schools to insist on parents buying school uniforms from schools, when the schools purchased them from retail outlets and sold them at prices above the retail outlets.  The Minister said it was not, and she would stop the practice, if necessary by a statutory instrument.  MPs demanded a Ministerial statement on the problem.

“Pathetic” pass rates for Grade 7, O Level and A Level in Rural Schools

The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education was bombarded with questions about the low pass rates in rural schools compared to urban schools.  She was forced to admit the Ministry had problems supplying enough textbooks and ICT gadgets.  She agreed to come up with a Ministerial Statement on the challenges.

Government’s conflicting statements about ZEC final delimitation report

Hon Chikwinya asked the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to clarify the dates on which the President received the ZEC final delimitation report and when the Presidential proclamation would be gazetted, points on which there had been conflicting statements by Government spokesmen.  Hon Ziyambi refused to answer the question despite being pressed by MPs, a refusal that was upheld by the Temporary Speaker; the ground for the refusal was that the Speaker had already made a ruling covering the question during an earlier sitting.

Inadequacy of NSSA social security pensions

In answer to a question about the amount of the NSSA pension, the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare said that the current social security minimum pension US$60 had been achieved by the end of 2022, which complies with “the international standard for countries like Zimbabwe”.  He agreed, however, that the income on NSSA investments needed to be improved, which he said that the Government and NSSA were working on.

Oral answers to Other Questions with Written Notice

In Bill Watch 8/2022  We outlined important questions from Hon Markham [which have been on the Order Paper since 31st January], for the Minister of Finance and Economic Development.  They call for detailed information about: 

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].

An answer was expected at this sitting, but the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Hon Chiduwa, explained that the questions required “a lot of detail on Kuvimba, ZAMCO and the Sovereign Wealth Fund and the detail required quite some time to gather. I want to commit myself that by next week, I should be ready with the responses.”  That means the Deputy Minister should have had ample time to gather the information required by the next Question Time on Wednesday 1st March; the questions remain on the Order Paper.

Have MPs and Councillors have been consulted on the distribution of devolution funds in the absence of the Devolution Bill?

This was a another question posed by Hon Markham for the Minister of Local Government and Public Works.  In Hon July Moyo’s absence, the Deputy Minister Hon Chombo was obliged – as she has had to so many times in the past – to respond for the absent Minister. She said that the Minister of Finance and Economic Development was responsible for the distribution of the 5 per centum of the National Budget that should constitute devolution funds.  But she claimed that the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works had met with local authority officials in 2014 to work out a formula for the distribution of devolution funds.  While she acknowledged the need for a Devolution Act some ten years after the Constitution requiring such an Act, she added that  a Devolution Bill was in the hands of the drafters in the Attorney-General’s Office and that the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, who is the Minister responsible for that office, was assisting in ensuring that the office was able to “beef up their staffing complement to make sure they speed up the processing of the outstanding Bills”. 

 Questions and Answers – Senate, Thursday 16th February

Questions without notice on Government policy

Delay in Devolution Bill raised again

Several Senators asked questions about the failure to present a Devolution Bill to Parliament.  Hon Chombo tried to answer the questions, which were much the same as those in the National Assembly the previous day.  Just then the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs entered the Senate chamber in order to attend to the Judicial Laws Amendment Bill after the end of Question Time.  The Deputy President of the Senate, who was in the chair, asked him assist in explaining the issue:

“I would like to thank Hon. Sen. Komichi for the question – what should provincial councils do? Let me start by giving a brief background that indeed after the 2013 elections, there was no law regarding that aspect. In 2018 again, there was no specific law. However, after the 2018 elections, we decided to work on enacting the law.

Indeed, the Bill was brought to this House but the Constitution had a lacuna – for example looking at provincial councils in rural areas, the law was clear that there should be provincial councils but in Metropolitan cities, it was not clear because when there was the issue of committees for provincial councils, there was a gap and we decided that we needed to work on the Constitution.  [Veritas is not sure what the Minister meant by this – no doubt it will become clearer when a Bill is published]

Unfortunately, during that period, we experienced COVID-19.  However, at the moment, we are now aligning the laws to the Constitution. My promise is that those who write laws are few indeed but before the elections, we commit ourselves to bringing this Bill to this august House so that we do not run three elections without enacting that law [underlining by Veritas].  People would then say yes, you have won the election but you still have outstanding Bills.

Of course, at one point because of COVID-19, the amendments to the Constitution were delayed but I believe that this should be done before the elections. I thank you.”