Mnangagwa defend whipping of MPs in Parliament

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has defended the whipping of legislators in Parliament, saying it enables a political party to achieve provisions of its manifesto.

He said all parties reserved the right to whip their legislators, saying the system was democratic in that only those legislators who belonged to the same political party could be whipped and not those from rival parties.

Minister Mnangagwa, who is leader of Government business in Parliament, was responding to concerns raised by legislators attending a pre-budget conference here.

Legislators wanted to know if they could not refuse to pass a national budget if it did not address their aspirations or as part of measures to compel Government to address their welfare concerns.

Hurungwe West MP, Temba Mliswa (Zanu-PF) had said legislators were in most cases asked to rubber stamp the national budget and other Bills against their will as a result of the whipping system.

"The whipping system is political party biased," said Minister Mnangagwa.

"Each political party has a manifesto which brought you to Parliament in pursuit of that manifesto. The whipping system is to focus on the realisation of that manifesto.

"You may view that as rubber-stamping, but you are only rubber stamping things that you have already agreed to as a political party.

"That is why a political party can not whip legislators from another party."

Minister Mnangagwa said Parliament provided for caucuses that should enable legislators from the same political party to meet and raise concerns over an issue if there were any.

He repeated what he told legislators in the National Assembly last month that MPs should not seek funding from foreign embassies for their projects in constituencies.

This was after Mbizo MP Mr Settlement Chikwinya asked how MPs were expected to push development in their constituencies if those that would have secured funding from some foreign embassies were being criticised.

"The relationship with embassies is with Government and not MPs. This does not take the right for MPs to interact with civil society, but not embassies," he said.

Responding to other questions, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Government was deducting $40 from MPs' $75 allowance per sitting to offset funds for the vehicles they got under the Parliament vehicle loan scheme.

He said the balance of $30 would remain as a debt Government owed legislators.

This was after MPs raised concern on when they would be paid their outstanding allowances.

Minister Chinamasa said the issue of a bloated Parliament which has now left Parliament Building constrained in terms of space and failure to pay allowances on time for MPs could not be blamed on one person as that was agreed by all political parties in the inclusive government.

Southerton MP Mr Gift Chimanikire had said it was unprecedented globally for MPs to be addressed by their President while standing due to unavailability of space as what happens in Zimbabwe.

"As we were creating this larger Parliament did we not ask ourselves where these people would sit?

"Did we have an answer to that?

"We did not, but it did not stop us from bloating the Parliament."