Zanu-PF ministers bunk Parliament sessions

THE Second Session of the Eighth Parliament begins next Tuesday amid revelations that some ministers and their deputies bunk Parly sessions in pursuit of personal business.

The revelations emerged during a Zanu-PF postmortem of the last session of Parliament held in Harare yesterday and attended by Vice-President Joice Mujuru and Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Zanu-PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo told the Press that they discussed the conduct of some ministers especially truancy played in parliament.

"We first had an autopsy of the last session and we talked about motions where we realised that many of the motions had come from the MDC-T.

"Our ministers didn't come to respond and we were complaining to the leader of government business Mnangagwa and VP Mujuru about the conduct of the ministers," he said.

"There were about 10 other ministers at the meeting and we want them to respond to issues, in the process giving power to the MPs to give feedback to their constituencies."

Gumbo said the meeting prepared the MPs for the next session.

"We wanted to be prepared and we asked what government business he (Mnangagwa) was going to bring to the House on top of what was said by the President during the official opening of the session recently," Gumbo said.

"He told us that there were about 17 Bills to come and he also talked about the alignment of legislation to the new Constitution. Cde Mnangagwa said there were 206 pieces of legislation ready to come to the House for alignment. He said they had identified about 400 pieces which needed to be realigned. Some need alignment while some need total revamping."

Gumbo said the MPs called for the early distribution of inputs to enable people to plant on time.

Officially opening the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament last month, President Mugabe unveiled 15 Bills that would be tabled during the session, whose emphasis he said would be on the alignment of laws with the new Constitution.

The Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs says 450 laws need to be aligned with the new Constitution.

The 15 Bills outlined by President Mugabe are the New Income Tax Bill, Debt Management Bill, Joint Venture Bill, Pension and Provident Amendment Bill, Amendment to the Labour Act, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, Insurance Act, Procurement Act.

Others are the Tripartite Negotiating Forum Bill, Electronic Transactions Bill, Cybercrime Bill, Data Protection Bill, Public Health Bill, Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences Bill, Gwanda State University Bill, National Defence College Bill.