News / National
Zimbabwe Human Rights Bill hearing aborted over use of English instead of Shona
22 Jul 2011 at 04:50hrs | Views
A public hearing by the Senate Thematic Committee on Human Rights to gather people's views on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill was yesterday aborted in Masvingo after Zanu PF supporters protested over the use of English language during deliberations, Herald Online reported.
The public hearing was abandoned after Zanu-PF supporters and participants heckled and booed the chairman of the committee Senator Misherk Marava (MDC-T) who ignored their calls to conduct all discussions on the Bill in Shona.
The participants booed Senator Marava after he insisted that discussions be done in English before the situation degenerated into chaos.
Zanu-PF supporters started singing revolutionary songs charging that deliberations on the Bill were not supposed to be conducted in English.
Senator Marava and his committee were also accused of not giving members of the public copies of the Bill in advance to enable them to prepare adequately for the deliberations.
"We cannot have an exhaustive discussion about the Bill in English, which is a foreign language. Why can't they (Thematic Committee representatives) read the Bill in our Shona language, which we all understand so that we can make contributions from an informed point of view.
"After all is it fair that they just call for a meeting to discuss a Bill that we are not familiar with, they should have given us copies of the Bill in advance so that we prepare for the meeting," said one of the participants, Mrs Namatirai Chivanga who is a special interests councillor in Masvingo Urban.
Some of the participants broke into revolutionary songs forcing Sen Marava to seek refuge in a Parliament bus parked outside the Masvingo Civic Centre.
Sen Marava refused to comment on the aborted meeting.
The crowd only calmed down after the intervention of Chivi-Mwenezi Senator and former Masvingo Governor Josaya Hungwe.
Sen Hungwe who is also a member of the Thematic Committee on Human Rights defended the actions of the participants saying the committee should have heeded the people's call for all deliberations to be conducted in Shona.
He also said the committee should have first sent copies of the Human Rights Commission Bill to the people in advance so that they prepared for deliberations.
"The people were simply saying that the Bill should have been read to them in the Shona language, which they understand because after all how were they going to contribute on the Bill when they do not know anything about the Bill and what it entails. They were saying they should have been given copies of the Bill in advance,'' he said.
Sen Hungwe said it was also disturbing to note that some representatives of non-governmental organisations who attended the meeting were the only ones who had copies of the Bill in advance, while the rest did not.
Sen Hungwe said the public hearing would have to be re-convened after people's concerns have been addressed.
The public hearing was abandoned after Zanu-PF supporters and participants heckled and booed the chairman of the committee Senator Misherk Marava (MDC-T) who ignored their calls to conduct all discussions on the Bill in Shona.
The participants booed Senator Marava after he insisted that discussions be done in English before the situation degenerated into chaos.
Zanu-PF supporters started singing revolutionary songs charging that deliberations on the Bill were not supposed to be conducted in English.
Senator Marava and his committee were also accused of not giving members of the public copies of the Bill in advance to enable them to prepare adequately for the deliberations.
"We cannot have an exhaustive discussion about the Bill in English, which is a foreign language. Why can't they (Thematic Committee representatives) read the Bill in our Shona language, which we all understand so that we can make contributions from an informed point of view.
"After all is it fair that they just call for a meeting to discuss a Bill that we are not familiar with, they should have given us copies of the Bill in advance so that we prepare for the meeting," said one of the participants, Mrs Namatirai Chivanga who is a special interests councillor in Masvingo Urban.
Some of the participants broke into revolutionary songs forcing Sen Marava to seek refuge in a Parliament bus parked outside the Masvingo Civic Centre.
Sen Marava refused to comment on the aborted meeting.
The crowd only calmed down after the intervention of Chivi-Mwenezi Senator and former Masvingo Governor Josaya Hungwe.
Sen Hungwe who is also a member of the Thematic Committee on Human Rights defended the actions of the participants saying the committee should have heeded the people's call for all deliberations to be conducted in Shona.
He also said the committee should have first sent copies of the Human Rights Commission Bill to the people in advance so that they prepared for deliberations.
"The people were simply saying that the Bill should have been read to them in the Shona language, which they understand because after all how were they going to contribute on the Bill when they do not know anything about the Bill and what it entails. They were saying they should have been given copies of the Bill in advance,'' he said.
Sen Hungwe said it was also disturbing to note that some representatives of non-governmental organisations who attended the meeting were the only ones who had copies of the Bill in advance, while the rest did not.
Sen Hungwe said the public hearing would have to be re-convened after people's concerns have been addressed.
Source - The New Ziana
