Ministers skip parliament for Mugabe rally

All cabinet ministers boycotted parliament session yesterday and preferred to attend President Robert Mugabe meeting with war veterans.

Only Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa was in attendance, parliaments Hansard recorded.

The snub angered MDC-T legislators who raised the matter with speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda

Murisi Zvizvai posed a question: "My point of order is with regards to the complaints which are raised frequently in this House.

"Ministers do not seem to take this House serious because there are very few who are here.

"There are Members sitting on the front row, which is supposed to be occupied by Ministers and we only have three Minister. We have some Members sitting there like Hon. Chapfika and Hon. Mudarikwa, but they are not Ministers," said Zvizvai.

"The Ministers are depriving us of this Question Time so that we could benefit and I remember Hon. Speaker, you promised that you would take some stern measures towards Members who are Ministers, who are missing from duty. You also promised to hold a meeting with His Excellency that Ministers are not taking their duties seriously and therefore, need to be reprimanded".

In response Mudenda said "Yes, the matter was raised by the Chair with His Excellency the President.

"We came up with a situation where if Ministers are occupied elsewhere, they inform Parliament. In this case, we are informed that His Excellency the President is dealing with matters affecting war veterans and their welfare. Therefore, the Ministers have leave of absence. In their absence, Hon. Chinamasa as Acting Leader of Government Business will take care of all the questions where Hon. Ministers are not available'.

Wednesday session is traditionally a question time for ministers but the trend is that a majority boycott parliament.