ZELA sign MOU with Zimbabwe Parliament

The parliament of Zimbabwe entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) at a signing ceremony held at the parliament of Zimbabwe on the 18th of May 2015," it has been learnt.

ZELA announced through a statement that the speaker of the National Assembly Honorable Advocate Jacob Mudenda signed the MoU on behalf of parliament whilst Mr Innocent Hodzonge the Vice Chairperson of the ZELA board of trustees signed on behalf of the organization.

"In attendance was the President of the Senate Honorable Edna Madzongwe, Principle Directors of departments in parliament, the Acting Clerk of Parliament Mr Chokuda, the public relations department of parliament and the Director of ZELA Mr Mutuso Dhliwayo," ZELA said.

"In his remarks, the speaker acknowledged the efforts of ZELA in capacitating the parliament even before the formalization of the engagement. He went on to applauded ZELA for taking the issue of mineral resources management serious given the government's focus on minerals as espoused by the Zimbabwe Agenda for Socio-Economic Transformation, which is the country's economic blue print."

The organisation said Mudenda went on to call upon ZELA to come on board during the public hearings that will soon be done as part of the consultative process that will follow the gazetting of the Mines and Minerals Amendment bill, which should be done recently.

"Mutuso Dhliwayo in his remarks expressed gratitude over the formalization of the relationship with parliament that had existed for over a decade without being formalized," said ZELA.

Dhliwayo is qouted in the statement as saying, "As ZELA, we are pleased by the formalization of this relationship with parliament as this will provide us with an opportunity to work more with parliament to strengthen its oversight, legislative and representative role in the natural resources governance."

ZELA said the MoU comes at an opportune time when ZELA's new strategic focus is hinged on engagement of various stakeholders for multi-pronged responses on environmental and natural resources governance in Zimbabwe.

"In the coming years, ZELA will invest its efforts on linking communities with parliament, providing parliament with research information on natural resources management and mining as well as organizing capacity strengthening workshops for relevant portfolio committees such as mines and energy, Indegenisation, youth and economic empowerment and the public finance and budget committees," said ZELA.

"In her closing remarks, President of the Senate Honorable Madzongwe thanked the civil society partners for identifying the parliament as a key stakeholder to their work."