Opinion / Columnist
Public Hearings Expose the Rot in Zimbabwe's Parliamentary Processes and Democracy
03 Dec 2016 at 17:40hrs | Views
On 30 November I had the fortune to attend a parliamentary committee public hearing into proposed Bills. The first Bill proposed to deal with the corruption in the State Tender and Procurement process. The second Bill was the proposed legislation of the Bond notes. Both these topics are guaranteed to generate debate on a myriad of forums ranging from taxis to boardrooms. Hence it was with much anticipation that I made way to the announced venue. I got to Rainbow Hotel in Bulawayo and my beef with the Zimbabwean Parliament began.
The staff at Rainbow knew nothing about such a meeting!! Come on people this is not some two bit NGO spending some donor funds but a government program dealing with very pertinent governance issues. Ever the resourceful person I borrowed US$0.50 from Econet and called a journalist friend who told me that the hearing had been moved to the Large City Hall.
I rushed to the City Hall expecting to find standing space along the walls. I had to ask the security guard at the Hall to confirm that there was a public hearing in the Hall. There was only one ZANU PF issue car in the car park in front of the Hall. The Hall was almost empty with the front rows filled with journalists. There was a table with 5 sleek and well fed individuals exuding expensive perfume who obviously were parliamentarians.
That reassured me that this was the proper venue. I took my seat after registering at the entrance. A gentleman that I recognized as ZANU PF MP for Harare East Terence Mukupe was reading incoherently from a multipage document. The Honourable MP is infamous for his arrest over public violence in August 2015 and his financial challenges with the ZB Bank last April. This was then the man chosen to lead the team to gather the views of the people of Bulawayo on measures to deal with corruption in the State procurement procedures and the introduction of Bond notes.
I could not hear what the gentleman was saying. He was obviously struggling with the legal terminology and voice projection in the large auditorium. The absence of a PA system did not help matters.
As soon as the MP sat down cries of "Kasizwanga" reverberated throughout the hall. Besides failing to provide a PA system the team had failed to provide copies of the Bill they had come to discuss with the people of Bulawayo whom they purportedly represent in Parliament! The MP retorted that people should move closer to him so that they could hear him.
He said copies of the bill were available on the internet and the public should have downloaded for themselves! He further pointed out that there was a laid down procedure on how to conduct such hearings. Members of the public should wait to be recognized by the chair before they could voice their views otherwise they would be out of order.
Well, of course, that established the tone of relations between the chair and his public. He pointed out that the views obtained from the public will be collated and forwarded to the Minister who had the prerogative right and choice to accept or reject them!
Aah! Thixo waseMaguswini, a Minister rejecting the views of members of the public which views Parliament had expended much effort and scarce cash to gather. To support his colleague Hon Khumalo pointed out to the members of the public that the views of the MPs will not necessarily be the same as those of the public. A parliamentarian arrogantly telling the public that they don't speak for them in Parliament because the MPs may have different views. Jeso waseNazaletha..!
I then began to analyze the whole process of the Public Hearings. It is mind boggling that a national government programme can be shoddily organized and conducted and conclusions drawn from such. Zimbabwe is a democracy governed by an elected Executive and Parliament. The Executive is accountable to the electorate via the MPs who are nominally directly accountable to the voting public who voted them into parliament. The farce at the Large City Hall raised disturbing questions about the running of the government business at the Parliament in Harare. It raised even more questions on the integrity of the people voted into Parliament. While it is not surprising that most of the MPs are corrupt the levels of the arrogance that now accompany the corruption is disturbing.
It became apparent that the views of the people were only sought to bring legitimacy to a corrupt system that seeks only to enrich the individuals in the system. The tragedy of the Bond notes was put succinctly by the Chair who explained that they had been created by the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act. Apparently that Act was about to expire thus the Minister had seen fit to draft a 2 page amendment to the RBZ act to legitimize the introduction of the Bond notes. The Minister then sent out the teams to gather the views of the public to give a veneer of respect to the process. A pliant legislature will then rubber stamp the amendment to accommodate a temporary currency in a permanent act.
The whole exercise is just another way of doling out T&S allowances to greedy MPs. The people of Bulawayo made it clear that they are not happy with the way the proceedings were conducted. They laid the blame squarely on the system of governance in the country, both the Legislature and the Executive.
The people reiterated their calls for the implementation of the Devolution Clause that is the in the Constitution. They argued that Devolution will give them ownership of the process and the power to hold their representatives to account.
As things stand the people don't feel ownership of the government and its processes because they are not involved in the decision making. It then is not surprising that the whole event turned into a government bashing exercise that did not discuss the merits of the Bills on the table. It was even sad to note that not a single councilor from Bulawayo saw it fit to attend the hearing and hear what the people had to say. Neither did the MPs or the Resident Minister Eunice Sandi, save for Nkulumane MP Killion Sibanda, who came with a bunch of rowdy ZANU PF youths to disrupt the proceedings while reading out messages on their phones to support the bond note introduction. UNkulunkulu esihawukele koBulawayo with such leaders, to whom common sense and respect for the electorate and democratic processes are alien.
The status quo favors a corrupt executive which manipulates a pliant legislature in holding onto power. Devolution offers a solution to the inclusion of the people in the decision making process of government. The people made it clear that they want more than a cameo role in the government of their country. Not the farce that was witnessed at Bulawayo on 30 November
The staff at Rainbow knew nothing about such a meeting!! Come on people this is not some two bit NGO spending some donor funds but a government program dealing with very pertinent governance issues. Ever the resourceful person I borrowed US$0.50 from Econet and called a journalist friend who told me that the hearing had been moved to the Large City Hall.
I rushed to the City Hall expecting to find standing space along the walls. I had to ask the security guard at the Hall to confirm that there was a public hearing in the Hall. There was only one ZANU PF issue car in the car park in front of the Hall. The Hall was almost empty with the front rows filled with journalists. There was a table with 5 sleek and well fed individuals exuding expensive perfume who obviously were parliamentarians.
That reassured me that this was the proper venue. I took my seat after registering at the entrance. A gentleman that I recognized as ZANU PF MP for Harare East Terence Mukupe was reading incoherently from a multipage document. The Honourable MP is infamous for his arrest over public violence in August 2015 and his financial challenges with the ZB Bank last April. This was then the man chosen to lead the team to gather the views of the people of Bulawayo on measures to deal with corruption in the State procurement procedures and the introduction of Bond notes.
I could not hear what the gentleman was saying. He was obviously struggling with the legal terminology and voice projection in the large auditorium. The absence of a PA system did not help matters.
As soon as the MP sat down cries of "Kasizwanga" reverberated throughout the hall. Besides failing to provide a PA system the team had failed to provide copies of the Bill they had come to discuss with the people of Bulawayo whom they purportedly represent in Parliament! The MP retorted that people should move closer to him so that they could hear him.
He said copies of the bill were available on the internet and the public should have downloaded for themselves! He further pointed out that there was a laid down procedure on how to conduct such hearings. Members of the public should wait to be recognized by the chair before they could voice their views otherwise they would be out of order.
Well, of course, that established the tone of relations between the chair and his public. He pointed out that the views obtained from the public will be collated and forwarded to the Minister who had the prerogative right and choice to accept or reject them!
I then began to analyze the whole process of the Public Hearings. It is mind boggling that a national government programme can be shoddily organized and conducted and conclusions drawn from such. Zimbabwe is a democracy governed by an elected Executive and Parliament. The Executive is accountable to the electorate via the MPs who are nominally directly accountable to the voting public who voted them into parliament. The farce at the Large City Hall raised disturbing questions about the running of the government business at the Parliament in Harare. It raised even more questions on the integrity of the people voted into Parliament. While it is not surprising that most of the MPs are corrupt the levels of the arrogance that now accompany the corruption is disturbing.
It became apparent that the views of the people were only sought to bring legitimacy to a corrupt system that seeks only to enrich the individuals in the system. The tragedy of the Bond notes was put succinctly by the Chair who explained that they had been created by the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act. Apparently that Act was about to expire thus the Minister had seen fit to draft a 2 page amendment to the RBZ act to legitimize the introduction of the Bond notes. The Minister then sent out the teams to gather the views of the public to give a veneer of respect to the process. A pliant legislature will then rubber stamp the amendment to accommodate a temporary currency in a permanent act.
The whole exercise is just another way of doling out T&S allowances to greedy MPs. The people of Bulawayo made it clear that they are not happy with the way the proceedings were conducted. They laid the blame squarely on the system of governance in the country, both the Legislature and the Executive.
The people reiterated their calls for the implementation of the Devolution Clause that is the in the Constitution. They argued that Devolution will give them ownership of the process and the power to hold their representatives to account.
As things stand the people don't feel ownership of the government and its processes because they are not involved in the decision making. It then is not surprising that the whole event turned into a government bashing exercise that did not discuss the merits of the Bills on the table. It was even sad to note that not a single councilor from Bulawayo saw it fit to attend the hearing and hear what the people had to say. Neither did the MPs or the Resident Minister Eunice Sandi, save for Nkulumane MP Killion Sibanda, who came with a bunch of rowdy ZANU PF youths to disrupt the proceedings while reading out messages on their phones to support the bond note introduction. UNkulunkulu esihawukele koBulawayo with such leaders, to whom common sense and respect for the electorate and democratic processes are alien.
The status quo favors a corrupt executive which manipulates a pliant legislature in holding onto power. Devolution offers a solution to the inclusion of the people in the decision making process of government. The people made it clear that they want more than a cameo role in the government of their country. Not the farce that was witnessed at Bulawayo on 30 November
Source - Iphithule kaMaphosa
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