adminLincoln Towindo
Parliament
SPEAKER of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda recently reminded newly appointed National Assembly representatives that they are obliged by Constitutional requirements and House rules to declare their assets within 60 days of assuming office.
Section 8 of the Code of Conduct and Ethics for Members of Parliament as read together with Standing Order No 50 of the Standing Rules and Orders of the National Assembly require legislators to disclose their assets to the office of the Counsel to Parliament.
Section 198 of the Constitution requires that all public officers make regular disclosures of their assets.
Offending legislators could face sanctions including contempt of Parliament or warnings if they fail to heed the rules.
Adv Mudenda reminded other Parliamentarians to update their declarations if they had acquired new properties since previously declaring their assets.
“Standing Order No. 50 states that it is a statutory requirement that every Member registers his or her proprietary interest within 60 days of the date of opening of the new Parliament and where a Member is appointed after the opening of the Parliament, the disclosure is to be done within 60 days after his or her appointment as a Member,” said Adv Mudenda.
“I would like to remind Honourable members who had previously declared their assets before and have, since such declaration, attained new properties to register them in the declaration register.
“Honourable members are advised to attend to their asset declaration as soon as possible at the Counsel to Parliament office.”
Asset declaration rules were introduced in 2018 and require legislators to disclose assets such as: shares and financial interests; remunerated employment outside Parliament; directorships and partnerships; consultancies; sponsorships, gifts and hospitality; benefits; foreign travel; land and property; and pensions.
The rules put a cap of US$4 500 on gifts MPs can receive per calendar year.
All progressive Zimbabweans welcomed the introduction of the new rules, saying this would enable monitoring instances of sudden accumulation of wealth by their representatives.
Most MPs heeded the rules with Advocate Mudenda announcing earlier this year that over 90 percent of MPs in both Houses, including Cabinet Ministers, had declared their assets.
244 members of the National Assembly had declared their assets by March this year while only 26 had neglected to do so.
In the Senate, 73 senators had declared their assets, while seven had not.
Asset declaration by elected public officials is customary in most democracies.
Rules in other jurisdictions, however, go much further than ours when it comes to declaration requirements.
In South Africa, for example, a Members’ Interests register — which details members’ property ownership, remunerated employment outside parliament and travel history and sponsors thereof — is published for the public to scrutinise.
It is critical that our Parliament follows the same path by publishing this essential information about our elected public officials.
What good is an asset declaration register when it is only for the eyes of the bureaucrats?
As alluded to, above, this information will allow the public to monitor instances of sudden accumulation of wealth by their representatives.
In Namibia, a former Defence Minister and Governor caused public uproar after it was discovered that the only asset to his name was a pearl millet field, according to the 2019/2020-asset declaration for lawmakers.
Namibians were shocked to learn that Penda Ya Ndakolo — a career politician and public servant — only owned a mere millet field, given the extravagant lifestyles that local politicians are known for.
A review of that register exposed further anomalies including some politicians saying that they had nothing to declare.
This is why it is critical for our register to be made public.
This augurs well with the Second Republic’s thrust of promoting official accountability and transparency.
To illustrate the importance of this point, questions were raised last year when Gokwe-Nembudziya National Assembly representative Justice Mayor Wadyajena took delivery of a Lamborghini Urus supercar he had imported.
Wadyajena faced questions as to the source of his wealth.
He had to turn to social media to absolve himself, saying that he was a businessman of note with interests in the logistics industry.
Now all this could have been cleared up before the public consternation, had people known that Wadyajena was a major player in the massively lucrative logistics industry as well as other business interests.
While it is commendable to have elected public officials declare their assets, it is equally important that these declarations are made public as well.
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