Legislators undergo Covid-19 testing

Herald Reporter
Parliament yesterday tested Members of the House of Assembly and employees for Covid-19, ahead of the sitting of the National Assembly today.

The Senate will resume sitting on September 15.

Testing of legislators followed the suspension of parliamentary business in July after two legislators, a staffer and a journalist, tested positive for Covid-19 after Parliament’s outreach tours.

Harare City Council’s health department conducted the tests and results are expected today.

The National Assembly briefly sat last week and adjourned to allow for MPs to be tested.

Parliament’s legislative agenda was disrupted by the lockdown to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a backlog of 15 Bills before the legislature at various stages of promulgation.

Some of the Bills before Parliament include the Finance Bill (No.4 of 2020) that was gazetted last week and is meant to give effect to the fiscal measures laid out by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube when he presented his Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review Statement in June.

Other Bills include the Constitution of Zimbabwe (Non.2) Bill, Attorney-General’s Office Amendment Bill, Forest Amendment Bill, National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill, Financial Amendment Bill and the Zimbabwe Media Commission Bill, the Cyber Security and Data Protection Bill, which are before the National Assembly while the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.1) Bill, the Marriages Bill and the Constitutional Court Bill are before the Senate.

The Pension and Provident Funds Bill and the Manpower Planning and Development Bill are yet to be tabled before Parliament although they have already been gazetted.

Bills that will not have been completed when the current Session of Parliament ends will be rolled over to the Third Session of the Ninth Parliament.