malvernmugadzikwa
Sunday Mail Reporter
THE Government intends to consolidate some of the five independent commissions established under Chapter 12 of the Constitution in order to eliminate redundancy and streamline their operations.
The five are the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC); the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC); the Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC); the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC); and the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC).
There are concerns that all of them, with the exception of ZEC, focus on promoting and protecting human rights enshrined in Chapter 4 of the Constitution, such as the right to life, basic services, and freedoms of assembly and expression. The proposed changes, which require amendments to the Constitution, will likely be presented during the current session of the 10th Parliament.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told The Sunday Mail recently that the Government had begun identifying areas where functions are being duplicated.
“On the consolidation of Chapter 12 commissions, the first thing we have to appreciate is, during the formulation of the Constitution, lots of negotiations were done; lots of compromises were done. It is a very good document, but it can be improved,” he said.
“The Constitution has several duplications. For instance, gender issues are human rights issues, but we had to come up with a separate commission that is doing exactly that — the ZHRC.
“Fortunately, we had put in the Constitution that the NPRC has a lifespan.
“However, some of the functions that were given to the NPRC are the same as what the ZHRC is doing.
“So, we are in the process of trying to look at all the commissions and grouping those that have the same functions together.”
The proposals, he said, will soon be tabled before Cabinet.
“We will take the paper to Cabinet and say this is the scenario, there are duplications. Do we need this luxury of having all these commissions or we can have leaner commissions doing the same with maybe better output?
“That is another area that we are looking at and trying to make our Constitution better than it is.
“We will bring an amendment to that effect to correct that.”
Only the NPRC had a prescribed lifespan of 10 years from the date the Constitution was gazetted.
Constitutional law expert Professor Lovemore Madhuku, however, believes duplications are “unavoidable”, and the Government should, instead, focus on ensuring that the commissions are “efficient and sophisticated”.
“I think it is too late to do that, whether it was done right or wrong, and what Government should be doing now is ensure that the commissions are efficient and sophisticated,” he said.
“Overlaps are unavoidable. Commissions, therefore, will complement each other and should not compete with each other.
“We should be learning from international best practice. In other countries, there are gender commissions, human rights commissions and equality commissions that focus on racial issues.
“There is a need for stakeholder consultations on such issues.”
Harare-based political analyst Mr Godwine Mureriwa said streamlining Chapter 12 commissions would save costs and reduce redundancy.
“If the commissions are streamlined, then the Government can save money that is going towards funding the commissions.
“There is glaring redundancy that needs to be attended to.”
Online Reporter