adminZvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
A Member of Parliament has moved a motion that legislators sit for their sessions outside Parliament Building as a way of addressing space constraints that has seen some of them following debates while standing.The motion was moved by MDC legislator Ms Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and is yet to be adopted by the National Assembly.
The House has a holding capacity of 160 people, yet the National Assembly is composed of 270 legislators, forcing some to stand while others sit in the Speaker’s gallery normally reserved for ordinary people who may want to follow proceedings.
Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga moved the motion in the National Assembly on Thursday last week seeking Presidential intervention to move sitting of sessions to alternative venues.
The motion reads: “That this House — noting that the Constitution of Zimbabwe provides for a Presidential Proclamation in setting the venue for the sitting of Parliament, concerned that the current parliamentary venue does not provide a conducive environment for serious debate, recalling the need to develop arms of State and bring Parliament to other centres, now, therefore, calls upon the House (1) in the short term to change the venue for the sitting of Parliament, (2) to consider moving the sitting of Parliament to Bulawayo and (3) to provide resources for minimum renovations to the current Parliament.”
Most backbenchers are now in the habit of coming early for debates to avoid the hassle of looking for sitting places and are now seen in the Chamber as early as 1.30pm before the start of business at 2.15pm.
An arrangement for Government ministers and their deputies has since been struck as the front right row to the Speaker are now reserved for them, leaving backbenchers to scramble for the remaining limited space.
Giving notice of the motion, Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga said she would want backbenchers to debate the sitting headaches they were going through.
With the advent of the Eighth Parliament, backbenchers have always seized every given opportunity to ask either the Clerk of Parliament Mr Austin Zvoma or the Speaker of the National Assembly Cde Jacob Mudenda on how the sitting arrangement would be like.
All are agreed that a permanent remedy was to construct a new Parliament Building that is well furnished with requisite gadgets.
During question time, some legislators pose their questions to Government ministers from the public gallery, a development that makes the recording of the questions impossible as there are no gadgets for that purpose.
But the same challenge of space does not exist in the Senate where there are only 80 members sitting in the Chamber whose capacity is able to contain more than that number.
Meanwhile, MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube failed to secure the right to chair portfolio committees that were approved by the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders that held its inaugural meeting on Wednesday.
Zanu-PF and MDC-T proportionately shared the chairmanship of portfolio committees that would play an oversight role of Government ministries and departments.
Online Reporter