Online Reporter
Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
Over 110 parliamentarians in the National Assembly have so far debated the Constitutional Amendment Bill No.3, making it the most debated Bill in Parliament, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has said.
Minister Ziyambi said this in an interview with the media this Friday after the House adjourned debate on the proposed law until next Tuesday.
“When I did the count, I checked just now, we were slightly over 100, around 110 MPs that have debated so far,” he said.
“In the years of Parliament, I don’t think we have ever had a Bill that has those numbers and we are very happy about that.
“And we are still happy to have a couple more MPs, those who are willing to debate again. So, on Tuesday, we will allow those who want to debate to debate.
“But once we feel that all the MPs that are willing to debate have debated, I would then give my responding speech, addressing issues that were raised by honourable members, and that will pave the way for us now to move to the Committee stage of the Bill.”
He added that they had also decided to increase the number of public meetings as a way of enriching debate on the Bill.
“I think on the issue for Parliament, you are right. This is the most debated bill. We deliberately decided to have that direction because if you recall, when we did public consultations in the past, we used to have one public consultation per province,” he said.
“This time around, we increased the involvement. We had one public consultation in the administration district, which means we deployed a large number of honourable Members to participate in the public consultation.
“And you see that raised their appetite to want to debate. You can notice that the majority of our MPs, when they stand up to debate, will emphasise that I am speaking on behalf of those that I represent.
“And we think it’s healthy for constitutional democracy, it’s healthy for the law-making process because it allows us to refine the legislation and come up with a Bill that has been scrutinised thoroughly by Members of Parliament.”
