Parly Legal Committee raps proposed laws

Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
The Parliamentary Legal Committee yesterday issued adverse reports against the proposed establishment of the Zimbabwe Republic Police Association and the Shop Licence Bill, saying they infringed on provisions of the Constitution.

Statutory Instrument 74 of 2017, Police (Association) Regulations, 2017 was gazetted on June 9 this year, to deal with matters affecting the welfare of members, while the Shop Licence Bill is before Parliament to debate as part of measures to ease the process of acquiring a shop licence.

Presenting the PLC report on Statutory Instrument 74, Mutare Central representative Mr Innocent Gonese said the proposed regulations violated sections 222 and 223 of the Constitution that tasked the Police Service Commission to look at the welfare of members of the police force.

“It is the constitutional mandate of the Commission to look into the issues of the welfare and efficiency of the members, not the Commissioner General of Police as provided for in the regulations,” he said. “As a result, the regulations are in parallel with the functions of the Commission and seek to usurp the powers of the Commission, thereby violating section 222 and 223 of the Constitution.”

Mr Gonese said the regulations were also not clear whether membership to the association was voluntary or compulsory, adding that the wording of Section 3 (3) of the regulations, which said members of the association would be those in service of the police, could contravene Section 58 of the Constitution which stipulates that one has freedom of assembly and association.

The PLC concluded that the powers of the Police Commissioner General as contained in the regulations were excessive as he was empowered to choose the leaders of the association without consulting its members.

Presenting the PLC report on the Shop Licence Bill, Zvimba West representative Cde Ziyambi Ziyambi said the Bill gave too much powers to the minister responsible for local government by giving him or her authority to approve licence fees. He said this was in contravention of section 276 of the Constitution that allowed local authorities to set levies and taxes to raise their own revenues.

“The involvement of the minister in local authority business has reduced local authorities to appendages of central government,” said Cde Ziyambi. He said this contravened the principle of devolution as set out in Chapter 14 of the Constitution.