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NEWLY elected Members of Parliament will be sworn in on Tuesday, the Clerk of Parliament, Mr Austin Zvoma has said.
Mr Zvoma said he would convene a media briefing today (Saturday) outlining the preparations that would have been made.“President Mugabe has directed that the swearing in of newly-elected Members of Parliament be at the earliest possible convenience. We plan to do this on Tuesday,” Mr Zvoma said this during a cocktail party he held for the media.
He said the swearing in would be followed by the swearing in of presiding officers.
Presiding officers are National Assembly Speaker, his/her deputy, Senate President and the deputy. Mr Zvoma said President Mugabe was still to fix the day of the official opening of the first session of the Eighth Parliament.
Parliament had been preparing for the swearing in of new members of the National Assembly.
President Mugabe was sworn into office on Thursday, paving way for the setting up of a Zanu-PF Government after the party’s resounding victory in the just-ended harmonised elections.
In an interview yesterday, Mr Zvoma said Parliament has been advised to get ready for the swearing in of new legislators.
He, however, could not give the date of the official opening of Parliament saying this was the prerogative of the President.
“It is the President who sets the date and we have not been told when. We have only been advised that this will be done soon,” said Mr Zvoma.
Meanwhile, newly elected legislators said they were ready to assume office and were only awaiting notification from the highest office.
“We have not heard anything yet and we are awaiting notification from above,” said Cde Clifford Sibanda who retained his Bubi seat in Matabeleland North.
His counterpart for Binga South Mr Joel Gabuza Gabbuza of MDC-T said the President’s inauguration has set the stage for the swearing in of parliamentarians.
“We are waiting for notification to take oath of office but we have not been told anything. We hope by Thursday next week everything will be clear so that we start working,” he said.
Despite calls by their leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai to boycott Government, MDC-T legislators have vowed to join the Government.
“In politics you do not leave a vacuum. If you leave it others will fill it. We are going to parliament,” said Ms Thabitha Khumalo who won the Bulawayo East seat.
She said this while addressing journalists at the Bulawayo Press Club on Thursday evening. Ms Khumalo said MDC-T MPs would go to Parliament even if they were not going to make much contribution to the governance of the country considering that they were fewer this time around.
“We will go there and be back benchers. What we will not accept are ministerial posts because that would compromise us as a party.
“We are also aware that things might get chaotic during debates but we are glad because parliamentarians have privileges and immunity,” said Ms Khumalo.
Zanu-PF dominates both houses of Parliament after routing the MDC-T in the harmonised elections
Zanu-PF clinched 160 seats out of the 210 National Assembly constituencies to gain well over the two thirds majority of 140 seats, and a crushing 76 percent dominance.
After factoring in 60 women’s quota seats elected by proportional representation of six for each of the 10 provinces, the final composition of the 270-member National Assembly comes to 197 seats for Zanu-PF, 70 for MDC-T, two for MDC, and one independent giving Zanu-PF just under 73 percent of the total seats in the National Assembly but well over the two thirds majority of 180 seats.
In the Upper House, Zanu-PF ended up with 37 Senators, MDC-T with 21 and the MDC with 2.
Online Reporter