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Leonard Ncube, [email protected]
SPEAKER of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda has said the legislative assemblies in the region must play a leading role in the crafting of sound legislation that enables members of Parliament to fulfil their constitutional mandate.
He was speaking while officiating at the 21st Zambia-Zimbabwe-Botswana (Zam-Zim-Bots) Senior Parliamentary Staff Seminar that started in Victoria Falls yesterday.
Running under the theme: “Post Covid-19, resilient, robust and inclusive Parliaments”, the gathering is being attended by senior staffers from legislative assemblies in the three countries, as well as guest delegates from Uganda.
Clerk of Parliament of Zimbabwe Mr Kennedy Chokuda, and his Botswana and Zambia counterparts, Ms Babra Dithapo and Mr Roy Ngulube, respectively, are also attending.
The seminar is critical as it benchmarks on induction of both new legislators and staff, and could not have come at the right time than now when Zimbabwe is gearing towards the harmonized polls on August 23.
“Parliaments will have to take the centre stage in coming up with legislation, which will enable members of parliaments to fulfil their constitutional mandate of oversight, legislation and representation in the context of e-governance,” said Adv Mudenda.
The seminar was conceived in the late 1990s to enhance administrative performance of parliamentary staff so that greater service delivery is achieved.
The 20th edition of the seminar was held in 2019 and Adv Mudenda commended different Parliaments in the region for the resilience and sterling job during the Covid-19 lockdown period.
He said during this challenging time, parliaments proved their innovative resilient mettle in mitigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.
Adv Mudenda said all parliaments amended their standing orders to allow for virtual parliamentary processes to proceed unimpeded.
He also paid tribute to staff of parliaments for providing the necessary expertise in crafting the befitting standing orders that allowed the continued effective and efficient functioning of parliaments that have attained administrative efficiency and effectiveness.
“As representative institutions and cognisant of the mandatory constitutional obligations, parliaments across the globe devised mechanisms to continue discharging their sacrosanct roles notwithstanding the pandemic adverse effects threatening the functionality of Parliaments,” said Adv Mudenda.
“Parliament staff proved beyond any reasonable doubt that there is nothing impossible in the face of adversity. This is the hallmark of resilient, robust and inclusive parliaments, which is the bedrock of the theme.”
He said the seminars must be more futuristic in administrative benchmarking and espouse the founding principles of cross-pollination of ideas for mutual parliamentary institutional growth and development.
Adv Mudenda urged parliaments and staff to be wary of the digitalization phenomenon, especially artificial intelligence. He called for the capacitation of staff to remain relevant in the digital era.
“You as the critical staff of parliament in your given departments, are the bedrock of the envisaged digitalised transformational parliaments.
“Accordingly, you must think digitally with a new mindset. Speak digitally, walk digitally, act digitally. Be extremely cautious that artificial intelligence should not overtake and replace you in your parliamentary operations,” he warned.
Adv Mudenda said the seminar should be widened to be all-inclusive and include all Sadc member states riding on other platforms where Speakers of Parliament meet.
Online Reporter