Speaker fumes

Lloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter
National Assembly Speaker Advocate Jacob Mudenda, has rapped the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for its delays in facilitating alignment of existing legislation to the new Constitution.

He said at the pace at which the ministry brought Bills before Parliament for re-alignment it would take at least 90 years when it should have been done in five years.

Adv Mudenda made the remarks at a consultative meeting on the alignment of laws to the Constitution in Harare yesterday, where he demanded that Parliament receive at least 90 Bills per year from the ministry.

The meeting was attended by members of the Parliamentary Legal Committee, portfolio and thematic committee chairpersons, and representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs as well as the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

Adv Mudenda also castigated the ministry for sending junior officials instead of permanent secretary to attend such workshops.

“The pace has been extremely slow,” said Adv Mudenda.

“The pace of a snail. The Seventh Parliament can pride itself in having moved mountains to come up with a new Constitution. That is their benchmark. Ours therefore, in the Eighth Parliament should be total re-alignment of the laws to the Constitution.

“According to our strategic priority we had hoped that by now we should have realigned 200 pieces of legislation. Historically, six Bills were passed in 2013 and 11 in the whole of 2014. And with those 11 from last year, I think only three were for re-alignment (out of 400). At that pace it can take us 90 years to re-align. Terrible indictment!”

Adv Mudenda who took no prisoners, said it was important for the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to tap into the expertise of law schools at State Universities as well as the civil society to expedite the process of alignment of laws.

He also took a swipe at the ministry for sending a director of Constitutional Affairs (Mr Tapiwa Godzi) instead of the permanent secretary (Mrs Virginia Mabhiza).

Mr Godzi presented an update on the current progress on alignment of laws adding that an inter-ministerial taskforce was established in October last year to expedite the process.

Deputy Attorney General (Legislative Drafting) Mr Nelson Dias, also attended the meeting but was not on the panel of speakers.

Adv Mudenda said Parliament was ready to work overtime to align existing laws to the Constitution as long as the executive brought them before the legislative arm of the State.

“I feel disappointed because the honourable members have not been accorded their status in terms of representation by the ministry.

“When we have these workshops, they shouldn’t be talking workshops. Out of these workshops must emanate action, positive action for that matter.

“The modus operandi of this workshop to me except for civil society and (Mr) Dias has been devalued. Uyu mwana wangu Godzi anga achitatarika,” said Adv Mudenda.

This was supported by Parliamentary Legal Committee chairperson, Mr Jonathan Samkange, who said ministries must respect MPs by sending senior officials with mandate to make undertakings before legislators.

Adv Mudenda said while the General Laws Amendment Bill with 126 pieces of non-consequential pieces of legislation was before Parliament, it was the 274 outstanding Bills that carried the weight.

“I repeat Parliament means business but we can’t do business if there is no business before us. That is the message Mr Dias that you carry to the ministry. Mr Godzi said the IMT (inter-ministerial taskforce) was established on the 9th of October 2014. Now from the 9th of October to date they have only met five terms. So where is our commitment? And those five times they met how many hours did they put per that session?

“We need timelines. We are challenged here as from now that we receive 91 Bills until next session. We must have 91 Bills before us. That is the target. Tell the permanent secretary. So let us shorten the process by having timelines.

“I speak as an agonised Speaker of the National Assembly. I am really agonised because the Constitution says we must protect it without fear or favour. That is not an onerous task, it is a sacrosanct responsibility and Members of Parliament have that role that we protect the Constitution working together with the executive and our invitation is here we are, give us the work and we shall do it,” said Adv Mudenda.

Mr Samkange added that delays in aligning laws denied Zimbabweans their rights as enshrined in the Supreme law of the land.

He said a case in point was the reluctance by the Registrar-General Mr Tobaiwa Mudede to comply with the laws on dual citizenship.

MPs proposed the need to establish a Constitution Implementation Commission to monitor implementation of the supreme law of the land.