Take question and answer session seriously, ministers told

Herald Reporter
SENATE President Cde Edna Madzongwe wants Government ministers to take the Question and Answer session in Parliament seriously.
She said the ministers should always attend the crucial Parliamentary session to respond to questions by backbenchers.Cde Madzongwe’s call came after only two ministers attended the Senate’s question and answer session on Wednesday.

Only Justice, Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and Home Affairs Deputy Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi attended the session.

Questions have to be submitted in advance, so ministers can have the necessary research done for the answer, but the only questions that could be answered on Wednesday were the few that related to the two ministers. Cde Madzongwe told Minister Mnangagwa, who is leader of Government business in Parliament, to implore his colleagues in Cabinet to treat question time session with respect.

“We had seven questions on the Order Paper and only two have been responded to,” she said. “That means we have to carry over these questions. As leader of Government business, I am appealing to you to encourage your colleagues to take this assignment seriously because it is part of their duty.

“It (question time) is a way Honourable Senators can be answerable to their constituencies. These questions came from their constituencies.”

Presiding officers have in the past parliament called Government ministers to attend the question time. Some questions are repeated for many weeks on the Order Paper with no ministers responding to them.

In some instances, the Leader of the House ends up responding to questions without notice in the absence of the responsible minister, but the responses have tended to be general.