Zimbabwe Parly Opens After Mugabe Speech Gaffe
Zanu PF lawmaker William Mutomba said it was disappointing that the two previous sessions of parliament had not processed any bills at all.
HARARE — Parliament resumed sitting Tuesday following last week’s fracas during which President Robert Mugabe Mugabe delivered a wrong speech at the official opening of the Third Session of the Eighth Parliament with lawmakers from the ruling Zanu PF moving the customary motion of thanking the president for his speech. Zanu PF lawmaker William Mutomba moved the motion to thank Mr. Mugabe for the correct speech that was tabled after his gaffe last Tuesday, calling for seriousness among his peers to ensure all 21 Bills proposed by the president are passed into law. These include the Public Health, Zimbabwe Standards Regulatory Authority, State Procurement and the General Laws Amendment bills. Mutomba said it was disappointing that the two previous sessions of parliament had not processed any bills at all, adding it is imperative that parliament takes seriously its role of enacting laws for the country. For example, he said, it was worrying that for the 24 bills that were set for the First Session only 12 were brought to parliament while in the Second Session only eight of the expected 19 bills were dealt with. The Third Session is scheduled to deal with 21 bills and Mutomba said it’s time for lawmakers and members of the executive to take the business of the house seriously. Fellow Zanu PF lawmakers like Melody Tionei Dziva commended Mr. Mugabe for his speech and efforts to revive the economy, especially his bid to deal with corruption. But opposition lawmakers, like Thokozani Khupe, said with the majority of the people wallowing in poverty and failing to make ends meet, Mr. Mugabe should have outlined ways and legislation through which he hopes to revive the economy and provide jobs for the people. Meanwhile, Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa introduced a bill Tuesday that will amend the Banking, Deposit Protection, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Troubled Financial Institutions Acts to provide for matters connected or incidental to three pieces of legislation. The bill was referred to parliamentary legal committee. In another development, French ambassador to Zimbabwe, Laurent Delahousse on Tuesday welcomed to Harare six French cyclists on a mission to raise awareness on climate change across the African continent ahead of the world conference of climate change to be held in France later this year. Delahousse said as a victim of the climate, Zimbabwe needed to act as time is running out. Thomas Classen, captain of the cyclists, who took off from Plumtree sometime back, said the journey across the continent is as tough as climate change. The cyclists will pass through nine countries, including Mozambique, where they kicked off, and end in Nairobi, Kenya. A group of Africans will deliver a petition at the Paris meeting calling for fair and strong climate change actions to be adopted by world leaders to mitigate climate change and reduce global warming to well below 1.5 degrees. They want the rich nations, responsible for polluting the world, to scale-up their contributions to fighting climate change and to help poor countries to adapt to climate change, among other demands.