Mujuru, Mnangagwa date legislators

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Vice-President Cde Joice Mujuru and Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday met Zanu-PF parliamentarians in Harare to have a postmortem of the last session of Parliament as well as prepare for the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament.

The Second Session begins next Tuesday.

While people expected the caucus to touch on the current goings-on in the party, Zanu-PF Chief Whip Cde Joram Gumbo said the meeting was all about parliamentary business.

He said the legislators appealed to the leader of government business in Parliament, Cde Mnangagwa and VP Mujuru to ensure that Cabinet Ministers attend parliamentary sessions to respond to issues affecting the legislators’ constituencies and other areas.

The ministers and their deputies have developed a tendency to bunk parliamentary sessions.

Said Cde Gumbo: “We first had an autopsy of the last session and we talked about motions where we realised that many of the motions had come from the MDC-T.

“Our ministers didn’t come to respond and we were complaining to the leader of government business and VP Mujuru about the conduct of the ministers. There were about 10 other ministers at the meeting and we want them to respond to issues, in the process giving power to the MPs to give feedback to their constituencies.”

Cde Gumbo said the meeting prepared the MPs for the next session.

“We wanted to be prepared and we asked what government business he (Cde Mnangagwa) was going to bring to the House on top of what was said by the President during the official opening of the session recently,” Cde Gumbo said.

“He told us that there were about 17 Bills to come and he also talked about the alignment of legislation to the new Constitution. Cde Mnangagwa said there were 206 pieces of legislation ready to come to the House for alignment. He said they had identified about 400 pieces which needed to be realigned. Some need alignment while some need total revamping.”

Cde Gumbo said the MPs called for the early distribution of inputs to enable people to plant on time.

Officially opening the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament last month, President Mugabe unveiled 15 Bills that would be tabled during the session, whose emphasis he said would be on the alignment of laws with the new Constitution.

The Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs says 450 laws need to be aligned with the new Constitution.

The 15 Bills outlined by President Mugabe are the New Income Tax Bill, Debt Management Bill, Joint Venture Bill, Pension and Provident Amendment Bill, Amendment to the Labour Act, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, Insurance Act, Procurement Act.

Others are the Tripartite Negotiating Forum Bill, Electronic Transactions Bill, Cybercrime Bill, Data Protection Bill, Public Health Bill, Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences Bill, Gwanda State University Bill, National Defence College Bill.

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