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of contempt of Parliament charges, but said there was a prima facie case against Shabani Mashava Mine State appointed administrator, Mr Afaras Gwaradzimba.

The ruling follows a request by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy that the Speaker makes a determination on Minister Chinamasa whether he was not in Contempt of Parliament arising from allegations that he might have lied under oath.
This was after Minister Chinamasa made a commitment during an inquiry by the committee of the state of affairs of SMM that he would furnish the committee with bearer share certificates of the mine as proof that Government owned the mine.

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However, the minister subsequently failed to provide the committee with the information.
In his ruling, Mr Moyo said the Portfolio Committee chaired by Guruve South MP, Cde Edward Chindori-Chininga (Zanu-PF), should have proceeded in terms of Section (9) of the Parliamentary Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act.

The section provides for issuance of summons through the Clerk of Parliament to anyone, should Parliament require the “production of any document or thing.”
If the minister had failed to comply with the summons, said the Speaker, then that would have amounted to contravention of the schedule of the Act, which criminalises disobeying any summons issued in terms of section 10.

It was noted that while three separate letters were written to the minister reminding him of his commitment, no summons were issued to that effect.

“It is a fact that the committee did not exhaust all legal processes at its disposal in its endeavour to secure the production of the bearer share warrant certificates by Minister Chinamasa. It is the view of the chair that in the interest of efficiently discharging the oversight function of Parliament, the committee has the discretion to revisit this matter in order to finalise its investigation of this case,” said Mr Moyo.

“Accordingly, the chair rules that there is no prima facie case against Minister Chinamasa.”
The Speaker, however, warned Government Ministers to respect the institution of Parliament by timeously responding to requests made to them.
“Ministers of Government should bear in mind that they are members of this institution and thus, are expected to uphold the integrity of Parliament. Going to the extent of summoning a Minister of Government must rarely be resorted to as this unnecessarily strains relations between the Executive and Parliament,” said Mr Moyo.

Minister Chinamasa and Mr Gwaradzimba on one hand representing Government are embroiled in an ownership dispute with former SMM shareholder, Mr Mutumwa Mawere.
On Mr Gwaradzimba, the Speaker said his perusal of the March 4th, 2011 NewsDay, which published the statements forming the basis of contempt of Parliament allegations, showed utterances that could reasonably be deemed to demean the proceedings and character of the committee. Examples of the utterances, said Mr Moyo, were that MPs involved in the investigation of the matter were not

Honourable, that they work for Mr Mawere, that they were alarmists with special interests in SMM and that they were shouting at Mr Gwaradzimba.
“These utterances establish a prima-facie case of contempt of Parliament. Accordingly, the chair rules that there is a prima-facie case against Mr Gwaradzimba warranting the appointment by the

House of a Committee on Privileges to look into this matter,” he said.
The committee had asked the Speaker last month to make a determination on whether or not the two were in contempt of Parliament as envisaged by the Select Committee rule Number Eleven of the Standing Orders.

This was during a presentation of the committee’s report on SMM, which recommended that a lasting solution be found on the mining giant in order to save workers and help in the development of the economy.