Parly Committee cancels Bulawayo public hearings Parliament of Zimbabwe

Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter
THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs was yesterday forced to cancel public consultations in Bulawayo on the Attorney-General’s Office Amendment Bill and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Amendment Bill after members of the public and lawyers failed to show up.

The main purpose of the Attorney-General’s Office (Amendment) Bill (2019) is to provide for the appointment of deputies to the Attorney-General so as to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the Attorney-General’s Office.

Section 114 of the Constitution provides for the appointment of the AG but does not provide for the appointment of his or her deputies.

However, Section 340(3) of the Constitution gives room for the creation of one or more deputies to any constitutional appointee.

The National Prosecuting Authority (Amendment) Bill (2019) provides for the appointment of Deputy Prosecutors-General to assist the Prosecutor-General in the discharge of his or her constitutional mandate.

The Bill is designed to improve the governance structure of the NPA. The Bill also takes account of the accounting status of the Authority. Clause 5 of the Bill provides for the appointment, by the Board in consultation with the Minister, of Deputy Prosecutors-General who shall head specific prosecutorial sections and other departments of the Authority as well as supervise the members assigned thereto.

The Deputy Prosecutors-General shall be subject to the direction of the Prosecutor-General on the discharge of their duties.

The chairperson of the Parliament’s portfolio committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Misheck Mataranyika confirmed the cancellation of the Bulawayo meeting.

“Unfortunately, the two Bills are technical and they did draw a lot of interest from members of the public largely because they don’t understand the contents and precisely that is why there was no turn out. What is, however, rather disappointing is that despite all our efforts to flight adverts in the newspapers, on radio and even writing to the Law Society of Zimbabwe, there were no lawyers yet these bills directly affect their work,” he said.

“We expected some lawyers to attend and present their views as the bill directly affects the legal fraternity. As a committee we, therefore, had to make a resolution to call off the meeting in Bulawayo.”

Mr Mataranyika said in Gweru, they had one representative from the Law Society of Zimbabwe and they asked him to put his submissions in writing.

“This is not the end of the chapter for those who feel that they can have meaningful submissions to make as they are free to do so within the next two weeks before we compile our report and present it in Parliament,” he said.

The purpose of the public hearings is to seek people’s views in fulfilment of section 141 of the Constitution.

The committee is divided into two groups. One team conducted hearings in Manicaland and Harare while the other covered Gweru and Bulawayo.

The meetings started on Monday in Harare and at Gweru Civic Centre, while yesterday the public hearings were set for Bulawayo and Mutare. — @mashnets

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