Bill Watch 30/2019
Tripartite Negotiating Forum Act Gazetted
11 June 2019
and Coming Up in Parliament This Week
Question Time will, as usual, be on Thursday afternoon. There are eleven
written questions with notice on the Order Paper already; at least six have
gone unanswered from last year.
Coming up in the National Assembly
Bills
Bills about to be passed and sent to the Senate
Microfinance Amendment Bill
Consumer Protection Bill
On Thursday 30th May the National Assembly went through the Committee
Stages of both these Bills, amended them and transmitted them to the PLC
for its report on the constitutionality of the amendments. The PLC met last
week and cleared both Bills. This means that the National Assembly can
now pass both Bills on 11th June and send them to the Senate, which in
turn should be able to start.
Education Amendment Bill
This Bill is item 1 on the National Assembly’s Order Paper for Tuesday 11th
June. Public hearings have been held and the portfolio committee’s report
on the public’s views should by now be ready for presentation.
Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency Bill [link] : PLC report ready
This Bill was given its First Reading and sent to the PLC on 9th May. The
PLC’s report has been completed and may be announced today, clearing
the way for the start of the Second Reading stage.
Maintenance of Peace and Order Bill [link] : Still under consideration by
PLC
This Bill, too, was given its First Reading and sent to the PLC on 9th May
– but is still under consideration. Legal commentators have criticised much
of the controversial Bill as being inconsistent with the Constitution – for
example, see Bill Watch 24/2019 [link].
Motions
Early agenda items for today include for continuation of adjourned debates on
motions on: the President’s speech opening the current session; the ZHRC’s
Report on the 2018 Harmonised Elections; the Judicial Service Commission’s
Report for the year 2018. New motions listed thereafter concern: the Report
of the Delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Meeting on the Adoption of
the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration held in Rabat,
Morocco on 6th and 7th December 2018; a call to Government to take
measures to economically empower and safeguard the welfare of Veterans of
the Liberation Struggle – was veterans, war collaborators and ex-detainees –
including aligning the relevant pieces of legislation to the Constitution; a call
decentralise the collection of vehicle licence fees and road user charges to