Bill Watch 41/2019
Supplementary Budget Statement Due on 1st August
plus Parliamentary Roundup
31 July 2019
BILL WATCH 41/2019
[31st July 2019]
Both Houses of Parliament Are Sitting Again This Week
Both the Senate and the National Assembly will continue sitting this week, the
third week of the current series of sittings. And, in a departure from the Sitting
Calendar, both Houses will sit again next week to deal with the Supplementary
Budget [see next paragraph] and, possibly, to complete work on current Bills [see
below, in paragraphs headed In Parliament Last Week and Yesterday and This
Week in Parliament].
Supplementary Budget to be Presented Thursday 1st August
The Minister of Finance and Economic Development will tomorrow present his
Supplementary Budget Statement for 2019 in the National Assembly. The Order
Paper lists this item as a notice of motion by the Minister seeking leave to make
further provision for the revenues and public funds of Zimbabwe and to make
provision for ancillary and incidental matters [Constitution, section 303(3)].
The Supplementary Budget exercise will involve presentation of the
Supplementary Budget Statement, Supplementary Estimates of Expenditure
["Blue Book"], an Appropriation Bill to give effect to the Estimates, and a Finance
(No 2) Bill to give effect to tax measures such as changes to the income tax bands
already mentioned by the Minister.
NSSA Forensic Audit Report to be Tabled on 1st August
Yesterday, Tuesday 30th July, the Speaker assured MPs that the Minister of
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare would table this report at the start of
proceedings on Thursday 1st August. He was responding to a motion for
contempt of Parliament charges to be brought against the Minister for her failure
to comply with the Speaker's earlier ruling on the subject.
In the National Assembly Last Week and Yesterday
Bills
Maintenance of Peace and Order Bill [link]
An Adverse Report on this Bill by the Parliamentary Legal Committee [PLC] was
announced on 24th July. It identified eleven clauses of the Bill as unconstitutional
[see Bill Watch 39/2019 [link]]. Yesterday, the Minister of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs asked for consideration of the Adverse Report by the
National Assembly to be suspended to allow time for discussion of the
Government's proposed amendments to the Bill, conceding to the PLC's
views. This may mean that the Adverse Report will be withdrawn if the PLC
agrees that the Minister’s amendments cure all the unconstitutional aspects of the
Bill.
Education Amendment Bill [link]
The Committee Stage was completed on 25th July, with the adoption of some, but
not all, of the amendments proposed on behalf of the Portfolio Committee on