STATUTES REQUIRING CONSTITUTIONAL ALIGNMENT __________________________________________________________________________________ vision protecting this freedom by ensuring that any controls imposed on research are strictly necessary in the interests of public safety. 47. Official Secrets Act [Chapter 11:09] This Act protects official “secrets” so fiercely that it clearly infringes freedom of expression guaranteed by section 61 of the Constitution. Section 3 of the Act makes it an offence to communicate to anyone any information that might be useful to an “enemy”, where the communication is done for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of Zimbabwe. Section 4 is even wider. It makes it an offence for anyone who has information that has been entrusted to him or her by a State official, or which he or she has obtained through employment as a State official, to communicate that information to anyone other than a person whom it is his or her duty to communicate it. A public officer who discloses the number of cups of tea drunk in his or her Ministry would breach the Act, and under section 7 anyone who harbours or conceals that public officer is also guilty of an offence. The penalties laid down for these offences are draconian, to say the least. The Act should be repealed or completely revised. 48. Parliamentary Salaries, Allowances and Benefits Act [Chapter 2:03]* The Act The Act is out of date and still does not comply with the Constitution, despite being amended by the General Laws Amendment Act, 2016. Some inadequacies are indicated below. There is an obvious need for an entirely new Act. • Section 4 (Benefits for Attorney-General): There is no longer any need for this provision. Under section 340(1)(e) of the Constitution the President has adequate powers fix the remuneration of the Attorney-General. The section should not be repeated in any new Act since the Attorney-General is not strictly a member of Parliament and his remuneration is fixed under the Constitution itself. • Remuneration of Members and Office-bearers of Parliament: Section 153 of the Constitution distinguishes between the remuneration of the Speaker and the President of the Senate (which must be prescribed “in” an Act of Parliament) and the remuneration payable to Members of Parliament (which must be prescribed “under” an Act of Parliament). Section 6 of the Act merely empowers the President to fix the remuneration of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker and other Parliamentary office-bearers. The Constitution, on the other hand, requires the remuneration of the Speaker (and that of the President of the Senate) to be prescribed in the Act itself. • The President and Deputy President of the Senate are not mentioned at all in the Act. They should be. • The Speaker and Deputy Speaker are still referred to as “of Parliament” instead as “of the National Assembly”. 49. Plant Pests and Diseases Act [Chapter 19:08] This Act is another one that originates from the Parliament of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and like the others it is unconstitutional because it gives exces- 15