4.1. PROCEDURES FOR THE CONDUCT OF THE PUBLIC HEARINGS The Constitution provides in Section 141 that there must be public participation in the legislative process. As such, public hearings are one vehicle through which Parliament allows the public to participate in the business of Parliament. According to the Draft Public Hearing Guidelines of Parliament, October 2003, the purpose of Public Hearings includes;  To inform the public and interested parties about proposed changes and implications of public policy.  To obtain public views and recommendations on public policy and programs.  To facilitate an appreciation of government policies and legislation and therefore reduce chances of difficulty in policy implementation.  Sensitize Members of Parliament and policy makers on popular sentiments and to get first hand feedback from the public about local concerns, perspectives and suggestions for improvement through interaction. Public hearings are held under three broad areas namely Pre-hearings, Hearings and Post Hearings. The activities that are associated with these aforementioned phases are as follows: PRE-HEARING- This stage involves planning and designing the public hearings by establishing dates and times. Once the dates and times are available, the venues may also be identified so that advertisements are made. Security is supposed to be provided both physically and verbally as well as media coverage of the event in a bid to uphold democratic ideals of transparency and accountability. Record keeping in the form of attendance registers is also a requirement of the pre-hearing process. With regards to the NPRC public hearings, it was observed that despite Parliament complying with some of the pre-hearing requirements such as establishing dates and venues, the venues were not suitable to accommodate all participants. Kwekwe theatre in particular, was dark and had no seats for all participants resulting in some of them standing during the hearing process. In addition, Tendai Hall in Bindura according to some participants, is alleged to have been used as a torture base during past election periods and yet the NPRC public hearing was held at the same place. Some acts of lawlessness also occurred in Chinhoyi where some self-proclaiming ZANU- 4