Both Houses of Parliament are currently in recess until Tuesday 5th March. As a result routine meetings of Senate Thematic Committees and National Assembly Portfolio Committees have been suspended until Monday 4th March. But some committee business will continue. This includes public hearings on the Bills listed below.
Public Hearings/Consultations on Bills
These will take place during the period commencing Monday 25th “February and ending on Friday 1stMarch and be conducted by the appropriate National Assembly Portfolio Committees.
Details of the programmes to be followed – venues, dates, times – will be given in a later bulletin or bulletins as soon as they are made available by Parliament.
The three Bills concerned are of major importance. All of them were listed in the Legislative Agenda for the current Parliamentary session presented by President Mnangagwa on 18th September last year at the opening of the Ninth Parliament: see Bill Watch 26/2018 [link] . All are available for downloading on the Veritas website using the links given below.
Tripartite Negotiating Forum Bill [link]
Purpose: To establish a Tripartite Negotiating Forum whose mandate will be to ensure consultation, cooperation and negotiation on social and economic issues by Government, Organised Business and Organised Labour.
Gazetted: 8th June 2018
Ministry: Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare
Portfolio Committee: Labour and Social Welfare
Companies and Other Business Entities Bill [link]
Purpose: To replace and update the law relating to companies and private business corporations.
Gazetted: 5th October 2018
Ministry: Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
Portfolio Committee: Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
Note: The Bill under consideration is the Bill bearing the Parliamentary reference number H.B. 8, 2018 and having 303 clauses and 310 pages [not the slightly different and shorter Bill of the same name that lapsed at the end of the last Parliament].
Consumer Protection Bill [link]
Purpose: To protect consumers of goods and services by establishing the Consumer Protection Agency, and regulation of Consumer Advocacy Organisations, and also to repeal the Consumer Contracts Act[link]
Gazetted: 21st December 2018
Ministry: Industry and Commerce
Portfolio Committee: Industry and Commerce
Reminder: Members of the public, including Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, can at any time send written submissions to Parliamentary committees by email addressed to clerk@parlzim.gov.zw or by letter posted to the Clerk of Parliament, P.O. Box 298, Causeway, Harare or delivered at Parliament’s Kwame Nkrumah Avenue entrance in Harare.
Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.
Post published in: Featured