[9th December 2024]
Coming Up in Parliament This Week
The Senate adjourned on Wednesday 27th November, the day before the Minister of Finance gave his budget presentation, and the National Assembly adjourned immediately after his presentation. Neither House sat last week but both will be sitting this week. In this bulletin we shall outline the business they will be dealing with, but please bear the following points in mind:
- When the National Assembly and the Senate adjourn at the end of a week, they set down all outstanding business for the next appropriate sitting day. There is usually too much to be covered in one day, so whatever is not dealt with is postponed to the next appropriate day.
- Both Houses of Parliament can change the order in which they consider business.
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Tuesday 10th December
Budget debate
The Assembly will debate the budget, preparatory to passing the main Finance Bill.
Bills to be dealt with by the National Assembly
Two Bills are due to be dealt with next week:
- Persons with Disabilities Bill [link]
This Bill is due to begin its Committee Stage.
- Parks and Wild Life Amendment Bill [link]
The Second Reading of this Bill is due to continue.
International Agreement to be ratified
The Assembly will be asked to ratify an agreement of co-operation between the Ministries of Justice of Zimbabwe and the Russian Federation.
Portfolio Committee reports
Reports to be considered for adoption by the Assembly will cover the following topics:
- The state of the electricity supply in Zimbabwe
- Meagre pension pay-outs by NSSA
- Non-communicable diseases, including cancer
- Digitilisation project in Zimbabwe
- Failure by some local authorities to submit financial statements to the Auditor-General
- Food security in Zimbabwe
- Statelessness of migrants in Zimbabwe
- Exhumation and reburial of liberation war heroes and heroines
- Mobile and internet connectivity
- Infrastructure at schools constructed in 2023
- Financial statements of the Zimbabwe National Road Administration for 2021 and 2022.
Motions on the National Assembly order paper
Motions set to be debated by the Assembly will include the following topics:
- To protect indigenous herbal trees against over-exploitation
- To reserve 30 per cent of government tenders for youth-led enterprises
- To urge the Ministry of Finance to ensure that the Women’s Micro Finance Bank fulfils its mandate and to take measures to allow women to meet collateral requirements
- To urge the Registrar-General’s Office to conduct a mobile registration exercise to provide citizens with primary documents
- To avail more resources for treatment of mental disorders and to monitor and treat drug abuse countrywide
- Measures to improve digital infrastructure in Zimbabwe
- To introduce a separate class of drivers licence for vehicles with automatic transmission
- Reply to the President’s speech.
Petitions to be considered
- A petition on menstrual health and hygiene management
- A petition on the establishment of a nurse aides council.
Wednesday 11th November
Questions set down for answer
- Among questions set down for Ministers to answer on Wednesday 11th December are questions on the following issues:
- Religious radio licences
- Community share ownership trusts in the Hwange area
- Reopening of the Cold Storage Commission and payments to its former employees
- Compensation for former farm workers displaced during the fast-track land resettlement programme
- Maternal and neo-natal deaths during 2024
- Production of annual demographic health surveys since 2015
- An upsurge of HIV/AIDS cases in parts of Bulawayo
- The employment of general workers in government institutions
- Plans to prepare for the deportation of Zimbabweans from South Africa
- Measures to retain skilled workers in government departments
- Pension packages for long-serving civil servants
- Scrapping compulsory third-party insurance
- Liquidation of the Commercial Farmers’ Union stake in Kuvimba Mining House
- The Government’s purchase of the remaining shareholding in Kuvimba Mining House
- Progress in the IMF’s Staff Monitored Programme and the structured dialogue platform for debt management
- The ban on the importation of 10-year-old motor vehicles
- Payment of pensions by the Mining Industry Pension Fund
- Repair of environmental damage caused by open-cast mining
- Re-engagement with the government of the United States
- The position of SADC on the electoral conflict in Mozambique
- Ensuring that traditional leaders are non-partisan.
Parliamentary Legal Committee
The Committee is still considering the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill.
The Senate
Tuesday 10th November
International Agreement for ratification
The Senate will be asked to approve one international agreement:
- Agreement of co-operation between the Ministries of Justice of Zimbabwe and the Russian Federation.
Bills to be dealt with by the Senate
- Death Penalty Abolition Bill [link]: The Bill is due to undergo its Second Reading
- Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill [link]: This Bill is to be recommitted to the Senate, since the version of the Bill passed by the Senate in October contained errors, as explained in Bill Watch 39/2024 [link].
Thematic Committee reports to be considered
The Senate will be asked to adopt a reports on:
- The roll-out of ARVs and the effect of drug and substance abuse in preventing HIV/AIDS and other diseases
- The rights of elderly people.
Motions to be dealt with by the Senate
The Senate is expected to debate motions on the following topics:
- Reply to the President’s speech
- To improve the conditions of unpaid care and domestic workers
- Immunisation of children against measles
- New prosecuting guidelines published by the Prosecutor-General
- Preventing siltation, deforestation and preserving natural resources
- Children and drug abuse
- Increasing the involvement of women in mining activities
- Protection of constitutional gender rights
- Calling on traditional leaders to engage in cultural practices and conduct ancestral appeasement ceremonies.
Thursday 12th December
Questions set down for answer
Among questions for Ministers to answer on Thursday are questions on the following issues:
- Remuneration of teachers in government and private schools
- Labour practices by foreign-owned companies
- Protection of consumers from fake products and expired food products, and how to make complaints about product safety
- Why police officers were banned from using cellphones on duty
- The effects of Zimbabwe’s meddling in Mozambique elections
- Efficacy of measures against cholera
- Plans to prevent the construction of illegal structures
- The establishment of the parole board, mandated by the Prisons and Correctional Services Act.