Both Houses of Parliament Will Resume on Tuesday 15Th December

Bill Watch 58/2015 The Coming Weekin Parliament; Budget and Bills1 December

BILL WATCH 59/2015

[12th December 2015]

Both Houses of Parliament will Resume on Tuesday 15th December

Bill Watches 57/2015 and 58/2015 of 30th November and 1st December focussed on the 2016 Budget Statement and Estimates of Expenditure presented by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development on Thursday 26th November. Both Houses then adjourned until Tuesday 15th December.

This bulletin aims to update readers on—

what happened in the National Assembly and the Senate on the 24th and 25th November, particularly on three important Bills – the General Laws Amendment Bill, the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Amendment Bill and the Banking Amendment Bill
what is due this coming week in Parliament [both Houses will resume sitting on Tuesday 15th]
new Bills and statutory instruments gazetted recently.

In the National Assembly: 24th and 25th November

Bills

General Laws Amendment Bill

More amendments made to Bill Following the recommittal of the Bill at the request of Vice-President Mnangagwa on 19th November, there was a second Committee Stage on Tuesday 24th November to consider further amendments tabled by the Vice-President [the amendments were outlined in Bill Watch 56/2015]. All the amendments were approved. They included the amendment regulating prosecutions for consensual sexual activity between girls and boys between 12 and 16 which Bill Watch 56/2015 said, perhaps too harshly, does not make sense [the new provision is, however, certain to confuse many readers].

The Bill was then returned to the Parliamentary Legal Committee [PLC] for its report on the latest amendments.

Criminal Procedure and Evidence Amendment Bill

More amendments made to BillThis Bill was recommitted at the request of Vice-President Mnangagwa, following the receipt of an adverse report from the PLC, which said the Bill’s modifications to section 121(3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act were unconstitutional. Both the Vice-President’s further amendments were approved—

one dealing with private prosecutions [in terms that adopt, or very nearly adopt, the position taken the Prosecutor-General during the litigation that reached the Constitutional Court on 28th October and resulted in the Prosecutor-General being found guilty of contempt of court;
the other amounting to a second attempt to resurrect section 121(3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [obviously hoping to neutralise the PLC’s adverse report on the first attempt],Reminder: section 121(3) was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.

And this Bill, too, was referred back to the PLC for further consideration and report.

No progress on Banking Amendment Bill

The Committee Stage of this Bill was not tackled, leaving the Bill stuck where it has been since 29th September.

MotionsOn Tuesday Hon Shamu withdrew his motion praising the President and the Defence Forces. No explanation for the withdrawal was given.

Question Time The sitting on Wednesday 25th November was taken up entirely by members’ questions and Ministerial replies.

In the Senate: 24th and 25th November

On 24th November Senator B. Sibanda, seconded by Senator Hlalo, introduced a motion about the declining socio-economic conditions in Zimbabwe, which calls for a Nation Stakeholders’ Indaba to address critical economic challenges. The debate took up the rest of the afternoon and the following afternoon. No business was dealt with on Thursday because Senators were following the Budget presentation in the National Assembly.

The Coming Week in the National Assembly

Budget business [Tuesday 15th December]

Item 1 on the Order Paper for Tuesday is continuation of the debate on the Budget Statement. This should be followed by consideration and approval of two sets of Estimates of Expenditure [Supplementary Estimates for 2015 and the regular Estimates for 2016] and the passage of the related Finance Bill and two Appropriation Bills. There is unlikely to be time for debate on current motions or the usual Question Time.

Note: The suggestion in earlier bulletins that Budget business would not commence until 16th December seems to have been incorrect, although it was based on announcements made by the Speaker and the President of the Senate.

Non-Budget Bills

If Budget business leaves time for anything else, there are other important Bills to be dealt with—

Banking Amendment BillThis is listed for its long-delayed Committee Stage [see above] which will involve consideration of Committee Stage amendments tabled by both the Minister of Finance and Economic Development and the Portfolio Committee on Finance and Economic Development.

PLC reports on GLA and CPE Amendment BillsThe PLC is due to present its second reports on—

the General Laws Amendment Bill [a non-adverse report is expected]
the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Amendment BillA second adverse report would not be surprising, given that there are fundamental objections to the “tweaked” new version of section 121(3) – which would still leave a prosecutor with the power arbitrarily to nullify, albeit for a shortened period, a magistrate’s decision to grant bail [see comment Bill Watch 56/2015].An adverse report would make it almost impossible for the Bill to go through the National Assembly this year, unless the Vice-President is willing to drop the new section 121(3).

The Coming Week in the Senate

Bills The Senate will need to deal with any Bills passed by the National Assembly. The Bills most likely to reach the Senate are the three Budget-related Bills – the Finance Bill and the two Appropriation Bills. In terms of the Constitution, the Senate cannot amend these Bills, but it can suggest changes for consideration by the National Assembly – and the National Assembly is free to accept or reject such suggestions.

Motions There are several debates to be continued, including the debate on promoting sport in Zimbabwe and the debate on the motion calling for a National Stakeholder’s Indaba to discuss critical national economic challenges.

Question Time [Thursday] This is unlikely to take place.

Bills Recently Gazetted

Five new Bills have been gazetted since our last update [all available from Veritas at the addresses given at the end of this bulletin]—

23rd November

Public Finance Management Amendment Bill [H.B. 14, 2015]

The amendments to the Public Finance Management Act contained in this Bill all focus on improving the governance and management of “public entities” [parastatals, State-controlled companies, local authorities, and State-private sector partnerships and joint ventures. All the provisions of the PFMA to be amended are in Part V [sections 39 to 51] which is devoted to such entities. There is no change to the existing provisions for management of the finances of Government Ministries and departments.

Special Economic Zones Bill [H.B. 15, 2015]

Anyone conversant with the Export Processing Zones Act [repealed by the Zimbabwe Investment Authority Act with effect from 1st January 2007] will find much that is familiar, for instance, the provision making the Labour Act inapplicable within special economic zone. Also inapplicable to licensed investors in special economic zones will be the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act. MPs and the Parliamentary Legal Committee are bound to object to the very last clause of the Bill, clause 58 [perhaps a hastily added afterthought?] – which, under the incongruous heading “Special Grants”, empowers the Minister of Finance and Economic Development to “prescribe” [i.e., make regulations by statutory instrument providing for] “general fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to licensed investors operating in a special economic zone”. How can such an untrammelled delegation of legislative power to a Minister possibly be consistent with section 134 of the Constitution, particularly paragraph (d) [which requires Parliament, when delegating power to make statutory instruments, to specify the limits of the power, the nature and scope of the statutory instruments that may be made, and the principles and standards applicable to them]?

4th December

Minerals Exploration and Marketing Corporation Bill [H.B. 11, 2015]

This is a Bill to replace the existing Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe Act, with a new Corporation [Minerals Exploration and Marketing Corporation] as the successor to the present Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe [MMCZ]. As the Bill’s supporting memorandum suggests, the major change is that the new corporation’s mandate will include exploration and prospecting for minerals in addition to responsibility, along the existing lines, for marketing of minerals. The corporation’s exploration and prospecting activities will be subject to the Mines and Minerals Act.

Appropriation (Supplementary) Bill [H.B. 16, 2015]

This Bill is to authorise Government expenditure in accordance with the Supplementary Estimates of Expenditure for 2015, if/as approved by the National Assembly [see Bill Watch 58/2015].

Appropriation (2016) Bill [H.B. 17, 2015]

This Bill is to authorise Government expenditure in accordance with the Estimates of Expenditure for next year, 2016, if/as approved by the National Assembly Bill Watches 57 and 58/2015].

Government Gazettes 23rd November to 11th December

Gazette Extraordinary dated 23rd November

Bills[see notes above]

Gazette Extraordinary dated 24th November

Procurement (Amendment) Regulations (No. 19) [SI 126/2015]]

Regular Gazette dated 27th November

Statutory Instrument

Chirundu Local Board (Parking and Clamping) By-laws [SI 127/2015]

Regular Gazette dated 4th December

Bills[see notes above]

Statutory Instrument

Zvishavane Town Council (Pre-Paid Parking Discs) By-laws [SI 128/2015]

Gazette Extraordinary dated 7th December

Road Traffic (Construction, Equipment and Use) Regulations [SI 129/2015] [not available from Veritas]. These lengthy regulations replace the controversial SI 154/2010, which were struck down as ultra vires, null and void by Justice Bere in November 2012. The new regulations do not repeat the careless error that prompted Justice Bere to nullify SI 154/2010 as a whole. Nor do they re-enact the ban on importing left-hand drive vehicles that the judge rejected as ultra vires. Still there, however, are the provisions requiring all vehicles to be equipped with serviceable fire extinguishers and reflective warning triangles.

Income tax exemption for dam-builders GN 387/2015, over the signature of the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, exempts Salini Impreglio and its expatriate employees from corporate income tax and employment tax, respectively. This is said to be required by the agreement between the Government and Salini Impreglio for the construction of the Tokwe-Mukosi Dam.

Regular Gazette dated 11th December

Customs duty suspension for mining development operations SIs 131 and 132/2015 add to the growing list of companies granted three-year customs duty suspensions in in terms of section 9K of the Customs and Excise (Suspension) Regulations, a section dating from the beginning of 2011. The suspensions are tightly controlled by the Secretary for Mines and Mining Development and ZIMRA, and they apply only to goods of a capital nature to be used in mining development operations, including sinking of shafts, installation of equipment and machinery, and erection of facilities for treating, storing etc. of minerals.

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