LACK of funds has hampered government’s constitutional mandate to teach members of the uniformed forces and civil servants about the new Constitution as stipulated in Chapter 7 of the country’s charter, Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa told MPs on Wednesday. SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
Mnangagwa also revealed that his ministry was facing challenges in aligning more than 400 Acts of Parliament with the new Constitution.
He was responding to a question by MDC-T Kuwadzana East MP Nelson Chamisa who wanted to know why uniformed forces and civil servants had not yet undergone lessons on the new Constitution and why laws were not being harmonised urgently to curb corruption which he said was now rampant in the country.
“The process of harmonising and aligning Acts of Parliament to the new Constitution is on course and we have already identified in excess of 400 Acts of Parliament which require substantially or consequentially to be aligned with the Constitution,” said Mnangagwa.
“It is true that the Department of Constitutional Affairs in the ministry has done an exercise in compliance with the Constitution that we must make the public aware of the new Constitution, but the constraint that we have is funding,” he said.
On the issue of the uniformed forces, Mnangagwa said: “The fact that you believe or you have the perception that members of the defence forces do not understand the Constitution is misplaced. The Constitution of the country was a product of a national exercise, the defence forces included. All who become officers in the military should undertake particular courses which relate to issues of the Constitution and human rights.”
In its 2014 World Report released last week, Human Rights Watch said Zimbabwe’s human rights record was still poor despite the adoption of a new Constitution.
