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NewsDay

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Bunking Parly business: Ministers’ commitment under spotlight

News
BUNKING of question time by ministers in both Houses of the Zimbabwe Parliament still continues despite calls by MPs across the political divide that ministers should attend.

BUNKING of question time by ministers in both Houses of the Zimbabwe Parliament — the Senate and National Assembly — still continues despite calls by MPs across the political divide that ministers should attend so they can take questions on policy issues by the electorate.

Veneranda Langa

emmerson-mnangagwa

Although a handful of ministers have been dedicated and have very often showed up in both Houses to take questions from legislators, some have fallen into the habit of sending their deputies to attend question-time much to the chagrin of MPs who have always argued that deputy ministers were not competent enough to answer questions on policy issues as they did not sit in Cabinet.

However, most deputy ministers have been competent and have shown that they were very cognisant of what was happening at their ministries, and to mention a few, these are Information, Media and Broadcasting Services deputy minister Supa Mandiwanzira, Home Affairs deputy minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, and Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs deputy minister Fortune Chasi.

Generally, most deputy ministers seem to be dedicated to their work and have attended question and answer sessions — although at times some of them were dressed down in the House by legislators and adjudged to be less knowledgeable about issues happening at their ministries than their ministers.

Maridadi attacks Mutezo over unsatisfactory answers

James-Maridadi

A recent case in point was the issue where legislators in the National Assembly felt that the Energy and Power Development deputy minister Munacho Mutezo was failing to satisfactorily answer a question on blending of fuel with ethanol.

Mabvuku-Tafara MP James Maridadi (MDC-T) had to ask Mutezo to take his seat using very strong language, which the Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda felt was un-parliamentary.

When Mutezo stuttered while explaining government requirement of E15 mandatory blending of fuel — an unimpressed Maridadi said: “If the minister does not know the answer, he must be comfortable enough to say he does not know and go home. I am saying he can stay in the House and please shut up.”

Mudenda had to ask Maridadi to withdraw the verbal attacks on Mutezo, which Maridadi did.

Zindi livid by Made, Zhanda standoff Another incident was when Mutasa South MP Irene Zindi (Zanu PF) raised an issue over the absence of ministers in the House when Agriculture (Livestock) deputy minister Paddy Zhanda made a contradictory statement to that of his minister Joseph Made on the Grain Marketing Board being the buyer of last resort pertaining to maize.

While Zhanda maintained GMB was the buyer of last resort, Made quickly organised a Press briefing where he contradicted Zhanda’s statement and said GMB was actually not a buyer of last resort and, therefore, people should sell their maize to GMB.

Zindi had to raise a point of order with the Speaker to say the contradicting statements by the Agriculture minister and his deputy emanated from the fact that ministers bunked question and answer sessions resulting in their deputies taking questions from MPs on Wednesdays in the National Assembly and on Thursdays in Senate.

Although there is nothing wrong in the deputy ministers answering to questions from backbenchers in Parliament, Zindi argued the problem was that deputy ministers did not sit in Cabinet and, therefore, would not be well conversant in policy matters that were discussed and decided by Cabinet.

ZBC now airsParly debates live

Calls to have ministers constantly attend Wednesday’s question and answer sessions in the National Assembly and on Thursdays in the Senate have intensified during the current First Session of the Eighth Parliament to the extent that Kuwadzana East MP Nelson Chamisa (MDC-T) introduced a motion calling for live coverage of Parliamentary debates.

In his arguments, Chamisa raised the issue that live coverage would, therefore, expose ministers who constantly bunked question and answer sessions.

“Live coverage of Parliament sessions would enhance the quality of debate in the House, expose playful MPs and ministers who bunked question and answer sessions and promote democracy and transparency,” Chamisa said.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) have since heeded the call by Chamisa and people in Zimbabwe can now watch live transmission of the Wednesday question and answer session in the National Assembly.

Presumably, those Zimbabweans who watched the sessions were now able to judge the competency of their ministers in articulating government policies in Parliament as well as take note of which ministers attended or bunked question and answer sessions.

Hopefully, the ZBC live coverage will also be extended to Senate whose question and answer sessions have not yet been screened live on Thursdays.

Mudenda puts Mnangagwa to task mudenda

Recently, Mudenda and Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Emmerson Mnangagwa were put to task in the National Assembly for continuous deferments of written questions that are recorded in the Order Paper by some ministers.

Some questions had been deferred because the minister was either absent in the House or was present, but asked for permission to further research on the response to the question.

In light of continued deferments to some written questions, Glen View North legislator Fani Munengami (MDC-T) ended up asking Mnangagwa, who is the Leader of the House, to explain why ministers were getting away with absence in the House on Wednesdays.

“Deputy ministers do not sit in Cabinet and it is only ministers who sit in Cabinet. We have had many instances whereby deputy ministers have failed to answer to questions and have had them deferred so that they will be answered when the ministers attended. What recourse do we have as MPs because we are sent by our constituents to ask those questions,” Munengami said.

MDC (Ncube) MP Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga added: “We have noticed that in fact, the front bench is now dominated by deputy ministers and not necessarily ministers who sit in Cabinet. Why do we have a situation whereby all ministers are busy every Wednesday and only deputy ministers are present?”

But Mnangagwa argued members of the Executive had a collective responsibility and when a deputy minister appeared before Parliament, they would be speaking on the same page as their ministers.

Mudenda reads riot act to truant ministers

While Mnangagwa’s assertions might be true to a certain extent, Mudenda has, however, since read the riot act on truant ministers and said the Standing Rules and Orders Committee (SROC) will look at the issue of absenteeism during question and answer sessions.

According to Section 151 of the Constitution, the SROC is appointed for the purposes of supervising the administration of Parliament, formulating standing orders, considering and deciding all matters concerning Parliament and exercising any other functions conferred upon them.

“Collective responsibility is indeed exercised in this House, but the SROC from time to time will have to review excessive absenteeism of ministers during question time. I say this because in terms of the Constitution it is mandatory for ministers to attend to Parliament business. Since it is a constitutional mandate we believe ministers have a responsibility in reasonable time to give answers to written questions. If they do not do so we (SROC) will have authority to take action,” Mudenda said.

Question time is practiced in different Parliaments worldwide and is divided into oral questions and written questions.

Oral, written questions time allocations per week In Zimbabwe, oral questions are allocated an hour per week and written questions another hour.

If a backbencher is not satisfied with the minister’s response, they are allowed to ask a supplementary question.

Written questions are checked to ensure they meet the requirements of the Houses’ Standing Orders before they are transmitted to the relevant ministers and often ministers have ample time to get their ministry officials to research on the responses to enable them to give a written response to Parliament.

A quick survey of the quality of written questions asked by MPs in the National Assembly and Senate Order Papers showed that most of the questions related to issues that affected their constituencies.

These include, for example issues of completion of bridges, schools, clinics, roads and so on.

Origins of question time

Question time originated from the Westminister Parliamentary system of the United Kingdom and it occurs in most countries including Zimbabwe.

During the inclusive government, Zimbabwe introduced the Prime Minister’s question time, whereby the then former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai used to respond to questions from legislators once every month.

Questions from backbenchers also allow ministers to discuss the virtues of government policy, or to attack the opposition, for example, Chamisa very often challenges Mnangagwa to explain government pronouncements, prompting the minister to attack the opposition.

Zvoma says imperative for ministers, legislators to attend Parly austin-zvoma

NewsDay, during a question and answer session with Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma, asked him to explain his view on the absence of ministers during question and answer sessions in Parliament.

Zvoma said Parliament played a pivotal role as a public institution and it was imperative for ministers to attend question and answer sessions.

“Parliament plays an important role as a public institution and one would think ministers should feel obliged to come and answer questions for the benefit of the nation. From an executive perspective, one would assume that every minister would want to avail themselves to answer and respond to issues raised to do with his ministry,” Zvoma responded.

“So, it is regrettable when ministers do not come and appear before the House because backbenchers raise issues on behalf of the electorate and various interest groups and stakeholders.

“If ministers do not appear it seems to undermine the whole process of having a Parliament. Appeals have been made by the Prime Minister, the Speaker and other Speakers before this current Parliament to say ministers should appear to answer questions. This is something that comes as a culture but sometimes we have a full bench of ministers in attendance. The regrettable thing is that even those MPs who decry the absence of ministers did the same when they were ministers.”