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Appoint acting leader of the House – MDC-T

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OPPOSITION MDC-T chief whip Innocent Gonese yesterday demanded that an acting person be named as leader of the House in the absence of Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

OPPOSITION MDC-T chief whip Innocent Gonese yesterday demanded that an acting person be named as leader of the House in the absence of Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

by VENERANDA LANGA

However, the proposal was shot down by Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Mabel Chinomona, who argued that there was no provision to appoint anyone to become acting leader of the House in the absence of Mnangangwa.

Mnangagwa, who also doubles as the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, previously used to attend Parliament and take questions from backbenchers, but of late he has not been doing so since his appointment as Vice-President last December.

“As a matter of procedure, it is very important that particularly on Wednesdays we have question time, but today, who is acting as leader of the House because we are perplexed by the people sitting on the front bench?” Gonese asked.

“We are seeing a mixture of people aspiring to be ministers and those who have expired as ministers (those fired), and it was important at the beginning of this session that we know who is acting leader of the House,” he said.

Last week, ministers did not turn up as Cabinet was sitting, and in Senate, question time on Thursday did not take place because no single minister turned up.

Yesterday, Cabinet ministers who turned up were Obert Mpofu (Transport and Infrastructural Development), Walter Chidhakwa (Mines and Energy), Walter Mzembi (Tourism) and a handful of deputy ministers.

Chidhakwa told Parliament that all licenced gold millers who did not deliver gold to Fidelity risked cancellation of their licences. He was responding to a question from Nyanga North MP Magadzire Nyanhongo (Zanu PF) on measures put in place to curb mineral leakages.

Meanwhile, Gutu South MP Paul Chimedza (Zanu PF) asked Primary and Secondary Education deputy minister Paul Mavima to explain measures his ministry was going to take over high cases of indiscipline at schools after corporal punishment was banned and that children who failed to pay fees were not being chased away, causing parents to refrain from paying.

Mavima said the ban of corporal punishment was not done through a circular by his ministry, but it was an issue enshrined in the Constitution.