THE Fifth Session of the Seventh Parliament will be opened next Tuesday following the gazetting of the date by President Robert Mugabe last Friday.
Report by Feluna Nleya, Staff Reporter
Part of the notice in the Government Gazette reads: “. . . under and by virtue of the powers vested in the President as aforesaid, I do, by this my proclamation prorogue Parliament on Monday the 29th October 2012, fix Parliament Building, Harare, as the place at which the Fifth Session of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe shall be held; and twelve o’clock noon on Tuesday the 30th October, 2012, as the time and date at which the Fifth Session of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe shall begin.”
Last month, MDC-T and MDC parliamentarians accused Mugabe of delaying the official opening of the new Parliament session by more than two months, derailing the legislative process.
This session of Parliament was supposed to have been opened in July, but Mugabe kept postponing it, raising fears the delays were part of his Zanu PF party’s plan to stifle debate on contentious Bills and to defer Parliament business until proclamation of general election.
The current session of Parliament has only passed the Electoral Amendment Bill which Mugabe has assented into law, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill and the Older Persons Bill which have all been enacted into law.
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A total of 31 motions are yet to be concluded by the House of Assembly, 10 of which are notices that are yet to be introduced.
Among some of the outstanding motions which have been on the House of Assembly’s Order Paper for more than two months is a motion to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate allegations of corruption at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.