A Kenyan media specialist and director of Article 19 East Africa, Henry Maina, has urged Zimbabwean MPs to promote Private Member’s Bills or amendments to current laws deemed oppressive to the media environment.
Speaking to NewsDay on the sidelines of a conference for journalists and lawyers organised by the Media Institute of Southern Africa in Masvingo at the weekend, Maina said it was also imperative for the MPs bringing Private Member’s Bills before Parliament to lobby other legislators from opposition political parties to support their Bills so that they would not face stiff opposition.
In Zimbabwe, MDC-T chief whip Innocent Gonese made history when he became the first MP to bring in a Private Member’s Bill in the form of the Public Order and Security Amendment Bill.
His efforts, however, hit a snag in the Senate after Justice and Legal Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa said it was a Global Political Agreement matter and blocked it from being discussed. Gonese’s amendments had however sailed through the House of Assembly where MPs across the political divide supported the Bill.
“MPs should make Private Member’s Bills knowing that other MPs from opposition parties might water the Bill down and they must be able to negotiate across parties so as to garner support for the Bill,” Maina said.
“It is also important to support other legislators’ Bills, especially if they are well crafted, so that when you bring your own Private Member’s Bill, your colleagues can back it up and support you.”
He said it was important that MPs involved technocrats when drafting Bills to be presented before Parliament.
“You do not just draft a Bill by yourself and take it to Parliament without back-up material or literature. Certain Bills will fall, not because they were bad, but because people did not understand the issues in it at that particular time,” he said.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Private Member’s Bills brought before the Fourth Session of the Seventh Parliament included amendments to Public Order and Security Act, amendments to the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, Sub-section three of Section 121, both brought before Parliament by Gonese, and amendments to the Urban Councils Act by Buhera Central MP Tangwara Matimba (both MDC-T MPs).
All the Bills face stiff opposition from Zanu PF, with Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo making a High Court application to block amendments to the Urban Councils Act.
