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| Victor Matemadanda |
Moses
Ziyambi
MASVINGO
–
Zanu PF national political commissar Victor Matemadanda has attacked Members of
Parliament (MPs) from his own party for lacking seriousness with parliamentary
business, saying many pieces of legislation were lagging behind schedule due to
absenteeism.
Speaking at a
Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) meeting in Masvingo today, Matemadanda,
who is also the Deputy Minister of Defence and War Veterans, said many Zanu PF MPs did
not deserve to be in parliament due to their unbecoming conduct.
“As Zanu PF, we are the
majority in parliament and we do not need anybody’s support to pass any law but
what is happening now is that many bills are behind schedule because we hardly
have the numbers in parliament at any seating.
“You give them fuel
coupons today, tomorrow you don’t find them. You give them the diesel that is
due to them, they take it away and use it on their farms or they use it to
drive to their girlfriends and boyfriends.
“At one moment the President
had to send me to talk to them but they did not change. The President then
asked me if he needed to go and do the whipping duties himself and I told him what
the MPs were doing was the result of the democratic space he opened up where
everybody does as they please,” said Matemadanda.
He said reaching a
quorum in parliament was always difficult despite Zanu PF commanding a
two-thirds majority.
“What happens now is
that we cannot pass laws as swiftly as we want because we don’t have a quorum.
The MDC Alliance has realised that weakness on our part and they take advantage
of that to stall the passage of laws that are ideal to our vision as the ruling
party,” lamented Matemanda.
He also sought to
defend President Emmerson Mnangagwa from what he indicated to be malicious
attempts to link him to alleged gold smuggler Henrietta Rushwaya who was
arrested in Harare recently.
“So here is a President
whose own police and intelligence services intercepted and arrested a gold
smuggler at the airport. How then do you pin the smuggler on him and create a
relationship between them? You say the smuggler is his relative, but who told
you that?” said Matemadanda.
There are many bills
that need to be debated and finalised, and these include the Zimbabwe Manpower
Planning and Development Bill, the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) Bill, as well as he
Cyber Security and Data Protection Bill.
Besides the alignment
of many laws to the constitution being long overdue, government is also
grappling with the Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 2 which seeks to do
away with many provisions of the constitution including the contentious running
mate clause which otherwise will limit the President’s powers over his Vice
Presidents beginning in 2023.
