Rédaction Africa Links 24 with dayton
Published on 2024-02-05 22:26:29
attendees at the Parliament Building as part of the induction programme for members of the Zimbabwe Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, Mr Chokuda said the process of recalling legislators was a political matter and not a function of Parliament.
“The authority to recall a Member of Parliament rests with the political party under whose ticket the legislator was elected. Parliament’s role is simply to announce the decision that has been communicated to us by the political party,” Mr Chokuda said.
The Clerk of Parliament’s remarks come at a time when there has been an increase in the number of recalls of legislators by different political parties in the country, with the latest being the recall of seven legislators by the MDC-T led by Dr Thokozani Khupe.
Observers say the increase in recalls is widening the gap between Parliament and the electorate, a situation that Mr Chokuda acknowledged, saying that there is need to manage the expectations of the electorate on the role of Parliament.
“Parliament would want to have more powers including the power to elect, conduct disciplinary hearings, and recall Members of Parliament among others, but the Constitution does not give us that mandate. The electorate should be made aware that we don’t have those powers,” Mr Chokuda said.
However, the Clerk of Parliament said there were some issues that Parliament was keen on getting more powers on, including the oversight over the Executive.
“Currently, we do not have the powers to summon a Minister to come and answer before the House. We have to write to the President in order to summon a Minister to come and answer before the House,” Mr Chokuda said.
In light of this, the Parliament of Zimbabwe is in the process of rationalising the country’s laws that have an impact on the powers of the legislature.
“Work is already in progress. There is a law that is going to come before Parliament, the Legislative Reform Bill. This is work that is in progress,” Mr Chokuda said.
He said that once the Legislative Reform Bill is enacted into law, it was going to give Parliament some of the powers that it has been yearning for.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Model Law on Elections is also going to give Parliament more powers to enforce electoral laws. “The Model Law is still under consideration. There is a need to have an electoral law that is above any other law,” he said.
Regarding the induction programme for members of the Zimbabwe Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, Mr Chokuda said the sessions were meant to equip the members with the knowledge of the legislative environment they were going to work in.
“The programme is meant to bring the new members and bring them together so that we share with them some of the basic information about the legislature, how it works, its systems, processes, procedures and services that are available to them as members of Parliament,” he said.
In addition to the lectures, Mr Chokuda said there were also interactive sessions where the members are given the opportunity to network and share experiences.
Read Original article on The Herald
