Bill Watch 4/2025

[8th February 2025]

NEXT WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

On the 11th February both Houses of Parliament will come back after a long break – they adjourned in mid-December last year.  In this Bill Watch we shall outline the business they are expected to deal with when they resume sitting, but please bear the following points in mind:

  • When the National Assembly and the Senate adjourn, they set down all outstanding business on their Order Papers (i.e. their agendas) for the next appropriate sitting day.  There is usually too much to be covered in one day, so whatever is not dealt with is postponed to the next appropriate day.
  • Both Houses of Parliament can change the order in which they consider business.

National Assembly

[8th February 2025]

International agreement to be ratified
The Assembly will be asked to ratify the African Charter on Statistics, signed in Addis Ababa on the 4th February 2009.
Bills to be dealt with
Two Bills are due to be dealt with by the Assembly:

  • Persons with Disabilities Bill [link]

This Bill is due to begin its Committee Stage.  Extensive amendments are proposed to the Bill.

  • Parks and Wild Life Amendment Bill [link]

The Second Reading of this Bill is due to continue.

Report of Constitutional Commission to be considered
The Assembly will be asked to consider the report of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission for 2023.
Portfolio Committee reports
Reports to be considered for adoption by the Assembly will cover the following topics:

  • The state of the electricity supply in Zimbabwe
  • Meagre pension pay-outs by NSSA
  • Non-communicable diseases, including cancer
  • Implementation of the digitisation project in Zimbabwe
  • Failure by some local authorities to submit financial statements to the Auditor-General
  • Food security in Zimbabwe
  • Statelessness of migrants in Zimbabwe
  • Mobile and internet connectivity
  • Infrastructure at schools constructed in 2023
  • Financial statements of the Zimbabwe National Road Administration for 2021 and 2022.

Motions on the National Assembly order paper
Motions set to be debated by the Assembly will include the following topics:

  • Protection of indigenous herbal trees against over-exploitation
  • Reservation of 30 per cent of government tenders for youth-led enterprises
  • Urging the Ministry of Finance to ensure that the Women’s Micro Finance Bank fulfils its mandate and to enable women to meet collateral requirements
  • Urging the Registrar-General’s Office to conduct a mobile registration exercise to provide citizens with primary documents by the end of 2024
  • More resources for treatment of mental disorders and for monitoring and treating drug abuse
  • Measures to improve digital infrastructure in schools
  • Introducing a separate class of drivers licence for vehicles with automatic transmission
  • Reply to the President’s speech.

Petitions to be considered

  • A petition on menstrual health and hygiene management
  • A petition calling for reburial of heroes and heroines of the Liberation War
  • A petition on the establishment of a nurse aides council

Wednesday 12th February

Questions set down for answer
Among questions set down for Ministers to answer on Wednesday 12th February are questions on the following issues:

  • Religious radio licences
  • Community share ownership trusts in the Hwange area
  • Reopening of the Cold Storage Commission and payments to its former employees
  • Compensation for former farm workers displaced during the fast-track land resettlement programme
  • Maternal and neo-natal deaths during 2024
  • Production of annual demographic health surveys since 2015
  • An upsurge of HIV/AIDS cases in parts of Bulawayo
  • Employment of general workers in government institutions
  • Preparations for receiving Zimbabweans deported from South Africa
  • Measures to retain skilled workers in government departments
  • Pension packages for long-serving civil servants
  • Scrapping compulsory third-party insurance
  • Reopening the Bindura Nickel Mine
  • Liquidation of the Commercial Farmers’ Union stake in Kuvimba Mining House
  • The Government’s purchase of the remaining shareholding in Kuvimba Mining House
  • Progress in the IMF’s Staff Monitored Programme and the structured dialogue platform for debt management
  • The ban on the importation of 10-year-old motor vehicles
  • Payment of pensions by the Mining Industry Pension Fund
  • Repair of environmental damage caused by open-cast mining
  • Re-engagement with the government of the United States
  • The position of SADC on the electoral conflict in Mozambique
  • Allocation of land to religious organisations
  • Ensuring that traditional leaders are non-partisan

Parliamentary Legal Committee

The Committee is considering the Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill [link].

SENATE
Tuesday 11 February

Bill to be dealt with by the Senate

  • Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill [link]:  This Bill is to be recommitted to the Senate, since the version of the Bill passed by the Senate in October contained errors, as explained in Bill Watch 39/2024 [link].

Report of Constitutional Commission to be considered
The Senate will be asked to consider the report of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission for 2023.
Thematic Committee reports to be considered
The Senate will be asked to adopt reports on:

  • Drug and substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation centres
  • Community share ownership trusts
  • The roll-out of ARVs and the effect of drug and substance abuse in preventing HIV/AIDS and other diseases
  • The rights of elderly people.

Motions to be dealt with by the Senate
The Senate is expected to debate motions on the following topics:

  • Reply to the President’s speech
  • Production of illegal alcoholic beverages
  • Improving the conditions of unpaid care and domestic workers
  • Immunisation of children against measles
  • New prosecuting guidelines published by the Prosecutor-General
  • Preventing siltation, deforestation and preserving natural resources
  • Children and drug abuse
  • Increasing the involvement of women in mining activities
  • Protection of constitutional gender rights
  • Calling on traditional leaders to engage in cultural practices and conduct ancestral appeasement ceremonies.

Thursday 12 December

Questions set down for answer
Among questions for Ministers to answer on Thursday are questions on the following issues:

  • The establishment of the parole board, mandated by the Prisons and Correctional Services Act.
  • Remuneration of teachers in government and private schools
  • Labour practices by foreign-owned companies
  • Protection of consumers from fake products and expired food products, and telling them how to make complaints about product safety
  • Banning police officers from using cellphones on duty
  • The effects of Zimbabwe’s meddling in Mozambique elections
  • Efficacy of measures against cholera
  • Plans to prevent the construction of illegal structures

Additional Bills

The following Bills have been published in the Gazette but do not appear on the Order Paper of either House.  They will presumably be dealt with later in the session:

Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill,2024 [link] (published 22/11/2024)
Insurance and Pensions Commission Amendment Bill, 2024 [link] (published 20/12/2024)
Medical Services Amendment Bill, 2024 [link] (published 19/7/2024)
State Service (Pensions) Bill, 2024 [link] (published 6/12/2024)