BILL WATCH 5/2025

This Week in Parliament

Both Houses of Parliament adjourned last week and will resume sitting tomorrow, the 25th February.  In this Bill Watch we shall outline the business they are expected to deal with, 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

Tuesday 25th February

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
Three Bills are due to be dealt with by the Assembly:

  • Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill [link]

This Bill is due to begin its Second Reading.

  • Parks and Wild Life Amendment Bill [link]

The Second Reading of this Bill is due to continue.

  • Persons with Disabilities Bill [link]

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

Report of Constitutional Commission to be considered

The Assembly will continue to consider the report of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission for 2023 [link]

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
  • Implementation of the digitisation project in Zimbabwe
  • Projects being carried out by Verify Engineering and the National Biotechnology Authority
  • Statelessness of migrants in Zimbabwe
  • Non-communicable diseases, including cancer
  • Meagre pension pay-outs by NSSA
  • Failure by some local authorities to submit financial statements to the Auditor-General
  • Food security 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:

  • Urging the Government to promote sign language
  • Urging the promotion of community share ownership schemes in all constituencies
  • 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
  • Urging improvement in digital infrastructure in Zimbabwe
  • Measures to improve digital infrastructure in schools
  • Registration of vendors and prohibition against seizure of their wares
  • Reservation of 30 per cent of government tenders for youth-led enterprises
  • Protection of indigenous herbal trees against over-exploitation
  • 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 lack of piped water supply in Harare and Glenview
  • A petition calling for reburial of heroes and heroines of the Liberation War
  • A petition on menstrual health and hygiene management
  • A petition on the establishment of a nurse aides council.

Wednesday 26th February
Questions set down for answer

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

  • 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
  • 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
  • The ban on the importation of 10-year-old motor vehicles
  • Payment for registration of new vehicles in US dollars
  • Passengers risk insurance
  • Mobilising domestic resources for financing the health sector
  • Payment of pensions by the Mining Industry Pension Fund
  • The shareholding of the Hwange Colliery Company
  • Re-engagement with the government of the United States
  • The position of SADC on the electoral conflict in Mozambique
  • Ensuring that traditional leaders are non-partisan
  • Progress in the IMF’s Staff Monitored Programme and the structured dialogue platform for debt management

SENATE

Tuesday 25th February

Report of a Constitutional Commission to be considered

The Senate will be asked to continue debating 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:

  • The condition of sports stadiums in Zimbabwe
  • Recapitalisation of public health care institutions and ensuring they are supplied with medicines
  • Support for livestock farmers
  • Supply of ethanol and blending of fuel
  • 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
  • Reply to the President’s speech

Wednesday 26th February

Thematic Committee report to be considered

The Senate will be asked to adopt a report on:

  • Impact of climate change on human-wildlife conflict.

Thursday 27th February

Questions set down for answer

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

  • 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 cell-phones on duty
  • The effects of Zimbabwe’s meddling in Mozambique elections
  • Efficacy of measures against cholera
  • Plans to prevent the construction of illegal structures
  • The establishment of the parole board, mandated by the Prisons and Correctional Services Act.