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Writes Chris Mahove
The Parliament of Zimbabwe has given the recently elected legislators until the end of this week to declare their assets and give their appropriate addresses.
Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Mudenda, told the legislators at an induction workshop held in Harare this week that it was a statutory requirement to which every one of them was supposed to adhere.
“Those who have not are obliged to do so before the end of this week,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Clerk of Parliament, Mr Kennedy Chokuda said there was a need to educate members of the public on the roles of legislators as there was a misconception that they were supposed to solve problems of their constituents.
“When they see a Parliamentarian…they see a Social Worker, they also see a funeral assurance body, they also see someone who is responsible for paying school fees for their children,” he said, adding that parliament had three fundamental roles provided for by the Constitution.
He said the majority of the Parliamentarians had promised their constituents a lot of things during the campaign period that had nothing to do with their parliamentary roles.
“The role of the parliament as given in the Constitution. It has three roles. The world over, parliament has three roles but our Constitution also provides for further roles of parliament and basically, these are lawmaking, representation, oversight, budget approval, ratification of international treaties and agreements, and nominating persons for possible appointment to various independent commissions provided for in Chapter 12 of our Constitution, “ he said.
Chokuda said legislators could address the needs of the constituents through their representative role which they could exercise during the question and answer sessions or through the various motions they moved in parliament.
The Clerk of Parliament emphasized the need for parliamentarians to be aligned with the needs of the people who gave them the legislative authority
“In terms of Section 171 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the legislative authority of Zimbabwe is derived from the people. It is the people of Zimbabwe that give the legislature legislative authority,” he said.