Story by Bruce Chahwanda, Political Editor
THE Constitutional Amendment No. 3 Bill (CAB3) has made parliamentary history after attracting debate from more than 110 legislators, the highest level of participation recorded for any Bill in Zimbabwe’s legislative history.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Honourable Ziyambi Ziyambi, said the unprecedented engagement reflects extensive public consultations conducted ahead of the Bill’s introduction and demonstrates the strength of Zimbabwe’s constitutional democracy and law-making processes.
Speaking on the progress of the debate, Honourable Ziyambi said Parliament deliberately adopted a broader consultation framework to ensure wider public participation.
“In the history of our Parliament, this is the most debated bill. We deliberately decided to have that direction because if you recall when we did public consultations in the past, we used to have one public consultation per province.”
He said the outreach programme was expanded to cover every administrative district, allowing more legislators to directly engage with communities and gather public views on the proposed amendments.
“This time around we increased the involvement, we had one public consultation per admin district, which means we deployed a large number of our honourable members to participate in the public consultation.”
According to the Minister, the wider consultations contributed significantly to the robust parliamentary debate currently underway.
“The majority of our MPs when they stand up to debate, they will emphasise that I’m speaking on behalf of those that I represent and they will cite proceedings of the public consultation.”
He described the extensive participation as beneficial to the legislative process.
“We think it is healthy for constitutional democracy, it is healthy for law-making process because it allows us to refine the legislation and come up with a Bill that has been scrutinised thoroughly by members of Parliament.”
Honourable Ziyambi said the number of legislators who have participated so far has surpassed previous parliamentary records.
“When I did the count, we were slightly over 100, around 110 MPs that have debated so far. In the history of our Parliament, I don’t think we have ever had a bill that has those numbers.”
The Minister said debate on the Bill is expected to resume when Parliament sits on Tuesday, with more legislators still being given an opportunity to contribute.
“We’re still happy to have a couple more MPs, those that are willing to debate again. So on Tuesday, we’ll allow those that want to debate.”
He explained that once all interested members have made their contributions, he will deliver a response addressing issues raised during the debate before the Bill advances to its next legislative phase.
“I will then give my responding speech addressing issues that were raised by honourable members. And that will pave the way for us now to move to the committee stage of the bill.”
Honourable Ziyambi indicated that the timeline for progressing to the committee stage will depend on the level of participation when debate resumes.
“It is not in my hands, it’s in the hands of those that want to debate.”
The Constitutional Amendment No. 3 Bill is currently at the debate stage in the National Assembly, with Parliament expected to move to the committee stage once deliberations are concluded.
