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Source: Mudenda makes ruling on MPs’ arrests | Newsday (News)

BY VENERANDA LANGA

SPEAKER of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda yesterday ruled that the Parliamentary Privileges and Immunities Act must be amended in order to include clauses that MPs found on the wrong side of the law are arrested with dignity and not harassed.

This came in the wake of complaints made yesterday by Harare East MP Tendai Biti (MDC Alliance) over the arrest of fellow party legislators, Harare West MP Joanna Mamombe in Nyanga while attending a parliamentary workshop, and Kuwadzana East MP Chalton Hwende, who was arrested yesterday at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport upon arrival from Namibia, where he had visited his family.

“Since August, there are more than 12 MPs (who have been arrested), including myself (Biti), Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya, Redcliff MP Lloyd Mukapiko, Chitungwiza North MP Godfrey Sithole, Matabeleland North Senator Rosemary Nyathi, Chiwundura MP Livingstone Chimina, and Midlands Senator Morgen Komichi,” Biti said.

“The State has a right to proceed against any individual in respect of which reasonable grounds of suspicion exist, but in casu, if you trace the thread of charges against these MPs one would find that they are clearly political and tied to the highly contested election,” Biti said, adding that the treason charges on the MPs were highly frivolous.

Biti warned Zanu PF MPs that tomorrow, the same State agents would be coming for them too.

Mudenda said Mamombe was arrested after parliamentary business.

Meanwhile, Norton MP Temba Mliswa (independent) and Chegutu West MP Dexter Nduna (Zanu PF) took turns to apologise to Mudenda for their temperamental behaviour last month in Parliament, where they nearly exchanged blows.

Mliswa had accused Nduna of being a thief and involved in an $11 million Zimbabwe National Road Administration scam, while the Chegutu legislator, in turn, threatened Mliswa and claimed to have killed people.

But yesterday, Mliswa apologised for insinuating that Mudenda was corrupt.

“During the debacle, I inadvertently included the name of the Speaker in the furore, mistakenly linking him with the nefarious actions attributed to Nduna,” he said in his apology statement.

“The erroneous accusation was premised on misinformation emanating from Nduna, who fabricated a false association with Mudenda in an attempt to shield and seek protection from the underhand dealings he was associated with to make them appear above board.”

Mliswa appealed to Mudenda to also address issues of Zanu PF MPs Tafanana Zhou (Mberengwa North) and John Paradza (Gutu West), who he accused of being abusive to female legislators like Lynette Karenyi (MDC Alliance PR).

Nduna then also apologised, saying he did not mean what he said. He said whenever there was a fierce fight, one would use a pick, shovel or anything at their disposal to defend themselves.

“I want to profusely apologise for the words I uttered, and say that I did not mean anything that I said, and I take back my words and want to apologise so that the decorum of Parliament can be appraised. I apologise to the Speaker as chairperson of the Standing Rules and Orders Committee, the institution of Parliament, MPs and my party Zanu PF for the fracas which had unintended effects,” he said.

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Source: President to meet Advisory Council | The Herald March 6, 2019

President Mnangagwa

Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter
The 26-member Presidential Advisory Council set up by President Mnangagwa recently is having its inaugural meeting with the President at State House tomorrow. Cabinet ministers and their permanent secretaries are also expected to attend the meeting.

The advisory council comprises experts and leaders drawn from diverse sectors such as business, health and social protection, agriculture, governance and human rights, faith-based organisations, tourism, education, minorities, ICT, civic society, communication and media management.

Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda confirmed the meeting in a statement yesterday.

“You are hereby invited to attend His Excellency President E. D. Mnangagwa’s inaugural briefing session for members of the newly established Presidential Advisory Council at State House on Thursday 7th March 2019, at 0930 hours,” said Dr Sibanda.

“Ministers should be accompanied by their permanent secretaries. Your usual cooperation is greatly appreciated.”

In his speech on the inception of the PAC, Dr Sibanda said the council would act as the President’s “sounding board” on key economic reforms, issues and initiatives.

He said that was in line with the “Zimbabwe is open for business” mantra and the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (STP).

Services of PAC members is voluntary and they serve at the pleasure of the President.

PAC is supposed to proffer ideas and suggestions on key reforms and measures needed to improve the investment and business climate in the country for economic recovery and growth.

“It is expected to contribute towards policies and measures – short, medium and long term – for the growth of the economy,” said Dr Sibanda. “On the strength of the country’s resources, to suggest best strategies for leveraging them to best national advantage; to advise and develop strategies for making Zimbabwe a modern, industrialised and food-secure, higher middle income by 2030; to input into policies and strategies for inclusive and balanced growth in line with the policy on decentralisation and devolution and to advise on the integration of science, technology, research and innovation in the economy.”

The advisory council should provide infrastructural strategies and investments meant to transform the country into a land-linked regional logistical and trading hub.

The PAC is also expected to advise on developing sector by sector strategic value-chains for the economy which are linked to international markets.

It is supposed to advise on national energy development strategy which makes Zimbabwe competitive; to suggest blueprints for regulatory frameworks and institutions for a modern, market-driven, business-friendly economy; to advise on strategies for building strong and gainful global partnerships, as well as maximising on Zimbabwe’s bilateral and multilateral relations and to proffer ideas of building a Sovereign Wealth Fund and to ensure that national growth and development strategies are built on environmental safeguards for future generations.

The advisory council is mandated with organising interactions between the President, local and international businesses.

From time to time, the advisory council should help with a comprehensive situational analysis on the state of the economy and investment climate in the country.

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Source: Govt opens up fuel imports | The Herald March 6, 2019

Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa

Felex Share Senior Reporter
Government has liberalised the importation of fuel with Cabinet yesterday giving big companies with free funds the green light to import fuel for their own consumption. This is meant to augment supply gaps in the market. Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa confirmed the development while addressing journalists after yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.

This comes as Cabinet also resolved that the ongoing partial privatisation of ZUPCO, which is in sync with public enterprise reforms espoused in Government’s Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), be expedited to boost recapitalisation of the company.

On the liberalisation of fuel importation, Minister Mutsvangwa said: “Cabinet received the weekly supply situation report from the Minister of Energy and Power Development. In order to close the fuel supply gaps in the market during the course of the week eight million litres of diesel were released into the market. Following the release of funding by the RBZ, the fuel supply situation is now expected to stabilise as the week progresses. Furthermore, Cabinet has given a green light to large companies such as those in the mining sector to use their funds to import fuel for their use.”

In 2015, Statutory Instrument (SI) 171 was amended to allow members of the public to import up to 2 000 litres of fuel per month for personal use.

However, the legal instrument was repealed two years later through SI 122 of 2017, which stipulated that only companies licensed in terms of Section 29 of the Petroleum Act were allowed to import fuel. The market is currently plagued by intermittent stock-outs, which are negatively affecting individual consumers and businesses.

Energy and Power Development Minister Joram Gumbo said individuals will not be allowed to import fuel on their own.

“Government has given the green light to mining companies and those in the farming sector to import fuel using their own funds,” he said.

“At the moment no individual is allowed to do that. Regarding the issue of diesel, it is true that last week there was shortage of diesel and the His Excellency allowed us to use stragetic reserves to bring in diesel to mitigate the situation as we were allowing oil companies to do their usual ordering of fuel into the market. We hope that come end of week, things will have stabilised for both products.”

Minister Mutsvangwa said Cabinet deliberated on ways of improving ZUPCO operations.

“Cabinet resolved that ZUPCO be capacitated through recruitment and training of critical personnel thereat,” she said.

“It resolved that an electronic ticketing system be introduced to increase revenue collection and service efficiency and that the options to either import finished buses and/or knocked down kits for assembling locally be speedily concluded. Cabinet also mandated the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development together with the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and other related key stakeholders to assiduously work on revamping the country’s urban mass transport system, beginning with Harare and Bulawayo.”

She said for Harare the programme will incorporate aspects such as completion of the Airport Road and the flyover towards Enterprise Road and construction of ring roads and flyovers around Harare to decongest and bring sanity in the Central Business District (CBD).

Installation of an electonic traffic management system consistent with the smart city concept,she said, should also done under the programme.

Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo said the ZUPCO system was progressing well in all urban areas.

“We have been able to cover our vehicle operation costs and that is important,” he said.

“The hiring of those vehicles is like your capital expenditure that we have not been able to cover right now. So there is an element of subsidy that we are doing but we are happy that the operations can cover fuel and salaries. We think we can create a viable system in urban areas. We are fine- tuning because in some areas we put too many buses and we are downsizing. In some areas like Harare we had to increase the number of buses because the commuter omnibuses were having difficulties in accessing fuel.”

He said Government was paying each bus $700 per day.

“We charged a flat rate of $700 RTGS per day, “ said Minister Moyo.

“We expected at that time that each bus will run nine trips but those have not been achieved because of congestion. So the subsidy in the first month was larger than normal but we think that in the next month it is going going to be lower. We are now fine-tuning with the bus owners for us to pay for a bus that has done work.”

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Source: Medicines body blasts Magaya | The Herald March 6, 2019

Walter Magaya

Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries founder Prophet Walter Magaya has not yet approached the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe to register his traditional herbs which he claimed cured HIV/AIDS, legislators heard yesterday.

The authority’s managing director, Ms Gugu Mahlangu, said it was strange that despite Prophet Magaya’s claims that the root was indigenous and found in Zimbabwe, the drug was manufactured in India.

Prophet Magaya’s company was recently convicted and fined $700 for failing to register the drug which he claimed cured HIV/AIDS. Ms Mahlangu said this while giving oral evidence before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care.

Legislators wanted to know why the authority was not licensing traditional medicines in the wake of the high costs of Western drugs. They also wanted to know what had become of Prophet Magaya’s Aguma.

“Aguma did not come through us. It came through the backdoor when it is supposed to come to us us. Apparently it is from a root that is indigenous to the country but studies, the prophet claims, were done elsewhere. He has not given us the studies yet, so we are still waiting for the product but we were involved in that whole saga because obviously he was making claims,” said Ms Mahlangu.

She said the challenges with traditional medicines were that practitioners were hesitant to submite their herbs to testing.

“Our traditional medical practitioners do not seem keen to come forward to have their medicines for registration. We now have a new avenue that relates to complementary medicine, so they will fall under complementary medicine. We have had one, though, who has come through and he is going to manufacture locally. We have inspected his facility. He was doing it from his garage and we said no and urged him to find a suitable place and inspectors gave him guidelines then he found premises in Murehwa and inspectors went there last week,” said Ms Mahlangu.

“I think inspectors will be assisting him to make sure premises meet the requirements. He will be the first one and we hope he will be the trendsetter. The challenge with complementary medicine is that we do not know about the therapeutic efficacy of the product.

“All we can say is that it appears to be safe. It does not appear to contain any dangerous substances, so it can be allowed to be used,” she said.

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