Constitutional Amendment 19 Act differs from Bill

Constitutional Amendment 19 Act differs from Bill - Veritas

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Posted to the web: 02/03/2009 11:26:37
THE Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 19) Act [No. 1 of 2009] was gazetted late on Friday, February 13, some time after the swearing-in of the Ministers of the inclusive government that afternoon.

The Act came into operation immediately. The Bill for the Act was passed by both Houses of Parliament on February 5 and the President's assent was given on February 10.

The gazetted Act differs considerably from the Bill that was gazetted on December 12 and presented to the House of Assembly on February 5. The last 18 pages of the Bill, containing the proposed new Schedules 9, 10 and 11 of the Constitution, are omitted, leaving only Schedule 8 in the Act.

Schedule 8, the surviving Schedule, contains Article 20 of the Inter-party Political Agreement spelling out how the Inclusive Government will function.

As the Bill was not amended by either House, these omissions in the Act have raised questions. The staff of Parliament offered the explanation that the last three Schedules were included in the Bill as "a matter of public interest" and not intended as part of the Bill to be passed.

This is an unprecedented way of presenting a Bill and several Members of Parliament have stated that they did not realise that they were not being called upon to pass the entire Bill as printed. It is difficult to avoid the comment that, on so important a matter, greater clarity was essential.

The gazetted Bill's Schedule 10 incorporated Article 6 of the IPA that lays down the procedure and time-frame for the process of producing a proposed new Constitution before the end of 2010. Its omission from the Act is significant as now the process is not written into the Constitution.

Keeping this Schedule in the Act would have made sticking to the procedure and the time-frame constitutionally and legally obligatory.

Having been left out of the Act, the Constitution-making process becomes something the political parties can agree to change, to depart from, to delay, as it suits them.

There are other implications of the failure to incorporate the new Constitution-making timeframe into the present Constitution. It has been widely assumed that a new Constitution would be soon followed by new
elections. Any delays in adopting a new Constitution would extend the term of this "transitional" inclusive government.

(Veritas is a not-for-profit organisation set up to promote peace, social justice and gender equality through lobbying, networking and informed participation in decision-making processes affecting the lives of the people of Zimbabwe. Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied)
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