Marriage of 14-year-old Marange girl who died during childbirth is not isolated case, this is a national pandemic-legislator

HON. MPARIWA:  My supplementary question goes to the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs who is also the Leader of the House.  He mentioned that there was collaboration between the chiefs and him in the Senate where the Bill has been stuck for some months. I am worried because in a few months’ time, we will be reaching the end of this particular session without any success on this very important Bill which we have highlighted and talked about.  His Excellency came and mentioned it in his State of the Nation speech but alas, we are getting to the end of the session without any success.  When does the Minister think he will be able to come back to this House to inform us what the Senate has now settled and agreed on the nitty-gritties where the chiefs have expressed some reservations?  Without any timeframe, we will come back to the next session without any success.

HON. ZIYAMBI: Mr. Speaker Sir, the rules allow me to proceed if I so wish.  I can allow the Senate to vote.  If they decide that they want to vote against what happened here, I can still bring it here and explain what has transpired in the Senate and then this House will vote.  If this House votes and the vote in this House is different from the vote in the Senate, what would have happened in this House is what is supposed to go to the President.

I have indicated that we need to resolve this before the end of this session.  If it is not resolved and we are approaching the end of the session, I will then request the Senate to proceed, vote and I will bring it here and then we conclude and proceed.  It is my desire that some sort of agreement is reached, rather than follow the rules and procedures. For some reason, it may happen that the vote in the Senate may be different from here, then our chiefs may think that I did not listen to them, but I want dialogue to happen.  Definitely, I can assure you that before the end of this session, we must have concluded the Bill.

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