Zimbabwe Minister may be charged with contempt of parliament for prevarication

THE HON. SPEAKER’S RULING

HON. MINISTER CHIKWINYA’S RESPONSES DURING QUESTION TIME

THE HON. SPEAKER: I have this ruling to make. On Wednesday, 1st March, 2017, the Minister of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Hon. Chikwinya, in response to a question from Hon. Khupe on the Women’s Bank responded as follows; “…we now have a Board in place, an acting Chief Executive Officer. We also now have Banking Halls. Training of those that are going to man the Bank is in progress…..” When asked by Hon. Zwizwai how that was possible when the vacant positions in the said Bank had not been advertised, the Hon. Minister stated that the Board Members and the Chief Executive Officer were responsible for the recruitment and that it was not the duty of Government to do that. Upon further probing by Hon Gonese on the process and procedure used to recruit those who were undergoing training and also how the Board members were recruited, the Hon Minister stated that, “they are in the process. If they are in the process, there are procedures that they are supposed to take …..”

The response given did not go down well with some Hon. Members who felt that the Hon. Minister had given conflicting statements to the House and also evaded the actual question asked on how the staff being trained was recruited without following due process, whereupon the Chair undertook to make a ruling after studying the verbatim report of the Hon. Minister`s reply.

After studying the Hansard and listening to the audio recording, it would appear that the Hon. Minister changed her initial response. Such action might be perceived as bordering on prevarication on the part of the Hon. Minister.

Appendix C of the Schedule to the Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act [Cap 2:08] cites prevarication as one of other contempts which are offences to Parliament. In light of the inconsistencies in the Hon. Minister’s response, the Chair rules that the Hon. Minister be given an opportunity to clarify her statements in a comprehensive ministerial statement, failure of which a charge of contempt of Parliament will be laid against the Hon. Minister.

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