Health Services Bill: Here Is Why MDC-T Senators Did not Debate
MDC-T says its Senators did not debate the Health Services Amendment Bill because they were busy with preparations for the 5th congress, despite logging into the Senate virtual platform.
The Health Services Amendment Bill which will ban health workers from engaging in strikes among other things sailed through all three stages (Second Reading, Committee Stage, and Third Reading) in the Senate without debate.
The second Reading Stage is when legislators give their views on Bill’s aspirations, after the Minister’s speech. The committee Stage is where things are changed, and they go through the Bill clause by clause.
The third Reading is the last stage where they agree to the changes that would have been made before the Bill is transmitted to the President for signing.
According to the Senate attendance register, about 63 Senators attended the sitting on the day in question, including opposition legislators such as Douglas Mwonzora, Morgan Komichi, Morgen Femayi, and Elias Mudzuri among others, who didn’t say anything.
This resulted in some commentators crafting a negative opinion towards MDC-T arguing that it is aiding Zanu PF in shrinking civic space in the country.
MDC-T has previously been accused of helping Zanu PF to enact the Constitution Amendment Bill No. 1 and Constitution Amendment Bill No.2 which scrapped the running mate clause and gave President Emmerson Mnangagwa more power when it comes to appointing judges.
However, in an interview on why the Senators did not debate the Bill that has received wide condemnation, MDC-T spokesperson, Witness Dube said while they were logged into the virtual platform, they could not debate as they were busy with congress preparations.
He said the party had some clauses of the Bill which it was not happy with, but there was no party position to support it.
‘’Regrettably, the party is ceased with the 5th Congress preparations and as such all our senators were in our meeting of the National Standing Committee when the bill was tabled.
‘’There were a few clauses of the Bill which we were not in agreement with, and there was no party position to support the Bill.
‘’They (Senators) virtually logged in and out for a few minutes during the tea break of our National Standing Committee. They were not present to deal with the bill because they were seized with party business and the party record is a technical record in that respect of what happened,’’ he said.
The Bill is retrogressive, says ZDHR
According to Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights, the Bill is retrogressive and should be reviewed as it will result in continued brain drain in the health sector.
‘’This will have a chilling effect on the freedoms of association that protect the rest of the working people in the country. This Bill seeks to silence workers and make it difficult for personnel to unionise. This appears retrogressive. We submit that this needs to be reviewed.
‘’Criminalisation of the right to strike will not enhance service provision in the health services sector. The lack of balance between rights and duties of the parties (state and employee) to the employment contract will further drive brain drain,’’ read the ZDHR position paper on the Bill.
Since November 2017, Zimbabwe has enacted several laws which commentators say are efforts to further shrink civic space.
Health Services Bill: Here Is Why MDC-T Senators Did not Debate
