Mutare Central legislator Innocent Gonese has castigated the executive for delaying in ratifying international protocols that it would have signed to.
He said it was embarrassing that the protocols are brought to Parliament last minute and yet there was a lot of time to do that.
Gonese said the delays do not show the country in good light, adding that Chief Fortune Charumbira was elected Pan African Parliament President when the country had not ratified the Protocol on the Constitutive Act of the African Union relating to the Pan Africa Parliament.
Below is the full text of Honourable Gonese debate:
HON. GONESE: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. Whilst
I do not have any problem with the ratification, my concern Mr. Speaker, is that as a country we have developed an ugly reputation of being last minute people. As the Minister has indicated, this protocol was adopted in 2014 and as Zimbabwe, we signed the protocol in 2018 which is four years ago. I do not understand why it has taken this long for the Hon. Minister to bring it to the august House. He is aware that in terms of the provisions of the Constitution, Section 327, it is imperative for this august House as the representative of the people of Zimbabwe to ratify.
To make matters worse Mr. Speaker, one of our own, Hon. Sen. Chief Charumbira has been elected President of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) when we ourselves as a country have not ratified. Remember a few years ago we had the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance which enquired on 11 ratifications which used to be called 11 before 11. As Zimbabwe, we were not part of the 11. We twiddled our thumps, took our time and it was only done at a much belated stage. I would therefore request the Executive not to sit on their laurels.
When we have signed some of these protocols, they must speedily be brought to this august House so that we do not have the embarrassment of being a country, one of whose citizens was duly elected as President of the PAP and yet we are only signing it at the last minute. Why should we always have this last minute rush when we are going to the end of the year?
The point I am making Mr. Speaker, is that the Executive must expeditiously bring to this august House these instruments. We already have a situation relating to the Convention against Torture. Other Members have already said it previously that we signed this protocol a long time ago. I remember in the Fifth Parliament, the late Hon. Mike Auret moved a motion in this august House for us as Zimbabwe to ratify that particular convention and it is now more than 20 years down the line; we still have not done so and one wonders whether we are not in agreement with the principles, but I do not think that is the problem because we would not have signed. It is just the same way with the one we are talking about today.
I think we should not continue having these delays. That is really my point. We are supportive but I know that there are so many of these Conventions and I would really request all the Portfolio Committees to check with the relevant Ministers so that we bring up to speed these and they are ratified timeously. Those would be my submissions Mr. Speaker Sir.
