People fail to give contributions, as thugs disrupt PVO public hearings

People fail to give contributions, as thugs disrupt PVO public hearings

Parliamentary Committee on Public Service, Labour, and Social Welfare chairperson Emma Ncube confirmed that some people could not give their contributions to the PVO Amendment Bill due to disruptions that were caused by some participants.

Disruptions happened in Rusape, Gutu, Emakhandeni, and Harare. The disruptions were mainly caused by people who were supporting the Bill, some of whom were visibly drunk and were also drinking during some of the meetings.

Watch violence in Gutu during Public hearings

Thread: PVO Bill public hearing disrupted in Gutu (Masvingo Province) #StopThePVOBill #StopThePVObill @zppINFO @zimrightslive @crisiscoalition @ZimHRNGOForum @ZLHRLawyers @misazimbabwe @kubatana @TellZimbabwe @ZwContent @accountlabzw @ParliamentZim @TembaMliswa @WalpeAcademy pic.twitter.com/pwEMCYe5nf

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Although the first public hearing that was done at Zimbabwe Hall in Highfields (Harare) was disrupted, Parliament surprisingly did not put security measures in other meetings that ended up being disrupted as well.

Asked why they had not called in for security on the sidelines of the disrupted meeting in Rusape, Committee chairperson Emma Ncube said while security was at their disposal, calling it would have exaggerated the situation.

‘’We didn’t need security because this is not the first hearing we have done. We cannot be afraid to move in free a country while doing the work of the country because people want to disrupt no.

‘’Security is there but we just didn’t call them, if we had invited them, they would have come, the police did not refuse to come, but we will be exaggerating the situation if we come to the point of calling the security people,’’ she said. 

According to Honourable Ncube, the public hearing in Rusape had started well before it was disrupted. She said she did not know why they decided to disrupt it, although she acknowledged that they appeared to have a motive to disrupt.

She said because of the disruptions, a lot of people could not give their views to the committee.

People told to send views via email to Parliament

The committee chairperson added that they gave people emails addresses which they can use to send their views to Parliament.

‘’We started well but the meeting didn’t end according to our expectation because there were people who had an agenda to disrupt the meeting.

‘’I don’t even know the purpose for it because this process benefits the citizens and now, they have disturbed even those that wanted to make their contributions so that we could come up with good law, but they could not do that.

‘’So, we ended up saying those with views can write to use because our wish was to have everyone giving their views to the Bill but there was a click of people with a motive that we don’t know, who disturbed the meeting.

In Gutu the meeting came to a near fistfight as opposing sides to the Bill jostled for dominance. People had to be restrained before the meeting was ended prematurely.

It now remains to be seen how Parliament will respond to the disruptions when the committee tables its report to the House during the Second Reading Stage of the Bill.

This is not the first time that Parliament public hearings have been disrupted. People also disrupted the public hearings for the Local Government Laws Amendment Bill in 2016 at Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare, while another one that was supposed to be conducted in Highfields was abandoned completely.

Below are the links to the public hearings that were covered live on OpenParly Facebook

Watch PVO Bill public Hearing in LUPANE https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=827989395269219

Watch PVO Bill public hearing in Tsholotsho: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1648816442118937

Watch PVO Bill public Hearing in Emakhandeni : https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=647457083191670

Watch PVO Bill public Hearing in Bulawayo Selbourne Hotel; https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=473298277769742

Watch PVO Bill public Hearing in Gwanda : https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=510597533966804

Watch PVO Bill public Hearing from Kariba: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=3045565635704976

Watch PVO Bill public Hearing from Kariba: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=3045565635704976

Watch PVO Bill public Hearings from Chinhoyi: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=632922288135438

Watch PVO Bill public Hearing from Zhombe: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=530999364984831&ref=sharing

Watch PVO Bill public hearing from Rusape: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1098582484327418&ref=sharing

Watch PVO Bill public Hearing in Guruve: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1372572713163857

Watch PVO Bill public Hearing in Harare : https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=364357232265514

Watch PVO Bill Public Hearing in Mutoko : https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1883667905173226

People fail to give contributions, as thugs disrupt PVO public hearings