Harare — THE passage of the contentious RBZ Amendment Bill in the House of Assembly provided the highlight of activities in Parliament this week.

The Bill had threatened to split the parties in Parliament after some Zanu-PF legislators accused its sponsor, Finance Minister Tendai Biti of having ulterior motives and vendettas to settle using the proposed law if it was passed.

However, it passed through the House on Wednesday with seven clauses amended.

Zanu-PF Chief Whip Cde Joram Gumbo and Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana were at the forefront in criticising the Bill, describing it as unconstitutional and vindictive in nature.

Debate on the Bill had to be suspended on Tuesday following these concerns but following consultations between Minister Biti, Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Cde Mangwana; the Bill was amended to ensure its smooth passage in the House of Assembly.

In his presentation of the Budget and Finance Committee's findings on the Bill, Goromonzi legislator Cde Paddy Zhanda questioned the rationale of opposition to the Bill when it had already been debated and adopted by Cabinet.

He said: "One wonders how a Bill debated in Cabinet ended up being discussed along political lines. We are surprised that the issues are now between Zanu-PF and MDC.

"Whenever there is a national issue in this House we should rise above party politics and look at issues which help the people of this country."

In most instances, before Bills are gazetted for debate in Parliament they have to first be considered by Cabinet and approved by the Cabinet Committee on Legislation.

The amendments to the Bill curtailed some of the powers that the Minister of Finance had been accorded; though many of these changes could be described as nominal.

These include the removal of the requirement that the Secretary for Finance sits on the RBZ board; provision of immunity of the RBZ Governor, his deputy and Central Bank employees and the Minister from prosecution on issues that might arise for anything done in good faith.

MDC-T Masvingo Central representative in the House Mr Tongai Matutu moved a motion that was generally supported by all parties when he asked for a review of the status of the voters' roll.

This is an issue that has to be dealt with in a sober manner without playing to the gallery as some have done in the past.

Zvishavane legislator Cde Obert Matshalaga astutely observed when he said good motions that are moved in the House are sometimes spoiled by political statements that veil the good intentions that are behind them.

For the country's sake, this will hopefully not be the case with the issue of the voters' roll.

Legislators that contributed to the debate mostly agreed that there were anomalies on the current roll but as one MP put it, no one benefits from defective voters' roll so a collaboration of efforts to come up with a document that enhances credibility is needed.

During the question and answer session, National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Fidelis Mhashu said the delay in having people occupying houses built under Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle was mainly caused by inadequate resources to provide proper sewer and water reticulation facilities.

He indicated 4 200 housing units had been constructed under the programme but lamented the non-availability of resources to complete the projects.

The thrust now should be to ensure that those holding the national purse would allocate resources towards this important programme in the upcoming budget.

Talking of the budget, Minister Biti said Government would engage South Africa to arrange easy availability of the rand to smoothen transactions by members of the public locally.

He also said the rand would be used as the reference currency under the system adopted by Government, a development President Mugabe has been advocating this whole year. Minister Biti said over US$3,5 million had been collected at tollgates.

The people's expectation now is to start seeing an improvement in road infrastructure.

Deputy Minister of Education, Arts, Sport and Culture Lazarus Dokora advised the House that those who failed to register for their public examinations this year would be allowed to repeat next year as per Government policy.

However, it is worrying that a number of ministers are not availing themselves to answer to questions raised by backbenchers.

This goes against the expectations of the people who elected them into Parliament.

At the very least they should answer questions emanating from the constituencies.

The committees

A number of Parastatals appeared before various committees and as usual they listed the challenges they are facing due to the unenviable operating environment largely attributable to the illegal economic sanctions imposed by some Western countries on Zimbabwe.

Zesa Holdings acting chief executive officer Mr Eliab Chikwenhere told the Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy that his company needed US$374 million in the short-term to get the power utility back on its feet and US$5 billion for expansions and new generation plants.

The National Social Security Authority also complained of how economic conditions in 2008 adversely affected their operations and cited the changeover from the Zimbabwe dollar to the use of multiple currencies as one of the reasons why their pay outs to pensioners are low.

However, a closer analysis of most of these presentations will show a similarity and repetition in the past 10 years.

While it is not in dispute that the sanctions have had a crippling effect on the operations of virtually every sector of the economy, the stability that has been brought by the inclusive Government and the adoption of a multi-currency system should spur management at these institutions to be pro-active and come up with strategies to stay afloat and turnaround their operations.

Last year, the operating environment was difficult but most of these companies continued to offer services, albeit not at optimum capacity.

It is, therefore, an indication that it is possible to turn around the fortunes of these parastatals without the kind of capital injections they always beg for whenever they come to Parliament.

It is rather obvious that the kind of money these parastatals say they need to turn around their operations may never be available, so it is imperative that they make sound and practical proposals to improve their operations.

If they cannot do that then we risk a situation of having the same complaints year in and year out with the respective committees also coming up with the same report.

We won't go anywhere.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is hosting the 26th Southern Africa Parliamentary Forum Plenary session in Victoria Falls with participants drawn from the Sadc countries.

President Mugabe is expected to officially open the session next week.