Mashonaland West Bureau
The Attorney General's Office must give effective and proactive legal advice to the Government that furthers and protects the interests of the country, especially in investment agreements so that the country gets a fair deal, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said yesterday.
Speaking at a strategic planning workshop for the AG's office in Kariba, Minister Ziyambi said legal opinion to Government should be clear and any investment agreements should be thoroughly interrogated.
"I would suggest that Government legal advisers should equip themselves with skills that ensure they are proactive and not reactive," said Minister Ziyambi.
The job of the AG's Office, he said, was to protect the national interests and any officers whose advice was in the interest of foreigners lacked patriotism.
"Your job is to maximise benefits to your country as much as possible," he said.
There was need to look at investor-state dispute resolution mechanisms, which give redress to host states against entities that circumvent local dispute resolution mechanisms in favour of international ones.
"Here we are talking of first generation dispute resolution clauses that effectively empower the investor to unilaterally select the dispute resolution tribunal, thus evading domestic resolution mechanisms," he said, noting that investors tended to choose the international route when given the option.
Minister Ziyambi said the AG's Office should not wait for a call for advice from Government, but be proactive and keep abreast of what was happening and offer advice. The AG's Office needed to come up with strategies for staff training and retention to ensure that Government had the best legal advice, he said.
Attorney General Mrs Virginia Mabiza said patriotism should guide the conduct of all legal officers and advisors of Government.
"As long as you are unpatriotic, you won't be competent to represent anyone anywhere, especially Government because it takes patriotism to stand even before the courts, to stand for your country even at the international stage," she said.
Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Marian Chombo said there was need to expedite legislation to fully operationalise devolution.
