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President Mugabe officially opens the First Session of the Eighth Parliament of Zimbabwe, while the First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe, Parliamentary workers and dignitaries listen.

Herald Reporters—
THOUSANDS of people, mostly Zanu-PF supporters, thronged Parliament Building to witness the official opening of the First Session of the Eighth Parliament of Zimbabwe by President Mugabe yesterday. Legislators, their close families, captains of industry, diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe, High Court and Supreme Court judges, service chiefs and Zanu-PF supporters witnessed the event.

As early as 7am, the Africa Unity Square, adjacent to Parliament Building, was a hive of activity as Zanu-PF supporters were singing revolutionary songs in readiness for the event.

Cabinet ministers, their deputies, and diplomats started arriving around mid morning.
Buhera South National Assembly member Cde Joseph Chinotimba received a rousing welcome, drawing wild cheers when he kicked the air simulating Zanu-PF’s “Bhora Mugedhi/Ibhola Egedini” election motto.

Members of Parliament, judges, and traditional leaders filed into the Parliament chamber.
MPs were led by their respective presiding officers, traditional leaders by Chiefs’ Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira, while High Court and Supreme Court judges were led by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku.

President Mugabe later arrived at Parliament Building .
Official proceedings started with the singing of the national anthem which coincided with a flypast in diamond formation and a 21-gun salute.

President Mugabe then inspected a guard of honour mounted by the Zimbabwe National Army to the accompaniment of the song, Nehanda Dzika Mudzimu, by the Army Band.

The President was accompanied by Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri.
Earlier on, there was shooting of photos for President Mugabe and the First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe at State House.
The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces joined the procession in his Rolls-Royce to Parliament Building.

Relatives of legislators followed proceedings on a large screen in the courtyard.
Officially opening the First Session of the Eighth Parliament of Zimbabwe in Harare yesterday, where he outlined more than 13 Bills set to be debated during the session, President Mugabe said the new Zanu-PF Government would deal decisively with corruption.

The opening of the parliamentary session saw President Mugabe spelling out the objectives of the new Government that pursue sustained economic recovery and growth and how they would be achieved.

President Mugabe said to engender accountability and ensure efficient service delivery to the public, heads of parastatals and local authorities would be obliged to sign performance appraisals. This, he said, would see the managers adopting the Results-Based Management approach to improve their management and contribute to economic recovery and growth.

The President warned legislators against abusing public funds, saying the law would descend heavily on them.
“Numerous complaints have been raised over the alleged abuse of resources from the Constituency Development Fund by some members of the previous Parliament,” he said.

“To engender transparency and accountability in the handling of resources, a Constituency Development Fund Bill shall be tabled in Parliament during this session.”

President Mugabe said the mining sector would play a “greater catalytic role” in the country’s development process.
As a result, a Mining Development Policy and a new Mines and Minerals Bill would be debated to boost mineral development and maximise benefits from the resources, he said.

President Mugabe said to address the challenges of declining capacity utilisation in the local industry and the widening trade deficit, Government would mobilise funding for the revival of closed and distressed strategic companies.

“The Consumer Protection Bill and the Zimbabwe Quality Standards Regulatory Authority Bill, which seek to protect the rights of consumers and to foster fair trade, will be tabled in this august House during this session,” he said.

“In addition, efforts to promote both domestic and foreign investment will be enhanced within the context of the country’s indigenisation and empowerment laws. ‘’Government will pursue Public Private Partnerships and establish the Sovereign Wealth Fund as vehicles for mobilising resources for critical programmes of public infrastructure, irrigation and rural development.

“During this session, the Public Private Partnerships Bill and the Sovereign Wealth Fund Bill will be brought in this august House for debate and consideration.”

President Mugabe said the Banking Amendment Bill, which seeks to strengthen regulation of new forms of banking, would also be debated during the session because vigorous mobilisation of funds was needed to support key sectors of the economy.

He said the implementation of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment laws would be pursued with “renewed vigour” to ensure people become significant stakeholders and not mere bystanders in the running of the national economy.

President Mugabe said the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund would be capitalised to give impetus to the implementation process, while a monitoring and evaluation mechanism would be put in place to ensure the proper management of Community Share Ownership Trusts.

He said Government would emphasise increased reliance on irrigation agriculture and water harvesting techniques as the agriculture sector, which is the mainstay of the economy, had been depressed by recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall and lack of adequate funding.
“To alleviate the plight of our farmers who constantly bear the brunt of adverse weather conditions, Government will empower farmers through the provision of inputs support and marketing incentives,” he said.

“We must employ strategies that avert our country from developing an over reliance on food imports and handouts from donors. Government would hasten the operationalisation of the Commodity Exchange of Zimbabwe, which is intended to serve as a market where farmers can market and fetch fair prices for their produce.

“Government will also expedite the completion of various strategic water development projects. The water projects have been boosted by Zimbabwe’s successful bid to host the Zambezi Water Course Commission, whose objective is the promotion of equitable and efficient utilisation of water resources along the Zambezi Water Course.”

President Mugabe said the Land Commission, set to give legal underpinning to the establishment of the Zimbabwe Land Commission, would be debated with the resulting commission set to take over the tasks previously carried out by the Agricultural Land Settlement Board.
He said the new Government faced a daunting task of improving power generation, with final steps in place to fully operationalise the Arda-Chisumanje Ethanol Plant, which along private power generating initiatives, should significantly augment the national power supply.

“Measures are afoot to ensure that during the first quarter of 2014, the blending of petrol with ethanol will have reached E20 mandatory blending levels,” he said.

“Such a move will ensure self sufficiency and more importantly, the project will trigger incremental job creation, thereby guaranteeing decent livelihoods for local communities and other citizens.”

President Mugabe said Government would continue with the upgrading and dualisation of the national roads through private partners.
He said Parliament would debate the Border Posts Authority Bill that would facilitate the efficient movement of traffic at the ports of entry together with a Bill to enable the takeover of the collection of toll fees from ZIMRA by ZINARA.

President Mugabe commended strides made to turnaround of the national carrier Air Zimbabwe and efforts to open up more routes in the region were under way.

He said the Harare City Council would implement a water service delivery plan that would result in the construction of three new dams and additional water treatment plants over a period of seven years.

“This is expected to significantly improve water supply in the city. It is my hope that such turnaround initiatives will be replicated in Bulawayo and other cities,” said President Mugabe.

He said the Health Services Act, the Medical Services Act, the Public Health Act and such other legislation would be urgently amended to reflect the provision of health services to the people.

The Zanu-PF Government, President Mugabe said, attached great importance to the empowerment of civil servants and would review their salaries as well as revive the provision of other non-monetary benefits.

“This august House shall also deliberate on the Tripartite Negotiating Forum Bill which will facilitate consultation, negotiation and cooperation among Government, Business and Labour,” he said.

“A Bill on the harmonisation of the country’s labour laws and their alignment with the International Labour Conventions acceded to by Zimbabwe will also be tabled before this Parliament.”

President Mugabe said the session would debate Bills for the establishment of the Marondera University of Agricultural Science and Technology and Gwanda State University.

President Mugabe said Zimbabwe was ready to collaborate with all progressive members of the global community, including “those that were at odds with us.”

“On the other hand, Zimbabwe will continue to demand the immediate and unconditional removal of the illegal sanctions imposed by some arrogant Western countries,” he said.

“Regionally, we will continue playing an active role in the African Union, Comesa and Sadc where we have recently been elected as deputy chair. We will, therefore, have the honour of hosting the Sadc Summit of Heads of State in August 2014, when we assume the chairmanship of the grouping.”

Other Bills to be debated include the Savings and Credit Cooperatives Societies Bill aimed at regulating the activities of Common Facility Centres that would be put in place by Government for purposes of imparting entrepreneurship skills on young, unemployed graduates from higher and tertiary institutions.

Amendments to the Insurance Act, the Pension and Provident Funds Act and the Insurance and Pension Commission Amendment Act will also be debated.