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Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter
At least 144 laws out of 183 that need to be aligned to the Constitution have been amended and efforts are underway to work on the remainder, Cabinet heard yesterday.

Addressing journalists during a post-Cabinet briefing in Harare yesterday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said Cabinet was happy with the progress made in aligning the laws to the Constitution.

This followed a comprehensive update given to Cabinet by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi.

Minister Mutsvangwa said the laws that were being aligned were categorised into 10 clusters.

The clusters are Media and Information; Security; Citizenship and Movement of People; Local Government; Social Services; Environmental and Natural Resources; Justice Delivery; Economic Services; Political and Civil Rights; and Cross-Cutting.

“Cabinet received and noted with satisfaction a progress report on the status of Bills under review for Constitutional Alignment from the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, as Leader of Government Business in Parliament,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.

“To date, out of a total number of 183 statutes to be aligned with the Constitution, 144 have been amended, leaving a balance of 39.”

Minister Mutsvangwa said there were 19 statutes identified as requiring enactment.

“Of those 19 new statutes, 14 have since either been enacted into law or have Bills which are undergoing Parliamentary processes,” she said. “Government will continue to work hard in order to ensure that the alignment of the country’s laws to the Constitution is completed in the shortest possible time.”

Cabinet, Minister Mutsvangwa said, received reports on the 100-day cycle priority projects from various ministries.

With regards to mining, Minister Mutsvangwa said Cabinet received a progress report from Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando on a number of projects.

She said Cabinet noted the progress made thus far on the expansion of coke oven production, expansion of ferrochrome production and construction of a plant to manufacture explosives for use on mining, among other projects.

She said Minister Chitando tabled proposals for the re-allocation of chrome mining claims which were ceded by ZimAlloys.

On Energy, Minister Mutsvangwa said progress had been made on a number of projects.

“The Hwange 7 and 8 Expansion Projects are well on course to meet set targets, though currently experiencing challenges from the COVID-19 which is affecting the movement of experts in and out of China,” she said.

“The Kanyemba Electrification Project is 50 percent complete. The 150 transformer manufacturing project has seen 25 transformers being manufactured, which is 16 percent of the expected target.

“Of the 6 000 prepaid meters targeted under the prepaid metering project, a total of 2 897 have been installed to date, representing 48 percent of the targeted scope.

“Under the grid extension project, which targets rural electrification of 35 institutions, a total of nine institutions were electrified, constituting 26 percent of the target.”