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President Mugabe officially opens the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament of Zimbabwe in Harare yesterday

Zvamaida MurwiraSenior Reporter
President Mugabe yesterday unveiled 15 Bills that would be tabled during the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament of Zimbabwe, whose emphasis he said would be on the alignment of laws with the new Constitution.

The Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs says 450 laws need to be aligned with the new Constitution.

Officially opening the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament yesterday, President Mugabe said the major focus of the Eighth Parliament would also be to review existing laws and enacting new ones.

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This, he said, would lend support to the attainment of the goals of socio-economic development in general and to those of Zim-Asset in particular.

The 15 Bills outlined by President Mugabe are: New Income Tax Bill, Debt Management Bill, Joint Venture Bill, Pension and Provident Amendment Bill, Amendment to the Labour Act, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, Insurance Act, Procurement Act.

Others are Tripartite Negotiating Forum Bill, Electronic Transactions Bill, Cybercrime Bill, Data Protection Bill, Public Health Bill, Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences Bill, Gwanda State University Bill, National Defence College Bill.

President Mugabe told Parliament that Government would be launching a commission of inquiry to establish the processes and methods used to convert pension and insurance policy values from Zimbabwe dollars to the United States currency.

He said many people were prejudiced in terms of their pensions and insurance schemes in the change-over from the Zimbabwe dollar to the multi-currency regime.

“The findings from the Commission and the recommendations thereof, should assist in restoring public confidence in the local pensions and insurance industry,” he said.

On agriculture, President Mugabe said Government would provide crop and livestock inputs support to communal and A1 model farmers in the wake of predictions by experts of a normal rainfall season.

“It will also be necessary to address the high cost of fertilisers, water and electricity, so as to improve the competitiveness of our agricultural system,” he said.

President Mugabe said Government was aware of challenges faced by industry that included unreliable and costly utilities, lack of affordable and long term finance, weak business linkages and dependency on obsolete machinery among others.

“We are also aware of concerns over the implementation of the country’s tax system, which is perceived to be stifling business growth. The matter is being attended to. Government in collaboration with some development partners, is working on measures to improve the ease of doing business in the country,” he said.

He said labour laws would also be reviewed in a bid to improve business and investment conditions in the country.

President Mugabe slammed some local people who were being used as fronts by some foreign investors, defeating the fundamental objectives of indigenisation laws that required that foreigners should hold not more than 49 percent of equity in a business.

He urged companies that pledged under the community share ownership trust schemes to honour their commitments.

Government, he said, would establish youth development desks in all ministries in order to ensure that youth development programmes were mainstreamed in all national developments.

“Resources permitting, every local government, rural district area shall have at least one youth vocational training centre,” he said.

The health system, he said, would soon be boosted by a $89 million loan facility Zimbabwe signed with China Exim Bank for the procurement of medical equipment, ambulances and other accessories.

As a result, he said, specialist surgical operations would be performed locally thereby obviating the need for Zimbabweans to incur huge costs seeking such services abroad.