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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Government has completed the translation of the national Constitution into all 16 languages recognised by the supreme law and will soon be printed, a Cabinet Minister has said.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said a committee of experts constituted by all stakeholders had finalised the translation and will be printed once the funds for that process are secured.

Minister Ziyambi said this in Senate last week responding to Senators during question and answer session.

Matabeleland South Senator, Cde Tambudzani Mohadi (Zanu-PF), had asked when the use of all the 16 official languages would take effect.

“Indeed, the process to translate our Constitution into all our languages started sometime ago. We constituted a Committee that included linguistic experts and some legal experts in the form of retired judges to ensure that we capture the essence of the Constitution when we translate it to the vernacular languages.

“We started with, like she rightly said, Shona and Ndebele. We also had Chewa and Tonga, but we have since finished the exercise of translating the Constitution into all the 16 languages. Funds permitting, we will be producing the Constitution in all the languages,” said Minister Ziyambi.

Responding to another question, Minister Ziyambi, who is also Leader of Government Business in the House, said Command Agriculture was meant for everyone and is not a preserve for any political party or grouping.

Midlands Senator, Morgan Komichi (MDC Alliance), had asked Minister Ziyambi to demystify the belief that the Presidential inputs were being given only to Zanu-PF supporters.

“Mr President, I am being asked a question based on perception and not policy.

“It is very difficult to deal with perceptions that people have, but I have enunciated what the Government policy is and we have provisions within our Constitution.

“If you feel that you have been aggrieved and you are discriminated against, you have the right to Administrative Justice Act where we have procedures to follow if what is supposed to be done has not been done,” said Minister Ziyambi.

“What I am saying is, if you have specific incidences and areas where people are being discriminated against, the Minister of Agriculture is on record indicating that this programme is non-partisan. We have people who do not even attend political rallies who are big farmers and are benefiting.”

Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Polite Kambamura said retooling of Shabanie Mashava Mine is currently underway and it will soon be back on its feet.

Midlands Senator Lilian Timveos (MDC-Alliance) had asked when the issue of SMM would be resolved given that workers had not been paid for long.