Zimpapers Logo

Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter

Two major Bills designed to fulfil the goals of the Second Republic now await Presidential assent — the Maintenance of Peace and Order Bill (MOPA) and the Companies and Other Entities Bill.

MOPA seeks to repeal the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and provide mechanisms to regulate the conduct of demonstrations.

It also opens up the maximum democratic space, with the only limits coming from the need to protect everyone’s  rights.

The Companies and Other Entities Bill will make business much easier by modernising the 1951 legislation.

Parliament has sent the two Bills passed by both Houses, plus the Micro-finance Amendment Bill, to the President for his assent, before they become law.

To entrench democratic values and freedoms in line with Vision 2030 of achieving an upper middle income economy, President Mnangagwa’s leadership has implemented a raft of reforms to transform the political and economic environment.

The Micro-finance Amendment Bill reduces the types of institutions that can do this business to credit-only micro financiers and deposit-taking micro financiers, omitting money-lenders.

The three Bills were passed in the last session of Parliament and are part of the reform process that Government has embarked on.

Meanwhile, President Mnangagwa on Friday conferred immunities and privileges to foreign nationals employed by the United Nations Office for Project Services.

The conferment of the privileges and immunities to the UNOPS and its foreign employees exempts them from lawsuits and legal processes and taxes and rates and other taxes on the importation of goods as is accorded to the government of any foreign State, among other benefits.

The President’s conferment of the privileges and immunities as stated in General Notice 2021 of 2019 was published in Friday’s Government Gazette in terms of the Privileges and Immunities Act (Chapter3:03).