Zimbabwe: President Addresses Nation Today . . . Poised to Outline Legislative Agenda

President Mnangagwa today opens the Second Session of the 10th Parliament, outlining the legislative agenda and delivering his State of the Nation Address to the joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate.

In the same address, the President is expected to detail the present economic, political and social conditions and outline milestones achieved by the Second Republic.

It is expected to be a colourful event attended by judges from the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court and High Court, led by Chief Justice Luke Malaba, service chiefs, captains of industry and commerce and diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe.

Zimbabweans will be able to follow proceedings from platforms that include radio, television and social media.

Clerk of Parliament, Mr Kennedy Chokuda, yesterday said all was in place for the President's address.

"The State of the Nation Address and the official opening of Parliament is a requirement in terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and as a requirement of the Constitution, the Speaker of Parliament and the President of the Senate have made the duly necessary arrangements for His Excellency, the President to address Parliament tomorrow (today).

"Our expectation, as usual, is that His Excellency, the President will lay out the legislative agenda for the incoming session from October 2024 to October 2025. And, basically, that will outline the issues that Parliament would be faced with during that session and that will include some Bills that are currently before Parliament that will need to be rolled over to the next session and any other new legislation that the President will outline.

"There are some Bills that we believe will be rolled over into the next Session of Parliament.

"I know for a fact that we have the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill which has been referred back to Parliament.

"It has now been brought back and has been submitted to Parliament so we are now ready to gazette it at any time, so definitely that one should be one of the Bills that will be coming to Parliament.

"We also have several others that are still being attended to by the ministries so, yes there will be quite several Bills that will be rolled over," Mr Chokuda said.

As the secretariat to Parliament, his officials worked hard to capacitate MPs on their duties as legislators.

"The just-ended session was "the first session for the 10th Parliament and basically when it's the first session everyone is learning the ropes. But we did our best as Parliament. One of the things that we did was to quickly capacitate our Members of Parliament in terms of the work that they do and as always Parliament is ready to burn the midnight candle to pass legislation," said Mr Chokuda.

There are a lot of expectations from people on the speech by President Mnangagwa.

Economist Dr Prosper Chitambara said he expected the opening speech and State of the Nation Address to give a trajectory on how to consolidate the ease of doing business that the Government has embarked on.

"There is the issue of the ease of doing business environment; there is scope for improvements; we need to ensure that Zimbabwe remains a very competitive investment destination; there is need to sustain macro-economic stability," he said.

Kwekwe-based lawyer, Mr Valentine Mutatu said he expected the President to focus on investment and policies that encourage dispute resolutions in courts.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers president Mr Denford Mutashu said they expected to get more support from the Government.

There was need to continue improving the ease of doing business including creating exemptions on policy measures on the amount that one could take out in cash when going out of the country, he said.

Mr Mutashu said the US$2 000 limit would stifle SMEs hence the need for exceptions.

Political analyst, Mr Goodwine Mureriwa, said he expected the address by President Mnangagwa to maintain infrastructural development and give impetus to the soon-to-be-launched National Development Strategy 2.

This article was originally featured in The Herald.