The Sunday News
GOVERNMENT is crafting a law prescribing the formulation of a code of conduct to regulate the professional conduct of Vice-Presidents, Cabinet Ministers and their deputies as part of a reconfiguration of the statutes to align them with the Constitution.
The new law is provided for under Section 106 (3) of the Constitution which prescribes that, “An Act of Parliament must prescribe a code of conduct for Vice-Presidents, ministers and deputy ministers.”
The law will see senior Government officials’ conduct governed by a code, marking a departure from the current system where the Constitution provides vague guidelines on professional conduct.
In the absence of the code, cases of gross misconduct by senior Government officials such as criminal abuse of office and outright corruption had become rampant.
President Mugabe fired then Vice-President Joice Mujuru and eight other ministers on charges which included graft and abuse of office in December last year.
In dismissing the Vice-President and ministers, the President invoked Section 106 (2) of the Constitution.
The proposed law and the code, are however, envisaged to ensure strict monitoring of high ranking officials to prevent the recurrence of similar cases where a sitting Vice-President and several ministers operated corruptly with impunity.
Furthermore, as part of these measures by Government to thwart high level corruption within the public sector, the legal reconfiguration will also witness the promulgation of the long-awaited Public Sector Corporate Governance Bill.
The proposed law seeks to arrest corporate malfeasance and cronyism within State owned enterprises and parastatals by enforcing stricter regulation of company boards and senior management.
In written responses to questions from our Harare Bureau, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mrs Virginia Mabhiza said the proposed laws were part of the ongoing realignment of laws to the Constitution.
Government has placed high priority on laws that promote human rights and ones that facilitate economic development.
The realignment process, which she said was now at the halfway stage, has already witnessed gazetting the National Prosecuting Authority Act, which paved the way for the creation of the National Prosecuting Authority.
To date, three Bills are before Parliament, while five others have been drafted, one is being drafted and three others are due for stakeholder consultative meetings.
“We are almost half-way through the process. The National Prosecuting Authority Act is now in force. The Criminal Procedure and Evidence Amendment Bill, Gender Commission Bill, General Laws Amendment Bill are now complete and are before Parliament and will be debated soon,” said Mrs Mabhiza.
“The General Laws Amendment Bill is going to align over 204 pieces of legislation to the Constitution. The Bill has recently been gazetted.”
She said stakeholder consultative meetings for the Children’s Bill and Persons with Disabilities Bill — spearheaded by the Ministry of Labour and Social welfare — and the Tourism Bill — being driven by the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry — will commence soon.
“The Land Commission Bill is almost complete and will be brought before Parliament soon. There are various draft bills of priority, laws such as the Local authorities Bill, the Public Sector Corporate Governance Bill, the Joint Ventures Bill and the Traditional Leaders Bill. These Bills have been drafted and the line ministries are still consulting on the same, after which the Bills will be referred to Parliament.”
Drafting of the new laws is being driven by the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on legislation alignment to help facilitate fast tracking of bills.
The taskforce is constituted by legal experts from all ministries who administer laws that were affected by the Constitutional changes.
According to the Draft principles of the Public Sector Corporate Governance Bill proposed by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and subsequently approved by Cabinet, the law will introduce reforms that include making it mandatory for all board appointees to declare their assets.
In addition, board members will also be required to sign a code of conduct.
Board members will also be appointed on the basis of a clearly defined skills matrix while there will also be a 50-50 gender representation.
More importantly, though, the law will have a provision outlawing multiple board sittings at all State owned companies.
This new provision will adversely affect known career board members who hold multiple directorship in both public and private companies. In addition no permanent secretary will sit on parastatal boards.
