Dzivarasekwa legislator Edwin Mushoriwa fumed : “Our
Standing Orders state that Wednesday is for question-and-answer sessions. Mr
Speaker Sir, judging from the list that you just announced, it shows that 80%
of the ministers have decided to absent themselves from this august House.
“I am also sure Mr Speaker that such failure by ministers,
and some of them have done it on regular basis, absenting themselves from
Parliament every Wednesday, (means they are) refusing scrutiny from Members of
Parliament.
“All members here represent the people of Zimbabwe, so they
want to hear us questioning the Executive. So, if we have only two Cabinet
ministers and a few deputy ministers, I think, it is bringing contempt to this
august House.”
“We are saying that the absence of the majority of
ministers makes a mockery of Wednesday’s question and answer sessions. For
members of the Executive to continuously give apologies week in and week out,
it just destroys the foundation upon which Wednesday was made for.
“So, I was going to then request that given the fact that
today, basically we have very few ministers present, let today’s
question-and-answer session be stopped because the ministers are not
here."
But Zanu PF chief whip Pupurai Togarepi said :“While I
recognise what my other colleague has raised in terms of requesting ministers
to come and attend the question-and-answer session, there is nowhere in the
Standing Orders that says ministers must (come), even if they have excuses. It
is allowed for them to raise excuses that you read. So, ministers, both
individually and severally, because they sit in the same Cabinet, there is
nothing that happens in any ministry that the other ministers do not know.”
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