A critique of the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Services and Political Parties (Finances) Acts
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
On the 3rd April 2001 the Zimbabwean Parliament “fast tracked” two controversial bills, namely the Broadcasting Services and Political Parties (Finance) Bills despite strenuous opposition from the Movement for Democratic Change. The Leader of the House, ZANU(PF) Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa went to extraordinary lengths to get both bills passed. The previous week he successfully moved for the reduction of the period for the consideration of one of the bills by the Parliamentary Legal Committee from 26 days to 4 days. At commencement of debate Minister Chinamasa moved the suspension of Standing Orders relating to consideration of an adverse report from the Parliamentary Legal Committee and the stages for the consideration of bills. Both actions in themselves were extraordinary: the Legal Committee (comprising incidentally a majority of ZANU(PF) members) had declared that the Broadcasting Act was, in several respects, unconstitutional and the right to debate an adverse report the next sitting day was denied; the latter compressed the debate of all three stages of both bills (normally debated on separate days) into one day. Neither bill concerned matters of immediate national importance - the old Broadcasting Act had been declared unconstitutional 6 months previously and Zimbabwean legislation had allowed foreign funding of political parties for 21 years. Despite all these irregularities and the legitimate objections of the opposition and civil society ZANU(PF) used their majority to ram both bills through the House. This paper now outlines why the MDC objects to both Acts.
Broadcasting Services Act