Cabinet approves two Bills
CABINET yesterday approved principles for the amendment of the Administrative Justice Act as well as the Radiation Protection Act to ensure the laws comply with the Constitution as well as international standards.
This was said by Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa while addressing journalists on the 27th Cabinet decision matrix that was held in Harare yesterday.
The principles for the amendment of the Administrative Justice Act were presented by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi.
“Key features of the proposed amendments include the following: providing for a definition of ‘administrative conduct’ as stipulated in Section 332 of the Constitution, Amendment of Section 3(1)(a) of the Act to reflect that every person has the right to administrative conduct that is lawful, prompt, efficient, reasonable, proportionate, impartial and both substantively and procedurally fair and inserting in Section 4 of the Act a provision that guarantees recourse to the Constitutional Court on administrative cases that are constitutional in nature or connected thereto,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
Minister Mutsvangwa said principles of the Radiation Protection Amendment Bill were presented by the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and Monitoring Implementation of Government Programmes, Joram Gumbo.
“The amendments to the Radiation Protection Act (Chapter 15:15) have been prompted by the need to ensure full alignment with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety standards and other international agreements.
“Areas of focus for the amendment of the Act will, inter alia, be as follows: broadening the scope of the provisions of the Act to include protection against non-ionising radiation which have adverse effects on health e.g. magnetic resonance imaging, telecommunications, high voltage electricity transmission and laser technology,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
She said the amendments would also ensure that workers exposed to radiation in the workplace were protected as part of their occupational and safety rights and safe management of radioactive waste, disused and orphan sources.
She said Cabinet had considered and approved Ratification of Beijing Treaty on Audio Visual Performances which was presented by the Minister Ziyambi.
Minister Mutsvangwa said the treaty provided for performers’ economic rights covering reproduction, distribution, rental and making available their performances in audio-visual formats.
The benefits of ratifying the treaty to Zimbabwe said Minister Mutsvangwa, include ensuring that local producers and performers receive their due rewards when their audio-visual works were availed outside Zimbabwe’s borders and guarding against the unauthorised use of performances.