Diminishing role of Parly under COVID-19

THE Election Resource Centre (ERC) takes note of the national address by President Emmerson Mnangagwa on July 21 2020 in which he announced a raft of new measures aimed at protecting the citizens and assisting the government in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since March 2020 when the first Statutory Instrument (SI) to deal with COVID-19 was published in the Government Gazette, the government has taken extraordinary steps to tackle the pandemic in the country.

As the number of cases in Zimbabwe increases, the lockdown measures have been tightened.

It is now vital that checks and balances on the Executive making these lockdown regulations increase in the same vein.

The worrying thing is that the pandemic has strengthened authoritarianism, weakened the rule of law and diminished the Parliamentary role to provide constitutional oversight.

The series of SIs and pseudoexecutive orders have made the Executive the ultimate authority in the country, wiping out what remained of the parliamentary role in the country.

The absence of effective checks and balances exercised by Parliament on the implementation of SIs and Executive powers, has become a major threat to the principles of accountability, democracy and the separation of powers in Zimbabwe.

The Executive has taken over the core legislative function reserved for Parliament thereby undermining the constitutional mandate of the Legislature.

Parliament is one of the key State institutions in a democratic system of governance and has a critical role to play in promoting democracy and good governance. Parliament must ensure that constitutionalism and rule of law prevail.

The role of Parliament is to legislate, to scrutinise the policies and activities of the Executive and to hold it to account for its actions.

Therefore, the ERC calls on Parliament to exercise oversight and ensure a return to constitutionalism in the handling of the COVID-19 lockdown measures.