Zivanai Dhewa
Government has revealed several projects in the pipeline in its fulfilment of the Second Republic’s promises rebuild the country’s economy, aligning the country’s laws to the Constitution as well as fulfil reforms among other things.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Sibusiso Moyo revealed details of the meeting between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Ethiopian Airlines Group Chief Executive Officer, Telwade Gebre Mariam.
“Among other things which were discussed was the issue of creating a Maintenance Hub in Zimbabwe for the capability of sustaining and maintaining different types of aircraft in Harare.
“Secondly they desire to cooperate with Air Zimbabwe in the form of an agreement for the training of Pilots from Air Zimbabwe as you are aware Ethiopian Airlines has got a very excellent record of flying.” said Minister Moyo.
Minister Moyo also briefed Cabinet on the issues concerning the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“You will recall that in Kigali, the ACFTA was launched and was signed by a majority of nations but a lot of nations had not ratified the agreement. The terms of the ACFTA were that 30 days after the achievement of 22 signatories who have ratified and have deposited these instruments with the Africa Union Commission then the launch of the agreement itself is going to take off,” said Minister Moyo
Another briefing was presented by the Minister of Home Affairs Cain Mathema where he explained the Police Act and how it is different from POSA.
“The Police Act deals with the administrative issues of the Police Service, hence the Police should be referred to as the Zimbabwe Police Services and not Police Force.
“It’s very administrative, and by the way it’s different from Public Order Security Act (POSA). POSA is the management of demonstration and also the office decides how long a person should be detained,” said Minister Mathema.
Minister Mathema added that “with POSA, the regulating authority decides whether the demonstrations should be held or not or how long the demonstrations should last.
“However, as you know in a recent case, Justice Rita Makarau indicated that the old Act allowed the regulating authority to virtually stop any demonstrations at a particular district indefinitely, but the New Dispensation is saying NO, it cannot be indefinitely because the Constitution says so.
“The Constitution also states that nobody should be detained for more than 48hours,” concluded Minister Mathema.
Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa responded to questions regarding the timelines for the repeal of AIPPA and the introduction of the Zimbabwe Media Commission Bill during the same post Cabinet Briefing.
“The Government of the Second Republic continues to be consistent in its promises to do reform and to align the laws with the Constitution,” said Minister Mutsvangwa
“It won’t take time seeing that we have already started like this, it means soon we will be done. We want Commissioners from the Zimbabwe Media Commission to be in place working together with the Parliament of Zimbabwe so that they can do their work that they failed to do previously,” she concluded.
