Bills and Acts of 2018 – Bill Watch 18 / 2019

Update on Bills Passed by Parliament during 2018

Twelve Bills were passed by Parliament during 2018:

• Finance Bill
• Appropriation (2018) Bill
• Estate Administrators Amendment Bill
• Public Entities Corporate Governance Bill
• Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Debt Assumption) Bill
• Electoral Amendment Bill
• Insolvency Bill
• Shop Licences Amendment Bill
• Civil Aviation Amendment Bill
• Public Health Bill
• Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Amendment Bill
• Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill

All twelve Bills were passed by the Eighth Parliament before it adjourned for the last time on 7th June 2018 ahead of the 30th July harmonised election.

The Ninth [i.e. the current] Parliament, sworn in on 18th September 2018 did not complete the passage of any further Bills by the end of the year [see below].

Eleven of the Bills have been gazetted as Acts

These eleven Acts were all gazetted and came into force by the end of 2018 [see Table of Acts below for details].

Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill This was the twelfth Bill passed. It was not published as an Act because the President refused to assent to it, and after the election it was sent back to the new Ninth Parliament for reconsideration in the light of the President’s reservations. The Bill did not, however, come up for reconsideration during the remainder of 2018.

Uncompleted Bills Left for Ninth Parliament

Companies and Other Business Entities Bill This Bill received a non-adverse report from the Parliamentary Legal Committee [PLC] on 16th May 2018 but was taken no further before the Eighth Parliament adjourned for the last time. It, therefore, lapsed when that Parliament was dissolved before the 30th July elections. A slightly modified and expanded version of the Bill was introduced into the present Parliament in October 2018 [see below].

Not One Bill Completed by Ninth Parliament Before End of 2018

The following Bills had been gazetted and/or presented to the National Assembly by the end of 2018, but none of them had been finally passed by both Houses of Parliament. So all would have to be completed in 2019.

• Finance (No. 2) Bill [withdrawn 20th December, rendered unnecessary by (No. 3) Bill, below]
• Finance (No. 3) Bill [passed by National Assembly 20th December, with amendments]
• Appropriation (2019) Bill [passed by National Assembly 20th December, with amendments]
• Companies and Other Business Entities Bill [gazetted 5th October, presented 1st November, non-adverse PLC report 6th December, no further progress by end of 2018]
• Tripartite Negotiating Forum Bill [gazetted 8th June, presented 19th December, referred to PLC]
• Consumer Protection Bill [gazetted 21st December, awaiting presentation]
• Microfinance Amendment Bill [gazetted 21st December, awaiting presentation].

Acts of 2018

The table below is the complete list of all eleven Acts of 2018.

As pointed out above, the Bills for all these Acts listed were passed by the last Parliament [the Eighth Parliament] before the 7th June 2018.

Note: the annual number of an Act depends on the year in which the Bill was finally passed by Parliament – not the year in which it was gazetted.

The slot for Act No. 9 of 2018 is empty because the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill passed by the Eighth Parliament and destined for the No. 9 slot did not become an Act [see above].

More should have been achieved, given that many of the promised Bills had been a long time in preparation and had featured in previous legislative agendas. Parliament’s output of Bills during 2018 was affected by the Government’s failure to achieve a sustained flow of Bills to the legislature. This failure may have been a reflection of the general stasis in normal Government activity associated with infighting in the ruling party over the succession to President Mugabe. And then there was the drama of a threatened impeachment, a change of President and a general election. Additional distractions were the new dispensation’s focus on re-engagement with the international community and on trying to resolve Zimbabwe’s desperate economic situation.

Statutory Instruments of 2018

A complete list of Statutory Instruments of 2018 is on the Veritas website

Source: Veritas