RESIDENTS of Plumtree and Bulawayo have castigated their legislators for denying them vital information and dumping their respective constituencies soon after winning the July 31 2013 elections. VENERANDA LANGA STaff REPORTER
Residents made the remarks on Sunday during public hearings organised by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
Committee chairperson Jessie Majome had expressed concern over the low turnout at the meetings, which are meant to gather public views on the Electoral Amendment Bill.
Between 30 and 50 people attended the meetings in each of the constituencies visited by the committee.
Plumtree resident Jabulani Mahlangu said before the public hearings started all the MPs should first have explained the proposed amendments to their constituents using local languages.
“We are only a small crowd of about 30 to 40 people and we feel that MPs should have disseminated information about the Bill and the public hearings so that we could have a representative sample of people from Plumtree,” he said.
Another Plumtree resident Michael Tshuma added: “MPs should be reminded to play their roles. Since 2013 after elections, I have never seen our local MP. I don’t even know who that person is.”
Zanu PF swept all the parliamentary seats in Matabeleland South where Plumtree is located.
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In Bulawayo, only two legislators Dorcas Sibanda and Nicola Watson Jane, both of MDC-T, attended the public hearings in solidarity with the committee. MDC-T won all the parliamentary seats in Bulawayo.
Meanwhile, the residents said known political party activists should not be part of the secretariat of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
They also urged the electoral body to resist being pushed into an election without adequate resources. “ZEC commissioners should be completely apolitical. We don’t want people who were once affiliated to a political party as commissioners. “There should be serious scrutiny of people before they are appointed ZEC commissioners because it is the main cause of contested elections,” said Trymore Mpofu from Plumtree. Young voters said they should not be compelled to bring proof of residence when registering to vote as they did not own properties, adding only an identity card was enough. They also called for the decentralisation of registration centres to ward level to enable all potential voters to exercise their voting rights. “Bills should be translated into the 16 official languages as well as voting material. “Voter education material should be well written in indigenous languages with words correctly spelt,” said a Bulawayo resident who declined to be named.
