Take back your Bill for more consultations, MPs tell Chiwenga

Hwange Central legislator Daniel Molokela says Minister of Health and Child Care, Constantino Chiwenga should withdraw the Health Services Amendment Bill and do more consultations.

The Bill which is in its Second Reading Stage in the National Assembly has been condemned by several opposition legislators, civic society organisations, and health practitioners.

According to commentators, the Bill is taking away the right to protest or engage in industrial action by health workers.

Speaking in the National Assembly, the Hwange Central legislator said the Bill is retrogressive and will not achieve its intentions of aligning the Health Services Act to the Constitution.

‘’Thank you so much Honourable Speaker for allowing me to add my voice to this debate. I would like to start by thanking Honourable (Jasmine) Toffa for presenting the report on behalf of the Committee.

‘’I am a Member of the Committee, and I was able to participate in the public hearings on the Amendment Bill.

“The Bill seeks to align itself to the Constitution of the country; in particular, I am focusing on Section 76 of the National Constitution as adopted in 2013, which says the right to healthcare; “every citizen and permanent resident of Zimbabwe has the right to access basic healthcare which includes reproductive healthcare services”.

‘’In my own view, this Bill is very retrogressive and will not be able to align the Health Services Act to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, especially Section 76. What it will achieve is the opposite.

‘’If this Bill is passed in its present form, it will be one of the worst pieces of legislation ever passed by this Parliament. I am strongly recommending that as Parliamentarians, we do not accept but totally reject this, Bill.

‘’When we were consulting the public during public hearings, almost every health professional who attended the meeting showed a high level of shock and surprise that we were actually going around the country with such a shocking piece of legislation.

‘’As Parliament of Zimbabwe, we need to realise that this Bill does not achieve its intended purpose and must be returned back to the sender. It particularly violates the workers’ rights to unionise, collectively bargain, and negotiate as a community.

‘’It also violates their right to negotiate with the employer and confuses their right to serve their country freely without fear of victimisation.

“Its net effect is to drive healthcare workers from the public healthcare service to the private sector and to the diaspora, thereby worsening the current situation because right now, access to public healthcare in this country is in a deplorable state.

‘’So, we strongly reject this Bill, and it must not be passed.

We also recommend strongly that the relevant Minister consults further without coming up with another Bill.

“He has to consult all the relevant stakeholders maybe at an all-stakeholders conference so that whatever the mischief this Bill intended to achieve is clearly identified and separated from the mass of confusion being presented in this current Bill.

‘’Let the Minister do further consultations and come up with a highly revised form of the Healthcare Amendment Bill. Let us reject this Bill in its present format. I so move Honourable Speaker Sir,’’ he said. OpenparlyZw