Antonnate S. Mugodi
Harare, Zimbabwe (News of The South) – Recent tests that were done have shown that 25 Members of Parliament have been found positive for Covid 19.
Of these 25 nine had already been tested positive four weeks ago and had been recorded under recoveries.
This has then led MPs to worry that anti-body presence is leading to false positives.
MP Dr Ruth Labode from Matebeleland North raised a point of the privilege on Parliament’s testing and isolation policies:
“My concern is that 25 MPs tested positive and among those there were about nine or so who had already tested positive four weeks ago and isolated.”
According to the parliament guidelines Members of Parliament are required to get tested after every two weeks and those that test positive will immediately go into isolation for 14 days.
Dr Labode pointed out that the reason why some of those that would have tested positive before are likely to remain positive because of the presence of antibodies in their systems.
She went on to say that there was no need for further isolating these people as they would no longer be affected of infectious.
Kennedy Chokuda, the Clerk of Parliament said:
“We have decided that all those who test positive be isolated out of abundance of caution and we will continue following up on them and assisting them.”
The first two to test positive were diagnosed in July and the Parliament immediately suspended business for a month and only resumed sitting last week with the testing of all members of parliament.
The National Assembly is now waiting for debate in Senate as it passed the Attorney General’s Office Amendment Bill yesterday.
This Bill seeks to provide for the appointment of deputy Attorney Generals in line with the constitution to enhance effectiveness and efficiency of the Attorney General’s office.
It also sets out the composition of the Attorney General’s Office Board which shall be chaired by the Attorney General and bars Government departments from seeking legal advice from private practice without approval from the Attorney General since the Attorney General is the Government’s principal legal adviser in terms of the Constitution.
In line with the Attorney General’s mandate as the principal Government adviser, all legal advisers working for different ministries and departments will fall under the supervision of the Attorney General’s Office.
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