HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa held his fifth tour of the New Parliament Building on Monday morning in the capital.
The building is a major infrastructure work that will see the construction of a new city in Mount Hampden.
It was initially scheduled to be commissioned in March 2021 but the outbreak of covid19 pandemic scaled down progress of the project which is now at 59% completion.
The new parliament building sits on a 70m platform above the scenic surrounding area, symbolically projecting legislative supremacy.
The ministry of information disclosed that as part of the project, new modes of transport such as high-performance trains will be established and the nearby Charles Prince Airport will be upgraded.
The new Parliament Building is now expected to be ready for commissioning in September/October 2021.
The existing Parliament Building was converted from a liquidated hotel in the 1890s and was bought at bargain price by the British South Africa Company’s (BSAC) administrator.
The space has since become inadequate as it was meant for 100 representatives but with the gerrymandering of constituencies by the ruling Zanu PF, it meant the number increased beyond the initial figures.
It has become a norm that legislators attend parliament to make noise, sleep on duty and pass laws along party lines.
The Government of Zimbabwe expended US$2.4 million towards enabling works to kick-start the construction of the current project in Mt Hampden.
However the project has been received with mixed emotions from citizens with one user named @Gixel tweeting:
“We should always thank God for being alive, Gokwe, Sanyati to Mashame hakuna kana kumbobvira kwava ne road, we used to see you guys kana muchiuya Kuma Rally ne zvikopokopo henyu.”
Another user @tatendam82 was also skeptical about the initiative and commented:
“Why increase the number of parasites that feed on poor people. Parliament is already too big,we actually need less people because they are useless and burden to citizens. It’s the quality of parliamentarians that need to change. China put spying material in AU.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INKj98lZXjI]
