Former Deputy Justice Minister Fortune Chasi has been roped into a senior parliamentary role.
Chasi who was ejected by First Lady Grace Mugabe last year after she publicly accused him of blocking her land grabs, has been appointed into the Parliamentary Legal Committee, a promotion he denied has anything to do with his former senior Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, as some reports allege.
Chasi will wield the influential role of formulating laws for both debate and passage.
ZANU PF’s chief whip Joram Gumbo confirmed the development. “Yes I can confirm Mr Chasi is now part of the committee since last week,” he said.
Chasi was last year randomly ejected from his parliamentary seat when the Joyce Mujuru purge began. He was then subsequently removed from his ministerial post. But he continued a strong bond with VP Mnangagwa and was not vindictive, a source said.
Chasi responding to reports has said Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has nothing to do with his appointment saying that it was rather the ZANU PF party which did.
He responded saying, “a somewhat misleading article has hit the airwaves over my appointment to the above Committee. The purpose of this post is to correct the impressions that may have been created by the article in question.
As is the case with all committees of parliament this is an oversight instrument in line with the separation of powers doctrine. As such the law , in the form of the constitution, dictates that no minister or deputy minister can be a member of such committee. As I was a deputy minister until December 2014 I could not have been a member of that committee or any other for that matter. The article says I’m back. No I’m not . I can’t be back to a place j never was! It’s a green field for me.
The article specifically says I was appointed by VP Mnangagwa. Nothing could be further from the truth. Apart from the fact that the honorable vp has no power at law to make that appointment, the matter has not arisen in any discussion with him at any point . Indeed I was nominated by the party to serve in that committee. That is as it should be.
The Committee was hitherto chaired by honorable Samukange . We had our first meeting last Thursday at which I was duly elected Chairperson.
Our next meeting is next Tuesday when we will continue to deal with the substantive business of this very important committee.
And so clearly it’s not an executive committee. It’s a parliamentary position. It’s supervisory to the executive arm of Gvt and so I would be the last person to deny that it is a senior position of one may call it that.
For completeness I wish to inform the public that the other members of the committee are Hons Samukange, Majome , Mathuthu & Gonese.
” Thats all I wish to say in connection with this case.”