Staff Reporter | Residents of Gwanda have dismissed a “shoddy and unprofessional” parliamentary portfolio public consultation held in the town recently demanding for the portfolio committee to return to the town and redo the consultations.
In an email sent to the Clerk of Parliament, Gwanda Residents Association Secretary Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo accuses the portfolio committee on Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology for not fully consulting the Residents of Gwanda on the Gwanda State University Bill.
According to the email, the committee did not advertise the consultation meeting to the residents which resulted in only a handful of people attending the meeting. The few who attended were also not served with copies of the bill which left them discussing from an uninformed point.
The strongly worded email further accuses the portfolio committee for arriving in the town late and rushing the few speakers through their contributions.
According to the Residents, the consultation process does not fully present the inputs of the people of Gwanda and so misleading the parliament.
In an interview, Fuzwayo said that they were still awaiting an urgent response from the Clerk of Parliament on the matter.
“We sent the email to the Clerk of Parliament two days ago and expect a response urgently considering the urgency of the matter. If no response is received in the next 24 hours we will pursue the matter further with the Speaker and make sure that the committee comes back to consult the people on this important bill,” said Fuzwayo.