By Staff Reporter A Germany based organization, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, (KAS), has pledged to give technical support to the Parliament of Zimbabwe, by inviting regional and international intellectuals to engage with local law makers in various political and economic discourses which inform legislative processes.

The intellectual capacity of some of the current local Members of Parliament is questionable as evidenced by the ill-informed discussions and debates they engage in, in parliament.

The poor quality of parliamentary debates is exacerbated by lack of stipulated minimum qualifications required for one to become a law maker.

Emerging from his closed door meeting with the Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Mudenda, at his government offices at the weekend, KAS director, David Mbae, said they intended to strengthen the intellectual capacity of Zimbabwe MPs.

“ The most important part is working on capacity building of Parliament portfolio committees  and briefing members of parliament on several issues , for example bringing in local experts ,regional experts and even  people from Germany ,where we as an organization come from , bringing them in order to brief local legislators on questions that they might need in order to put the right legislation in place  and be informed and also inform their constituencies and communities about issues that affect them,” said Mbae.

Mbae, said they were also interested in intensifying climate change awareness campaign programmes , which   most communities in Zimbabwe were  yet to get a full appreciation of.

“ We are looking at sustainable development issues which make the country’s economy blossom  and  my meeting with the speaker of parliament was focused on our cooperation  we are trying to have with parliament and portfolio committees   on several issues,” said Mbae.