By Paul Nyathi|Former President, Robert Mugabe is set to appear before parliament this Monday afternoon to answer questions on the notorious missing $15 billion diamonds revenue, the big question is, will he attend?
According to the law if Mugabe does not attend he will face contempt of Parliament charges as this will be the second official invitation after he failed to show up last week on Wednesday before the Mines and Energy portfolio committee.
Mugabe has kept the committee guessing after he failed to confirm whether he would attend the hearing as invited by committee chairman Temba Mliswa.
He was served with letters inviting him to appear before the committee and clarify claims he made in 2016 that Zimbabwe had lost $15 billion through diamond leakages.
Clerk of Parliament, Mr Kennedy Chokuda, said parliament has been making frantic efforts to get confirmation on Mugabe’s attendance.
“We have not got anything as yet. Our expectation is that he attends Monday’s hearing as agreed by the committee,” said Chokuda.
Mliswa said they remained optimistic that Mr Mugabe would attend the hearing given that the former Head of State and Government understood the Constitution and the role of Parliament.
“We expect him to have time to appear before Parliament. We expect him to co-operate and Parliament has power to summon anyone,” said Mliswa.
“I think he will comply because he is a man who understands the Constitution and he is our statesman.”
He said Parliament had been magnanimous for Mugabe by arranging that he comes in the afternoon and not in the morning as initially scheduled.
“In view of the time, we have resolved that we will write to Mugabe to appear before us at 2pm, taking into cognisance the fact that 9am was too early because when he was in office, he would do Cabinet meetings late in the afternoon at 2pm,” he said.
The decision to call Mugabe followed a claim during an interview to commemorate his birthday in 2016 where he said Zimbabwe had lost $15 billion through diamond leakages.
Last week the committee waited for over two hours for the arrival of Mugabe before calling off the meeting.