Guvamatanga under fire over circular
BY MOREBLESSING MARANGE
Dzivarasekwa lawmaker, Edwin Mushoriwa, has accused permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance, George Guvamatanga of reversing some provisions in the budget that Members of Parliament passed last year and was signed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa by penning a circular that “reversed and suspended” the Finance Act.
He said Guvamatanga’s action should invite scrutiny and censure from Parliament as it is regrettable and tantamount to disrespecting lawmakers.
“… we burned the midnight oil debating the Finance and the Appropriation Bills in respect to the 2026 National Budget. Those two Bills were passed by this National Assembly, including the Senate and they were signed into law by the President of Zimbabwe so that it becomes the Finance Act,” Mushoriwa told Parliament on Tuesday.
“Regrettably, a matter of grave constitutional concern is that the Ministry of Finance, on 14 January 2026, wrote a circular to reverse and suspend what has been passed by this august House and signed by the President,” he added.
“Under Section 134 of our Constitution, legislative authority, exclusively, is vested in Parliament and the President and a Permanent Secretary or a senior government officer cannot be a lawmaker nor a parallel regulator. If there was a problem in terms of any provision of the Finance Act, the Constitution has a remedy where the Minister can actually come here.”
He said the situation that arose is unacceptable and action must be taken.
“But we have a situation where the Minister of Finance agreed to the proposals that were passed by this House and that, in this respect, pertained to the definition of minerals, which the Minister of Finance himself supported and took to the Senate and then took it to the President for signing.”
“To then have a Permanent Secretary in the Minister of Finance writing to suspend that law without coming to Parliament or without even going to the President to say, President, can you issue a special Instrument, a temporary, a Presidential Special Instrument to suspend this is not fair. I think it brings the name of Parliament and the hard work of your Members of Parliament into disrepute. But more importantly, it also violates the Constitution.”
Mushoriwa asked Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Mudenda, to have Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube in Parliament to explain how and why this happened.
“I am asking your Chair to ask the Minister of Finance to come to this House to explain why they could do something unconstitutional because the supremacy of Parliament, as representatives of the people, should always be respected and we should also respect the constitutional mandate given to the President to sign Bills that come from Parliament,” he said.
He added: “… what has happened is that it has affected even business because the idea that we agreed was to do business easier in Zimbabwe. However, right now, there is confusion because the business is saying this and the law says this but we now have a circular from the Ministry of Finance saying that the law has been suspended.”
In his response, Mudenda said he will look into the matter so that the confusion is addressed.
