In the Senate
Wednesday 14th August 2019

MAINTENANCE OF PEACE AND ORDER BILL:
EXTRACT FROM SECOND READING SPEECH TO SENATORS BY
MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS

Madam President, Section 117 of our Constitution exhorts the Legislature, among other things, “to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of Zimbabwe.”  It is not by chance that these three things, “peace”, “order” and “good governance” keep company with each other in the same sentence. I will go further and say that peace and order are the preconditions for enjoying all the other blessings we desire for ourselves – family, prosperity, community, the pursuit of knowledge and happiness, freedom, liberty of worship, self-determination and the security of property.  No matter what our differences may be, peace and order afford us the time to think and argue among ourselves how we may improve if we have gone wrong.  As Aristotle once said; “The use of rational speech is more distinctive of human beings than the use of their limbs.”