ABSTRACT
Before delving into the broad question of Private Members’ roles in committee work, it is important to give a quick overview of the Select Committee practice in Zimbabwe and, from this review, determine the extent to which: (a) Private Members are active participants in committee; (b) Private Members are observers of the clash between experts; (c) committees are ‘make work projects’ for Private Members or a place for
true consultation with the public between elections’; (d) Private Members express their own private views, the views of the party
or the views of their constituencies; and (e) the whip and party discipline are crystallised within the committee.
