Parliament of Zimbabwe now has a mobile app to keep us up to date

Back in 2016 we saw the Parliament of Zimbabwe take technology seriously as they embraced it to improve service delivery. They were working on a lot of projects, live-blogging parliamentary debates (which did not come to be for somewhat obvious reasons) and also an enhanced website which was launched.

On the website all important information is shared and in digital format with audio recordings being the most interesting. At the launch of the website last year Parliament said to expect a mobile application in the first quarter of this year, 2017.

The Zimbabwean government is slowly but surely getting with the times. The Parliament of Zimbabwe has finally launched the mobile application, available on Android, iOS and Windows (yay, Windows not forgotten.) They did not manage to launch in the first quarter but better late than never I guess.

On Windows you have to be on Windows 10 Mobile to download the app, on iOS you need at least iOS 10.3 and on Android you need to be running 4.0.3 or up.

The app provides the latest information from the Parliament of Zimbabwe. You will be able to do the following within the app:

• View and Download Acts & Bills 
• View and Download Publications 
• View Parliamentary events from the Parliament Calendar 
• View Parliament Members and their details 
• Search data 
• Listen to live Parliamentary Recordings 
• View Live Blog 
• Read the Latest News

The first thing I did upon downloading the app was look for the Computer Crimes and Cyber Crimes Bill. Disappointed. Could not find it. The search feature still needs some work as searching for Acts or Bills I had already seen listed did not bring up results. I tested on an Android phone running 6.0.1 Marshmallow.

The app may need some more work but we commend what the Parliament of Zimbabwe is doing. We will see in time if we do get all the features promised.

We know the challenge of Live Blogging where sometimes they would not want us to hear what is being said when contentious issues are discussed. On ZBC TV when that happens they switch from the house to an analyst outside until the contentious matter is resolved.

Android users, you can download the app from the Play Store here

iOS users, download the app from the App Store here

Windows users, the app is available on the Microsoft Store here