Times Of Swaziland: SPEAKER MUST SHAPE UP OR SHIP OUT - SOME MPS

SPEAKER MUST SHAPE UP OR SHIP OUT - SOME MPS
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BY STANLEY KHUMALO on 04/10/2021 08:35:00


MANZINI – Some Members of Parliament (MPs) seem to rally behind their
colleague and want the Speaker of the august House to shape up or face a vote of
no confidence, as they claim he is sabotaging their work.
The Speaker in the House of Assembly is Mhlambanyatsi Constituency MP Petros
Mavimbela. According to some legislators, the Speaker is not listing some of
their motions in the Order Paper despite having submitted them to his office.
The MPs were contacted following our sister publication, the Times SUNDAY,
interview with veteran politician in Lobamba Lomdzala Constituency MP Marwick
Khumalo, who said Mavimbela no longer conducted himself as Speaker, but behaved
like a member of the Executive. This position of thinking was taken by Khumalo
after the Speaker prevented the moving of two motions of ‘national
importance’ in the House last Thursday.
Motions
One of the motions was to be moved by Khumalo and it was intended to call for
the House to debate the petitions that were delivered to almost all
constituencies in June 2021. Also, Khumalo’s motion sought the House to debate
the issue of the people who were killed during the unrest; with individuals and
organisations claiming that over 70 people were killed, allegedly by security
forces, while government’s official death toll was at 37. The other motion,
which was reportedly supposed to be moved by Madlangempisi MP Sibusiso
‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo and seconded by Ndzingeni MP Lutfo Dlamini, was intended
to have the House debate the issue of a national dialogue on the political
challenges faced by the country.  However, Mavimbela did not allow Khumalo to
move the motion because he claimed not to have seen or received it in order to
apply himself to it.  MP Nxumalo could also not move his motion as the Speaker
is said to have also played the same card as he did with MP Khumalo.
Analysis
In light of this, the legislators were asked if according to their own analysis,
was the Speaker still engaging in his duties as guided by the rules of the House
and if they still had confidence in him. Mkhiweni Constituency MP Michael Masuku
said legislators found themselves engaging in political issues outside the House
because motions were not included in the Order Paper. This, he said, was against
the spirit of the House. Masuku said this was because they wanted the motions to
be debated in order to improve service delivery, while enforcing accountability
from the Executive. Timphisini Constituency MP Nelson Mamba said what transpired
in Parliament on Thursday was quite a challenge as the issue of petitions had
been on the agenda of MPs for quite some time. He said what had been prolonging
engaging on them (petitions), was that there had been no House sittings, as the
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was having its sittings. “This needs us to
deal with it immediately as the unrest is stemming from these issues. The
numbers witnessed during the petition delivery on Friday are testimony that the
public means business,” Mamba said.
Urgent
The MP said the petitions needed the urgent action of Parliament so that the
issues were addressed before things became worse than they already were. In
fact, Mamba said by now, all structures should have addressed the concerns
submitted to constituency centres as they were of national importance. He said
all along, the Speaker was working well with them until recently, when on
Thursday, they did not understand why the motion was not in the Order Paper.
“He should have dealt with this as there is nothing to defend.” Mamba said
if there would be a vote of no confidence, he knew exactly how his vote would be
casted. Also, Lomahasha Constituency MP Ndumiso Masimula said he was not happy
with the recent developments by the Speaker.
Masimula said Parliament was where political issues should be discussed and it
was disheartening to them when motions were not set out in the Order Paper.
“The motions are means to address whatever challenges we see in government and
they help us engage in our oversight role; so if they are not in the order of
business, how do we address the issues?” he asked rhetorically. The legislator
reiterated that he was not happy with the Speaker as he was failing to see to it
that motions were registered in the Order Paper. He said legislators should look
beyond this as it could be a systemic challenge. Also, Matsanjeni South
Constituency MP Bomber Mamba said the responsibility of the Speaker was to
receive motions and allocate them in the Order Paper and those that were not in
it, should have explanation on why they were not listed so that improvements
could be made on them.
The legislator said it was a challenge when a motion was moved by an MP and
supported by evidence that it was received but not filed in the Order Paper.
“The motions are our responsibility and if they are not in the Order Paper, it
means we are not working and the electorate gets aggrieved,” he noted. At this
point, Matsanjeni South Constituency MP Bomber Mamba said: “Things are not
well in the House and that is not right as there is some form of resistance with
some motions.”
Establish
For now, the legislator said he needed to establish other motions that were
moved and not filed in the Order Paper in order to be certain if the Speaker
deserved a vote of no confidence. Meanwhile, an effort to get a comment from the
Speaker proved futile. When he was contacted on his mobile phone, Mavimbela
repeatedly said ‘hello’ and seemed to listened for introduction by the
reporter. Thereafter, the call was terminated and efforts to get hold of him
again proved futile as it rang unanswered. A short message was sent to him,
which sought to establish if there were motions that he was afraid to have
discussed in Parliament and give feedback on why some motions were not in the
Order Paper. Mavimbela was also asked if the petitions that were delivered to
constituency centres would ever be discussed in Parliament and if he was still
fit to hold the office of Speaker as some MPs were saying the opposite.