WEEK LATER, PARLY MUM ON PROTESTS

MBABANE – A week into the destruction and turmoil which occurred in the country, the legislature, which is Parliament, has been quiet on the issue.

This is despite the fact that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Thuli Dladla, informed the fact-finding team from SADC Troika that the main issue which led to the eventual unrest started in Parliament, where some MPs called for change. However, Speaker Petros Mavimbela when interviewed yesterday said Parliament was yet to release a statement on the issue. The House of Assembly has for almost three weeks been adjourned sine die without any action taking place. Mavimbela was informed that the electorate had raised concern about Parliament’s silence as a very important stakeholder, but he maintained that Parliament was working on a statement. He was not in a position to state when the statement would be issued when asked further. 

 Genesis

Giving the genesis on the matter, minister Dladla told the Troika team that the country had been confronted by the unexpected disruption and attack that was said to have emanated from a call for change. She said this was made by some MPs whom she did not name. “However, the source of this call was not immediately clear to the nation,” she said. Dladla informed the meeting that the MPs subsequently raised this concern in Parliament which was the right platform to raise issues of national interest where they are deliberated upon until there is consensus in the august House. “We are informed the motivators did not follow through the process of Parliament. They were further questioned by their colleagues on where they obtained the public mandate to raise the matter,” submitted Dladla.

She informed the meeting that the MPs then resolved to take the matter outside to the tinkhundla centres to try and source public support. Dladla said according to the Constitution, matters officially arising from tinkhundla centres were those that had passed through existing structures involving bucopho and tindvuna tetinkhundla. She explained that thereafter parliamentarians then meet with these leaders to deliberate on issues of constituency and national level before they were taken to Parliament. “They did not follow this process simply because they were driven by their intentions to gang up with foreign elements to disrupt the peace,” alleged Dladla. The minister said in the process structures were looted and burnt down involving the use of petrol bombs which destroyed some chiefdoms and tinkhundla centres.

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