ARREST FOR FAILURE TO HONOUR PARLIAMENT SUMMONS

EZULWINI – Persons who fail to honour Parliament summons will be arrested.

These are usually persons who are being investigated by Members of Parliament (MPs) on suspicions that public funds have been mismanaged, one of the core mandates of Parliament. This clarity was given by Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo, when responding to concerns raised by his colleagues that some witnesses were not appearing in Parliament despite being told to do so.

Responsibilities

This was during the fourth day of the induction conference for both MPs and senators held at the Happy Valley Hotel, since the beginning of the week, where the MPs were taken on committee system, roles and responsibilities. Khumalo’s response on summoning of witnesses is provided for in Section 168 of the House of Assembly Standing Orders, 2023 and he was giving clarity as the former Chairperson n of the Standing Orders Committee of the 11th Parliament, having played a major role in the amendment of same in the last days of the aforementioned Parliament.

The query on this was first raised by Mbabane East MP Welcome Dlamini, who brought it to the attention of the legislators that a witness, in the probing of the University of Eswatini on a petition from NAWUSHI, did not appear in Parliament despite being requested by the then select committee to do so. NAWUSHI is the National Workers Union of Swaziland Higher Institutions.

Vehicles

The probe unearthed that the said witness had purchased two vehicles for himself from the university, but there was no proof that he had actually paid for these vehicles. Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development Sikhumbuzo Dlamini, who is Nkwene MP, also asked a similar question, citing that some people were not bothered to come before Parliament to give clarity on issues emerging from probes and seemingly nothing was done to them. Both MPs expressed concern that the integrity of the House was being injured by these instances as people would no longer give  it the seriousness that it deserved when people were disregarding the call for them to appear before the House.

Making reference to the issue of UNESWA, Khumalo explained that the House did not adopt the report that was tabled by the then committee probing the institution, owing to the failure of the witness to appear in Parliament. He mentioned that the committee requested the witness, in writing, to appear in the House to give clarity on matters arising from the probe, and he did not oblige. He further explained that the next step would have been summoning him to the House, which he had to oblige to, but that further step was not taken by the committee, hence the feeling in the House was that they had not executed their task duly.

“Had the witness been summoned, having failed to honour the Parliament’s request to appear before it through a letter, he would have been arrested. However, the committee did not exhaust all its options, hence the rejection of the report when it was tabled,” he explained. Khumalo further revealed that there had not been an instance where someone had been summoned to Parliament but did not honour that summons.

Witness

Summoning of a witness is provided for in Section 168 of the Standing Orders, 2023 which depicts that a select or portfolio committee shall not be permitted to summon a witness from a distance of more than 36 kilometres from the Houses of Parliament without having first satisfied the Speaker that the evidence so to be obtained will be material to the enquiry and for the examination of every such witness the select or portfolio committee shall sit from day to day until the evidence is taken.

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