MPs feel very strongly that Speaker Mutti must be impeached – Mundubile

MPs feel very strongly that Speaker Mutti must be impeached – Mundubile

By Margaret Malenga(The Mast)

MPOROKOSO PF member of parliament Brian Mundubile says parliament really gets heated up, “you are talking of 156 MPs with competing political interests”.

“If you have sensitive presiding officers you will not have order in that House,” he says. “And members feel very strongly that the Speaker must be impeached for gross incompetence demonstrated on the floor of the House.”

When he featured on Phoenix FM on Friday, Mundubile said unlike cutting them short MPs must be allowed to speak.

He said the ruling should be rendered at the end to allow their points be put on record.

Mundubile said if MPs go against standing orders, guidance should be provided at the end.

“Government only changed two years ago. If you go back to our time 2016/2021, that’s the time I went into parliament first. Just get video clips of honourable Gary Nkombo, honourable Jack Mwiimbu, honourable Cornelius Mweetwa, honourable [Ephraim] Belemu, honourable [Misheck] Mutelo, you will realise that we are a very peaceful lot as a matter of fact. But because the presiding officers understood that it’s a member’s right to speak even when Cornelius Mweetwa, honourable minister, would be rebellious on the floor you saw honourable [Patrick] Matibini allowed him time to speak and only made the ruling at the end. Why? Because he has that privilege. He has that right to speak on the floor of the House. Now what you have is a total opposite. The presiding officer is able to detect what you are about to say before you even say it and says ‘don’t say it, sit down!’ That is not supposed to be,” he said. “I am there not in my individual capacity. I am there in my representative capacity. So members of my constituency have asked me to say this; and for the record, imagine I wanted to say this and I haven’t even said it, you have ruled me out before I even say it. What should go on record? What will go on record? But if you allowed me to speak to the end and everybody listened, my people in Mporokoso listened, then the presiding officer said ‘according to standing order ABCD you cannot raise that point and let me guide the House’. The Speaker always goes ‘when you have this situation this is how you deal with it’. That goes in the Hansard, it goes on record, and there is order. It is a house of order and when we say it is a house of order the order applies to both presiding officers and members of parliament. If you went to the Kenyan parliament you would be surprised. If you went to the Ugandan parliament, if you went to the Ghanaian parliament…”

Mundubile said the Zambian parliament must look at how other parliaments and their presiding officers handle the heated environment

“We have been to these parliaments together with the Speaker [Nelly Mutti] and the speaker’s committee and I would even say Madam Speaker I think we are much better than our colleagues here but they are allowed time to speak. You have seen people in parliament stand up and make their point so the Speaker waits to make a ruling at the end. That is what is supposed to be,” Mundubile

said. “You have to look at it from both sides. This is not the first parliament. Look at the other parliaments and how did presiding officers handle heated environments like that. There is got to be some allowance. You are talking of 156 MPs with competing political interests, so that place really gets heated up. If you have sensitive presiding officers you will not have order in that House.”

Meanwhile, Mundubile said the motion to impeach the Speaker is still alive and that MPs are waiting for it to be brought on the floor of the House.

“You must wonder what happened to the impeachment motion. Total lawlessness. There has been total silence on that. That motion met the threshold. A number of MPs, according to standing orders, signed the petition and we had expected that motion to be brought on the floor of the House by parliament because it is a competent motion. That motion we are still waiting for it because it qualified. They tried to come up with rules that along the way some members withdrew. There is no such provision. The moment it meets the threshold it is competent to come on the floor of the House and we are still calling upon parliament that that particular impeachment motion must still come because it met the threshold,” said

Mundubile. “If there are those members that later changed their mind, that will be reflected in the vote on the floor of the House. But as regards the competence of the motion we are still waiting for that motion to come on the floor of the House. Members feel very strongly that the Speaker must be impeached. The

Speaker should be impeached for gross incompetence demonstrated on the floor of the House and that still remains the position.”