SPEAKERS SPEAK MORE THAN MPs IN PARLEY – MUNDUBILE

SPEAKERS SPEAK MORE THAN MPs IN PARLEY – MUNDUBILE

Lusaka – Tuesday, 2 April, 2023.

MPOROKOSO PF member of parliament Brian Mundubile says Presiding Officers not only lack a comprehensive understanding of the parliamentary system, but also speak more than the elected MPs.

And Mundubile says there is a lack of transparency and accountability in the UPND government, noting that if there were, the Mopani deal would have been taken to Parliament.

Meanwhile, Mundubile says the true perpetrators of crime are out there, not the individuals being seen in court.
Speaking on Millenium TV’s “The Platform” Sunday, Mundubile said Presiding Officers seemed to view some members of parliament in the opposition as enemies to the system.

“What is supposed to happen is that the Speakers, Government Chief Whip, Leader of Opposition, Opposition Whips, are actually on one side. So, when there is a situation on the floor of the House, the Speaker actually appeals to the leaders in the House being the Government Chief Whip, the Leader of Opposition and the other whips to take care of the situation. When the Leader of Opposition rises to his feet and appeals to the presiding officer that he wants to help, that should be a welcome idea to the presiding officer because you are actually helping the House,” he said.

“The misfortune is that we have presiding officers who may not comprehensively understand the parliamentary system. They feel by virtue of being in opposition, I am an enemy to the system. So, if he had given me an opportunity, I was actually going to help him”.

Mundubile said he expected members of parliament to speak more in Parliament, but observed that, contrary to his expectation, the Speakers spoke more instead.

“If you look at the current Parliament for instance, I don’t think you even know the names of the Whips. I don’t even know who the Whips are. It’s rare that presiding officers are making use of the Whips. So, we are actually spending a lot of time by presiding officers engaging members directly. It’s not supposed to be like that. A functional House is actually run by the Whips. Presiding Officers are there as umpires, referees, just to regulate.

So, what you have now, you have Presiding Officers speaking all the time. They speak more than the elected Members of Parliament. That is a House full of members, it’s a House for the people. So, you’ll expect members to speak more than Presiding Officers. Unfortunately, what happens is the exact opposite,” he said.

“I may just give a quick example. For instance, let’s say a member of parliament is given eight minutes to debate and in between, he wants to give some examples, he wants to give some background, you’ll see Presiding Officers interjecting and taking three minutes. The watch has stopped but the Speaker has taken three minutes in trying to guide a member, meaning that particular debate has taken 13 to 14 minutes, that’s a waste of time”.
And Mundubile said there was a lack of transparency and accountability in the UPND government.

“It’s a source of concern actually. It started with the transfer of shares from ZCCM-IH to First Quantum; 20 percent because Article 210 is very clear; any disposal or transfer of public assets or property should be subject to Parliament approval. They’ve been building on, 20 percent didn’t come to Parliament, dual carriageway didn’t come to Parliament and now Mopani. It is because there’s no transparency and accountability in the UPND government. If there was transparency and accountability, even the deal on Mopani would have come to Parliament because if that had come to Parliament, the first question we would have asked [is] there was a tender for Mopani and there were four bidders,” he said.

“The one that was selected was not among the four bidders that were interested in the mine. We would have occasion to interrogate why this newly formed company which was formed around the same time the tenders were out is now the one that has been selected as the best selected bidder. We would have wanted to know more about the background of this company whose address is just a cell number. We would have known why there are so many things that are unclear about the company. We would have also wanted to know why President Hakainde Hichilema’s best friend is on the Board of that new company. We would have had occasion to ask these difficult questions”.

He added that the true perpetrators of crime were out there, not the individuals being seen in court.

“There are many things that have come on the floor of the House for the sake of information so that the Zambian people are informed. Their representatives ask questions on clarifications. Now, these big transactions are being done outside Parliament completely and for obvious reasons. So, whilst the Courts are filled with people who have been arraigned because they built their houses brick and mortar, they are being questioned where they got the money from, we have our leaders, looting our mines in broad daylight with their friends as Zambians sit back and watch. The real criminals are out there not those ones that you are seeing in the Magistrate Complex,” said Mundubile.

(Credit:News Diggers)