Kavindele advises on action against truant UPND MPs

Sun, 26 Mar 2017 09:38:38 +0000

By OSCAR MALIPENGA

SOME of the options which the Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Patrick Matibini may have to discipline boycotting UPND members of Parliament may include suspensions, fines, or withdrawing their allowances, says former Republican President Enock Kavindele.

And Mr. Kavindele has charged that boycotting President Edgar Lungu’s special address to Parliament was extremely shameful and should never be repeated.

He told Sunday Nation that it was shameful for people’s representatives (MPs) to stay away from a crucial presidential presentation.

“Of course the powers to discipline those truant members of Parliament rest with the Speaker of the National Assembly (Dr. Matibini),

“Some of the options the Speaker may consider would be to suspend those MPs for a period of time from attending Parliament or fine them and also withdraw their allowances,” Mr. Kavindele said.

Mr. Kavindele recalled how he was fined and chased from the House as a Member of Parliament by the then Speaker Robinson Nabulyato for carrying out a television interview at Parliament without his (Speaker’s) authority.

“So the speaker has those powers. If I were a leader of the government business in the House I would stop my ministers from answering questions on the floor from those MPs who boycotted parliament when President Lungu addressed the House on the state of the nation,” Mr. Kavindele said.

He said his ministers could simply refuse to answer questions by walking out of the House so that a question lapsed.

Mr. Kavindele said there were many options of handling such unbecoming and disrespectful human conduct of UPND MPs.

He said the UPND MPs had such short memories that after apologizing for boycotting Parliament recently they repeated the same thing.

“So it  is certainly a very serious matter for MPs to boycott the President’s special address because they have all sworn allegiance to the President of the Republic of Zambia  and also to defend and protect the Constitution of Zambia,” Mr. Kavindele said.