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NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HANSARD 19 July 2016 42-84
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Friday, 19th August, 2016
The National Assembly met at Half past Nine o’clock a.m.
PRAYERS
(THE ACTING SPEAKER in the Chair)
MOTION
ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE HON. RUNGANI: I move that the House do now adjourn.
HON. MUKWANGWARIWA: I second.
HON. MUNENGAMI: Thank you Hon. Speaker. On a point of
order, we have students in the Gallery, whom we have not even recognised. I am so surprised that we rush to adjourn the House when we have visitors in the Gallery. I was thinking that even if we were going to adjourn the House, at least we are supposed to recognise those students, then we adjourn the House. Honestly Chief Whip, mungadaro vana vari kumusoro uko, handiti munova mhorosavo?
THE ACTING SPEAKER (HON. MARUMAHOKO): It had
not come to the attention of the Chair. – [HON. MEMBERS: Members from the opposition wanting to debate] – Order! The House has been adjourned.
HON. CHAMISA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. You said is there
any debate in terms of the adjournment of the House and at that point, I wanted to stand up but there was a point of order from Hon.
Munengami, which I respected, but now I think it is my time. My point is, this is a very serious matter. We have had to use tax payers’ money on a Friday. Naturally, we were not supposed to sit today had we transacted the business of Parliament appropriately and normally yesterday. This is an extra ordinary measure which had to be taken to try and deal with delinquency on the part of certain Members of Parliament who absconded and avoided the national duty to deliberate upon issues.
I hope this is going to be taken to the Chief Whips of political parties, but more importantly, the Leader of Government Business is going to take this matter seriously because this is not the first time. This is probably the third or fourth time we are abusing resources. When we have meager resources, we must preserve them instead of wasting them through delinquent behaviour on account of cheap point scoring. You can see that the benches are empty, particularly at the back. This is a very serious issue Hon. Speaker. We hope that you are going to take note of it and you are going to address it with the relevant political parties. But also as Parliament, we must put a stop to this kind of behaviour. It is inconveniencing, we have to debate this motion on police brutality. It affects the nation, the public and all of us, even war veterans were victims of this kind of brutality.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order Hon. Member, are you
debating or you are just raising a point of order? – [HON. CHAMISA: I am not debating] – So, just raise your point of order and sit down. –[
HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] – Order! Hon. Members, we have only one Speaker here and I am the Speaker. You are not debating, you are raising a point of order. Be brief and to the point.
HON. CHAMISA: I am sure you have heard my point; this cannot be allowed to continue Hon. Speaker Sir. We want a very strong statement from Parliament to deal with this kind of behaviour and conduct. In other jurisdictions, you would not have Members of Parliament running away from duty, only to appear and resurface to come and claim coupons. This cannot be allowed. – [HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear] –
Hon. Gonese having stood up to debate
THE ACTING SPEAKER: I have not yet responded, what is your excitement? I need to respond Hon. Gonese – [HON. GONESE: It is not a point of order, can I correct you Mr. Speaker] – You do not tell me what to do please. – [HON. GONESE: But if you are mistaken, we should correct each other] – Let me respond to what he has said. –
[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] – Order, order! Hon.
Gonese, take your seat. Hon. Maridadi, behave yourself. Hon. Gonese, before you take the floor, I gave it to your Vice President who stood before you. – [AN HON. MEMBER: Our Vice President] – Yes, your Vice President.
HON. GONESE: Thank you very much Hon. Speaker Sir. I rise to support the point raised by our Hon. Vice President, Hon. Nelson Chamisa. I also want to add my voice; the point which I want to reiterate is that we are the representatives of the people. We were elected to perform three primary functions in this august House. We have a legislative, oversight and also a representative function. In terms of that function…..
HON. SAMUKANGE: On a point of order. Mr. Speaker Sir, you
have ruled that he must only deal with his point of order –[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] – Mr. Speaker, can I be heard.
An Hon. Member having shouted you are independent, you do not have a constituency.
HON. SAMUKANGE: I represent a full constituency… –[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] –
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order! Let us hear his point of order. Hon. Members, we are few in here, I do not want to ask someone to leave the House. Please, let us behave and let us hear each other. You may proceed.
HON. SAMUKANGE: On a point of order Mr. Speaker. Hon.
Gonese is debating instead of dealing with the point of order -[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order please! The debate here is
about adjournment and nothing else. Before you stand up, I have an announcement to make.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE ACTING SPEAKER
VISITORS IN THE SPEAKER’S GALLERY
THE ACTING SPEAKER: I recognise in the Speaker’s Gallery,
the presence of students and teachers from Goromonzi Community
Primary School, from Mashonaland East Province -[HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear]-
Order please, order please. Hon. Maridadi please, you are an Hon. Member. You have done what you have done and it is over. Let us stick to business now. You may proceed Hon. Gonese.
HON. GONESE: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. I believe
that in terms of that representative capacity today, Friday the 19th of August, 2016, we have an Order Paper and Members of Parliament must be cognisant of the consequences of their actions. Yesterday, when they employed a strategy to try to kill a very important motion by calling for a quorum and creating an inquorate House, deliberately by walking out as ably demonstrated when Hon. Chamisa made his observations; within five minutes, more than 32 Members of Parliament started walking out of this House to ensure that, that important motion was not going to be debated.
But, they must be aware of the consequences of their actions which are that today, we are supposed to sit and we have an Order paper which has Questions Without Notice. On a Friday, the Orders of the Day are actually set out in terms of our Standing Orders that we start with Questions Without Notice, then Questions With Notice. I believe that members of ZANU PF from where the Ministers come from should have been aware of the implications of what they did yesterday. Today, the Hon. Ministers should have been filling those benches for Question
Time because that is what is provided for in terms of the rules. It is not appropriate for the Hon. Madam Deputy Chief Whip to stand up to move for the adjournment of the House when we have business to transact.
So, we are demanding that the Ministers should be here because that is the first Order that we are supposed to deal with – Questions Without Notice, thereafter, we go to Questions With Notice. If they are not here, your office as the Chair, must impress upon those Ministers that when the House is adjourned on a Thursday to a Friday, Ministers must be in attendance in terms of the provisions of Section 107 of our Constitution where they are obliged and required to answer questions posed by Members of Parliament. Those Members who are here came prepared to ask questions to the Hon. Ministers as provided for in terms of the Order Paper. So as it stands, we demand and we insist and it is within our rights as the representatives of the people that let us transact the business of Parliament.
The taxpayer pays for us to sit and we are here, the Ministers are not there and if you look at the total membership of this House, we have 270 members. Out of those 270 members, 214 are from ZANU PF and they are 215 including Hon. Jonathan Samukange. Out of 215 Members of Parliament, there are six. When you look at it proportionately, we have done very well if you look at our numbers in terms of our total membership. Look at them, there are six out of 215 including Hon. Samukange. So, this is deplorable and must be condemned. We insist that this must be placed on record. If members call for a quorum and the House adjourns because of lack of quorum, then they must be prepared to come to Parliament on a Friday as we have done as genuine representatives of the people. We insist that we cannot agree to the adjournment. We must proceed. Thank you Mr. Speaker.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Gonese, your point has been
heard. Point taken and I thought that you are part of the Whips. This is really part of your duty. You should have liaised with your other colleague and made sure that your members are in attendance.
HON. MUNENGAMI: Thank you Hon. Speaker Sir. -[HON.
CHIPATO: Inaudible interjection]- Hon. Chipato, I am not going to say much and surely, I will make sure that whatever I speak is what I am supposed to be speaking.
Hon. Speaker, I do not know whether it was also a deliberate arrangement even from the Administration of Parliament itself as well regarding this day. Because as we are here in Parliament right now, we have other Members of Parliament who are actually doing e-learning in the Library of Parliament and they are from ZANU PF. So, I honestly do not know whether it was a deliberate attempt by the Administration of Parliament as well, in order to sabotage this day in order for us not to form a quorum. I have been to the Library and I saw Members of Parliament. Hon. Musabayana is here, he can also vouch for me because we were together in the Library and they are still there as I speak right now. So, what is surprising is that, surely is it possible when we have business of the day to day, then we have Members of Parliament who are doing e-learning in the Library of Parliament. That is only what I wanted to say Hon. Chipato. Thank you very much Hon. Speaker.
HON. CHAMISA: Just a point of order. Noting that we have no quorum, if bells could be rung!
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order please. We are debating on the adjournment of the House. That is the debate.
HON. CHAMISA: No, there is no quorum. So, I am raising a no quorum issue so that those who are in the Library may actually be summoned to come here. If they insist on not coming, at law and in terms of the rules, we will then have to adjourn to Tuesday.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: May you ring the bells please?
[Bells rung].
Notice having been taken that there being present fewer than 70 members, the bells were rung for Seven Minutes and a Quorum still not being present, THE ACTING SPEAKER adjourned the House without question put at Two Minutes to Ten O’clock p.m. pursuant to the provisions of Standing Order Number 56.
NOTE: The following Hon. Members were present when the
House adjourned: Bhebhe, A.; Bunjira, R; Chamisa, N.; Chibaya, A.;
Chinanzvavana, C.; Chipato, A.; Chisorochengwe, T.; Dube, S.; Gonese,
- T.; Gumbo, E.; Khumalo, T.; Kwaramba, G.; Machingauta, C.;
Majaya, B.; Maondera, W.; Maridadi, J.; Matsunga, S.; Mtingwende, T.;
Mudzuri, E.; Mufunga, A.; Mughido Machirairwa.; Mukwangwariwa, F.
G.; Munochinzwa, M.; Musabayana, D.; Murai, E; Musundire, A.L.;
Mutseyami, P. C.; Muzondiwa, E.S.; Ndlovu, N.; Rungani, A.; Saruwaka, T. J. L.; Tarusenga U.D.