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What is really wrong with our Members of Parliament when it comes to attending business in the House?
These are men and women elected on the basis of their promises to constituencies that they will represent them in Parliament.
But of late, they have been in the limelight for the wrong reasons. Most of them have long trashed their own promises and do not attend Parliament at all. Some of them bunk debates in the House and this has become a major cause for concern to officials at Parliament.
Something needs to be done urgently to address this untenable situation.
In this vein, we welcome a directive by National Assembly Speaker Advocate Jacob Mudenda that the Standing Rules and Orders Committee should come up with tough measures to punish errant MPs who don’t take the business of the House seriously and seem to take lightly the trust the voters bestowed on them.
We have seen in the last few weeks crucial debates being aborted because there were not enough MPs to carry out business. The rules of the House are very simple.
It just takes one member to notify the Speaker that there is no quorum, which at the moment stands at 70. Bells are rung and if no one responds, then the House adjourns. Those present are still entitled to their allowances for transport, which come at a huge cost to the taxpayer.
We expect the SROC to come up with tough measures which will ensure that MPs adhere to the tenets of their election. The MPs have been warned in the past, but it seems they do not want to change their behaviour.
Interestingly though, while the MPs fail to attend sessions without permission from the Speaker or any valid reasons, they have been very prompt in claiming their allowances whenever they attend. They must be the first to know that it is an abuse of public resources when they are paid for not doing their job.
Their misbehaviour in the last few weeks is disgusting. On July 29 this year, Adv Mudenda warned the MPs about their erratic attendance, but then on October 8 crucial debate on the General Laws Amendment Bill was abandoned because there was no quorum.
On October 15, business was again disrupted due to lack of a quorum, while the House adjourned early on Tuesday this week for the same reason.
We cannot have a situation where MPs only feature at Parliament for purposes of marking the register and then disappearing. They are a disservice to those who voted for them.
It is becoming increasingly clear that our legislators would rather do anything else, but what they were elected to do.
For some of our MPs, attending parliamentary sittings is a drag when it is supposed to be a natural thing to do because they campaigned to be voted in. We are equally alarmed by the rate of absenteeism in Parliament.
In fact, Adv Mudenda should have instituted tough measures against the MPs long ago because absenteeism is not new to Parliament.
It is a clear betrayal of the confidence that Zimbabweans have in the MPs for whom they queued long hours to elect.
To some extent, the problem is a clear indication that the Chief Whips of the political parties represented in the House are not doing their work.
At the moment, MPs can only be punished if they miss 21 consecutive days without notifying the Speaker.
We hope the envisaged measures will address a situation whereby some mischievous MPs can choose to absent themselves for 20 consecutive days and turn up on the 21st day and start the same cycle all over again with complete impunity.
The measures being proposed must also affect Government ministers who miss question and answer sessions without valid reasons.
Online Reporter