Parties urged to discipline legislators

Nqobile Tshili Bulawayo Bureau
Speaker of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda has urged political parties to take action against members who abscond parliamentary sessions. Adv Mudenda made the ruling in the National Assembly last Thursday as he expressed concern over “apparent dereliction of duty” by legislators.

Zanu PF has two thirds majority in Parliament, while MDC-Alliance has 61 seats with National Patriotic Front (NPF) and an Independent candidate, Temba Mliswa, having a seat each.

Adv Mudenda said on three occasions since last year, Parliament was been forced to adjourn due to lack of a quorum.

“The chair is deeply concerned about the apparent dereliction of duty by the Honourable Members who absent themselves after registering their names on that day’s register resulting in the adjournment of the House due to lack of quorum.

“Consequently, the chair rules that with immediate effect, all Honourable Members who are absent when the House adjourns due to lack of quorum will not be paid their sitting allowances for that day,” he said.

“To that end, the chair is directing the Clerk of Parliament to compile a list of those Honourable Members who will have been absent with the view of disallowing their allowance in future. Further, I am also directing the Clerk of Parliament to prepare a list of members who are consistently absent when there is no quorum in the House for sharing with their respective political parties who must take corrective action accordingly.”

He said his decision is in line with Section 137 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and Parliamentary Standing Orders.

According to standing orders a quorum consists of 75 National Assembly members.