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SPEAKER ESCAPES AS KING ORDERS MPS BACK TO WORK

01/07/2016 04:26:00 BY SIBONGILE SUKATI

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LOBAMBA – Like a cat with nine lives, Speaker Themba Msibi has once again escaped the axe. This happened yesterday afternoon when His Majesty King Mswati III ordered Members of Parliament (MPs) to get back to work.

Through a very brief message presented in the House of Assembly by the Prime Minister (PM) Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, the King said he had heard that there were issues disturbing the work of MPs, but he commanded them to keep working. “The King said the MPs should work with particular consideration to government business which was brought to the House, especially Bills and subordinate regulations,” said the PM.

On Wednesday, after a day-long caucus which was held in the House, the legislators had selected a seven-member team to go and report the Speaker to the King and inform him that it was difficult to work with Msibi.
However, the elected seven had not had an audience with the King, before the instruction was delivered yesterday afternoon by the PM.

Sources revealed that the PM had an audience with the King on Wednesday night after His Majesty the King had returned from a SADC Troika meeting held in Botswana.
“The King allegedly informed the PM that as much as he heard the concerns of the MPs, he was of the view that the House should continue working and he would meet with them in due course,” said the source.
As is the norm when a message from the King is delivered in Parliament, the PM arrived after the Speaker had prayed and sat down and the Sergeant in Arms then banged twice on the door indicating that there was a King’s messenger sent to deliver a message.

The message was delivered by the PM in just under a minute and after that, the present MPs who were 26 in number, shouted ‘Bayethe’ as is customary.
During the caucus, some of the MPs had stated that they were not prepared to work if Msibi continued to preside over the sittings and said they would rather have the Deputy Speaker Esther Dlamini take over the reins while they were still addressing Msibi’s issue.

The caucus was held after Lobamba MP Michael Masilela had tried to move a motion of a vote of no confidence against the Speaker.
However, the PM at that point had stood up and rescued Msibi, stating that the issue of removing the Speaker was not a simple one and needed a lot of consultation and that a law needed to be drafted that would oust Msibi.
The message delivered by the PM yesterday is similar to one he delivered in 2015 after a select team of five, which was dubbed the ‘scuba divers’, had been chosen to probe the speaker.