GELANE’S SPEECH NOT DOCTORED

PM Sibusiso Dlamini (L) greeting Speaker in the House of Assembly Themba Msibi (C) and Senate President Gelane Zwane on arrival at Parliament on Friday.

LOBAMBA – Prime Minister (PM) Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini and Themba Msibi, Speaker in the House of Assembly, have confirmed seeing Senate President Gelane Zwane’s speech before Friday.

Mystery surrounds the incident that occurred in parliament when Zwane struggled to speak. The Senate president lost her voice during the State Opening of Parliament on Friday. The two politicians say they saw the speech on Thursday, February 2, on the eve of the opening of parliament by His Majesty the King.

These politicians worked on the speech, to structure it such that it represented parliament in the event. “It was a speech for parliament directed to their Majesties. Akusiso semuntfu munye (the speech does not belong to an individual).”

Zwane’s speech was seen by the PM and Speaker prior to being read before Their Majesties despite the Senate president’s previous pronouncement in the media that the speech was prepared and ready, weeks before the event.

Speaking to the media about it then, Zwane said the speech would not be edited or twisted by anyone.
On Friday, she looked shocked and dismayed as she read her speech, abruptly stopping. Speaker Msibi was on hand to give her a copy of another speech. At that moment, the president froze and left the podium. The Speaker then read the rest of the speech.

In separate interviews, both Msibi and the PM said they were shocked by what befell the Senate president on the podium. “We all had copies of her speech and we knew that she was reading the right speech,” said the PM.

The PM said after Zwane questioned her speech, another copy was availed to her by Msibi. “Nakubonakala kutsi asilungi labesifundza president, waniketwa lesinye speech,” he said.

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