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MPS CLASH OVER NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDING PLANS

06/03/2022 08:42:00 Ntombi Mhlongo

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LOBAMBA - The proposed construction of a new Parliament building saw Members of Parliament (MPs) clashing last Thursday.

This was during the portfolio committee debate of annual performance reports of three entities under the Prime Minister Cleopas Sipho Dlamini’s wing which are Cabinet, Parliament and the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS). The clash emanated from that, while some declared that they supported the proposed plan, others were against it. Other MPs said they were against the terms and conditions that come with the loan the country has sought from India for the project.

Kukhanyeni MP, Malavi Sihlongonyane submitted that he had issues with the proposed plan. He said a bill to request a loan to construct the new Parliament came to Parliament.
Sihlongonyane said he did not remember a bill that was tabled requesting Parliament approval for the project. “I did not see a bill requesting the construction of a new Parliament building but I saw one which was a request to seek a loan. I must state that it pained me that on the day the bill for the loan was debated we were not given a chance to make submissions. There were 56 of us who stood up to show interest that we wanted to contribute. We were not given a chance,” he said.

Sihlongonyane was interrupted as Kubutha MP Musa Mabuza stood up on a point of order to state that his colleague was misleading the House as a bill seeking an approval to build a new Parliament structure was tabled and passed in Parliament without any objection. Mabuza requested that his colleague (Sihlongonyane) should withdraw his submission. Nhlambeni MP Manzi Zwane stood up to submit that the House was losing direction as MP Sihlongonyane needed to be allowed to debate and finish. Zwane said it was wrong to say that all MPs supported the proposed plan as he did not.

The chairperson of the portfolio committee advised that the debate should continue as all MPs supported the idea. Mhlume MP Victor Malambe stood up on a point of order, saying MP Sihlongonyane should withdraw his submission. “Let us not promote lies. In Parliament it is all about numbers. When you lose a vote, it is just that,” said Malambe. The chairperson then advised that the issue of the new Parliament building should not be touched as MPs dealt with it and concluded everything. However, Sihlongonyane did not back down as he stood to submit that it would not be a Parliament if legislators were not allowed to discuss issues. In vernacular he said, “Ngabe akusiyo iphalamende”. He said he will discuss the issue any time he felt like doing so and that no one would stop him as he believed that there were a lot of things that needed to be fixed in the country. He said he touched on the issue because he was in the committee dealing with it and that the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development had invited them for discussions.

Overtaken by events

Once again, the chairperson insisted that Sihlongonyane should stop discussing the issue as it had been overtaken by events. In the end, MP Nkhanyeti Ngwenya, in his capacity of the House of Assembly Chair of Chairs, stood up to advise that once the chairperson of the portfolio committee ruled on a matter, all members of the House should adhere. The chairperson said it was not good that the MPs were now dwelling on one and the same issue instead of proceeding with the debate. MP Sihlongonyane was again advised not to continue with the debate. Meanwhile, MP Malambe submitted that his colleagues should not say something and then change tune.

Malambe said it was the MPs themselves who passed a bill for the construction of the new Parliament and that the terms and conditions of the loan for the project were there.
“It is not like the conditions are new. If I remember well, there is no one who submitted that the Parliament should not be constructed. Today we sound like there are some who lost a vote as they were against the project. All of us were okay with it,” submitted Malambe. He said the people expected the MPs to take decisions that they will stand for and defend in future no matter the situation.

Also debating about the same issue was the Nhlambeni MP (Zwane) who said he had checked with the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development and was advised that 66 per cent of the loan would not complete the whole project. He said he also heard that he was concerned that material for the project would come from India. “I am worried about this because the economy of the country is currently not in a good state and this scenario means that the money will not circulate locally,” he said. Zwane said he wished that the loan would be used to pay civil servants since there was a court ruling which ruled that government should review their salaries.

Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo said he had serious reservations about the fact that 66 per cent of the money to fund the project would be paid by emaSwati but the money will go back to India since most of the material to be used in the construction will come from there. “Some of us are not happy with the terms and conditions but for now we have since there is nothing we can say, let us at least get proper clarification on the designs of the new Parliament as per an agreement that they should have an identity of the Kingdom of Eswatini,” submitted Khumalo.

MPs blast ministries

Meanwhile, most of the MPs decried the act by government ministries not to table quarterly reports of their performance in the previous financial year. Gilgal MP Sandla Fakudze said the PM had rightly pointed out that in order to monitor the performance of the ministries, the quarterly reports were a must. Fakudze said while he understood that the COVID-19 pandemic had played a role in the failure by government ministries not to produce the quarterly reports he still felt that the whole exercise was not prioritised. “The non-tabling of the quarterly reports robbed us of the chance to play our oversight role as MPs yet it is described as the cornerstone of democracy,” said Fakudze. Fakudze also asked to understand the reported raids conducted by police officers countrywide in people’s homes. He asked to know if the officers were in possession of search warrants whenever they entered homesteads. He said he heard complaints that some officers used vulgar language and insults something which he said was wrong.