By Pemphero Malimba
Tempers flared in Parliament on Thursday as government lawmakers demanded the firing of Agriculture Committee Chairperson Sameer Suleman for exposing a looming fertiliser crisis in the country while on suspension.
The chaos left First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Madalitso Kazombo with no option but to adjourn proceedings prematurely.
According to government lawmakers, Suleman, who is serving a five-day suspension, committed a grave ‘sin’ when he inspected Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) offices in Blantyre on Wednesday.
Suleman inspected the offices to see if the company had fertiliser meant for the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP).
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Dedza Central East and Ntchisi South parliamentarians Joshua Malango and Ulemu Chilapondwa, respectively, said a suspended member of Parliament was not supposed to continue carrying out activities of the committee.
First Deputy Speaker Madalitso Kazombo said what Suleman did was an anomaly, adding that the Speaker of Parliament would act on the matter.
Kazombo ruled that deliberations continue with other businesses as they could not continue discussing the issue without hearing Suleman’s side of the story.
However, this did not please the government side.
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The opposition side, on the other hand, moved a motion to allow Leader of the Opposition George Chaponda to pose a question.
This did not go well with those on the government side, a development that led to divisions.
The lawmakers voted and, eventually, the motion for Chaponda to pose the question was shot down with results showing that 62 MPs said no while only 38 said yes to the move.
The government side, through Malango, rose
again to move a motion for facilitation of Suleman’s impeachment.
The development caused commotion and forced Kazombo to adjourn the deliberations to Friday.
defend him
Leader of the house Richard Chimwendo Banda said “the honourable members thought they would bring the matter to the House and ask the House to impeach the honourable Suleman as chair because of lacking ethics of leadership and, because of that, his colleagues from the side wanted to defend him and, as we have seen, the other side was also geared,” he said.
