About 24 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members of Parliament (MPs) had a rude awakening Tuesday when they were barred from entering the gates of Parliament for apparently disrespecting Speaker of the National Assembly Catherine Gotani Hara.
On Monday Gotani Hara invoked Standing Order 105(3)(a) on a number of DPP MPs for ignoring her order to sit down when she had recognised Kondwani Nankhumwa to respond to the State of the Nation Address (Sona) as Leader of the Opposition.
President Lazarus Chakwera delivered the Sona on Friday last week.
Tuesday, there was heavy police presence at Parliament as early as 8am as the law enforcers acted on instructions from the Office of the Speaker to keep the “unruly” lawmakers out of Parliament premises.
This did not go down well with most of the DPP lawmakers, who claimed they were not aware that the Speaker had invoked the standing order on them.
As a way of protesting Gotani Hara’s ruling, the DPP lawmakers blocked the entrance of Parliament, forcing government MPs to use the backdoor to enter the premises.
In the afternoon, supporters of the party started to trek in from areas within Lilongwe and beyond to give moral support to their MPs.
Briefing reporters outside Parliament, DPP Leader in the House Mary Navicha said they were surprised to be blocked by the security officers as they had not received any communication from the Office of the Speaker about being locked out.
According to Navicha, Parliament has a number of communication channels through which it conveys important messages but “there was nothing to that effect on all the forums”.
Navicha, who was appointed by the party as its Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, then demanded an explanation from the Office of the Speaker as to why the lawmakers were barred from Parliament.
But briefing the House, Gotani Hara said she had given Standing Order 105(3)(a) to the 24 lawmakers on Monday.
She said, according to the standing order, if members have been named jointly or otherwise, for the first occasion, they are supposed to be suspended from the House for a period of two sitting days.
“I therefore made this ruling to this effect implying that this sanction has been meted on all of them.
“However, you will recall that I repeatedly mentioned Honourable Member for Thyolo Thava [Navicha] who persistently defied my orders by remaining standing while switching on her microphone including disregarding the instructions from the Sergeant-at-Arms and answering back to me, which eventually led to early suspension of the House under Standing Order 106, because of the grave disorder caused by this Honourable Member and the other four Members whom I have mentioned. Their sanctions will be different from the rest because they defied the Speaker’s authority,” Gotani Hara said.
In the afternoon, Ntchisi South MP Ulemu Chilapondwa asked Deputy Speaker of Parliament Madalitso Kazombo if it was in order for the DPP lawmakers to continue blocking the entrance to Parliament.
According to Chilapondwa, that was threatening the security of lawmakers and other officials of Parliament.
He said Standing Order 105(3)(a) does not allow anybody given matching orders to come near Parliament.
Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda agreed with Chilapondwa, saying the law does not allow anybody to shut the entrance of Parliament.
Chimwendo Banda then asked for a temporary suspension of proceedings for Parliament to clear the gates.
When Parliament resumed sitting, Kazombo assured the lawmakers that they were safe and that Parliament security was addressing the security concerns.
More drama ensued when DPP decided to give its response to Chakwera’s Sona outside Parliament’s premises.
In her address, Navicha said there was no tangible progress in Malawi worth taking stock of.
“Unless you tell me that changing names of hospitals is progress. Unless you tell me that professing austerity measures which are eventually raped along the way is progress.
“Unless you tell the nation that unceremoniously closing Admarc depots at a time Malawians are struggling with where to access cheap maize is progress.
“Unless the President convinces Malawians at large that increasing fees for tertiary education to the disadvantage of less privileged Malawians is progress,” she said.
The genesis of the chaos is the seat of the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, which Gotani Hara is insisting belongs to Nankhumwa as of now—due to a court order—while DPP says because he was fired from the party, the Mulanje Central lawmaker cannot represent it.
Nankhumwa and DPP are currently in court as the latter wants his expulsion to be quashed.
While he waits for the substantive verdict, he has also asked the High Court to grant him an injunction stopping his dismissal.
