By Cathy Maulidi
Members of Parliament (MPs) continue to shun Parliament deliberations, something that reared its ugly face Wednesday, when only 145 out of 193 lawmakers turned up for a sitting.
The development irked First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Madalitso Kazombo, who described the situation as a “shame”.
When Parliament had a rollcall Wednesday, it was established that 145 MPs were absent from the House.
The rollcall, which was requested by the Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda, revealed that only 51 MPs, including non-MP ministers, were present in the House.
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“It’s a shame. We can do better,” Kazombo said immediately after seeing the results of the rollcall.
Kazombo then threatened that going forward, the leadership of the House would be taking serious steps to deal with those who will continue to be absent.
“I’m emphasising the word ‘serious’. From now on, the leadership will be taking serious action on members who will continue to be absent,” he said.
Kazombo further asked whips and party leaders to talk to “your members so that this must stop”.
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On his part, Chimwendo Banda described the empty seats in the House as worrisome and “embarrassing”.
In previous meetings of Parliament, the issue of absenteeism has been popping up, forcing the leadership of the House to conduct rollcalls before.
In the previous meeting of Parliament, the leadership of the House also threatened serious action against those who miss parliamentary deliberations without giving proper reasons or leave of notice.
But some MPs, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity yesterday, said their sitting allowances are still given in full despite their absence from the House.
“The allowances are still given in full despite one being absent even for a number of days. They just threaten; nothing happens,” the MP said.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Defenders Coalition Chairperson Gift Trapence has described MPs’ tendency of shunning sittings as “an attack on the country’s democracy”.
“MPs should be accountable because they use taxpayers’ money. They have to use taxpayers’ money prudently to represent the best interests of voters they serve.
“Pocketing money without doing the work is akin to stealing from voters. We are calling upon the office of the Speaker to demand refunds of the allowances,” Trapence said.
According to Trapence, the allowances are not for free.
On his part, good governance analyst Wonderful Mkutche said it is unfortunate that representatives of the people do not want to represent the people in the august House.
“The MPs that do not attend deliberations are failing to represent people,” Mkutche said.
He said, if the leadership is serious about this problem, then it has to act on the issue.
“The MPs must be paid according to attendance and this will completely change the story of absenteeism. Lip service will not change anything as we have seen throughout the years,” he said.
