Parliament snubs George Chaponda

By Cathy Maulidi:

The Business Committee of Parliament Wednesday chased Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s appointed Leader of Opposition George Chaponda out of its meeting.

It was a moment full of drama as Chaponda was at Parliament Building at the same time as Kondwani Nankhumwa, who also came to attend the meeting as Leader of Opposition despite being removed from the position by DPP, which expelled him as its member last month.

Information which The Daily Times sourced indicates that Chaponda was asked to leave the meeting by Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara, who told the meeting that Chaponda has an injunction on his head, stopping him from being opposition leader.

Chaponda was then seen walking out of the Speaker’s chamber, where the meeting was taking place.

When asked why he was sent out of the meeting, he replied: “I will address you after 30 minutes.”

Chaponda, who looked helpless at the time, just sat at the Speaker’s waiting lounge with DPP organising secretary Chimwemwe Chipungu, DPP director of women Mary Navicha and Neno North Member of Parliament Thoko Tembo— who escorted him to Parliament.

The four sat there for some minutes before finally leaving the premises.

Chaponda, who is also DPP vice president for the Southern Region, refused to talk to the media and, instead, asked Tembo to speak on his behalf.

Tembo said Chaponda decided to leave the meeting to concentrate on the court battle that is before him instead of staying at Parliament Building to wait for the end of the meeting.

“It seems that we are now in a constitutional crisis because we have someone who is no longer member of the party sitting in a meeting where he does not represent the party itself. This is something that has never happened.

“Honourable Chaponda found it fit that, instead of just sitting outside and waiting for the meeting to finish, he should go to court to follow up on matters from that end. There is an injunction that needs to be lifted and he needs to, with lawyers, follow up on that— to see how far they have gone with that. We are hopeful that it [the injunction] will be lifted soon and before the start of the meeting of Parliament on Friday,” Tembo said.

Back to the issue of the Business Committee meeting that took slightly over two hours, inside sources have told us that the meeting focused on the business that is to be discussed in Parliament when it convenes.

“After that drama, we proceeded with discussions into the main business. We never discussed the issue again. So we have discussed bills, motions and other business that is coming during the meeting. Nankhumwa did not bring the Presidential Age Limit Motion to the meeting and there was no other controversial motion discussed,” our source said.

Our sources at Parliament have told us that Nankhumwa has withdrawn the Presidential Age Limit Motion.

“He has withdrawn the motion. You can ask him why,” said the source.

Nankhumwa, who, when done with the meeting, immediately went to his Leader of Opposition office housed within the Parliament Building, refused to speak to journalists who were waiting for him outside.

“You are looking for me?” He asked? And before journalists could answer, he said: “I’m not talking to you; that was a Business Committee [meeting] and only the Speaker speaks for the Business Committee as she is the chair,” Nankhumwa said.

He was then shown the way by his security officer.

Nankhumwa then walked towards his Leader of Opposition vehicle, which was parked near the Speaker’s chamber exit door.

The opposition DPP is, however, not in agreement with what is happening.

The party is in court trying to vacate the injunction and it has, at the same time, vowed to make the House ungovernable if it continues to recognise Nankhumwa as Leader of Opposition.

“We removed him from the party and from the position of Leader of Opposition and, so, if they are planning to keep him as Leader [of Opposition], amupezele kokhala osati ku chipani kwathu [they should find a place for him and not in our political party],” party spokesperson Shadric Namalomba said recently.

Chaponda was invited to the Business Committee meeting in a letter dated January 29 and a meeting that Parliament leadership planned to have on February 6 but, after Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda advised the Speaker to follow the court order, Chaponda’s invite was ignored by the House’s leadership.

Instead, a fresh letter was sent to Nankhumwa on February 2, inviting him to the meeting— which Parliament moved to February 7.

The court injunction that troubled Chaponda Wednesday was obtained in 2022 by 22 DPP lawmakers, among them Mark Botomani and Nicholas Dausi, who challenged Chaponda’s appointment as Leader of Opposition then.

At the moment, Nankhumwa has taken the party to court seeking an injunction stopping his expulsion from the party.

Nankhumwa’s lawyer Wapona Kita told The Daily Times of February 7 2023 that the Leader of Opposition is challenging the decision to expel him from the party, describing it as unlawful.

“Our argument is very simple. Article 9(5b) of the DPP constitution, which they used to expel him, says that the Central Committee can only proceed to expel a member after it has conducted arbitration between the opposing parties and, in this case, there was no arbitration at all.

“Yes, the Disciplinary Committee may have recommended or referred the issue to the Central Committee but the Central Committee had an obligation, under that section, to go for arbitration before making a decision to expel him. So, we are saying they breached [provisions of] the constitution by not going under that process on what was referred to the Central Committee by the Disciplinary Committee and the expulsion was unlawful,” Kita said.

High Court Judge William Msiska is expected to hear the matter on February 12.

Addressing journalists in Lilongwe on the issue of what is happening on the Leader of Opposition issue, Alliance for Democracy leader in Parliament Yeremiah Chihana said the Judiciary has put Parliament under siege and that the situation has now degenerated into a crisis.

According Chihana, with Parliament scheduled to start meeting on Friday, it is likely that there will be confusion if the issue is not addressed by the court.

“We, as Alliance for Democracy, are concerned with these challenges. I understand that DPP lawyers went to see the judge handling the matter but the judge is not in the country. This has left Parliament in a very difficult situation,” Chihana said.