Mudenda threatens to name, shame truant MPs

via Mudenda threatens to name, shame truant MPs – NewsDay October 20, 2015

NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda yesterday said he would soon name and shame MPs who absconded their portfolio committee meetings.

by VENERANDA LANGA

Mudenda’s threat follows complaints by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Portfolio Committee chairperson Jessie Majome that members of her committee were bunking crucial sittings, thereby causing deferment of key decisions.

The complaints came after Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa was forced to wait for a week for the committee to conclude its report on the General Laws Amendment Bill and the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Amendment Bill.

“Your committee’s membership is as was appointed. I must say though with regret, that there are certain members of our committee that the committee has never seen to date,” Majome said.

“We hope that they will come and hold meetings particularly now that the requirements for the quorum in terms of the Standings Rules and Orders are so much higher. It will be most helpful if MPs who are members of this committee do come so that we can make a quorum,” she said.

Majome did not name the truant MPs, but was ordered by the Speaker to do so.

“Can you give me the names of those that have perpetually absented themselves so that we can deal with the matter?” Mudenda said.

Sources who spoke to NewsDay about the issue said there were about four MPs who had never set foot in any meeting called by the committee. Although they could not disclose all the names, one of those fingered is Gutu North MP Ticharwa Madondo (Zanu PF).

About four other MPs who were not named were said to have come once since the formation of the committee in 2013.

However, the truant MPs were said to present themselves whenever there were workshops sponsored by non-governmental organisations that normally come with allowances.

Asked to comment on the issue, Majome said she had not yet compiled the names of the truant MPs, but was going to hand them to the Speaker once she had completed the exercise.