Monday, November 11, 2024

National Assembly Suspends 17 Opposition Members of Parliament for 30 Days

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The National Assembly has taken the unprecedented step of suspending 17 Members of Parliament (MPs) from the opposition parties for a period of 30 days. The suspension, effective immediately, follows an alleged incident of misconduct that took place last week during a parliamentary session.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Nelly Mutti, announced the suspension, which she described as a response to “unparliamentary behavior” and a breach of the house’s decorum and integrity. The lawmakers’ actions were widely seen as a protest against the Speaker for purportedly denying them an opportunity to speak.

The incident that led to this suspension occurred after Kamfinsa MP Christopher Kang’ombe failed to adhere to the guidance provided by the Speaker on a point of order he had raised. The resulting protest disrupted the proceedings of the House.

Mutti, in her announcement, stressed that the suspension was not without legal basis. She cited the National Assembly Act, which provides clear guidelines regarding the conduct of individuals within the Assembly’s precincts during its sittings. According to the Act, those causing obstructions or disturbances within the Assembly Chamber or interrupting its proceedings could face penalties, including fines or imprisonment.

She further noted that defying the rulings or directions of a presiding officer, as outlined in the National Assembly’s Standing Orders, constituted an act of gross disorderly conduct.

The suspension applies to 17 MPs, including notable figures such as Brian Mundubile, the Leader of the Opposition in the House, and other members such as Binwell Mpundu, Munir Zulu, and Emmanuel Banda. Those suspended will not receive their salaries during this period, are barred from participating in parliamentary activities, and cannot visit the National Assembly Motel.

Mutti emphasized that lawlessness should not be confused with freedom of expression, and deliberately defying the Speaker or any presiding officer amounted to an assault on Zambia’s constitutional democracy.

The suspension period for most MPs is from Tuesday, November 7, to Wednesday, December 6, 2023. However, for Emmanuel Banda, the suspension will commence once his ongoing 14-day suspension concludes, starting from Saturday, November 25, to Sunday, December 26, 2023.

This development comes in the midst of a growing political climate, with the Clerk of the National Assembly receiving a petition from 58 Opposition MPs requesting the impeachment of Speaker Nelly Mutti for alleged breaches of the Constitution and inadequate management of parliamentary affairs. The situation in the National Assembly remains tense as both sides grapple with the aftermath of these events.

50 COMMENTS

    • You don’t know what you are talking about. Was Upnd voted on the platform vengeance and hatred. People hoped for a fresh breath of air. Stop this cycle of retribution and move forward. People will praise you for this. You have their good will so simply do good on your promises. You may think it’s good to treat the PF badly for their past misdeeds but you never what can ensue… something that you will not be able to handle.

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    • When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Sometimes you just have to admit that: Water Is Wet and Fire Is Hot.

      +++ This speaker is the most corrupt speaker that abuses her authority in the history of Zambia. I encourage Zambians to read Government Gazettes to understand how corrupt she is; with her decision executions, because these things are not addressed in media. +++

      Is there an important vote that UPND want to table and execute in their favor while these 30 PF Members are locked out of Parliament ?? The answer is – YES THERE IS !!

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    • @INDEPENDENT OBSERVER,

      Is there an important vote that UPND wants to table and execute in their favor while these 30 PF Members are locked out of Parliament ??

      The answer is – NO THERE ISN’T!!!! and you will be proven WRONG after those 30 days.

      Same story.. speculation…..speculations….conspiracy theories…., this shouldn’t be you, you are at a different level, dont fall back.

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    • One of the bills like many more is requiring absence of some members of parliament us that one where Cattle is more sacred than a 100 inch OLED smart television set, a Bugatti veyron and a x7 Beemer combined. The idea is that PF must pay for past tactics. Shame. Chwe chwee chwe chwee

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    • @ INDEPENDENT OBSERVER

      Ignore @ GENERAL KANENE. I followed your post over the past 15 yrs and I know that you always rise above pettiness by your critics by not responding to personal attacks and insult from bloggers like @ZAMBIA TODAY. Your arguments are mostly based on facts. I remember at one time when you schooled @GENERAL KANENE, and you reduced him to a small boy when he was picking a fight accusing you to be PF. Boss, disregard this GENERAL KANENE. He gets heated up all the time when anyone questions UPND. He is very FRUSTRATED UPND soul based in USA.

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    • # YOGA

      1. All Frustration is due to unfulfilled desires. If life is not happening the way you want it to be, then you become unhappy and frustrated. Progress is what makes people happy because they can see where they are heading and the bright outcome of the future.

      I got enlightened many many years ago. When you get angry with someone you give them power to control your emotions and surrender your Power & Freedom.

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    • # YOGA

      2. I did not start criticizing Zambian Regimes in the last moon. It started in the 90’s as a student in London, when I appeared on BBC Nine O’clock Live News, being interviewed by the newscaster telling world it was time to have Multiparty System. I was NOT even supporting MMD. I knew that if UNIP had won, my life was finished Zambia. However, Zambia prevailed.

      That BBC interview led to me being headhunted by ( Late Dean Mungomba ,Minister Finance ) & Late FTJ Chiluba offering me a big job. I turned the JOB DOWN to pursue my career abroad. Years later I called Chiluba a Thief when he became corrupt. We just want is good for Zambia regardless who is in power.

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    • @@@ general kanene

      Why are you so negatively possessed with () Independent Observer ? …..
      Has he slept with your wife?……
      You seem to have some beef with him…….
      Dont take things to heart……..
      What if there is a vote or no vote after 30 days?…….
      Are you a Parliament Clerk to know everything inside Parliament & UPND? …….
      Why are you showing your immaturity ? ……..

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    • @Yoga,
      Unlike you who bases your views on where the wind blows, I don’t. I have been on LT for years, no wonder you know me, and on certain occasions, I have told @INDEPENDENT OBSERVER, that he is one of the few bloggers whose contributions I normally read because I find them insightful. But that does mean that I can agree with every comment he posts here, In this case, today, I disagreed with one of his comments because it was not based on facts, but it was good music for people like you who follow blindly and enjoy speculations.

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    • Cont`d @ @Yoga,
      I am not aware of any schooling from @INDEPENDENT OBSERVER that you referring to. Please, stop putting me in the category of your friend @ZAMBIA TODAY, who has not been polite to both myself and @INDEPENDENT OBSERVER. I am not going to bash you, that is not my style. Have a great day !!

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    • @Mutafela Mulife,
      I don’t know what you are talking about if anything, I have always tried to promote positivity on this forum.
      I just hate bombastic proclamations and speculation without facts. If you strive on speculation, unfactual, please go ahead. I don’t and reserve the right to object.
      If you think I am UPND, waloba ilyauma !!! Wanyala, because I am neither of those sh!t. And do you know that sometimes the other side regards me as a PF?

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    • @general Kanene: The so-called opposition behave as if power belongs to them, and UPND is just a caretaker place holder government. They openly disrespect UPND as no other opposition, as especially UPND, has never been allowed to do to a ruling party before. They harbour this notion that their loss in 2021 was a political abherration, and that the come from provinces with the majority of the population, and therefore that winning in 2026, will be mere formality. This not true. Mazoka beat them, and they poisoned him. They lied to the Lozi to win 2011, they cheated in 2015 and 2016, and finally lost on 2021. These people cannot impose frivolous impeachment motions on the speaker when they do not have the numbers to sustain them parliament. The speaker was right

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    • @INDEPENDENT OBSERVER: There is nothing independent about you. Like the rest of them, you are just another liar. You claim that the speaker is corrupt, but you cite no example of this corruption. Let me give you examples of textbook corruption: Your uncle, Michael Satan, found an economy that had been cleaned up by Mwanawassa and Magande, and had $800million in a fund for roads, and $3billion in foreign reserves. The criminal took control of all of that money and made it disappear. He then initiated a borrowing spree, continued after his death by his nephew Edgar Lungu, that took the country from no-debt to $31 billion debt that is excessive of its GDP or ability to pay. All that money was stolen, and it is the reason for all the economic problems in Zambia today.

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  1. The dollar is now at K23, the ZMW according to international news outlets such as Bloomberg is the worst performing currency in the world after the Argentinian Peso.

    But didn’t we receive a bailout from the IMF? 20 billion dollars in pledges to invest in the country, KCM just injected $250 million to pay suppliers on top of the $1 billion they are investing, mines in NW pledged to invest $2 billion, the Chinese in Luanshya say they are pumping in over a $ 1 billion? How can importation of fertilizer at no more than a $billion lead to such losses on the ZMW? There is something amiss here. The bank of Zambia must ensure that investment of USD above $5million should be deposited into BOZ and not Commercial banks. Let’s get it right. A good exchange rate is key to a sound economy.

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    • I hear someone that Zambia doesn’t export enough to earn enough forex…. well when we were told that kwacha would reduce to single digit at 14hrs after being sworn in didn’t the speaker know that we did export enough?

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    • @Deja Vu Stop sugar-coating pronouns that are imperative for communication. The “Speaker”? That person needs to be identified for what he was. A “conman”, a “doubledealer” A “cheater” Single digit at 14h00 Bwahahahahaha!

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    • @2020vision: When Michael Sata stole the $800million in the roads fund, and looted the $3billion in reserves, and then went on a spree of borrowing the worst possible sort of loans. I predicted that whoever was in power in 2021 was going to lose, because the pressure from loan repayment was going to impose unbearable pain on the government. The situation is in fact far worse. These PF criminals borrowed $31 billion, which is 104% of the GDP of Zambia. Simply stated the lenders are using this debt to force Zambia to get rid of its subsidies. This is why prices in Zambia are so high. Basically, they have Hakainde dancing to their tune. To be honest, I wish that PF have won, so that they could have stirred in their own soup.

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    • @Lameck Banda: You are exactly right
      @Ben: These people need someone who governs with a heavy hand, like Lungu did. They think that they can just sow chaos. I am glad that the speaker acted decisively. After this, they should all be arrested and put in jail. Can you imagine what would have happened to the oppostion had they done this under Lungu or Michael Satan? Enough is enough.

  2. These people might be over 18 but are nothing more than juvenile delinquents and uncouth hooligans. They are not worthy of the title of “Honourable”.
    It can be clearly seen that their intentions are to create chaos, anarchy and try to make the country ungovernable, that should never be allowed.
    They are an embarrassment to Zambia.
    I viewed their despicable behaviour over the internet, please remember Zambians, the rest of the world is seeing this, what do you thinking they saying about this bunch of savages? Have no doubt, they are savages.
    With them being suspended decency will now return to parliament for a while and there will now be better discourse in parliament
    Their suspensions should be longer.

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  3. If President HH and UPND gov’t were crooks and savages, 99.9
    %. PF top leaders would have been in jail for plunder, gassing and thuggery.

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    • @Kaemba Mwale,
      What prevented UPND from locking PF up if they had proof? Remember, it has been over 2 years NOW.
      It’s not about lenience, it’s about the law.

      So what you are saying is that UPND is also encouraging LAWLESSNESS, if they can not lock up those 99.9% PF thugs.
      2 years is more than sufficient to bring up cases, that time has passed, and the Pompwees have re-grouped, kwasila. Because of UPND’s Incompetence. Its better NOT to talk about it anymore

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    • @general Kanene: You ask a very good question. What is preventing HH, not UPND, from locking these fools up is weakness. Do you remember the woman who was caught with K60 million who was let go? It is not that there is no proof, it is that there a deficit of political will, and now, by failing to act, the theft of national resources is being legitimised. On this I blame HH…

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  4. Emmanuel Banda was suspended for 7 days last week, but the Speaker, EMOTIONALLY CHARGED, without seeking House permission or resolution extended the punishment to 2 weeks.
    We now have almost one third of non New Deal MP’s flagged. Meanwhile, House Bills voting must continue. It is indeed a rogue state of affairs.
    As long as the House is perceived arbitrarily biased, it would be difficult to run it well.

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    • Unruly behavior in parliament,protesting at “imperialist” embassies, holding impromptu press conferences and deluding yourself that it is the masses that are making the country ungovernable because of a “shrinking democratic space” is total madness.No one is noticing.its only the PF MPs heads that are ungovernable. It is mob psychology that has made young MPs like Kangombe to lose their campus

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    • #MuZambian

      It took the Speaker less than 30 seconds to angrily change the sentence meted out to him from 7 to 14 days in stead of consulting the House for the extension. Democracy shrinkage can never be anything else other than that. Opposition MP’s are just as important as those seated on right side of the House. Some parliaments in SADC behave worse than what you have seen involving the 17 lawmakers in question without being ejected. Beside, the punished number is way too high in a democracy.

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    • @My Zambia: The speaker suspended Emmanuel Banda in keeping with the power conferred upon her by the laws passed by MMD and PF. If they do not like the power they gave the speaker, that is their damn problem. I like how she is acting decisively, and I hope that next time, she locks them up in jail, as she has that power as well. We are Zambia, and these Julius Malema antics will not be tolerated.

  5. Let this jaribu harlot know that I will personally put handcuffs on her black burned wrists when pf return in 2026. She should realise that she does not have immunity. Hh is using her she will suffer. FooIish sick woman

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    • @Kaizar Zulu: You, Kamyanga-mukongo-wa-nyoko, Lungu will barred from running in 2026, and you will be a kaili at Chimbokaila, Lusaka Central or Mwembeshi Prison. PF is not coming back to power dimwit.

  6. UPND government is taking things too personal, you can not be Bullying and intimidating the opposition everytime like this, remember that Zambians are watching and sooner or later tables shall be turned and you shall be nowhere in the corridors of power, so watch out 2026 is just a stone throw you shall cry.

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    • @Kanyembo Misheck: Really? You do not know that HH was locked up by PF and MMD 15 times, and was going to be sentenced to death had Lungu succeeded in stealing the 2021 elections? The reason why these fools tried to break the law by causing anarchy is that UPND has respected the rules of democracy and given these characters the freedom of speech they never gave it. Everything UPND is doing is according to the law, that was enacted by MMD/PF. I commend the speaker for suspending these *****s. Now that they are suspended, UPND has the super majority inparliament it can use use to remove the immunity of Lungu and investigate the bugger for corruption and murder

  7. While the rogue speaker thinks she’s being effective, we think that she’s completely lost it. Let’s all remember her in our prayers so that she quickly comes back to her senses. Can someone replay to her the videos of her sessions in Parliament? Maybe she can pick out something on how she messes up

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    • @Ayatollah : The speaker was elected according to the rules of parliament created by PF and MMD. The speaker is exercising her authority according to the powers conferred upon in her in the laws enacted by PF and MMD. These criminal opposition member abused their rights and are being punished properly and necessarily. The speaker should be commended for her no-nonsense attitude. May she stay strong, and arrest these criminals should they continue to flout the laws of the country. Zambia is a country of laws and not of anarchist thieves.

  8. @ CHIEF EDITOR …. DONT PLAY WITH WORDS MAYBE YOU DONT UNDERSTAND. UNPRECENDENTED MEANS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE, WHILE LETS HELP YOU. SPEAKER MATIBITHI SUSPENDED 30 OPPOSITION MPS FROM THE UPND. PLEASE STOP THE DRAMA!

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    • @kabola Ntwentwe: Exactly. Thank you. They used these powers to oppress UPND, and now that their own laws are being used to prosecute their misconduct and criminality, it is “unprecedented”. Mathabithi suspended 2 times the number of UPND members as the ones speaker Mutti has suspended, and some this editor conveniently forgot that.

  9. I think the speaker is to emotional. Maybe she is not up to the task. Surely your can’t be acting like that if you are to preside over people from different parties.

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  10. IF PF thug mps dont realise that the country has moved on from pf governance they will be in rude shock. they even have the guts as a party to attack US UK govts. they have no shame. all the pf top leaders except mps have not been elected by anyone, they just apoint themselves, including a president who has no shame to even say i have come back to lead the party-hold an election you pipo and elect your party leaders

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    • PF is a lawless party.Every one knows that.The foreign diplomats whom they lampoon all the time know them.They are a bunch of crinminal,corrupt and morally bankrupt tyrants to cry persecution and shrinking democratic space.Help Miles to clean up this gangster party

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  11. I have not read the article but I can safely say that what is going on now is so retrogressive, it’s not good for the Nation at all. It’s taking us back 59 years.

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  12. UNFORTUNATELY MOST ZAMBIANS DONT KNOW POLITICAL DECORUM MEANS
    THEY FEEL UNRULY BEHAVIOR IS ORDER OF THE DAY AS WAS IN THE PAST
    DISCIPLINE is ALSO NOT IN THEIR DICTIONARY

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  13. Upnd president is bigger thief than any in African history. He is a sophisticated conman, talks big but is a very shallow narrow my Nded thug. Every foreign hours nvedtir in mining has to part with millions but is given freehand at great cost to Zambian workers.

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  14. Honestly speaking do you expect good things to come out from a Upnd speaker cadre! They have reduced arms of government for lack of a better term to a place and leave of a toilet, nothing inspiring.
    The dollar is now K 23.00
    Mealie meal K 305.00
    Fuel K 29.00
    Zesco connection fee K 7000.00
    from K 750.00
    SME businesses are closing everyday
    yet mining firms contribution is very little and some fo.ols think that Zambia can develop? Only Zambians will develop Zambia and not foreigners

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