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Opposition MPs’ conduct is disorderly and not permitted by our Constitution-Speaker

By editor
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Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini

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Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini
Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini

Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini has described the opposition Members of Parliament (MPs)’s action to disrupting proceedings in the House today as unruly and disorderly.

Dr Matibini threatened to invoke Standing Order number 70 which could have seen the MPs being led out of the House by the Sergeant-at-Arms.

“It is clear this is a deliberate attempt to disrupt proceedings. This is disorderly conduct I thereby order the Sergeant-at-Arms to remove unruly MPs.”

“This conduct is disorderly and not permitted by our Constitution. Standing Order number 70 has been violated and it is clear we cannot transact with the Honourable MPs conducting themselves in this way. The only thing to do is like in the past, to walk out. We cannot talk in this kind of situation,” Dr Matibini said.

Parliament’s security wing swung into action to restore order inside Parliament as MPs flocked to the Speaker’s mace area to air their grievance over the Constitution making process amidst flared tempers.

Zambia Police officers were also deployed around Parliament grounds to monitor the situation.

Dr Matibini however suspended Parliamentary business to allow for order to return to the House.

The opposition bench continued their in-house protests over the Constitution which started during Tuesday’s session which led to an early adjournment.

The MPs constantly obstructed the deliberations by insisting that it was inappropriate to continue proceedings without attending to issues of the Constitution process.

But the Speaker said in order to restore order and decorum of the House it was inevitable to suspend business until normalcy was restored.

As the Speaker presided over business, opposition MPs tussled with the security officers who were more than 10, in a bid to bring order in the House.

Cabinet members watched as the scuffle ensued amidst an exchange of words between the opposition and the ruling bench.

Vice President Guy Scott’s security personnel entered the House but this was protested against by the opposition MPs demanding that they leave the House along with the Parliament security officers.

However business resumed at 17:43 with the Speaker stating that what had transpired was unprecedented and unfortunate and that his office would address the matter accordingly.

“What transpired is unprecedented and unfortunate but I have a structure and it will be dealt with accordingly, let us not go back to this issue through points of orders as it has been communicated to me formally and it shall be dealt with,” Dr Matibini said.

Dr Matibini said Zambians were watching and that such matters should be addressed through dialogue as opposed to disrupting proceedings.

editor
editorhttp://www.lusakatimes.com

79 COMMENTS

    • Most of these MP`s just goes to parliament to drink,womanize and making noise.They are basically kids in adult peoples body.

    • THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE COUNTRY IS BEING RULED BY A CONFUSED LEADER- EVERYTHING BECOMES CONFUSION- SATA MEANS CONFUSION.

    • Sata has failed to rule by the 10 commandments and he has been forgiven ok!! now let him redeem himself by giving the people a constitution,,, even that very animal constitution… give the people a constitution!!!,,, and bo Matibini ndate dont shut up people..

      And i tell you this will be interesting 50 plus one clause,,,and running mate clause,,,
      On the running mate clause, HH warming up, Pastor Mumba with a bible in hands waiting in the wings… even GBM pulling out a surprise as a independent presidential candidate it will interesting yayayayaya! no more absolute authority

    • Hats off to the ZWD!!! Their breaking news and investigative journalism is ground breaking and second to non in Zambia. They are really quick in seeing the light and knowing what time it is. Almost all their stories come out true no wonder they are seen as a threat by people who have something to hide. Keep up boys!

    • The way forward from now fellow Zambians is for all of us free souls from PF manipulation to be shouting “CONSTITUTION” each time a PF minion stands on the podium to deceive us about PF ‘s wishful development projects.

      Seriously people can you enlighten me on what projects Sata and his PF have successfully completed for the time they have been in power so far? For I know, all the projects left in full swing by MMD , which should now have been completed, have been abandoned including those which Sata lauched himself for lack of funds and yet PF has depleted foreign reserves and have borrowed massively and still continue to borrow.

      So what ever a PF minion says we should shout back “CONSTITUTION CONSTITUTION, CONSTITUTION, CONSTITUTION, CONSTITUTION,CONSTITUTION,CONSTITION,…

    • Unfortunately, if the Speaker was impartial and not following an agenda and guided free debate in the house, this would not have happened. If the Speaker would have guided the Justice Minister to answer pertinent questions directed to him in the august House in the Wednesday session, this wouldn’t have happened. By avoiding the questions and thinking Kabimba had got scot free, he only managed to postpone the problem. These are the effects of telling half truths and having a Speaker how is baised.

    • Childish behaviour by the MPs. How can we expect these chaps to make good laws for the country? Maybe the minimum qualification to be an MP should include a degree from a recognised university and a track record of community service and leadership to avoid people springing up from nowhere and becoming law makers.

  2. Let us learn to behave in parliament. This is sound advice to the opposition. the electorate didnt vote for you to misbehave in the house

    • they dont to Parliament to behave good like beggers who want food in exchange of good behavoiur,,, they go to debate issues,,national issues as ordered by their bosses!!,, the voters!!…. the people of Zambians!!

    • Dear Opposition Members of Parliament.

      Your valiant agitation and principled push against the ill conceived and fraudulent attempts by the Executive through the Learned Honourable Speaker to stifle vox populi (voice of the people) is most commendable.

      Your mandate in that august house is to represent the electorate without fear of the PF Speaker. Zambians support you.

      No rest until a people driven, non-mutilated and non-doctored (by Sata) constitution is born.

      All democratic gains are a result of struggle. Think of our independence and re-introduction of multi party democracy. We defeated Welensky and forced KK to change article 4 in 1990 to re introduced democracy. This is our struggle and your finest hour.

      Aluta continua!! Amandla ngawethu!! Freedom!!

    • The MPs are speaking the language that the PF understand better.I think there is no better language or way of expressing oneself than that which the other party will understand.On that score i salute the opposition MPs.

  4. Nobody solved anything by walking away from a problem.Come on guys this is not Taiwan or Ukraine where MP`s fight in parliament.Whatever happened to following laid down procedures !!!

    • Twain or Ukraine who caused that mess the dictator or the people??… Remember how power KK was??,,, shutting up Zambians and “standing` against the frog,,,

      Sata still has a marginal chance to redeem himself and do the right thing

    • @ndobo don`t worry Sata will do the right thing at the end of the day.It is only that the opposition is not patient.It is better to take time and release a proper constitution at the end of the day than rush and in the process ending up releasing a crappy one.Rome wasn`t built in a single day.

    • @soulosi
      indeed am sure sata would do the right thing just like he managed to deliver the animal driven constitution in 90 days..
      indeed Rome was not built in day,,,, but its possible to built Lusaka in a day because Lusaka is NOT Rome

    • @ Saulosi #4.3
      Well done.
      You did state obvious, but your servitude to Sata has blinded you from understanding your own reality.
      Your sentence “… It is better to take time and release a proper constitution at the end of the day than rush and in the process ending up releasing a crappy one…”???
      Sata’s “proper constitution”???
      That is the reason that has united HUGE majority of Zambian Citizens against PF.
      That was NOT part of electoral promise. No body wants to go back to time when we use to address each other “comrade”.
      No body wants to be ruled by decree.
      What people want and what PF promised and in so far is avoiding to keep their binding promise is a delivery of “people driven Constitution”
      No body wants “comrade” Mugabe; Chavez; Kabimba or Sata driven…

    • Ati genius, that man Matibini, he may genius to useless PF MPs.
      The parliament is run my M. Lungu. But since he is MMD, he couldn’t help that Matibini of yours.

  5. what type of manners are your leaders (HH) and nevers teaching you? is that the kind of behaviour you want to take to state house? you put everyone off with this unruly behaviour. this is why you will never see victory as long as you live

    • Get your head straight, this is not about HH,,, this is about the constitution.. animal or otherwise which Sata himself promised with a bible in his hands to give Zambians in 90days..
      and for your own infor it was not just oppositions MPs even some liberal PF MPs like Given Lubinda and GBM wwere in support of the giving zambians a new constitution

    • @Kudos. I only respond because we face perilious times as Zambians. In each generation there will be the brave and also sell-outs . During our independence struggle, informers (Sata included) betrayed freedom fighters who were totured and some even died! Same nefarious behaviour happened in apartheid South Africa where black sell-outs betrayed fellow blacks to the amajoni (brutal police).

      Kudos you are a sell-out.

      As stated else where, we urge the resolve of our MPs be irrevocable and unflinchingly concreted on the delivery of a non-adulterated, non-altered and non-doctored people driven constitution as presented by the Technical Committee. Sata should not alter even a COMMA, FULL STOP OR WORD. NO CHANGE!!

  6. Its the pf that is unruly and its like they don’t want to understand dialogue. I voted for pf to give me a constitution but now its like they are kings. We want that constitution and I am asking all unions to ask their people to stay away from work for one day as a warning to pf. I am ashamed I voted for people who can’t do what the people who voted for them want.

  10. Opposition parliamentarians are doing a commendable job to oppose any matters coming up for debate before the BIG issue of our CONSTITUTION is given a road map by PF government. Prevarication on this national issue will aggravate further the poor standard of governance of PF and Mr Sata.

  12. The speaker is a fraud and a corrupt PF cadre. Parliament has lost the honorable component of its existence!
    Matibini resign and restore sme dignity.

    • I say it again: Dr Hon Speaker Matibini is a great lawyer and judge. But everyone has a price. And Dr Matibini has fallen into the PF net and not lived up to great expectations in this political role of Speaker. The legal profession precludes me from passing judgment on this great legal mind. How I wish he had remained as Judge!

  15. I do not believe that the situation would have degenerated to this level if the Government had been sincere about the roadmap to begin with. Ideally, Parliamentarians are supposed to live up to their ‘Honorable’ term but when backed into a situation where one has to fight ‘muddy’ then ‘dishonorable’ conduct is permissible to the extent that it makes the Government sit up and listen. The Speaker is right in that the issue has officially been tabled before him and he will need to use due process to address the concerns. He has until Tuesday.

  16. Just ingore the Speaker in his calls to quiet you about the constituion, just like the President suggested, only in the opposite. Push on and ignore that PF Cadre Matibini!

    • Use English so that you remove aspersions that a known tribe is against the majority Zambians demand for a people drivenhave a people driven constitution which is the SINGULAR (top priority) issue facing Zambians.

      The constituton is just as important as when Zambia attained independence or when apartheid South Africa released Nelson Mandela from 27 years of imprisonment.

      Perhaps at no time has Zambia been at such a strategic inflexion point as this epoch making time. At the vanguard of our constitution struggle are the valiant opposition MPs being blocked by membe, nchi.to, sata, matibini, kamimba, pf useles mps. BUT we the people of Zambia shall prevail and win!!

      Viva people driven Constitution!! Mai buye!

  19. For me the opposition mps spoke for me..thank you we can’t let these pf do whatever they want without anyone standing up to them….awe twakana bravo bravo

    • Only a muchinga person resorts to insults because they have nothing intelligent to say. Just like your big potato.

      Look at a Bisa liar, caught pants down. Eating the euro bond and the new bond.

      We will catch you all. We will cage you all.

      Take some time and watch the assasinatiom of samuel doe on you tube. Also watch the romanian chaochesku too. That is the fate that awaits you..

  21. The MPs deserve all our support, how else are we going to get the constitution, when the very rules that were set by the government, to handover the constitution have proved futile? The next move must be street demonstrations.

  22. President Sata’s failure to take leadership and responsibility for the delivery of the Constitution is responsible for this.

    He must take responsibility for the mess. The MPs are only doing their job as representatives of the people.

    If the Speaker is serving the Constitution let him resign his position or allow debate on the pressing matter of the new Constitution.

  24. Sata and the PF are the ones showing the most dishonourable conduct of all.The useless and biased speaker only sees the opposition bcoz he’s in PF’s pocket.Jinga kabisa mbwa mwitu,

  25. How much clout has this speaker got? Or is he a mere squeaky quack? There are no escape routes from this matter of the constitution.

    • Its a good thing we all have but one vote. You are a disgrace to your education and training if you have had any. A Muchinga mad potato bent like an old boot.

      In 2016 you will have to kill me, lock me up, post me away from my polling station or close early at 06:45 am to make sure I don’t vote. I will sit and keep an eye on my ballot box till its opened and my vote against sata is counted. YOU ARE GOING DOWN!

      I will take my whole family to vote. Some are among the 500 nurses, some among the farmers that had their inputs stolen, some are youths that failed to join police, army, zaf and zns while your kids never attended the interviews. Wait… Muchili mule nya.

      We will chase you, catch you, jail you, torture you! Time is ticking. I have beef with you, you will know me.

  27. HH and his minions sitting in parliament, drinking day and night at parliament motel, picking women of the night from bars and chewing freebies are disgrace to the electorates. Matibini shall throw them out of parliament. Let them go and protest in Zambezi river swimming with hippos.

    • No more rolling over and having PF sodomise us. Action is be taken and you cannot use state police on parliament grounds.

      This is not the Gabon disaster repoort he can commission and hide for 20 years.

      PF cadres try and fart now. While you’re at it explain your Katuba whipping. Ba li mi nyankula 2-1. No jelous no stigma, ma grade 7

    • Matibini or not; Zambia shall have a complete people driven constitution. If Sata dares to change even ONE clause in that document, then we the majority of the Zambians will show him the door in 2016. We did with KK and we SHALL DID (not do!) it with KK’s new found disciple, Sata.

      KK used the Constitution to oppress Zambians but in in December 1990 we FORCED him to repeal of Article 4 of the Constitution which ushered in multi party democracy. Many of my time will remember that Sata was one part of the cabal that fought against introduction of multi party democracy.

      I have this prophecy for you. Once pressure is exerted, Sata will relent and declare that it was his idea to give people their own constitution as per his campaign promise!!!

  29. Thanks ndobo these cadres always the first to comment their rubbish but you took them on, Sata needs to be ashamed lying while holding the bible, that speaker is also a big problem trying to shelve something serious like the constitution, he is supposed to be neutral but coming out to condemn opposition shows how one sided he is and I think he is of no use to a democratic nation like ours , he is already a compromised guy

  30. There is a limit to which the people can stomach misrule by a dictatorial Govt to which Matibini is an accessory.

    Dr. Matibini – wherever he got his PhD and lack of intellectual capacities – is just beginning to reap what his government has been sowing. It was the very Matibini who disobeyed the vital elements of the Zambian Constitution by using Parliament to illegally remove RB’s Presidential immunity.

    The results of the elections in Chililabombwe and Katuba, indicate that the people of Zambia are fed up with PF mismanagement of the country. Very soon there will be a multiplying effect to be replicated in forthcoming by-elections countrywide. In PF’s thinking, criminals are glorified as angels while persons with a human heart (e.g. Nurses) are treated as outcasts and punished.

  31. Zambia Watchdog article titled: “Speaker Matibini is a disgrace to democracy” adds balance to this story. The article is well written and professionally argued.

  32. Well done MP’s. There is no more time for dialogue – ninety days of dialogue and non-performance by the PF have elapsed. Push hard for our constitution. Let’s go for 50+1. We can’t have a simple majority rule anymore. How can one person voted by 35% be allowed to rule over the other 65% who didn’t vote for him…who don’t believe in his policies?

  37. CONSTITUTION, CONSTITUTION, CONSTITUTION….that is the word for PF and we want it now. How do we spend so much money and you want to through the document down the drain? PF be serious on this one.

  39. Matibini has himself to blame. He should be objective and avoid being legalistic. The next best thing is for him to resign! In fact I can lend him my cap instead of wearing that victorian wig!

  41. Viva the opposition you are working for mother Zambia, that no mp from the ruling party joined you proves how true their president is that they are USELESS.

  42. The Constitution will definately be produced. But i will not make sense to do it in a hurry. Things like 50+1 nima rubish and can just bring about Regionalism which we are already seeing. We have seen from other countries what happens when a nation is divided on ethnic grounds. Let us be realistic Zambia is in poverty we have no money for re-runs.

  43. The law makers have simply done what is expected of them. In the first place, they are simply speaking for the silent majority who also happen to be the people they represent. I am not for adopting the revised constitution without it being debated in parliament; after all that is what they are supposed to do. The oneus is on the PF goverment who have caused all this confusion mainly because of the way they have handled it. Let them explain to us what they do not like about the new constitution so that we can try to understand where they are coming from.

    • fighting for you the brain dead, brain washed, hoodwinked and indoctrinated nincompoops. You leave us to clean up the mess and you have the audacity to ask. Sorry! we haven’t got the time and you don’t have the capacity to understands. Excuse us! we got work to do.

  45. When a stupid child cries for a knife or razor blade(Gillette).Give it and see how he/she will throw it away.

    If you are given your purpoted people driven constitution now what? very few or Zero people will feel it.

    The consitution you are crying for is not different from Monday,tuesday wednesday etc…all are days.Very little is been changed.

    Clever Sata and PF is slowing so that you lose focus on how to strategise for 2016.As a normal person i have observed that after this you will be crying for referundum and after that it will only be 3 MONTHS before general elections.Reality is you will share votes here in Lusaka but other parts of the country where you havent set foot it will be disaster for you the OPPOSITION.

  47. It is sata who is causing all this by deliberately ignoring our calls for our new consititution as he promised us when he was in opposition. He thrives on lies and now he calls his ministers useless then even him is useless and his lies are catching up with him.

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