.MATIBINI

By CATHERINE NYIRENDA  –

SPEAKER of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini has defended Vice-President Guy Scott for using the word ‘monkeying’ to refer to opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) who were protesting in Parliament for the release of the final draft Constitution in the last sitting of the house.
Dr Matibini also defended Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba for referring to opposition MPs’ conduct in disrupting the business of the House as being tantamount to fraud.
He defended the two in his ruling on the point of order raised by United Party for National Development (UPND) Choma Central MP Cornelius Mweetwa against Dr Scott and Mr Kabimba’s statements issued on March 4, 2013, on the Zambia National Broadcasting Cooperation (ZNBC) Television against the Opposition MPs.
According to the point of order Mr Mweetwa wanted to know why Dr Scott referred to opposition MPs as coming to the House to monkey around, while he also wanted to know why Mr Kabimba said that the conduct of the members disrupting the business of the House was tantamount to fraud.
According to Mr Mweetwa, the word ‘monkey’ issued by the Vice-President had a history of racist posture by orientation while the word fraud by Mr Kabimba designated the opposition as fraudsters.
“I find nothing racist about the expression of these words, rather I understand the Vice-President to convey the message that in the light of the gross misconduct displayed on the floor of the house, the opposition members lacked seriousness in their discharge of their function,” Dr Matibini said.
He said his ruling was based on the definition of the word in the Concise Oxford Thesaurus second edition edited by Maurice Waite which defines the word monkeying around to mean fool about, play about and clown among others.
He said to the extent that the members deliberately failed to perform their representative functions of asking question and yet went to claim allowances, Mr Kabimba’s assertion was justified.
Dr Matibini earlier warned the Zambian Voice executive director Chilufya Tayali, President of all People’s Congress Party Nason Msoni and other stakeholders from showing disrespect to the Speaker in speech or any other manner as such was contempt of the house and could attract punishment.
He said this in his ruling based on the point of order raised by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabriel Namulambe regarding statements attributed to the two in the Daily Nation newspaper with the headline ‘Speaker abrogating constitutional authority’ and ‘Speaker must resign’ published on March 6, 2014.
Mr Namulambe wanted to know if the two were in order to mislead the general public by making calculated attacks on the proceeding of the house and the office of the speaker and yet the Speaker was following the provisions of the handbook.
Dr Matibini said the office of the speaker of the National Assembly was one of dignity and commanded extreme respect both nationally and internationally.