Members of Parliament were engaged in some fisticuffs in the chamber of the House during the voting on the controversial E-levy bill on Monday, December 20.

The MPs were taking votes on whether or not the E-levy should be adopted under a certificate of urgency.

At the time, Joseph Osei-Owusu who was presiding stated that he was stepping down to vote so,  the Second Deputy Speaker should take over.

The Minority had earlier contended that per parliament’s standing orders, the Speaker of Parliament does not have a casting vote, however, Joe Osei-Owusu indicated that he Would still vote.

Just when he was about to step down for the Second Deputy to take over, the Minority took the stage.

In the process, the Minority clashed with the Majority with members of both sides exchanging blows.

Instead of bahaving honourably like grown ups and respected members of the society, the MPs turned Parliament into a wrestling ground.

Kicks and blows were flying in all directions as the honourable members turned into dishonourable members, ignoring all the rules on social distancing.

Four weeks ago Felix Mlusu Minister of Finance presented in parliament the 2020-2021 national budget valued at 2.190 Trillion Kwacha in total expenditures.

And after breaking in clusters to scrutinize the allocations to various ministries and departments, on Monday this week legislators started approving vote by vote allocations in what is traditionally known as Committee of supply.

Opposition members of parliament have drafted a motion that seeks to remove some powers from district councils in the administration of Community Development Fund (CDF) and Borehole water fund.

Among others, MPs want sourcing of quotations to be done by local structures such as Area Development Committees and not council officers.

The motion was expected to be tabled today but failed as procedurally it first has to be discussed by the Business Committee of the House.

Speaker of Parliament, Catherine Gotani Hara, has announced that Kondwani Nankhumwa is the Leader of Opposition in Parliament having been satisfied with the procedure in which DPP elected him to the position.

According to the Speaker, DPP Secretary General, Grezeldar Jeffrey, submitted all documents to back up the election of Nankhumwa citing a court case of JZU vs Attorney General who represented the Speaker in that case where the Court said, “the election of the Leader of Opposition is solely for Members of Parliament of the largest party in Parliament”.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chief whip and Member of Parliament for Nkhatabay Central Vuwa Kaunda was today morning kicked out of the Parliament chamber using standing order 105 for disregarding Speaker’s ruling.

Vuwa who stood and spoke without being recognised first by Speaker Catherine Gotani Hara queried government benches on absence of Finance Minister Felix Mlusu at a time when members are debating the budget

The speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara has ordered an investigation into a report by the Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance.

The development arrived at following widespread dissatisfaction from some members of the Committee saying that the final report presented in the House is not reflecting what members of the Committee discussed earlier.

According to one of the members of the Committee Ulemu Chilapondwa, the Committee’s chairperson Gladys Ganda has included her own issues not what the Committee discussed.

But reacting to the accusations, Ganda says she has just extracted what is in the report and add in some comments.

“That’s a speech that has just been extracted from the report because I have presented a full report to Parliament but I have just extracted a few things that I have highlighted,” Ganda said.

Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has described the 2020/2021 National Budget estimates as consumptive as opposed to developmental oriented.

In an interview, Joseph Mwanamvekha says the Budget is not meeting expectations of Malawians in accordance with promises of the Tonse Alliance government.

“This budget is indeed a sham as described by many stakeholders this is because most underlying assumptions will never hold considering the moment we are in,” Mwanamvekha said.

“You are aware that most of the promises that were made during the campaign are not appearing in the budget so to us we are describing that budget as breaking voter`s promises because what they have done is that they have broken all the promises that they made to Malawians.”

Parliament is encouraging the public to express their views on proposed national budget in order to push the government to come up with a balanced budget.

Minister of Finance Felix Mlusu presented the budget in parliament two weeks ago and legislators are currently scrutinising allocations through cluster meetings.

Parliament is also organising a public hearing to provide a platform for members of the public to give their input on the budget.

President Dr Lazarus Chakwera has hit on bogus expatriates, who come to Malawi to take jobs that can be done by locals.

He said in his first State Of Nation Address (SONA) that Malawi has seen an influx of expatriates without expertise.

He blamed institutions that are responsible for recruitment of expatriates as responsible for this laxity.

“We shall not allow our hospitality to disadvantage our citizens,” the Malawi leader said.

He added:” Jobs created in Malawi are not free for all.

A statement released yesterday by Speaker Catherine Gotani Hara, has announced that Parliament has closed for disinfection, as some lawmakers and members of staff tested positive for the coronavirus.

On the other hand, the August House will slow down operations, while detection of the cases has necessitated an urgent requirement to review operations of the august House in order to safeguard the lives of Members of parliament and staff.

Following the current situation, the statement has called on MPs and members of staff of the National Assembly to go for testing.

Currently, Malawi has become the second country in the SADC region after South Africa with the largest number of people that are infected with Corona Virus.

Its has registered 2, 497 cases of Covid-19 with 43 deaths and 795 recoveries.

President Peter Mutharika’s decision to present his State of the Nation address via a recorded video angered opposition members of parliament who demanded an explanation.

This was despite the Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara telling the house that the arrangement was arrived at in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Leader of Opposition Lobin Lowe argued that the President had a constitutional mandate to deliver his address in the house.
He insisted that a recorded address could set a dangerous precedent.

Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has revealed plans to drag Members of Parliament (MPs) who turned down the 51+1 bill to court.

Yesterday, the August House voted for a motion to adopt an order by the Constitutional Court on Constitution amendments.

The bill had 101 votes which did not meet the required 2/3 (128 votes) for it to pass making it difficult to go through.

On February 3, the constitutional Court nullified the May 21, 2019 presidential election and ordered Parliamentarians to look into the matter by adopting the 51+1 policy.

According to the bill, the winner to the presidency position will be determined if one surpasses 50+1 votes.

Few days ago HRDC team invaded parliament to monitor proceedings regarding the 50+1 bill.

The chairperson for Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Justice Jane Ansah is this morning expected to appear before the Parliament Appointments Committee which is probing the competence of Commissioners in the May 21, 2019 tripartite elections.

Today will mark the third day since the commissioners have been appearing before the committee, as the exercise began on Monday in compliance with the Constitutional Court’s order which was delivered in the presidential elections results case ruling.

So far, some commissioners have suggested that Ansah might have used her authority to bulldoze some decisions that ultimately turned out to be in violation of laid down procedures.

However, so far the examination by the committee has highlighted the use of Tipp-Ex as a principle anomaly of the vote.

The commissioners have also been questioned on the management of auditing results, signing of results, determination of the winner and how they addressed the said 147 complaints from political parties.

Speaker of the National Assembly Catherine Gotani Hara is expected to address the media tomorrow at 10 am.

In the press statement made available to Face of Malawi, the press briefing will take place at Parliament Building in Lilongwe.

Some of the things expected to be tackled include the Constitutional Court decision to nullify the May 21, 2019 presidential elections.

On February 3, the panel of five judges nullified May 21 presidential polls and proposed that parliament should make 51+1 as a strategic move to determine someone’s victory in as far as presidential position is concerned.

Face of Malawi will keep you updated…

President Muhammadu Buhari has explained that 35 aides were not sacked from the Office of the Vice President instead they were redeployed to a new ministry.

The President who fielded questions from NTA State House Correspondent at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, upon his return from a private visit from the United Kingdom described the interpretations of his directives as a sack as ‘unfortunate’.

The President described what happened as a re-organisation and not a sacking, stressing that, a new ministry has recently been created, that is, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

“They said 35 people were sacked in the Vice President’s office but we just created a ministry and we reorganized but people are giving it an ethnic and political dimension. It is unfortunate,” the President said.

It would be recalled that while media report had widely reported the sack of 35 aides including the circulation of a list of those sacked, informed sources insisted that what the President directed was a redeployment and not a sack.

The President’s comment in the NTA interview last night on arrival from his UK private trip indicated that although some Presidential aides had confirmed the sacking of 35 aides, the President only gave express instructions for redeployment to ministries not sacking.

Meanwhile, President Buhari assured Nigerians that he was more energised and ready for work. “We are going to work harder to be accountable and try to make Nigerians see why we do certain things. Accountability from bottom to top is absolutely necessary,” he said.

It would be recalled that some people had falsely reported and claimed that President Buhari had sacked 35 aides in the Office of the Vice President to whittle down the powers and influence of the Vice President.

Some also claimed that the sacking of the 35 aides were to reduce the influence of the Vice President ahead of 2023 elections and were masterminded by a certain cabal within the Presidency.

The Presidency has however always maintained that the President and his deputy, Prof Osinbajo enjoy a very good relationship.

Legislators in the August House have approved a total of 36 votes out of the 48 in the 2019/20 national budget.

Minister of Finance Joseph Mwananvekha has however commended legislators citing that he is impressed with the levels of progress made so far.

Parliament has passed a total of 36 votes out of 48 in the 2019/20 national budget. Minister of Finance Joseph Mwanamvekha says he is impressed with the levels of progress made so far.

The Minister said despite few misunderstandings, it is encouraging that the legislators are realizing the importance of passing the votes.

According to Mwananvekha one important vote that members of parliament should be commended for passing, is the vote for the Ministry of Health.