MDC MPs lose allowances

Published: 18 October 2019
PARLIAMENT has docked the allowances of opposition MDC legislators as punishment for walking out on President Emmerson Mnangagwa's State of the Nation Address (Sona) last month, the Daily News reported.

MDC chief whip Prosper Mutseyami yesterday confirmed that their Zanu-PF counterparts had received their allowances ranging between $9 000 and $15 000 each.

"We have not received anything in terms of our allowances so it means they have carried out their threat to punish us but we are going to fight it out although I am not at liberty to say how at the moment," Mutseyami said.

Both National Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda and Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda's mobile phones were unreachable.

In a move meant to embarrass Mnangagwa, whose legitimacy the MDC questions, the party's MPs turned up in Parliament and participated in the processions preceding the official opening ceremony but as the president and First Lady Auxillia entered the chamber, they remained seated as Zanu-PF legislators stood up.

The opposition MPs only stood up for the national anthem and walked out the moment Mnangagwa began his Sona. Mnangagwa addressed Zanu

PF legislators only much to the chagrin of Mudenda who ruled that Finance minister Mthuli Ncube should not pay the opposition legislators' sitting allowance, as well as the preceding five months' allowances.

"In terms of powers vested in me as head of Parliament and also in respect of the Constitution (section 119), the behaviour which was demonstrated by opposition MPs who walked out when the President started to speak, these MPs shall not be allowed to come back into the House during this sitting today, and accordingly, they will not receive their sitting allowances," Mudenda ruled, adding:

"I am aware that we had put together a pay sheet for the outstanding sitting allowances for the past five months and I want that pay sheet withdrawn from the ministry of Finance. Effectively, it means no payment for today's and five months other sitting days that were outstanding. If this unpalatable behaviour persists, then more drastic action shall be taken as guided by the Standing Rules and Orders Committee," he said.

MPs get a sitting allowance of $700 after it was recently increased from $75.
- dailynews
Tags: MDC,

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