Speaker caused fight at Parliament – Sata

Speaker caused fight at Parliament – Sata
Written by Moses Kuwema and Agness Changala
Sunday, February 15, 2009 7:44:29 AM

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) leader Michael Sata yesterday accused Speaker of the National Assembly Amusaa Mwanamwambwa of causing the fight between parliamentarians Mumbi Phiri and Elizabeth Chitika-Mulobeka at Parliament grounds on Friday because of his failure declare vacant seats held by rebel PF MPs.

And Southern African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) executive director Lee Habasonda has asked Speaker Mwanamwambwa to be firm when handling matters of political parties.

Commenting on a fight that ensued at parliament buildings on Friday between Phiri and Mulobeka, Sata accused Speaker Mwanamwambwa of declaring open hostility by not declaring seats of ‘rebel’ MPs vacant.

"The Speaker is the cause of all this because we told him to declare those seats vacant but instead he chose to declare open hostility for the party," Sata said. "Elizabeth started the whole thing, she followed Mumbi in the corridor where she confronted her and that's where everything started from. But I know that the Speaker will not even punish her (Mulobeka), instead he will just smile.”

Sata further accused the Speaker of making the ‘rebel’ MPs grow big-headed because he was tolerating their behaviour. However, Sata said the fighting was normal, adding that even in countries like Japan, MPs threw chairs at each other.

And Habasonda accused the Speaker of dragging his feet in resolving matters involving certain political parties.

“We also want to think that the Speaker must be firm whenever he is handling such party matters,” he said.

Habasonda said the actions of Mumbi and Mulobeka were embarrassing and took away a lot from PF. He said if PF did not harmonise relations within their party, it was eventually going to lose people's confidence as a government in waiting.

“The party members must behave in a manner that people expect them to behave not the embarrassment that they have so far shown and the lack of respect for one another,” he said.

Habasonda wondered why PF members could not find a better way of addressing their differences instead of getting to an extent of fighting. He urged Sata to intervene in the confusion that had been going on in the party between ‘rebel’ parliamentarians and the others.

And on Friday at her Kabulonga residence, Phiri demanded to go for an HIV test with Mulobeka, claiming that she knew both her status and Mulobeka's.

“I thank God that I am married to a husband who loves me so much, but I can't allow him to touch me before I do the test,” she said.

Phiri said she was waiting for the Speaker's ruling on the matter.

Asked if she fought back during the argument, Phiri said she did not fight back and hence she was beaten.

“There are cameras at Parliament buildings and they will show if I fought back or not and I hope no one will say that they [cameras] are not working,” said Phiri. “I removed my shoes when I was attacked and if I wanted to fight back, I would have hit her (Mulobeka) with the shoes because she's too big for me to fight with.”