Mr Temba banned from Parliamentary Proceedings
Norton legislator Mr Temba Mliswa was on Wednesday banned from Parliament for six sittings because of disorderly conduct in the Chamber.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, imposed the ban after Mr Mliswa disrupted the business of the House by repeatedly interjecting.
In banning Mr Temba, Advocate Jacob invoked, for the first time, the newly-approved measures in the Standing Orders, which were adopted by Parliament a fortnight ago, allowing a presiding officer to preclude a legislator from attending sittings for a prescribed period.
Advocate Jacob banned Mr Temba for defying a directive to restrain himself when he rose and started castigating Zanu PF legislators, whom he accused of interjecting while he was speaking. Mr Temba took the floor before AdvocateJacob allowed him to speak and defied repeated pleas to restrain himself.
Advocate Jacob’s warning that he risked being chucked out of the Chamber fell on deaf ears, as Mr Temba hit back saying he did not mind even if he was permanently expelled from Parliament. It was felt that while Mr Temba has a right to express his views, he should do so using parliamentary procedures and desisting from using languages not allowed in parliament. There was a heated exchange between Mr Temba and Advocate Jacob as the presiding officer implored the former to stick to procedures.
Advocate Jacob eventually directed that Mr Temba should leave the House and said he would not be allowed to attend Parliament for six successive sittings. Earlier, Advocate Jacob had reprimanded Mr. Temba for conduct that was grossly out of order following disorderly behavior last week where, in a fit of rage, he charged at another legislator.
Advocate Jacob directed that Mr Temba should tender an apology and warned that if he repeated that, severe consequences would be imposed on him.
In response, Mr Temba apologized profusely, saying he would not do that again. Moments later, Mr. Temba rose and began to interject and disrupted proceedings, resulting in Advocate Jacob ejecting him.
