The letter referred to a resolution on a certain day of a meeting, a resolution that we never made and as a result, he did not attend. The resolution was never made to the effect that he does not attend but a letter was written to Mr. Tagwirei not to attend as per certain resolution and so forth. We tried to talk about this to air our views and that was not proper. The whole aspect was that there were allegations that he had been paid some money for him not to appear. I made it very clear in the minutes that he needs to clarify this to the Committee but unfortunately, he always refers to the Clerk of Parliament and the Hon. Speaker having given him the go ahead.
The Committee equally requested for the Hon. Speaker to appear before us to try and verify what the Chairman says because we have no other way of doing it. Unfortunately, that was shot down. This has continued despite Hon. Members resolving so in terms of Standing Order No. 30. He also appoints Chairpersons whereas Standing Order No. 30 (2) clearly states that whenever a Committee is informed that the Chairman is not there, we should choose whoever is the Chairman. So for as long as he has been Chairman, he has appointed people to be Chairpersons, which is against this rule.
The question that I have is that the proceedings that happen, with him imposing a Chairman, are they going to be taken as serious proceedings against this? We also brought this up and he again refers it to the Hon. Speaker. I have communicated this to the Hon. Speaker and the head of Government Business. In terms of the Sakunda issue, I equally went to the Hon. Vice President who is the head of Government Business, to ask him if he had spoken to Hon. Shumba about Sakunda not appearing before the Committee. He said that he did not know anything about that.
You are aware Hon. Speaker that I also wanted to talk to you about this but time has lapsed. The Committee thought that it would be able to resolve this issue at our last meeting. As a Member of Parliament, I am not happy to be associated with a Committee whose resolutions where procedure is not followed. It is only proper that each Hon. Member of that Committee be interviewed individually so that you hear from them. We are under siege in that Committee; he spends more time talking and educating us but we equally have been provincial chairpersons and so forth. We are not here to be educated but are here for procedure to be followed.
As such Mr. Speaker, I will be writing to you in terms of that, that procedures are not being followed. Other Hon. Members who are part of that Committee who are here are equally concerned. A lot of allegations have happened which equally implicate you and the Clerk of Court which he uses, which I told him that we need to protect the office of the Speaker and the office of the Clerk of Court because there have also been allegations…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Clerk of Parliament not Clerk of Court.
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