Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda told Musikavanhu legislator Prosper Mutseyami that Parliament should stop whipping a dead horse after he objected on Wednesday that there were not enough ministers in the House for Question Time.
Question Time is held every Wednesday when the House is sitting while question time for the Senate is every Thursday.
Mutseyami said there were less than seven ministers when Zimbabwe had one of the largest cabinets in the world.
“As we speak, we only have less than seven cabinet ministers out of a possible 40 and if we include the deputy ministers the number should be 71. But we only have seven, yet we have one of the largest cabinet in this world,” he said.
In response Mudenda said: “I think we should stop whipping a dead horse. Section 107 of the Constitution is very clear. Ministers and deputy ministers are to be here to answer to Parliament and where a minister is not available, the Leader of Government Business in Parliament will handle those questions.”
This was an about turn for Mudenda who two years ago warned ministers and their deputies that they might be charged with contempt of Parliament if they did not attend Parliament to answer questions.
“Every Vice-President, Minister and Deputy Minister must attend Parliament and Parliamentary Committees in order to answer questions concerning matters for which he or she is collectively or individually responsible," he said in joint statement with Senate president Edna Madzongwe.
“The Chair would, therefore, like to serve notice to all hon. Ministers and Deputy Ministers that the House will not allow this situation where some of them neglect their parliamentary duties to continue unabated,” he said.
“The House will reprimand Ministers and Deputy Ministers who persistently prioritise other duties above their Parliament duties. “The Chair wishes to further give notice that; should this not produce the desired effect, the House will be left with no option but to invoke other constitutional powers at its disposal including Contempt of Parliament.”
Mutseyami has protested in the past that there is no point in asking questions when ministers are not present in Parliament because deputy ministers give deputy answers.
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