Zimbabwe legislator says the stress is just too much when one is recalled from Parliament

Then you go to the general elections – yes, you will have the political party supporting you but it also depends on how rich that political party is because at other times the individual has to fork his or her own money to sustain that campaign. Finally, you come into this august House and the Clerk of Parliament asks you to take an oath to be a Member of Parliament. The thinking is that I am going to be the MP for Dzivaresekwa until the next election and God willing the people of Dzivaresekwa will return me back to Parliament. Imagine that in the midst of my tenure, unbeknown to the members of Dzivaresekwa, they only read in the newspaper to say aah, no, the MP for Dzivaresekwa has been recalled.

It is painful to the extent that a number of our Members of Parliament that have been recalled, it is unfortunate that we do not have the chance to then see some of these MPs when they are recalled. Parliament will be putting pressure. You have to pay back the car loan. The society will also be putting pressure. Do you know Mr. Speaker that society by nature, their view of the MP is different from what you think? Most people would rather have MPs go out there, work and even do the work for nothing but at the same time they would want to contribute, be it to funerals and other events.

Just imagine Mr. Speaker, you have been a Member of Parliament and people in the society have been calling you honourable and all of a sudden you are recalled. The ability of a member to manage the stress level is very difficult for most members. A number of people actually die of stress and others end up compromising because you now need to see how you can survive.

My view is that we need political parties to have a rein on their members. We need a mechanism unto which 129 (k) can actually be made practical. We need processes and procedures so that a member seated in an office cannot just write a letter. We need to have a mechanism of saying a party has actually gone through its internal disciplinary action. I recall my friend Gwisai when he was recalled in MDC sometime ago, he had to be summoned by the late Gibson Sibanda to a hearing and he was then found guilty and was dismissed from the party. The party then wrote to Parliament.

At least the procedure had been done but this issue of just waking up in the morning you are alleged that you are in Gamatox or Lacoste and sometimes you are not even there. One of the things that you should also understand in political parties, all of us are members of political parties but do you know that in any political party, less than 5% of the people in that political party make decisions for or against? Most of us are just in the bus of that political party. We are like passengers and sometimes the decisions and penalties that we are punished for is actually beyond us.

So Mr. Speaker Sir, without further ado I just want to believe that 129 (k) needs in my view to be codified. We need to have a process or a system upon which we could actually have a mechanism which is fair to members and also to the electorate. In other countries what they have actually done is they have even said for a recall to happen, members of the constituency also need to have a say pertaining to the whole thing. So the current state as it stands is narrow, very difficult and a disadvantage to Members of Parliament. It is true Mr. Speaker that when you come here in this august House a number of members do not debate on particular issues, not that they do not know. They know but they are afraid that if they say out their minds they will fall foul to the political lines. Whilst I agree on the need of the party to have some control but I also believe that it is important and imperative that 129 (k) in the Constitution should come back into an Act of Parliament that sets procedure, parameters and what needs to be done for a member to be recalled. I thank you Mr Speaker

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