Another IsiNdebele row in Parliament

Cases of parliamentarians being asked not to speak in IsiNdebele in parliamentary debates continue to surface in the Zimbabwean parliament this time in the upper house, the senate.

In a session on oral questions without notice in the senate recently, Bulawayo Metropolitan's Senator Siphiwe Ncube raised a question to the Deputy Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Tongai Muzenda in IsiNdebele. Before the Deputy Minister could answer the President of the Senate Edna Madzongwe intervene questioning if the Deputy Minister had understood the question was asked to which Deputy Minister Muzenda quickly confessed not to have understood.

The Senate President immediately asked Senator Ncube to ask her question in a language that will be understood by all concerned. Senator Ncube complied and tried to change her question to English. When she changed to English the context of her question completely changed resulting in the Deputy Minister completely failing to understand her simple concern and ended up asking her to put the question in writing "to enable more clarity."

Shortly after Senator Ncube, Senator Agnes Sibanda also of Bulawayo Metropolitan asked Justice Minister Emmerson Munangagwa a question in IsiNdebele to which the Minister took a moment laughingly consulting a member next to him for translation.

This is the second incident within a few months that legislators have been ordered to speak in a language alternate to IsiNdebele as cabinet ministers could not understand. Last month Umguza MP Obert Mpofu was also ordered to answer a question in Shona in the House of Assembly to which he refused to budge.

Senate President Madzongwe battled to explain that parliament did not have devices to translate online to English. On a quick check the Zimbabwean parliament appears to be conducting its business 50% in Shona, 45% English and 5% IsiNdebele in a country with 16 official languages.