Opinion / Columnist
Do we have honourable or dishonourable MPs?
17 Jul 2014 at 05:48hrs | Views
When I was growing up in the early eighties, I held great veneration for our legislators. So great that I even thought they don't visit the toilet for the big job, let alone fight.
As pupils, it was everybody's dream to join the honourables of the day in the August House. I vividly remember learning in Grade five that Parliament is the third arm of the government mandated to make laws of the country. It would be a bonus for us, if any question about parliament came on our termly exams. Those were the days when we still had honourable Members of Parliament.
I am, however, not sure if I still hold the same regard for today's legislators. Unless my dictionary misleads me, an honourable person is one who is respectable, admirable, praiseworthy, principled, moral, upright and good. I am not certain if our current crop of legislators is honourable. So many nasty things have been reported about the MPs, which makes the tag honourable a misnomer.
The Herald issue of 14 July 2014 reported of two Zanu PF Midlands legislators who traded blows over an inconsequential matter that can only be an issue to grade one pupils. Cdes Masango Matambanadzo and Owen Ncube dragged the name of the August House and that of the Party into disrepute. Before any measures are taken against these dishonourable boxers clad in respectable garment, they must make a public apology to their constituencies, party and the nation at large.
How can adults, who must be role models of their constituencies and the youths in particular, fight in public? It's unfortunate that these militant MPs expend their energy on fighting rather than contributing meaningfully in Parliament. I am yet to hear any of them contributing in parliament, let alone presenting their maiden speeches.
Without taking sides, Ncube has no right to label Matambanadzo a foreigner. He was given a mandate by the residents of Kwekwe Central who voted for him conscious of his region of origin. Regionalism will not take the country anywhere. In a way, Ncube is telling us that anyone found in a foreign region must be persecuted. We have heard about Shona teachers who are being rejected in Matabeleland region. Does Ncube tell us that these Shona teachers must be persecuted the way he is persecuting Matambanadzo?
In any case, Ncube, whose constituency is some hundreds of kilometers from Kwekwe Central must have notified Matambanadzo of his meeting. Even when President Mugabe holds meetings in provinces, the political leadership in that province is notified and that is the party's standing protocol.
The embarrassing fiasco came hard on the heels of another dishonourable event when the not-so-honourable MPs put their feet in the mouth in China. A horde of legislators connived to abuse tickets meant for the disabled to go for a trip whose purpose did and will not add any value to the nation. As if that was not enough, they went on to stray and missed their flight back home, much to the embarrassment of the nation and their parties.
Now these MPs are a butt of jokes in bars, kombis and on the social media. One that trickled my ribs was from a tout who said the MPs are indeed disabled in the brains. If people who must be exemplary fight in public, then the tout was spot on.
The MPs' misdemeanors stultify them from effectively tackling socio-economic issues bedeviling the country. It is so because they are the chief perpetrators of these socio-economic ills. President Mugabe recently bemoaned the alarming moral decadence in the country. Unfortunately he seems to be fighting a lone battle.
According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics' (ZimStats) preliminary statistics of the first quarter of 2014, a woman is rapped every 90 minutes. This is alarming and the nation expects our MPs to interrogate such issues. Unfortunately there are rapists within the August House.
Binga North MDC-T MP, Prince Madubeko Sibanda was arrested for drugging and rapping a 17 year old teenager in Victoria Falls. Costa Machingauta, another MDC-T MP for Budiriro, raped a Midlands State University student he had lured to his hotel room. We also have pending rape cases involving other MPs, among them, Bikita West Independent MP, Dr Kereke Munyaradzi and Zanu PF Mhondoro Ngezi legislator Mike Gava.
These MPs are the ones who make laws that they break willy-nilly. Our next parliament must have virtuous personalities and voters should look beyond sloganeering capabilities.
The country's contemporary number one enemy is corruption. Some of our MPs are not qualified to cast a stone to the perpetrators of the vice for they seriously fall short of the qualities. When they were given US$50 000 each to develop their constituencies, they abused it. Instead of assisting the people who voted them into parliament, they used the money for self-aggrandizement.
The buck stops with us, the electorate. If we voted these dishonourables into parliament, it is a reflection of the depths of dishonour to which we have regressed. We can make amends in the next elections, for come they shall!
Source - Tafara Shumba
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