Speak in Parly cut ǡŠƒƒ†™•Š‹†ƒ‡ǯ‡• „”‹‡ˆ
The subsequent speakers’ submissions boarded around striving for economic growth, particularly through the mining sector as revealed by the King, and also promoting co-existence, creating job opportunities and lessening the heavy reliance on South Africa for electricity.
When interviewed on what he wanted to submit prior to the adjournment, Myeni said it would not be proper for him to speak about that outside of the chambers, because it was something that formed part of the official business inside Parliament and he would wait for another opportunity to address it there.
“We have portfolio committee debates coming up and I will utilise that opportunity to make my submissions on official Parliament business. Otherwise, it would not be proper for me to detail my planned submissions to the media,” he said.
However, Myeni did state that apart from the motion that was debated, he would have also used the same platform to explain his absence from the Parliament opening last week, as the Speaker had requested, through an article in the media.
Worth mentioning is that the MPs who were not present during the opening of Parliament were present yesterday. They included Myeni, Siphofaneni MP Nomalungelo LaZwide Simelane, Nhlambeni MP Manzi Zwane and Nkhaba MP Zakhele Magongo.
It could not be ascertained if all of them had reported their absence to the Speaker.
LOBAMBA – Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Themba Masuku and Siphofaneni MP Nomalungelo LaZwide Simelane had a brief handshake moment that drew the attention of the House.
The handshake comes after LaZwide had told Masuku to leave her alone, following his sharp criticism of the reasons for her absence from the official opening of the Fifth Session of the 11th Parliament last Friday.
Masuku had said, during an interview with this publication, that Simelane was arrogant in her reasons for deliberately missing the event.
He accused Simelane of having failed to live up to the oath she had taken, to pay allegiance to His Majesty King Mswati III, his heirs and successors.
Simelane was of the view that Masuku was undermining her because she was a woman and stated that she found the utterances made by Masuku to be a personal attack on her character and reiterated that the DPM had exceeded his limits.
Handshake
When asked what they spoke about during the handshake and whether it was a way of showing that there was no bad blood between them, Simelane simply said he (DPM) was greeting her and she was not keen to explain further. Asked if this was a sign of them smoking the peace pipe, Masuku said they were not fighting in the first place, but it was people who put it as though they were quarrelling.
“I have no enemy but I have views just like she and everybody else does and freedom of speech allows for people to express themselves. I didn’t expect anything different when we meet in the House, even if we met anywhere else, it was not personal but political,” he said.
Worth mentioning is that Mtfongwaneni MP Roy Fanourakis rose on a point of order and tried to raise a motion that would address the issues of absent MPs making it to the media. The Speaker said if the MP was keen on knowing about these issues, he should ask from the media, not from him.