30 Mar 2014

 Member of Parliament (MP) for Nata/Gweta Mr Rayner Makosha has supported a motion by the Lobatse MP, Mr Nehemiah Modubule calling for the amendment of Section 68(1) (a) of the country’s constitution.

The amendment would provide for the right of MPs to continue as members of the National Assembly up to and including the last day preceding a general election notwithstanding the dissolution of Parliament.

Mr Makosha said the laws of the country should not be discriminatory and if they were, Parliament should amend them. He said the current section meant MPs only served 58 months of the purported 60 months of the five-year term, before Parliament was dissolved two months prior to elections.

Supporting the motion too was the MP for Kgatleng West, Mr Gilbert Mangole who said it is clear that the section has been discriminating against MPs because the President, the members of Cabinet and the Speaker and the Deputy remain in office until a day before the elections.

He said there was never a deliberate intention on the part of the architects of the constitution to have a clause that discriminates against MPs. Mr Mangole said this meant that once Parliament is dissolved, the constituents no longer have representation.

Tonota South MP, Mr Pono Moatlhodi who also supported the motion said the amendment should have long been brought by the Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, whose portfolio includes constitutional matters or the Attorney General Chambers.

He noted that this should not sound as if MPs want to push their own interests, adding that the amendment is long overdue and it is wrong to remunerate MPs for 58 months when they are in actual fact elected to serve for 60 months. Ends