16 Mar 2014

Leader of the House, also Vice President, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe, has told Parliament of his intentions to address non-attendance.

Dr Kedikilwe said absenteeism in Parliament was of great concern, thus will meet with the Speaker of National Assembly, Dr Margaret Nasha to see how the matter can be resolved.

He said the current arrangement whereby MPs do not break for refreshments is not working, saying ‘it appears to make MPs fail to form a quorum in the process’.

He opined that the initial arrangement in which MPs were given time to refresh was better.

“With the current arrangement, MPs only make appearances in the house and leave.”

Parliament resumes business at 2pm until 6pm without a break. Initially, MPs would break for 20 minutes from 4pm until 4:20pm while business ended at 7pm.

On the other hand, MP for Molepolole South, Mr Daniel Kwelagobe complained that he did not understand the rationale behind deferring motions to a later date ‘simply because ministers and their deputies are absent from Parliament’.

“To the best of my knowledge, ministers are notified about motions that appear in the order paper, hence they should make arrangements,” he said. He argued that any motion that appeared in the order paper and brought before Parliament should be discussed so that business should not stall at the expense of absent ministers and their deputies.

However, Dr Nasha explained that in the past, Parliament business used to proceed as long as an MP tabling the motion was present.

She also regretted that some of the MPs whose motions appeared in the order paper were also absent.

Meanwhile, four motions that were supposed to be tabled before Parliament were deferred to a later date because ministers and movers of the motions were absent from the House. ENDS