The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday chose to be mute on the State Of the Nation Address (Sona) delivered by President Lazarus Chakwera last Friday in Parliament.

Rising to the podium to respond on behalf of the party,  DPP leader in Parliament Mary Navicha referred the House to the response she made outside Parliament on Tuesday when she and 23 other DPP members of Parliament (MPs) were suspended after Speaker Catherine Gotani Hara invoked Order 105.

Said Navicha briefly: “Madam Speaker, as you know, we were supposed to respond to the Sona on Tuesday but we were serving order 105 as such the response was made outside the Parliament gate. Thank you madam Speaker.”

She then proceeded to her seat.

However, the Speaker reminded Navicha and the whole House that, any statement made outside the chamber is off Parliament records.

“But I hope you are aware that anything said outside Parliament does not form part of the Hansard,” she said, and opened the floor for general debate.

Navicha: The response was made
outside the Parliament gate

Immediately, hell broke loose as contributions could no longer be followed due to noise from both sides of the House forcing the Speaker to intervene.

While members from the government side praised the Sona, members from the opposition especially DPP, tore into the Sona that it is mere rhetoric although they ended with “I support the Sona.”

The Speaker on Monday invoked order 105 on 24 DPP MPs for undermining her powers when she asked them to leave the House because they were bringing confusion.

The confusion started when Mulanje Central  legislator Kondwani Nankhumwa and Navicha, Thyolo Thava MP, both stood to respond to the Sona as Leader of Opposition in Parliament after the Speaker had recognised the opposition leadership to respond.

In an interview at tea break, Navicha said the DPP does not mind whether its response will be recorded in the Hansard or not.

Navicha’s Sona response on Tuesday focused on trashing the Tonse government for its poor economic delivery. She described the leadership as incompetent and indecisive, adding that there was need to take stock of the death of micro and macro-enterprises and food security.

“We have to take stock of the number of children who are withdrawing from school because their parents can’t afford school fees which is happening under this so-called servant leadership,” she said.

Nankhumwa was elected Leader of Opposition in 2020 by the opposition side but has lately fallen out of favour with the DPP, the party that sponsored his election and replaced him with Navicha after the party’s first nominee George Chaponda was tied to an injunction obtained by some MPs from the same party.

Thus the Speaker says Nankhumwa is still recognises Nankhumwa as the legitimate Leader of Opposition in Parliament until the court makes a determination on the matter in which Nankhumwa is challenging his expulsion from the party.

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