---

---

Published by the government of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe: Mr Speaker, Hooligans in the House

Caesar Zvayi

27 August 2008

---

opinion

Harare — A VISITOR would have been forgiven for mistaking it for a high school gathering going by the raucous behaviour, infantile interjections and heckling that went on as President Mugabe delivered his address during the official opening of the First Session of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe yesterday.

But no, this was not a gathering of ordinary people, but the men and women who were elected during the historic harmonised elections on March 29 and the by-elections of June 27 and who, in their campaigns, pledged to be honourable representatives of the people.

By standing in the elections, the would-be MPs pledged to take the business of the House seriously,which is why it was appalling to behold such dishonourable conduct amongst supposedly honourable members.

The bottom line is, governance appears to have been entrusted in the hands of unworthy people.

It would be unfair to paint all legislators with the same brush. For the sake of those who missed the opening, a section of MDC-T legislators, led by Tongai Mathuthu and Zwizwai Murisi, chose to behave like pre-pubescent youths at a soccer match during the official opening of Parliament.

What is unforgivable is that theirs was a carryover of the deplorable behaviour they showed during the swearing-in ceremony, a day earlier, where they heckled, shouted and swore at Zanu-PF MPs.

Their raucous behaviour, at times drowned President Mugabe's voice in a move they apparently hoped would nettle or embarrass him but it spectacularly backfired as it only served to underline the gulf between them, the President and their Zanu-PF counterparts.

Not only that, the opposition front bench was occupied by legislators who have been there since 2000, and many of them appeared visibly embarrassed by the actions of their green colleagues though their decision to remain mum and not censure them implies that they were complicit in the childish behaviour.

Be that as it may, what viewers ended up seeing were tried and tested politicians on one hand, and a pack of immature pretenders on the other.

True to the French saying "le chain avoir le caravane passé' (the dog may bark but the caravan keeps passing), President Mugabe ignored the hecklers and continued laying the legislative agenda as if the hecklers were not there.

In so doing, the President not only unsettled them,but also underlined his experience and statesmanship and widened the gulf between him and his opponents.

A lesser leader would have lost his temper and tried to assert his authority which could have reduced the session to a shouting match with the hecklers.

The same, however, cannot be said of the newly-elected Speaker, Lovemore Moyo, who apparently failed his very first task when he lost control of the House to the hecklers.

The onus was on him to use his gavel and call the House to order, failing which he should have invited the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the hecklers out. He did not do that and may have set a dangerous precedent that may be difficult to rectify. More so, Moyo's impartiality as an arbiter is now in question.

The irony of it all is that MDC-T legislators, who had earlier on claimed they would boycott Parliament to slight President Mugabe only to turn around and claim they would attend out of respect for "our Speaker", actually ended up disrespecting "their" Speaker.

The Speaker is the boss of the House who enforces discipline and basically ensures that business runs smoothly. The fact that the hecklers could act in such a manner actually held the Speaker in contempt.

Therefore, rather than disrespecting President Mugabe, the hecklers actually disrespected the Speaker, a man from their own camp. If Lovemore Moyo's performance yesterday was a foretaste of what is to come for the duration of the Seventh Parliament, then God save the electorate.

His silence implied that he was in agreement with what the hecklers were doing, a development that has serious ramifications on his credibility as an impartial arbiter in the House, and respect among members across the floor.

It is important to note that President Mugabe's address was not an ordinary speech, but the outline of the legislative agenda for the entire First Session; hence if the opposition legislators could behave so childishly on the very first day, one wonders whether anything fruitful would come out of the House for the duration of their tenure.

What was the point of remaining seated when President Mugabe walked in? It appears the opposition MPs thought they were asserting their claims that they do not recognise him, yet by answering his proclamation to open Parliament, they had effectively recognised his authority and legitimacy.

What is more, by rising and sitting down after the singing of the National Anthem as he began his speech, they again gave him the respect due to him. In the end, their actions amounted to one thing: childish grandstanding that had no force or effect. And therein lies one of the opposition's greatest failings -- wasting time on trivia and irrelevance.

While their regrettable actions, no doubt, impressed the Western media whose correspondents were in the House, in the eyes of the voters, the legislators only exposed themselves for the green politicians that they are.

The ongoing inter-party talks were predicated on mutual respect for each other's political space. And among the foremost preconditions was recognising President Mugabe's legitimacy.

Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara duly did that which is why the premiership, not the Presidency, was on the agenda.

Honestly, can the President pick candidates for Cabinet from such a raucous bunch?

Read comments. Write your own.

See all comments (62).

---