HARARE - An opposition legislator Settlement Chikwinya faces up to two years in prison for contempt of Parliament.
Jacob Mudenda, Speaker of the National Assembly, said Chikwinya had repeatedly failed to heed warnings to stop lying about salaries of public officials.
He said Chikwinya’s punishment will be announced in due course.
“It shows wilful disregard of the authority of the chair,” Mudenda warned. “Therefore pursuant to the relevant provisions of the law, appropriate measures to deal with the member will be announced in due course.”
Under the Powers and Privileges of Parliament Act, the Zimbabwean Parliament is empowered to jail people who commit contempt against it for up to two years. People sentenced by Parliament can, however, appeal to the courts.
Mudenda alleged Chikwinya had committed the offence on three different occasions starting on October 16, 2013, during the debate on the motion on removal of sanctions, by alleging a certain Zanu PF MP was involved in murder.
Mudenda said on February 27 during a corruption debate, Chikwinya made serious allegations against Webster Shamu that he received cars from the scandal-plagued ZBC, alleged Gershem Pasi, commissioner general of Zimbabwe Revenue Authority of Zimbabwe earned $320 000, and said clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma was corrupt and implicated in the “salarygate scandal”.
“The (Speaker’s) chair has noted with grave concern the persistence by some honourable members of Parliament to disregard and defy lawful orders made by the chair in respect of adherence to peremptory constitutional provisions,” Mudenda said. “By way of a reminder, this is the last warning to the members concerned and others inclined to do so.”
Mudenda mentioned Chikwinya by name saying he was the errant MP who will soon find himself on the wrong side of the law and could face contempt of Parliament charges.
He said Chikwinya has made serious allegations that the Speaker had been gagging MPs from debating the motion on corruption and that he had watered down the motion.
He said on March 6, Chikwinya disregarded him by saying “the original motion was watered down.”
Mudenda said he clarified to the MPs that he had not watered down the motion and said he had studied the amendments by Irene Zindi which he said were different from Chikwinya and Willias Madzimure’s, who were the mover of the ‘‘salarygate’’ motion.
He said for Chikwinya to suggest that the motion had been watered down was a serious attack on the Speaker.
Mudenda alleged lawmakers were violating the Priviledges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act.
The Act speaks to the rights of parliamentarians to protection from impeachment for what they say in Parliament.