Staff Reporter
IN what was declared as the biggest embarrassment by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Peter Katjavivi, the mid-year budget review on Tuesday was postponed for a second time because not enough members of parliament attended to form a quorum.
Only about 47 parliamentarians were present, and the house sat in limbo, waiting for two members who had said they were on their way but failed to show. This led to the postponement of the budget review on 29 October 2024, after it had already been postponed the previous day.
The mid-term budget review serves as a platform where the Minister of Finance provides an update on major reforms and their progress, important milestones, expenditure execution on the initial funds dispersed at the beginning of the year to different ministries, as well as reallocations where there are shortfalls.
The tabling could not, however, take place, and the Speaker, Katjavivi, deferred different suggestions by members of parliament to change the agenda of the sitting or defer questions or issues which require voting.
Some of the members alluded to the fact that some MP’s did not show as they failed to make it onto the party lists for the upcoming elections.
Katjavivi, however, said, “Parliament is governed by rules… The agenda was agreed upon. That is the agenda item we agreed upon. You are asking me to improvise; we discussed this formally. Once you discuss the routine or order of the day, it shows you that things are messy. I wish, if the members are in hospital, we do have a provision to allow people to be transported. But nobody knows how soon they are going to be here. The only thing we can do is to ring the bell. Our rules are clear. If we break now, we are adjourning indefinitely and cannot return. It is simply unbearable to not be meeting on the second day because members are not available. I think this is very sad… I thought we would not have a repeat of this,” the Speaker said, as he bowed and held his head in his hands.
As the Speaker adjourned the meeting, an unknown man sitting in the public gallery caused a disturbance, yelling at parliamentarians and saying that they should be ashamed of themselves, adding, “Sies man.”
