Speaker takes exception to news report

THE Speaker of the National Assembly, Theo-Ben Gurirab was intrigued by a short news piece in The Namibian recently about the lack of a quorum in the Chamber.

It resulted in the adjournment of the House and no parliamentary session took place. The Office of the Speaker contacted this newspaper last week to say that a waiting period of 30 minutes was observed and when there were still not enough Members – the minimum being 37 MPs with voting rights out of 78 – the Speaker adjourned the session.The Namibian wrote that there was no waiting period and that no roll call was held to check who was present and who not.As Parliament usually starts late every day -by at least 15 minutes – the ’30 minute waiting period’ did not appear to be that long for this newspaper.Sessions are supposed to start at 14h30 sharp, according to Rule 18, but this is not the order of the day.Rule 18 further stipulates that the House should adjourn for a break between 15h40 and 16h00 and that the session must resume again at 16h00.This also never happens.Usually the sitting only resumes at 16h15 or even 16h20, stretching the official (tea) break to 35 or even 40 minutes.Starting 15 to 20 minutes late and prolonging the tea break beyond the prescribed time, adds up to some 35 minutes being wasted per session.Parliamentary sessions should start at 14h30 and end at 17h45.Minus the official 20-minute tea break, total sitting time should be 175 minutes (2 hours and 55 minutes).If one deducts the time wasted because of the late starts and the drawn-out teatime, only about 140 minutes (1 hour and 20 minutes) a day are spent on debates.There are still 17 items on the Parliamentary agenda, which must be concluded before the National Assembly goes into recess for two months on Thursday, July 12.The Office of the Speaker pointed out on Thursday that a roll call was only done when, according to Rule 17, during a session an MP draws the attention of the Speaker to the fact that not enough MPs are present for a quorum.Two minutes will be waited, “during which time the division bells shall be rung”, Rule 17 stipulates.If there is still no quorum, the names of all MPs present will be taken down.The Office of the Speaker contacted this newspaper last week to say that a waiting period of 30 minutes was observed and when there were still not enough Members – the minimum being 37 MPs with voting rights out of 78 – the Speaker adjourned the session.The Namibian wrote that there was no waiting period and that no roll call was held to check who was present and who not.As Parliament usually starts late every day -by at least 15 minutes – the ’30 minute waiting period’ did not appear to be that long for this newspaper.Sessions are supposed to start at 14h30 sharp, according to Rule 18, but this is not the order of the day.Rule 18 further stipulates that the House should adjourn for a break between 15h40 and 16h00 and that the session must resume again at 16h00.This also never happens.Usually the sitting only resumes at 16h15 or even 16h20, stretching the official (tea) break to 35 or even 40 minutes.Starting 15 to 20 minutes late and prolonging the tea break beyond the prescribed time, adds up to some 35 minutes being wasted per session.Parliamentary sessions should start at 14h30 and end at 17h45.Minus the official 20-minute tea break, total sitting time should be 175 minutes (2 hours and 55 minutes).If one deducts the time wasted because of the late starts and the drawn-out teatime, only about 140 minutes (1 hour and 20 minutes) a day are spent on debates.There are still 17 items on the Parliamentary agenda, which must be concluded before the National Assembly goes into recess for two months on Thursday, July 12.The Office of the Speaker pointed out on Thursday that a roll call was only done when, according to Rule 17, during a session an MP draws the attention of the Speaker to the fact that not enough MPs are present for a quorum.Two minutes will be waited, “during which time the division bells shall be rung”, Rule 17 stipulates.If there is still no quorum, the names of all MPs present will be taken down.