The ruling ZANU PF party is considering expelling MDC Alliance MPs from Parliament after they walked out on President Emmerson Mnangagwa while he was delivering his State of the Nation Address on Tuesday.
ZANU PF chief whip, Pupurai Togarepi is of the view that National Assembly Speaker, Jacob Mudenda, has been too lenient with the opposition legislators. He said:
I think the Speaker’s ruling was too lenient, they must be chucked out of Parliament and we call for by-elections. I think the Speaker is going to look into that. They disrespect the president but they want to debate Bills which will be signed into law by the president.
Following the MDC MPs’ boycott, Mudenda ruled that they would not receive sitting allowances for Tuesday and for the previous five months which they are owed by Parliament.
This is not the first time that opposition MPs walked out of Parliament as they made a similar stunt in August when Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube was delivering his Mid-term Budget Review Statement.