Justicia Shipena
The National Assembly descended into disorder on Tuesday after opposition members once again objected to the voting process over the approval of four nominated Public Service Commission (PSC) commissioners.
Parliament had resumed debate on the nomination and re-nomination of PSC members for a five-year term.
When the House adjourned last Thursday, the matter had not been concluded.
The motion, tabled by prime minister Elijah Ngurare, sought approval for the appointment and re-appointment of commissioners nominated by the President.
The matter carried urgency, as the current commissioners’ terms expired on Friday and new members were expected to be sworn in by Monday.
During the previous sitting, when speaker Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila put the question for approval, opposition members walked out of the chamber.
Their departure left the House without a quorum, halting the vote.
On Tuesday, the matter returned to the floor. Affirmative Repositioning (AR) member of parliament Job Amupanda raised concerns about the procedure followed by the presiding officer, which was deputy speaker Phillipus Katamelo.
“To recall, you are not the presiding officer. There were members who wanted to contribute,” Amupanda said.
He said while he welcomed the opportunity given to the mover of the motion to respond, other members who had indicated they wished to speak were not accommodated.
“I’m very happy that we are at least giving the mover an opportunity to respond, so that whatever we said, whether it’s true or not true, can at least be responded to, which is good. I salute that. But there were members on the floor who wanted to contribute. So how do we deal with that matter?” he asked.
Katamelo responded that the matter had already proceeded to voting during the previous sitting but could not be concluded due to a lack of quorum.
“Okay, just take a seat. I don’t know; we must be guided because this thing went to voting, mustn’t we? It went to voting, and there was no quorum, which means the process must start there,” Katamelo said.
He said he exercised his discretion to allow Ngurare, as the mover of the motion, to conclude the debate before the question was put to a vote.
“I just used my discretion that for any motion, there is a mover, and then there is the conclusion; the same person concludes. So it’s where I said, Now the prime minister must respond to what the contributions were,” he said.
Katamelo indicated that once Ngurare had responded, the House would vote.
When the matter progressed to voting, 48 Swapo members voted in favour of the nominations. Katamelo declared the matter agreed upon, as no opposition members participated in the vote.
Opposition members objected to the ruling and disrupted proceedings. The disorder prompted Katamelo to adjourn the session to Wednesday.
The nominees include ambassador Patrick Nandago as chairperson; Gerson Kamatuka, who has served as a public service commissioner since March 2021, has been nominated for reappointment; ambassador Linda Scott has also been nominated as well as former member of parliament and deputy minister of justice Ludwina Shapwa, who is among the nominees.
Ngurare said the nominees’ curricula vitae had been distributed to members before the debate.
