MPs should understand their roles in standing committees: Nakutta

Director of Committee Services in the National Assembly Kathleen-Joyce Nakutta said it is pertinent for members of parliament (MPs) to understand their roles in parliamentary standing committees to ensure decisions that benefit Namibians are effectively taken.

Nakutta was speaking to the media on the side lines of a workshop on the Validation of Rules for the Establishment, Functioning and Procedures of Committees of the National Assembly in Swakopmund on Tuesday.

According to Nakutta, there is currently a vacuum in members’ current roles in terms of who should decide on how standing committees should be composed and “we are currently discussing whether we should continue using the current standing rules that describe who the members of the standing rules and orders committees are.”

She said at this point, the rules are not fully composed, because the chairpersons of committees are not established yet.

Nakutta added that the issues are being discussed to ensure that there are no more similar challenges experienced when the 7th parliament occupied positions where it took a while to establish certain rules because there was no consensus.

Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) MP and Chief Whip Elma Dienda noted that the current standing rules are not practical as some issues have been left out.

“This applies to, for instance, the absence of a description of what a chief whip is and their duties and responsibilities, which is an issue that needs to be cleared.

During the case between parliament and LPM, some of these challenges such as the mandate of the speaker or MP and how they should be treated, came up during the arguments, so we need to go through these matters,” Dienda expressed.

LPM’s Bernadus Swartbooi and Henny Seibeb successfully appealed in the Supreme Court against their suspension from parliament, when their suspension was set aside and declared unlawful and of no effect.

This comes after the two MPs were suspended from parliament on 19 April 2021 after disruptive behaviour during the State of the Nation Address by President Hage Geingob on 15 April, causing their removal from the house.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency