Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo yesterday said he was worried by the lack of security at Parliament building after a violent mob invaded the House and attacked Members of Parliament during a public hearing last Saturday.
“As the Speaker of Parliament, I am also greatly concerned with the lack of security to such an extent Honourable Members of Parliament are beaten up and harassed at their own workplace,” Moyo said.
“Does this mean that we do not have sufficient security as Parliament to protect these individuals?
“We trust law enforcement agents will move with speed and take necessary measures to bring to book sponsors and perpetrators of these crimes whose identities are known,” said the Speaker.
Mobs of Zanu PF supporters stormed the august House, chanting the party’s liberation war songs and slogans, beating up journalists and MPs and intimidating the chairman of the Thematic Committee on Human Rights, Zaka Senator, Misheck Marava.
The thugs manhandled and assaulted Hwange Central MP Brian Tshuma (MDC-T) and almost mistakenly beat up their own, Makonde MP Risipa Kapesa (Zanu PF), before pouncing on Standard reporter Nqaba Matshazi and Financial Gazette reporter Levi Mukarati, while another group outside Parliament pounced on NewsDay photojournalist Aaron Ufumeli.
Moyo said this was tantamount to “sanctioning of criminal hordes to do the dirty work of those who cherish violence that continues to keep Zimbabwe high up on the international relations scene for all the wrong reasons”.
He went on to attack the violence which reared its ugly heard at similar meetings held in Chinhoyi, Masvingo and Mutare.
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“This sort of behaviour has in actual fact set us back in terms of the Parliamentary reforms initiated by Parliament in 1997 which resulted in the establishment of the committee system in 1999, as a way of making Parliament and its proceedings more accessible to the public and to the same individuals who came with the intention to destroy what we have been building as Parliament,” he added.
