The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) lawmakers have expressed that they are being threatened by the speaker of parliament, Professor Peter Katjavivi, following another showdown this week where Bernardus Swartbooi and Henny Seibeb had to walk out of parliament.
LPM has, through their lawyer, written to Katjavivi telling him to “stop being impartial, inconsistently applying parliamentary rules in general, suppressing debates” among others.
The party’s lawyer has also said that the “speaker has on numerous occasions claimed something must be done against our client, which is a clear threat towards our client”.
LPM hogged limelight again this week when they engaged on the topic of reconciliation and commented on a book authored by founding president, Sam Nujoma, “Where others wavered ”.
Seibeb and Swartbooi curtly criticized the book to the point of calling Nujoma a “liar and a thug” which did not go down well with the ruling party lawmakers.
Speaking on The Early Morning Scoop, Seibeb said they had proof that the book by Nujoma contained “fake news” adding that they had proof that the liberation icon had demonstrated acts of thuggery and lies.
Pressed on whether this was in-keeping with parliamentary language, Seibeb said parliamentary language has to be roped in where swear-words are being used.
“Members of the ruling party are permitted to call other members puppets, oppressors and apartheid operatives without any injunction from the speaker. While our client acknowledges that they are not always above board, it is equally not parliamentary that they are suppressed, threatened and treated unfairly if one has regard to the conduct of other members in the house,” the letter reads.
The speaker Wednesday evening had to adjourn the house after it degenerated again, as the entrance of new confrontational political parties has placed more limelight on the speaker’s ability to handle the house without breaking its own rules.
LPM says they feel threatened by Katjavivi
