Rumours of assassination plots in parliament

Monitor Editor | Monday March 9, 2015 17:23

If it was a ploy to get Parliament to accede to his demand for a security upgrade at Parliament, then Molale’s security report did not achieve the intended mission. Instead, it left everyone in a panic.

This trick seems to have backfired if the reaction it attracted is anything to go by. First of all, security, and tight security for that matter, at Parliament should not be negotiable: We need our MPs, Ministers, and everyone  else who attends Parliament to be safe at all times and not be vulnerable to any physical harm.

Minister Molale should simply have presented a budget for a security upgrade to Parliament without going into frightening details which may have now sent shock waves across our diplomatic missions, the business community and the foreign investors who may be now even considering relocating, at the worst.

Sensational details by the Presidential Affairs Minister deserve to be condemned. He mentioned that tensions are very high in Parliament and that some people have started bringing guns to assassinate some MPs. What an alarmist statement. We reject it strongly. We do not even need the privilege of a confidential security report to make us believe that this scenario is obtaining, because we attend parliament everyday, and we see a very warm atmosphere, and friendly exchanges among the MPs without any of the explosive political atmosphere painted by the Minister.

If Minister Molale attends Parliamentary debate regularly he would have by now known that the atmosphere is more than cordial both in the public gallery or on Members’ benches.In fact under normal circumstances the honourable Minister owes the nation a public apology for being an alarmist and causing unnecessary panic and shock waves.