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Health Minister Marjorie Ngaunje and Deputy Minister of Irrigation and Water Development Frank Mwenefumbo on Thursday went to town on fellow parliamentarian Gerald Mponda (Independent) on grammar basics.
But MP for Nkhotakota Central Clement Stambuli (UDF) bemoaned the development, saying there are some Cabinet ministers who also cannot construct proper sentences in English and that it was unfair to pick on one MP only.
Mponda, who is also UDF MP for Blantyre South West, stood on a point of order, informing Education Minister Anna Kachikho that the problem of lack of educational materials was common in most schools throughout the country.
Mponda, in his remarks, mixed up singulars and plurals like ‘has’ and ‘have’, a development that prompted Ngaunje to express worry over the way the MP was ‘misplacing’ some words.
Ngaunje told the House she was worried with the way Mponda was applying grammar, saying the MP was using plurals instead of singulars and vice versa.
Stambuli said considering that the Queen’s language is not the legislators’ mother tongue, it was not right to rebuke the MP, saying some members of the Executive have problems with sentence construction.
Stambuli then warned the government side to watch out, as the opposition would be on the look out for those who would “murder the Queen’s language.”
Mwenefumbo, commenting on the same issue, said the problem with Mponda was how to use the words ‘how’ and ‘has’, prompting Second Deputy Speaker Jones Chingola to ask the members to rest the matter and continue with the business on the floor: questions.
However, during the same proceedings, the House witnessed another verbal exchange when MP for Zomba Changalume John Chikalimba told Ngaunje that he was ready to take the minister to his constituency to prove a point he was making regarding health centres and staff houses.
Chikalimba irked some members of the government side when he said Ngaunje “was single, after all.”
Newly-appointed Deputy Local Government and Rural Development Minister Callister Chimombo said it was unparliamentary for Chikalimba to refer to Ngaunje as “single,” arguing that as legislators, their marital status does not matter.
Sounding annoyed, Chimombo informed Chikalimba that Ngaunje is not single by choice, but widowed and thus, it was impolite for Chikalimba to make the remarks.
On her part, Ngaunje said it was high time parliamentarians learnt to respect one another, agreeing with Chimombo that marital status in the august House is an irrelevant issue.
Ngaunje explained to the attentive House that when her husband was alive, she enjoyed one of the happy marriages and that he was very supportive of all her endeavours.
Chikalimba, on his part, said Ngaunje was his very good friend and it was impossible for someone to try to bring enemity between the two.
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