Billy Ntaote
MASERU — A faulty public address (PA) system disrupted a heated debate among MPs, leading to the adjournment of Parliament on Thursday.
Parliamentary debate was bound to be very vibrant since there were a lot of deferred questions.
Leader of the House, Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing is obliged to respond to MPs’ questions if ministers fail to give satisfactory answers.
Whenever an MP poses a question to a minister and it goes unanswered, an asterisk is put against the question on the order paper to indicate that the responsible minister failed to respond to the matter and such a question is deferred.
When a question is deferred for the third time, it then should be answered by Metsing as the leader of the House but last Thursday such a mammoth task was disrupted by microphone malfunctions.
It became apparent the PA system was faulty when the Minister of Energy, Water and Meteorology Timothy Thahane’s responses to a question posed by the Teya-Teyaneng constituency MP Motlohi Maliehe could not be heard by the house.
MPs then began heckling until Parliament ushers intervened to try and fix the PA system.
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Lekhetho Rakuoane decided MPs would go for a short break while technicians fixed the system.
When the session resumed Minister of Gender and Youth, Sports and Recreation Thesele ‘Maseribane had a lot of fire-fighting to do for Metsing who had gone to attend a graduation ceremony at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology.
He kept saying Metsing was coming to address the deferred questions.
Another round of faults with the PA system saved the day.
Rakuoane in the end called the House to order and adjourned the seating.
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