MPs' Sitting Allowances Unpaid Since September 2022
Members of Parliament (MPs) have demanded their sitting allowances which have not been paid for nearly five months.
On Wednesday, Norton MP, Temba Mliswa (Independent), raised a point of privilege in the National Assembly saying MPs have not received their allowances since September 2022. NewsDay quoted Mliswa as saying:
My point of national interest is sad because we seem to be seized with it and I know that it has a lot of unnecessary responsibility.
It is about the welfare of the MPs, in particular, their outstanding allowances — they have not received their outstanding allowances since September.
On allowances, we did not get our monies, especially after coming from the pre-budget seminar.
This was in November, so we actually thought that since we had pre-budget in November, all the outstanding issues would be taken care of.
We then went on a break; there are field visits that are also outstanding in terms of payments.
The rate was $600 to US$1 at that time and now it has gone to $1 200, so we are merely getting half of what we were supposed to get.
So it is really out of that and the pre-budget Mr. Speaker Sir, also alluded to the fact that the Standing Orders Committee would sit down to come up with a way forward in terms of accommodation and allowances for MPs for those who do not stay in hotels.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda, then promised to take up the matter with the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Mthuli Ncube.
Towards the end of 2022, it emerged that the Government had offered a US$40 000 loan to each sitting MP, US$500 000 for individual Cabinet ministers, and US$350 000 for their deputies.
