Thu, 22 Feb 2018 08:19:12 +0000 By Philip Chirwa ONCE upon a time, during the Second Republic when UNIP reigned supreme under a one-party state set up, backbenchers in Parliament played an important role in providing checks and balances to the government of the day. Although they belonged to the same party, they were able to use their privileged position to expose corruption and other vices in high places and to put the government to task on any acts or omissions they deemed to be of national interest. We had outspoken MPs like Mr. Valentine Kayope (Bahati), Mr. Saul Chipwayambokoma (Chisamba), Mr. Maxwell Sibongo (Kabwata), Mr. Whitson Banda (Malambo) and Mr. Dingiswayo Banda (Mandevu), to name but only a few. A typical example of how backbenchers helped in keeping the government in check occurred early 1980 when veteran politician, the late Mr. Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula, fell ill. Mr. Nkumbula had been sick for some time. […]
