Three months after President Lazarus Chakwera withdrew unspecified parts of his State of the Nation Address (Sona) deemed erroneous, Parliament is yet to remove the disputed sections from the Hansard, the official record of proceedings.
The President on February 27 advised Parliament to remove the contentious parts of the Sona delivered on February 14 this year following a litany of queries on some projects highlighted as completed or at various stages.
Parliament said it was awaiting direction from the Office of President and Cabinet (OPC).
In an interview last week, Parliament spokesperson Ian Mwenye said they are engaging OPC and for this reason Parliament cannot share copies of the Hansard.
“We are currently engaging the Office of the President and Cabinet. In this regard, the requested copies of the Hansard will be available once this consultation is completed,” he said.
Mwenye could not unpack what the engagement with OPC entails, but sources within the House confided in The Nation that since the President made the request there has been no communication to Parliament on what must be taken off the Hansard.
Information corroborated by multiple sources within Parliament secretariat and some members of Parliament (MP) as well as a former Speaker show that the onus to correct the record in the Hansard lies with the office responsible for the statement, in this case OPC.
Said an MP who sought anonymity: “It is a straightforward issue. If you make a statement you think is inappropriate or contains errors you are at liberty to ask the secretariat to strike it off the Hansard.
“Since the President made a withdrawal one would have expected a communication on what must be taken out by now so that Hansard has a correct version of the address.”
Another MP added that it was not the duty of Parliament or the presiding officer to push for corrections as the responsibility squarely lies with the President or OPC.
The legislator said in case of inappropriate or offensive remarks made during debate the presiding officer has the responsibility to ask members to withdraw such.
“The specific procedures may involve a request to expunge the record from the Hansard. Failure to do so shall mean whatever portion of the Sona was disowned, shall forever remain part of the parliamentary records,” said the legislator.
Both OPC as well as Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu, the official government spokesperson, had not yet responded to The Nation questionnaire by press time at 8pm yesterday.
Chakwera’s Sona attracted several queries regarding some infrastructure development projects government claimed to have implemented during the current administration.
Nation Publications Limited fact-checking mission also established inaccuracies as government in some cases claimed ownership of projects that were done by private donors or claimed that a project was completed when there was nothing on the ground.
On February 27, 2025, during question time in Parliament, Chakwera withdrew a portion of the Sona which contained what he called errors.
“For this reason, Madam Speaker, in compliance with the rules of this House, I hereby withdraw the fraction of data in my State of the Nation Address that have been queried, and I humbly request your good office to have the vast majority and remainder of that address, which cannot be queried or disputed, remain in the record of the Hansard and be adopted by this House as moved by the Honourable member for Ntcheu Central,” stated the President.
