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{
    "id": 1212799,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1212799/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 151,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mungatana, MGH",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank you for giving me an opportunity to share my thoughts on this matter. I am very worried, that we as a Senate, seem to be ploughing back our powers, surrendering them to the Judiciary. In the history of development of Parliaments, we have fought a long way and history can bear us. The king in France used to say, “l’Etat c’est moi”. I am the state. He used to be the personification of Parliament, Judiciary and Executive. When the philosophers came and provided for separation of power, the parliamentarians continued to struggle to get their space. I want us, as a House, to stand very firmly and protect our space, not just as a Senate, but also on behalf of the other side. I am reading Article 117 of the Constitution. It gives us an expanded power of debate within this House. This House has unfettered power to provide its proceedings with complete freedom. Total freedom of interference from the Judiciary and Executive. We must fight for that space. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I invite you to look at Section 12 of the National Assembly (Powers and Privileges) Act which interprets Article 117 by further providing that no proceedings from the courts can stop what is happening in this House. We must fight for our space."
}