BULAWAYO SOUTH legislator Eddie Cross said he was pushed to reading a novel in the National Assembly last Thursday after he got bored with the proceedings.
SENIOR REPORTER
Cross of the MDC-T was thrown out of the House after being found reading a novel during a debate on President Robert Mugabe’s speech, by deputy speaker Mabel Chinomona.
In an interview with our sister paper, NewsDay on Friday, Cross said his party did not allow him to debate Mugabe’s speech and boredom pushed him to fish out his novel.
“Some of the people come into Parliament and they read newspapers,” he said. “Yes, I was reading a novel. My party does not allow us to debate on the presidential speech and so I was bored out of my mind.
“To escape the boredom, I reached into my briefcase and I took out a novel which I started to read. At least I didn’t have to go through the long and boring speech”.
However, Cross said for the sake of progress he was going to apologise for his behaviour when Parliament next sits. “I will apologise on Tuesday when we sit again so that we can get on with business,” he said.
MDC-T ordered its legislators to boycott the official opening of Parliament by Mugabe last month, arguing the veteran ruler’s July 31 re-election was illegitimate.
