If you want to have a good laugh at least once a week I recommend you visit 23:28 Lounge every Thursday at 8pm to watch local comedian Mduduzi Mdura Dlamini crack the funniest of jokes and the good thing entry is free.
However, Mdura has taken his talent to another level, extremely funny, but also extremely true if you follow his latest skit which he normally plays out on Facebook.
Mdura has taken up a new role where he plays a member of Parliament for a place which he calls Ekuphileni. His name is MP Thuthuka and I assume he is a Dlamini.
Funny as his skits are I cannot help but liken it to the daily behaviour of MPs who are full of promises especially during the campaign period only to deliver nothing.
That is exactly what Mdura portrays, the majority of our legislators who promise their constituents the world only to disappear from their respective community. This will rub some MPs the wrong way, but having worked in Parliament with the legislators for 20 years, I can safely say ema MPs ayadlala nge sive.
Once you point this out, some of them are quick to say that they are lawmakers and not development officers, which is the opposite from what they claim they will do during the campaign season. MPs once elected they will tell you that they are in Parliament to pass laws and therefore communities should not bother them with wanting assistance with school fees, fixing roads and bridges or assisting in business in particular farming.
As Mdura portrays in one of his skits MPs are quick to say that they are busy in Parliament as they have to amend section this or that of a certain law and therefore will have their phones off because they are very busty, passing laws.
I remember one MP, whenever a Bill was tabled or ministries performance reports were tabled, he would be quick to text me that I read the report on his behalf and ask for assistance with which questions he should ask a particular minister.
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This behaviour was appalling to say the least, but I would read and tell him which questions to ask because I personally benefitted by getting stories. I’ve sat through hundreds of sessions where Bills have been passed into law and what happens is just shocking as a majority of the MPs hardly read what the law contains especially if it’s too technical a Bill.
It is usually the responsible minister’s baby to ensure that the law is passed while some of the MPs just swing in their chairs and keep shouting aye until the Bill is passed. Not that I am massaging MP Marwick Khumalo’s ego, but throughout all four Parliament’s I’ve covered he has frequently been the one to enquire on certain clauses and in some instances a majority of them changed because of the amendment he has cited. But because some of our legislators are either on their phones or perusing something else, you could let anything pass into these laws because they do not concentrate.
There is one skit where Mdura pretends to be buying a car (maybe he did who knows) just like the MPs tend to do whenever they get a new term of office.
In the skit Mdura makes some of the residents whom he is giving a lift sit at the boot of the vehicle because there are many documents from Parliament which he does not want them to ruin.
Once again I have been a victim of MPs who when giving me a lift to the office made me carry the hundreds of documents which they never read, but keep in their cars.
It is a good thing that Parliament has since introduced technology where most of the documents are emailed to their accounts, but I can bet my last E50 that the documents just fillup the inboxes and are hardly ever read, because ayi, our MPs are too busy with this and that project, yet when it suits them they are quick to state that their main role is to pass laws.
On another skit Mdura visits several community projects under his constituency and cites very large sums of money in the millions which he promises to deliver, from fish farming, to growing vegetables and pigs where he always states that the projects are worth nothing below E1 million.
Of course the residents see right through him and if he were to stand for elections at this made up inkhundla he would surely not make it back.
However, here is the interesting thing though.
I heard through the grapevine that the legislators are not at all happy with Mdura’s act because it reflects negatively on the MPs as they insist they work very hard and are doing everything possible to develop their communities. I am told that some of the MPs even discussed the possibility of making a motion to stop the comedian from teasing the MPs. Really guys, there’s a whole critical issue of the health crisis and you want to be petty on Mdura? Let the arts thrive please.
Until next week do not forget to be kind.
Eswatini Observer Press Reader
