Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Six unruly youths were arrested in Parliament yesterday after they sneaked in and disrupted proceedings in the National Assembly by staging a surprise demonstration right from the public gallery.

The six unidentified youths were allowed in Parliament after they pretended to be ordinary visitors who wanted to follow parliamentary proceedings and while inside they started shouting for attention of the Deputy Speaker Cde Marble Chinomona, who was in the Chair.

The youths surprised everyone when they stood up in the Speaker’s gallery and waved placards that denigrated President Mugabe and one of them shouted to Cde Chinomona why she was not recognising them. “Who are you? We only recognise Members of Parliament,” said Cde Chinomona, before she directed security staff at Parliament to apprehend them.

Sergeant at Arms Mr Nicholas Marufu, together with security staff at Parliament, moved swiftly to apprehend the youths.

Acting Clerk of Parliament Mr Kennedy Chokuda said he was still being briefed by the security staff as he was not in the Chamber when the incident occurred.

Sources said the youths were eventually taken to Harare Central Police Station where they were likely going to be charged with contempt of Parliament.

In the Chamber, Nyanga North MP Cde Hubert Nyanhongo (Zanu-PF) raised concern at the youths’ conduct, saying as legislators they were owed an explanation on what their motive was.

Cde Chinomona said the matter was being handled by law enforcement agencies.

Meanwhile, Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Paul Mavima called for stiffer penalties against those officials convicted with leaks of examination papers.

He was responding to questions from legislators on what Government was doing to deal with exam leaks that were a source of worry for parents and pupils.

“Firstly, headmasters, deputies and officials that would have been implicated should be fired,” he said. “Also the law should provide for certain minimum custodial sentence like 10 years.”

Deputy Minister Mavima absolved the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council security system, saying the problem crops up when the exam papers were in the hands of headmasters.

O-Level pupils had to resit for Mathematics and English Language papers after they were leaked in the Midlands province.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Tongai Muzenda said some members of the uniformed forces had started receiving their bonuses, while the remainder of the civil service would get theirs next month.

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