Before we talk about another physical fight in Parliament from yet another PF member of parliament in the name of Freedom Sikazwe and his foe Chishimba Kambwili, let’s step back a little bit to see where we are coming from with our comment.

Two weeks ago Lands Minister Jean Kapata said she would be glad if members of parliament engaged in a physical punch up in the House in order to see who is stronger. The minister who is a representative of the people of Mandevu Constituency said this as she expressed outrage with UPND members who walked out of the House in a show of protest over accusations that the opposition party caused the death of a University of Zambia student.

Honourable Kapata, or simply Jean, as she deserves to be called, is an unrepentant thug. In March this year, this woman together with her fellow thug Bowman Lusambo were suspended from Parliament over violent behavior. This was after a special select committee that probed their conduct found them guilty of slapping and pouring water on their fellow parliamentarian Chishimba Kambwili. Unfortunately, the Speaker’s punishment on Kapata was reversed by her fellow mafia MPs who saw nothing wrong with fighting in parliament and voted against the Speaker’s ruling.

Jean apologized for her unparliamentary behavior and promised that she would never involve herself in violent conduct again. But we knew that she was simply fooling the Speaker because there was no way Jean’s violent DNA could have been fixed with a 7-day suspension. In fact, even the Speaker himself knew that the minister was lying, because he knows, more than anyone else, that he is presiding over thugs in that House.

If any Zambians thought Kapata was remorseful over her conduct then, they need to think again, because this time around she wants an actual boxing tournament in the House to see who is stronger between UPND and PF members of parliament. How can this be said to be a normal person? Proposing a fist fight in Parliament? What a shame! We wonder how the people of Mandevu are feeling about this woman’s embarrassing behavior.

But most importantly, Jean’s violent conduct in Parliament is inviting us to question the decency of her appointing authority. It is sad that President Edgar Lungu has continued to tolerate violence from senior members of his Cabinet. Our Head of State surely loves violence and treasures its fruits. That is why he appointed a thug like Jean to be the chairperson for women’s affairs. This appointment has nothing to do with her capacity to promote the plight of women or to inspire women in leadership, it was about a gangsta who could spearhead a provocative movement of insults against political rivals.

If we are wrong, how does President Lungu justify the conduct of his Presidential Affairs Minister Freedom Sikazwe, just last week? When another uncouth product of the PF Chishimba Kabwili called him a witch, the Mpulungu member of parliament couldn’t find any other civil means of addressing the verbal attack, but instead charged at his aggressor, reaching for his neck while throwing punches like a possessed barbarian.

We thought that Mr Sikazwe was too close to the presidency to engage in such violent behavior and that maybe he would express regret over it in fear that President Lungu could mete out maximum punishment on him. But we were wrong. To our surprise, the State House minister was bragging that, had he not been restrained by other members of parliament, he would have punched Kambwili hard because he is a very stupid man. Yes we agree that Mr Kambwili’s mouth is untamed, and can really say stupid things at times, but beating him only goes to show the worse stupidity of the other person.

That is why we thought it would have been expected for President Lungu to at least scold or condemn the violent behavior of the minister who handles his presidential affairs. But nothing came out of State House. In fact President Lungu and Sikazwe were seen pretending to be worshiping God on the National Day of Prayer in Kabwe, only a few days later.

This is the problem that the Patriotic Front has. It is MPs like Sikazwe, Jean and Lusambo who are taking the ruling party to the grave because their thuggery has made it impossible for President Lungu to shake off the violence tag that is on his head. This is what makes people believe that he adores violence because he is a product of it.

A normal political party would overlook the tolerance of the Speaker over such conduct and instead punish these MPs for bringing the name of the party into ridicule. But we are not seeing that happening in the ruling party. Instead, we are hearing other PF thugs cheering their gangsta leaders in the House as they trade punches.

Speaker Matibini must be very worried with this conduct. When he sees old men like Sikazwe with grey hair playing the role of Kung Fu master in Parliament, he must ask himself if he is safe. These thugs wearing the title of MP have no limit as to how far they can take their unreasonable behavior. A time will come when these thugs will disagree with the Speaker and they to knock off a few of his teeth.

This conduct from the PF members of parliament only does to define a State run by brutal thugs who think using their fists and not their brains.