Deputy speaker of the National Assembly Catherine Namugala on Tuesday curtailed debates on homosexuality saying that the topic had already been debated on the floor of the House.

Meanwhile, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Prof Nkandu Luo says it is wrong to always accuse the Patriotic Front (PF) of causing climate change when the real effects were caused by “scientists trying to rebuild the world”.

Debating on 2020 national budget speech in Parliament, Tuesday, Energy Minister Mathew Nkhuwa wondered how political parties which were supporting gay rights could be entrusted with the mandate of leading Zambia.

“If they can solicit bring in homosexuality to solicit money just to go to State House so that they can run this country, what sort of people are these? How can you trust this sort of people to come and run the economy of the country? If they can take illicit money like that to introduce homosexuality, which is un-Zambian. This homosexual thing, there will be no production. We have 750,000 square kilometres of land in this country and we need to fill it up. We are only 17 million people,” Nkhuwa said.

But Namugala guided the minister that it was inappropriate to bring back the homosexuality subject when it had already been debated on the floor of the House.

“Honorable Minister of Energy, if we continue bringing in issues that we have debated on the floor of the House, it’s a way of re-opening debate on those issues. That passed, I want you to focus on the motion of supply,” guided Namugala.

Nkhuwa then focussed his debate on the argument that the Patriotic Front government had borrowed in order to build roads and that the results were there for everyone to see.

Meanwhile, Prof Luo said people should not blame the PF for climate change because the effects were caused by scientists trying to rebuild the earth.

“When His Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu came to this House, he talked about the effects of climate change. When our colleagues stood to debate about this issue, they trivialized this issue. I was so sad when I watched television last night, when I saw the levels of water at Kariba because we didn’t have enough rains for some time now. Is that the fault of the PF? Does PF make rains? PF doesn’t. And PF has had no influence on the humanitarian challenges. The people that have been doing the things that have affected the climate change are all over the world, especially the scientists who have been trying to rebuild the world, rebuild the earth,” Prof Luo said.

“I was in Geneva madam speaker and I went to see underground in one part of Geneva how they want to recreate the earth. There, you see some of the most intelligent physicists. You will be walking on top of this earth and yet there is science going [on] down stairs and those are the things that have caused some of the problems that we have on earth. Going to the moon and everywhere to go and recreate and reconstruct the earth and the moon. The cars that we are enjoying to drive in, they effects of the materials that are used, the smoking of the vehicles, these are some of the issues and these are not created by the Patriotic Front. They have been created by the world leaders who have been thinking beyond some of our brains.”

Meanwhile, Prof Luo said the UPND alternative budget lacked sustainable ideas to address the economic issues of Zambia.

“What is very sad madam speaker was the alternative budget that was released by our colleagues. The alternative budget that was presented by the UPND under the theme “rebuilding resilience, stability, and growth for transformation and inclusive development,” basically did not even speak to this theme. I listened to the debates on the floor of this house, from the first debaters to the last, the UPND were not even referring to their alternative budget because they were ashamed madam speaker. What I saw from this document is not a budget speech because there are certain standard practices of a budget speech. And even when you interrogate this speech, there was no were where they were any ideals that are sustainable that can actually address the economic issues of this country. So madam speaker, this document has no basis, this document has no evidence and this document shows no intellectual ability,” said Prof Luo.