WATCH: Zim born Maggie Chapman takes Scottish Parliament oath in Shona
By Nyashadzashe Ndoro | Nehanda Diaspora |
Returning and new members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) were sworn in on Thursday morning following last week’s Holyrood election, among them was Zimbabwean-born Maggie Chapman (41) who took her oath in Shona.
The outgoing Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh, who decided not to stand in the election, ran proceedings, which require MSPs to pledge their allegiance to Queen Elizabeth before they are allowed to undertake any parliamentary duties or receive their MSP salary.
But determined incoming legislator Chapman took her Scottish Parliament affirmation in Shona.
“Ini Maggie Chapman ndino tsitsa nemoyo wangu whose kuti ndichave mutsigiri anovimbika uye akatendeka waMambokadzi Elizabeth nanevanji wavo navose vachatonga mushure mavo ndichiita zvose izvi pamutemo.
(I, Maggie Chapman swear to be loyal to Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family),” she said.
Chapman, who ran in 2016 but missed out on a seat, won a seat in the NorthEast region, which is an area dominated by oil and gas. The people there elected her as their first Green representative since the 2003 parliamentary election.
Last week, she said she believed the Green Party’s vision for moving past oil and gas had struck a chord with voters in the region.
“I think it’s a signal that maybe there’s a recognition that we need to be clear about the plan we have for the just transition, the last thing we want to happen to all of the workers in the oil and gas industry is for them to be out of a job without their being any thought or clear plan for their futures and for the future of the communities that they live in and support them.
“I think we saw quite clearly the consequences of de-industrialisation and the shift away from coal as an energy supply and the destruction that did for the communities of the central belt and elsewhere,” she said.
Meanwhile, last Friday Zimbabwean-born now Nicolle Nkazimulo Moyo was elected as the councillor for Peterborough’s Hargate and Hempsted ward while Alice Mpofu Coles was elected councillor for Whitley in the United Kingdom. Nehanda Radio
