Contribution of Verbal Exchanges to the Confrontation in the Tanzanian

Abstract

There have been confrontations in the Tanzanian Parliament during verbal exchanges by Tanzanian members of Parliament which, in one way or another, affects the conduct of Parliamentary debates in the House. In that case, the study sought to determine the contribution of verbal exchanges to the confrontations in those debate sessions. The study adopted the politeness theory from which the analysis of Positive Face Threatening Acts (PFTAs) was made. The study used online Parliamentary records (Hansard) and video recordings as sources of data. The study employed qualitative approach in collecting and analysing data. The study findings indicate that MPs' verbal exchanges contributed to confrontations among MPs during Parliamentary debate sessions. Confrontations emanated from the need of MPs to maintain their reputations (positive and negative faces) before the public out of fear of their faces being damaged by their fellow MPs. Basing on the findings, the study concludes that some of the MPs’ verbal expressions such as insults, unfair accusation and contempt contributed to the confrontations in the Tanzanian Parliamentary debate sessions. Among others, the study recommends that Article 100 of the Constitution be amended so that it observes Article 30(2d) of the same Constitution that calls for protection of reputations, rights and freedoms of others.