Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mike Mulongoti has taken a swipe at civil society organisations which are dragging the implementation of National Constitution Conference (NCC) and challenged them to disclose the source of their funding.
Mr Mulongoti said the pulling out of Non-Government Organisation Coordinating Council (NGOCC) from the NCC meant that the council was fighting the cause of its funders not the people of Zambia it claimed to represent.
Speaking on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC)’s “Open Line” programme yesterday, Mr Mulongoti said the NCC was now law and dismissed fears of the NGOCC that the Government would dominate the Constitution debate at the NCC once it became operational. “The Government is not being rigid in the Constitution making process. We have refused to take the suggestion by NGOCC that we discuss social and economic rights as pre-determined issues. The conference will debate these issues,” he said. Mr Mulongoti said the Government would spend K202 billion to facilitate the NCC session which had to sit for 12 months with the chairperson being elected by NCC members themselves.
He accused the NGOCC of protecting its own interests and challenged the council to come out in the open and disclose its funding while describing fears of civil society as unfounded. He said the focus now should be on the content and urged all stakeholders to prepare because the minister of Justice would soon announce the establishment of the NCC secretariat and people will express their views freely in the conference. But NGOCC chairperson, Marian Munyinda, on the same programme said it was not fair for the minister to attack the civil society and described the pullout of the council as not the end of the Constitution fight.
Ms Miyanda said the council would continue to educate its members on the Constitution debate countrywide outside the NCC. She said the council would not go to the conference just to escort politicians hence, the decision to stay away. She said the council had no hidden agenda on the Constitution-making process and maintained that the new document would not be people-driven if the current composition was not revised and social and economic issues not taken on board.
Times of Zambia
World’s oldest man turns 112
1 hour, 41 minutes ago
The world’s oldest man celebrated his 112th birthday Tuesday with a healthy Japanese breakfast of rice, miso soup and seaweed, saying he wanted to live forever.
Tomoji Tanabe, who has been the world’s oldest man since January this year, lives with his son and family in Japan’s southern prefecture of Miyazaki. He keeps a diary and reads the newspaper every day.
“I want to live indefinitely. I don’t want to die,†he said as he marked his birthday, Kyodo News reported.
Tanabe, a teetotaller who has repeatedly said that avoiding alcohol is a secret of his longevity, was given a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records by the mayor of his local municipality in June.
Japan has the largest population of centenarians in the world. The number of Japanese aged at least 100 years old is expected to top 30,000 by the end of September, the health ministry said in a recent report.
The Japanese people’s renowned longevity is often attributed to eating the country’s traditional healthy food, despite the hectic lifestyle many lead in the big cities.
But the longevity is also presenting a headache as the country has one of the lowest birthrates, raising fears of a future demographic crisis as a smaller pool of workers supports a mass of elderly.
i am not a copy and paste participant on this blog.Whoever you are, impersonating me shows you up to be lacking in self belief and confidence.The regulars on this blog know how i articulate my ideas and i doubt you would be able to replicate my style. Get a life !!
Russia Tests Largest Conventional Bomb
Russia successfully tested the largest airborne non-nuclear bomb, delivering a blast four times more powerful than the U.S.’ “Mother of All Bombs.”
RUSSIA TESTS WORLD’S LARGEST NON-NUCLEAR BOMB -‘DAD OF ALL BOMBS’
Russia has tested the “Father of all bombs,” a conventional air-delivered explosive that experts say can only be compared with a nuclear weapon in terms of its destructive power.The device is a fuel-air explosive, commonly known as a vacuum bomb, that spreads a high incendiary vapour cloud over a wide area and then ignites it, creating an ultra-sonic shock wave and searing fireball that destroys everything in its wake.”
The Original Pundit
The fact that you can post on these blogs using useless pseudonyms instead of the given family names is enough evidence of your cowardice. You bring all proof of incompetence, lack of self conviction and unquestionable inherent defeat on frontiers of imaginary costly engagements.
Since I started patronizing blogs and discussion forums I have seen only very few brave and forthright unflinching individuals speaking their minds with identity publicly given in blogs, print and electronic media. The majority of your types are indisputably and authentically spineless cowards in the habit of meaningless mutative pseudonyms. May be you don’t know that freedom is absolute under Mwanawasa irrespective of your incorrigible hatred which the administration doesn’t care.
On articulation and depth, your freedom of speech I dully respect- you must be another mentally imbalanced kid at worst because some of us in doubt are yet to see y logic and depth from you. Maybe show the subject where you have articulated with intellect, depth and precision.
I respect bloggers but always forthright admonishing where there is evidence of the “Bad Tendency†of self deceit as seen dominating the soul of Pundit, The Original Pundit, Pungwa, Observer, Concerned Citizen and such palpable cyber mutants.
Surely principles you lack are costly and unpopular but very important in life both in short and long term. If anything, they have brighter and uncertain dividends in silence impossible to be altered by laymen of incorrigible hatred.
Good luck and keep trying.
Ba Kafula(5),your observations and comments are duly noted.No rebuttal is required as that would use this fora wrongly to discuss our opinions of each other.