Henry Kyambalesa
The National Constitutional Conference’s proposal to increase seats for Members of Parliament from 158 to 280 makes very sad reading, especially that it is coming at a time when tens of thousands of Grade 7 and Grade 9 students have continued to be spilled onto the streets every year, the healthcare system cannot meet the basic needs of the majority of citizens, the majority of Zambians have no access to clean water and electricity, a critical shortage of decent public housing has compelled so many of our fellow citizens to live in shanty townships nationwide, public infrastructure and services are still deficient, civil servants are still not adequately compensated for their services, crime and unemployment are still widespread, and, among many other socio-economic ills, taxes and interest rates are still very high.
It seems the huge allowances which members of the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) are receiving have intoxicated them so much that they have become incapable of thinking about the catalogue of socio-economic woes which cannot be addressed mainly due to the lack of financial and material resources.
Zambia cannot afford to implement the proposal they have recommended. There is really no wisdom in seeking to increase the number of constituencies when some of the existing constituencies cannot even generate enough tax revenue to meet the cost of maintaining their MPs.
Rather than increase the number of MPs, we should actually have been considering the prospect of reducing the number and restricting their functions to legislative matters. Parliament would still be representative and able to function effectively as the legislative organ of our national government with only 72 elected MPs, for example, so that 1 MP could be elected from each of the existing 72 districts.
If we cannot reduce the number of MPs, we need to continue to have a Parliament with 158 members.[quote]
And MPs should not be involved in the implementation of development projects; this should be the function of government ministries and local authorities. Besides, the provinces are already saturated with such portfolios as District Commissioners, Provincial Ministers and Provincial Permanent Secretaries, all of which are supposed to complement the executive branch of the government in the implementation of development projects. To reiterate, we need to restrict the role of Parliament to legislative functions — that is, law-making.
Our country’s meager tax revenues will not be sufficient to maintain such a large Parliament and the highly bloated Cabinet. And we cannot continue to borrow until we push the country back into the debt trap. Besides, donor countries, too, are not likely to continue extending a helping hand while we continue to misuse our meager resources.
There is a need for NCC members and the government to realize that donor countries, like Zambia, do not have unlimited resources. They have to make do with scarce resources by going through public expenditures line by line, program by program, agency by agency, department by department, and ministry by ministry in order to eliminate unnecessary application of public funds.
We need to start doing the same in order to wean our country from its current addiction to loans, its over-dependence on donor funding, as well as attain economic independence and sustained socio-economic development mostly with our own local resources.
I very sad about this development of trying to increase the number of MPS from 158 to 280. i dont know wat others will thnk but us for me its not a gud idea.
the idea of 1 MP per district could be a gud one. fellow zambinas lets reject it.
thank you
let them increase, let them do what they want. havent you people given up on this govt yet? my dear you are wasting your time tryiing to change such people. its like a feasce which has come out from the matako,there is no way you can take it back in.
Go ahead GRZ if you like that recommendations.Those are animals that want to increase numbers of MPs.Sure this time we have been struggling to pay bonuses to Mps and now others want to increase the numbers?this will ecourage corruption pa Zed, what criteria are they going to use to find these boys and girls?
The whole idea is nonsensical ,why thinking of adopting such a foo-lish idea of increasing mps in this period when it is not even certain if the reccession will pass
Zambians will never cease to amaze me at some of the most bizarre ideas..’ degree holder for President’ they all exclaim…what nonsense. Degree holder in a country with Z rated universities.. What nonsense!!!! You can print a degree on internet for goddness sake. Too many constitutions within such a short history of independence.. What is going on in those thick skulls??? Why don’t you use those redundant organs you call brain to think of more progressive ideas. Every President comes up with a new constitution, Kaunda had one, Chiluba, Mwanawasa….. God knows how many under Kanitundila Banda..What happened to Chiluba and his parentage clause?? Now we have Banda who was born in Zimbabwe for President. God knows where his parents were born??
Very sad!! Let those in power now prove themselves.Increasing the number of failures doesnt solve any problem.What we need is small number of quality people who should do quantity work.This is not acceptable at all!!!!By the way,dont forget that we are still the poorest country that need strong internal control not great number of people who wants to enrich themselves.ABASH THE IDEA!!!
The whole idea is fraut with hidden agenda. What justification does the NCC have to advocate for more MPs? The current crop of MPs have nothing to show for interms successful developmental projects that they have initiated in their areas. Zambians should not expect much from the NCC because every MPs is a member of the National Crooked Cconference. It just serves the interests of the MPs, siphoning public funds through extended periods of conducting business. At the end of the day, it amounts to BS.
The idea of increasing the number of MP’s is welcome.Zambia needs a more representative legislature that will look at the concerns of the electorate.
What we need to get rid are
1.Nominated MP’s-8
2.District Commissioners-73
3.Provincial ministers-9
4.Other deputy ministers-about 13
These presidential appointees serve no one else but the appointing authority.They care less about the people and get hefty salaries from tax payers money.Abolishing these positions will create room for 103 elected MP’s to serve the electorate in the legislature.
We should also consider devolving power to provincial legislatures who can meet regularly to discuss matters and pass by-laws on matter’s affecting the provinces.The national parliament can then meet on special occasions like Budget…
presentation,ratification of statutory appointees,national emergencies e.t.c.Issues like the budget can first be discussed or debated at provincial level and then finally brought to the national parliament for approval.
The important thing is that the legislature should be independent from the executive and judiciary.No MP should be appointed Minister.
if that stupid is steming from “toad face” crazy ideas, then he should’nt forget that he wont rule for life….if his predecessor will be like Mwanawasa or like me, that mother@**!! is going straight to jail at 70 something years old, he wont be as fortunate as Kafupi…someone remind him that
NO politician or bureaucrat has the discipline or expertise to produce values. common sense says we need a small-and-limited g.r.z. we have no productive to support even the current size of g.r.z. g.r.z must no be a burden on the economy of zambia. clearly the n.c.c has no sense, no discipline and no expertise to create a constitution.
as things stand, looks like zambia will never have a “real” constitution. only some documents full of gibberish put together by a bunch of jokers.
How on earth can the NCC recommend an increase in the number of MP’s? Shouldn’t this be done by a delimitation commission that follows a population census every 10 years? The decision to increase (or decrease) should depend on the size of the population within each catchement area. Has the government forgotten this simple, straight-forward and open system? Sis!
8. Independent,
” These presidential appointees serve no one else but the appointing authority.They care less about the people and get hefty salaries from tax payers money. ”
I think the entire system should be transformed into a bottom-up system. Let local councillors be elected, let MPs be elected from local coucillors, and allow the President to select his cabinet from elected MPs.
Pay out 50% of national revenues to councils directly and legally obligate them to provide: education, healthcare, policing, utilities and administration. That would put development out of the hands of national politicians, and into the hands of locally elected and living councillors.