THE First Session of the Eleventh National Assembly on October 14 opens its doors to the newly-elected members of Parliament amidst high expectations from the people as the House promises to deliver an effective, people-centred law-making process.
It is a hung Parliament, with no political party having a clear majority. The ruling Patriotic Front has 68 members (when combined with eight nominated members), the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD), 54, and the United Party for National Development (UPND), 28.
There are three independent MPs while the Alliance for Development and Democracy (ADD) and the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) have a member apiece.
President Sata will open the proceedings with a presidential speech that will set the tone for the main issues of focus for the House during this session, after which the MPs will be debating the policy statements contained in his speech.
Being a hung Parliament, with all members having a fresh mandate and a new Speaker in prominent lawyer and former High Court Judge Patrick Matibini, the hopes are high from members of the public.
Apart from electing the Speaker, the first meeting of this session also elected Mkhondo Lungu as Deputy Speaker and Chifumu Banda as Deputy Chairperson of Committees of the Whole House on October 6, 2011.
And as the business finally starts in the House, Zambians will be keeping their ears glued to the proceedings from Manda Hill in anticipation of a balanced legislature that will pass all the laws in the interest of the general public and not based on ‘collective agreements’ of their respective political parties.
The Tenth National Assembly, dominated by the former ruling MMD, saw a number of controversial bills that Zambians roundly condemned, sneaking through.
During its Third Session, which adjourned sine die on June 24, 2011 before Parliament was dissolved to pave way for the general elections, the House considered a total of 217 questions for oral and written answers and 20 motions to adopt Sessional Committee Reports.
In addition, four Ministerial Statements were presented and seven Annual Reports from Government Ministries and quasi-Government institutions were received and laid on the Table.
Parliament further voted for the removal of the Abuse of Office Clause from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Act, but failed to garner the required two-thirds majority to amend the Zambia Constitutional Bill that could have seen the much-criticised National Constitutional Conference’s draft constitution coming into effect.
The House changed the law on Presidential Emoluments by removing the three-year stipulated period for gratuity in what commentators say was a bull-dozed process to ensure former president Rupiah Banda qualified for gratuity.
The Non-Governmental organisation (NGO) Bill, which restricts and regulates the operations of the civil society, also became law while the windfall tax on mines was voted out barely a year after Dr Mwanawasa’s administration had introduced it.
But with Government’s renewed anti-corruption drive under President Sata’s leadership, and the commitment to bettering the living standards of the people, some of the laws and decisions that were passed are likely to be revisited.
Other issues expected to dominate the session are the proposed adjustment to the retirement age from 55 to 65 years, the revision of the labour laws, and the ratification of the proposed new holders of constitutional offices, among them the Attorney General and the director of the Anti-Corruption Commission.
The most prominent business of the house will probably be the presentation of the 2012 National Budget by the Minister of Finance, after which members will have to extensively debate the budget and consequently pass the Appropriation Bill before the close of the session.
Parliament is also expected to appoint the leader of the opposition from the MMD, being the party that garnered slightly above a third of the membership of the House as required by the law for a political party to be recognised as the official opposition.
This session opens with 155 members, three short of the required 158, following the death of some parliamentary candidates in Nakonde and Magoye ahead of the recent tripartite elections, and the resignation of Chongwe MP Japhen Mwakalombe a few hours after he was announced winner.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Donchi Kubeba! Ashi in Parley!!
The problem with this house is its composed of many PF & some MMD members who are also ministers who may not be willing to question Sata’s way of running affairs.Parliament, by law should be independent of the executive to put checks and balances to Sata’s excesses.The way he is cancelling contracts should be done by courts as they are apolitical.Those parliamentarians are beholden to Sata and thats why we need a cabinet that is not composed of MP’s and a completely independent parly.
SHUT UP
SHUT UP :d
I have no words but am just hoping that what will come out will be for our benefit and sure the president won’t let us down!! Go Sata Go
Enka rasha, CORRECTING WRONGS is in its self NOT WRONG. As most of the WRONGS WERE DUBIOUSLY IMPOSED – If it within the ambits of presido powers, curtailing now rather than later will do us all some good. If however, the presido has gone ultra vires in curtailing the same, then obvioulsy a legal challenge is certainly welcome – as this will TEST & CEMENT THE SEPARATION OF POWERS THAT WE ALL ASPIRE TO IN THIS NEW DAWN, a development am sure which will be embraced by our presido (AKA ” MEN @ WORK!!)!!
CANT WAIT TO HEAR THE MOTHER OF ALL JOKES SPEECH!! LOL
Zambians are docile !!
The who speech of SATA will be full of RB corruption cos he will want to win public sympathy so that RB Immunity can be removed by Parliament. The man has COPY AND PASTE levy mwanawasa
Ndiye bantu bamene tifuna weh!!!!!!!!!!
he doesnt need public sympathy. he already has it. And if RB is found wanting the precedent was alerady set on Chiluba, he will be stripped of his immunity and taken to court.Of course this is the prerogative of parliament so if they see if fit they will lift it and if they dont, good luck to him
Ba LT what time is parly going to open.
please mr.president in your speech,dont forget or skip the issue of salary increment civil sevents want 2.5m across the board and so to the private and parastals.we dont want 65 years ambuya for retirement,may 45 to 48.abashi 65
hey we want serious stuff and not the expected personalities. 66 days remaining.
FTJ once indicated that the Snake is half-literate and finds it difficult to read or write. I wonder if this true. I will hold my breath and wait to see what transpires. I hope it will not be an extra instalment in our own made Zambian comedy show. Field Ruwe where ever you are; you now have a competitor based at Zambia’s No:1 Theatre Club i.e State House!
I hope he will outline his vision for all the 9 provinces and the pillars on which he is going to drive his vision. I.e. picture of how each of the 9 provinces will be after his 5 years. So far his statements have been hollow—–ha has not outlined any single thing about his vision.
Let us get back to bussines, if some contructs were dubiously awarded, nothing like waiting for courts as we are going to loose more money. How much was lost in chiluba case? probably millions of dollars when evidence was there. Please zambians open your eyes.
It has now started the real thing.mr Sata please save us cheap politics in your speech.I expect the the following: 1- a timetable for the change of the current constitution ..2-review of the entire tax regime 3-review of the investment act 4-autonomy of the branches of government 5-slashing of gratutity for all mps to less than 30mill 6-banking act so that crooks like matani can no longer play the horse and rider with the presidents of Zambia.7-streamlining of the civil service ,coz these are the most corrupt.8- the closure of the baroste agreement in the interest of all concerned parties 9-and finally be brave to put in place measures that will fight institutional corruption…it’s 5years not 90days
Thanks, atlast my president who i fought for so hard is opening parley, i wonder what he has for me, more money in my pockets ‘oh gosh’ or is it more misery in my compound?. I fought for this man in so much that my studies were interrupted , my family suffered yet i continued with resilience only know to few to make sure my president nicknamed kaponya bcoz his love for us kaponyas win. I am just waiting to see what is in store for us Zambians. Come on Mr president speak we are listening
The problem that we all have is that we are quick to judge and criticize. Sata made a lot of good promises. Lets give him time to work on them. The man hardly knows his way around state house. Give him time to settle down and get down to business. His done more for Zambians in 3 weeks than RB did in 3 years.
pliz mr president we dont want 65years its too much for the seck pleasing enest sakala just do it but we dont want to sufer becoz of sakala and its not good to recycle pipo like that i advise you to retire him he is acorrupt judge
Patience pays. Lets wait for the speach.
well lets see how the snake is gona dance now. he made lots of promises but nothing to bring more money in our pockets so far…..tik-tok 66 days left as we patiently wait for the miracles he promised. I hope he ll tok about development issues than attacking individuals, coz thats wats the cobra can do best.
The Abuse of office law must be brought back so that the MMD thieves can be revisited. We surely can not be suffering when RB and his children smuggled, looted the wealth in the country. They need to be caged as soon as possible
Sata is addressing Parliament now! Tune in to ZNBC radios and listen, if you are not tuned in already!
Major pronouncements, constitution making process within 90 days, restate abuse of office clause, combat past and future corruption cases and buuild infrastructure!!!!
Except Hon. Dora is not enjoying the house.
Sata will be a funny Presido in Parly, Oops, he has just passed a cracking joke about Doro Silya. He says she is a” tourist attraction”!!!
Those who are listening to the president’s speech please update us on any latest infor.
I am sure LT will write an article about the speech. I listened, he has concluded, he said a lot of things and with a funny ending joke about UPND MPs.! LT, please write the story!
Road network development in all provinces. It was general, but he mentioned the specific roads to be developed in each province. Choma to become the new Capital of SP
Sorry, i meant to say, it wasn’t general statement about road development, but rather specific, as he mentioned the roads to be developed in each province.
moon yello, swallow your pride which individual has he attacked??? Akaso… exposing corruption is not attack… Grow up…
Let us compare the 3 weeks of Sata and the 3 years of RB.
This 90 day song starts from which DATE. becuase everybody in PF government talks of 90 days but don’t give the start data
Some important milestones in speech, four core programmes:1. Education 2. Health 3. Agriculture Development and 4. Local Government, housing, Early Education and environmental (mbeba) protection in his words. Other highlights; new constitution within 90 days, re-instatement of abuse of office clause in ACC Act, creation of Muchinga as tenth province, reverting Capital of Southern to Choma and Livingstone elevated to tourist capital worth its sort. Fighting past, present and future corruption, plus a few jokes about Dora throughout, she has had her day!!!!!
Dora should use her parliamentary priveledges, rise up and tell him to fu*k off if he continues harrassing her in Parliament.
There are other things she has done outside for which her parliamentary previleges do not extend. In my view, he was trying to make her at ease by choosign to take the traditional cousin path. She said a lot of trash about him and he went in there shivering with rage threatening people in former regime with jail making insinuations at her, she would have been dead worried, at least he showed her, he is not vindictive and anything hat may come her way is nothing personal, they can still chat chimbuya, thats my reading of it!!!