PRESIDENT Michael Sata says former Msanzala Member of Parliament, Joseph Lungu, has a constitutional right to resign his seat and join a party of his choice.
President Sata said constitutions world-over provided for resignations and that his Government had made budgetary allocations to take care of eventualities such as death or resignations of parliamentarians like the case was in many countries.
Speaking shortly after he swore in Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) general secretary Suzanne Matale, veteran politician and lawyer Rodger Chongwe and Father Elvis Chituba from the Catholic Church as the remaining members of the 20-man Constitution Technical Committee, the president said Colonel Lungu should not be condemned without good reason.
President Sata also swore in David Mabumba as deputy minister of Education, Mutaba Mwali as deputy minister for Transport, Works and Supply, and Brigadier-General Benson Kapaya as deputy minister of Agriculture.?“The biggest problem we have in Zambia like some American professor once said that ‘Everything is our business but our own business’.
Constitutions all over the world in the Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth countries provide for people to resign and for people to be fired,” the president said.
Mr Sata said there were circumstances that would always necessitate the holding of by-elections such as death and resignations while MPs could also be fired.
[pullquote]And they say that it’s an expensive by-election. We have provided for that in the Budget. Supposing you die, are they going to say by-elections are expensive?” President Sata asked.[/pullquote]
Col Lungu resigned as an independent legislator and joined the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) during a public rally at Nyampande Basic School in Petauke at the weekend.
Some civil society organisations and the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) have condemned the resignation of Col Lungu, saying it has caused a by-election that would be costly.
“You can either be fired by Parliament. You can either be fired by the sponsoring organisation, but then you find there are people condemning Col Lungu who resigned in Petauke. And they say that it’s an expensive by-election. We have provided for that in the Budget. Supposing you die, are they going to say by-elections are expensive?” President Sata asked.
And the president said what was important in composing the Constitution Technical Committee was not to “balance the people but to balance the brains.”?“I congratulate all of you. I have all the confidence in you.
The people will be talking. You see, in Zambia if talking was productivity, Zambia would be second to none. People will complain that you have not balanced but you do not balance people, you balance brains. Counting to see what we have balanced is not how we do things,” President Sata said.
Mr Sata appealed to the technical committee to use their vast experience to produce a document that would be appreciated by the Zambian people.?“You people understand the problems of the citizens. You are not the constitution commission because we have had so many commissions.
We have brought brains together for you to give us a document and you will draw your own terms of reference on how you are going to run the show,” the president said.
President Sata said the technical committee members were at liberty to use material from previous reports of the Constitution Review Commissions such as the Mainza Chona, Patrick Mvunga and Willa Mung’omba reports as well as other relevant materials as part of evidence for their report.
President Sata also announced that the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Roma Township will host the memorial service for the late Mainza Chona this Saturday.
[Times of Zambia]
joseph lungu may have the constitutional right to resign from one party and join another in the process creating necessity for an expensive by-election barely 2 months after a general election. however, he does not have the moral right to do what he did without consequences simply because he wants to join the ruling party and hopefully be appointed to higher office. the PF can support him as much as they want but we know it is because this just increases their political stakes. it is the zambian people who are the losers here. developmental issues will be cast aside while these people campaign and biker and when it is over someone will have himself a good job. nothing for the voters. even in law there is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. even if it were legal to go and shoot
people in the street most of us would not do it. why? morality. anyone with any sense of morality would not support such extravagace in the midst of so much poverty and let alone a president who rod on the wave of putting money in people’s pockets. which pockets?
Oh no..! Point of order Sir Mr Satan Chilufyanya : “yr government is preaching abt corruption,cost reduction etc”. Pls Sir Mr Gay President,deliver us fro such unnecessary expenses if u mean well—else keep yr dirty mouth shut-U ***** SON OF BAFON.
Mr lungu you did are very good thing now more development in mzanzala. our choice pf candidate twawina again.
Uku pasa opposition tata, so that serious longs are passed. which this sapce
I meant serious laws are passed
So You people want Sata to stop people exercising their rights. Sata when swearing in as president said he would uphold the constitution of the land and thats what he did here. He did not say he will tell some MP to be moral! The moral responsibility of that MP lies with him. Sata as a president should just make sure money is a located to provide people their rights. Its now upto voters to know who is person is. If they cant see, well you and me and Sata cant do anything.
Morally this is wrong although he has a constitutional right. Look at the unnecessary cost the man is causing through the impending by-election. This is barely 3 months after an exacting election, and these politicians want to say it’s ok to jump boat? It’s taxpayers again who will foot this costly by-election. Look at Mwakalombe! He even gets rewarded for this political corruption. We are being taken for a ride by these politicians. If MMD was doing it wrongly, should we continue with these wrongs surely, all in the name of constitutional rights? I’ll be damned. EISH! Please pass me the puke bin!
We gong’ered ourselves with this thug of a president. No doubt about it.
And we call jumping on a bus that moves within a radius of 5km saving money whilst holding an instigated,unneccessary by-election a constitutional right? He might as well just move in the LEXUS for all i care, because his travels are also budgeted for after all.
@ Monko i wish more people could reason like you the problem is even our President can not see that this expenditure is unnecessary .i just hope the people of Msanzala will send him the right message come election day.
Ka Kwacha nako kasililatu mpavu day by day. Ziko latu la Zambia, awe sure!
The president has to be reminded to exercise his constitutional right to resign when he supports such impunity.
Please exercise your right sir.
Waste of Money on unnecessary by -elections. malabish!
Rezourcez that would have otherwize been channelled to puting more money in peoplez’ pockets will go to this unnecessary bye-election, despite the colonel having a contitutional right to rezine.
Monko that is a nice one.Rights dont exist in a vacuum they should be enjoyed responsibly.I also have the right to move as i wish but if i took off to George Compound at 23 hours i would most likely be leanched similarly the nation is going to endure an unnecesary and avoidable expenditure and our thrift president who takes a bus ride to avoid wasting public funds sees nothing wrong with spending billions.Let us send a very clear message to this man RB did not lose because Sata is popular but because he was irresponsible
It is a foregone conclusion that all MPS, including this so called Colonel Joseph Lungu, have a constitutional right to resign their seats and join a party of their choice. What is so sad though is the silly reasoning Sata used to explain his engineering of this particular resignation i.e. “budgetary allocations have been made to take care of eventualities such as death or resignations of parliamentarians”. The man’s contradictions are now striking the lunatic level, he would neither fund Rupiah’s Congolese monitoring venture nor jump on the awesome presidential Mercedes S600 Pullman Guard (but a minibus) all in under the guise of cutting costs but he is happy to enginner a useless by-elections costing ten times the above put together. ********!
Sata is a monumental i’d’i’o’t, just because budgetary allocations have been made for by-elections does not mean he has a right to engineer such and waste tax payers’ money on these useless ventures. In one breath, he is condemning politicians for failed constitutional reviews while in another he wallows in the same hypocritical acrobatics that brought about such failures! This man has a length of memory equal to that of a chicken, he is truly mad in the head and sooner than later he will do or say something so embarrassing to the nation. I shudder the day he attends some international conference and opens that rotten mouth of his, it will be the day we will all hide in shame.
The guy wants to be on the winning side. Leave him alone…………..Losers
the only thing i hate about sata, are his constant and shameless lies. 1 day jumps on bus fooling people that it’s cheaper, the next day causes an election that is very expensive. GOD HELP ZAMBIA.
I’ll be watching our U20 against South Africa in a COSAFA Cup game this afternoon, and folks, ALL of YOU are invited. Let’s show Bafana that indeed nibafana!!
I’ll be watching our U20 against South Africa in a COSAFA Cup game this afternoon, and folks, ALL of YOU are invited. Let’s show Bafana that indeed nibafana!!
it does not make sense for SATA to justify this nosenses.IF MR LUNGU wanted to work with PF he should have annouced it, no need to resign.He was an indepedent MP with no party pay his loyalty to. so he was free to work with anyone.NO NEED TO RESIGN.PERIOD…
Maybe we should change the constitution so that the person who came second should automatically become MP if the one occupying the position steps down. This will prevent unnecessary and expensive by elections.
Can the people of Msanzala teach these fools a lessons of their lives. do not vote for them, vote for MMD we do not need selfish leaders …..
ppo are commenting as if its sata who resigned.lungu exercised his democratic right by resigning just like u are guys are using yo rights by posting yo comments here.i agree with SHAKA that changing the constitution may help.
The problem with Chilufyanya is that he thinks all Zambians think like Kabovas, who easily get impressed with his dull tactics. Jumping on a minibus one day the next day justifying using millions of tax payers’ money to run an election after two months just for PF to get more seats in parliament.
Mama G calm down my friend. ppo said the same things kuli masebo but she went ahead to win.lungu is not a fool he dd his home work.he knows what he is doing.
It mighty be wrong in a way, but we all know politics is game……..
We should change the Constitution on by-elections. Politicians will always waste tax payers money to enrich themselves. They dont care that by elections cost us dearly.
Voters must also carry the blame for not voting on the basis of ideology. Here, they should tell us why they voted for the independent candidate and not PF, UPND, MMD or others? This MP will only be voted into power again if voters voted on tribal or personal grounds. If it was on ideological differences, unless the voters’ beliefs have changed with the MP’s, they would remain true to what made them not vote for MMD, PF, UPND etc.
It’s a pity that both the political leaders and their voters are just as guilty in wasting our money.
We have a wrong person as Head of State.He should have continued in the oposition where this kind of thinking could make sesnse.As Head of State, Sata has a responsibility towards the nation as a whole and not just the PF party.He will do well draw a line between party affairs and state affairs.His approach to leadership is more inclined to partyaffairs. To say that govt budgets for by-elections is to fail to reason at a higher level of knowledge. Simply put, the president lacks basic economic know-how which is expected of any leader at that level.He needs to be reminded that by-elections are a waste of resources because they dont add any value to the well-being of citizens.If anything, by-elections disadvantage our pipo.
This country is going no where with this kind of leadership.KK said Sata can make a good junior officer and not a president.Things are begining to show themselves and if this continues, Donors will with-hold their support and then we will have serious problems like Zimbabwe.Zambians should start looking around for a replacement as the current president may not live to deal with the problems that will follow as a result of his poor and uncordinated leadership.
he is just a fool. voters should at this stage know the type of leaders they put in power. he has not heart for his people but heart for himself to be in rulling party and start stealing money. he has no principlas at all and i personally wished the voters could not vote him back, since he has decided to neglect them
The resignation of George Lungu demonstrates that he is a WOMAN in mens’ clothes. His reckless action of instigating another bye-election is deemed fine as long as it pleases Sata who pulls the puppet’s strings. This time around the MMD, UNIP, FDD and UPND should work hard in unison to prevail over the needy people of Msanzala to reject this Lungu and elect a credible MP who will initiate the people’s development. This traitor Lungu is bent on enriching his family’s status at the exclusion of the people of Msanzala.
The voters can teach these guys a lesson by voting for the other candidate. But knowing us Zambians they will vote him back in as PF again.
Is Peter Daka standing?
This Morally wrong and as we make the new constitution we must put in a clause to dis-qualify the resigning MP or councillor from participating in the next 2 elections.