Thursday, March 28, 2024

Slow pace of constitutional deliberations in Solwezi worries Silungwe

Share

Chairperson Justice Annel Silungwe
Chairperson Justice Annel Silungwe

The technical committee on the draft constitution has expressed concern with the slow pace the deliberations are moving at the provincial constitution convention currently taking place in Solwezi district of North western province.

Technical Committee Chairperson Annel Silungwe cautioned delegates at the convention to expedite their deliberations as they may end up not fully debating contentious issues by rushing through them.

Justice Silungwe further cautioned delegates to restrict themselves to debating issues that will benefit Zambians.

He has since appealed to the delegates to expedite the process of debates because what they were deciding on was not final as the technical team would still sit at national and sector group levels.

Meanwhile, Justice Silungwe told delegates to debate and arrive at resolutions on their own because this was their convention and not that of the technical committee.

He said the technical committee was in the area to clarify certain items in the constitution which delegates might not be clear on adding that the technical team was not there to compete with them but to help them.

He added that the technical team was there to provide technical assistance that was why they were not voting during the deliberations because they want a constitution that was not technical driven but people driven.

And delegates proposed that the Office of the President should be audited by the Auditor Generals’ office under Article 288 part 17 of the public finance and budget act which states that, “the Auditor General shall (a) audit the accounts of the government, judiciary, legislature, provincial administration, provincial assemblies and local authority”.

The delegates proposed that the word “Government be replaced by “Executive” as this will allow the Auditor General’s office to audit the Office of the President.

Earlier, the delegates questioned Article 282 (a) which states that, “government may, subject to the article, borrow money from any source (a) lay before the National Assembly the terms and conditions of the loan which shall not come into operation unless approved by a simple majority vote of the National Assembly.

The delegates singled out the word “simple majority” which they thought was not clear because it did not stipulate exactly what simple majority stands for in parliament in terms of numbers.

In response, Justice Silungwe explained that the word “simple majority” in this case referred to two things which in the first instance means Members of Parliament (MPs) that are present in parliament at that particular time and are voting plus one and on the other hand it refers to the whole house being present and whether the MPs were present or not but take half of them plus one.

But Professor Patrick Mvunga said the article be referred back to the technical committee because it had two different meanings.

ZANIS

5 COMMENTS

  1. Ehe, and no one even bothers to comment on this topic simply because they don’t understand the implications of this process?

    Ignorance is a disease with no cure. Shame!

  2. Where are the Political Technocrats of the two Internets sites, i.e Zambian Watchdog and LT? Does it mean that their understanding of Politics is only based on trivial issues and therefore they have nothing to comment about the above Article? Woooow, amazing indeed.

  3. In the first place, Justice Silungwe should have applied his legal training to assess as to which seas the boat he was riding was saiiling on and which direction the Chief Pilot was navigating. Ba Silungwe should have known better that this strange Head of State has no regard for the Rule of Law, but rather thrives on ruling by decrees. Very agonising indeed for Justice Silungwe to find himself in the middle of the unkown stormy seas and due to face an on-coming herricane.

  4. obviously like your website however you have to test the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I in finding it very troublesome to tell the reality on the other hand I’ll definitely come back again.

  5. To start and run an airline is one thing.
    To close it is quite another. Who on earth decided to do that around the busiest time of year – when all other airlines are fully booked. All passengers are stuck with little or no alternative at Xmas.
    To get something achieved in Zambia or Zimbabwe was always a nightmare. Huge amounts of staff, except the one we needed. Secretaries never knew where their bosses were, or if and when they would be back that day to solve problems caused by themselves.
    Unlike at the home base, we never had issues with the European offices in Rome, Amsterdam and London. Small, very efficient, with a few loyal, multitasking and multilingual staff, each dealing with a large number of countries.
    With a similar set-up everywhere else closing could have been avoided!

Comments are closed.

Read more

Local News

Discover more from Lusaka Times-Zambia's Leading Online News Site - LusakaTimes.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading