The United Party for National Development (UPND) in Livingstone says the decision by the government to reject an extension to the constitution making process will result in mediocre document that will not been inclusive of all the views of people of Zambia.
In an in interview yesterday, Livingstone UPND Spokesperson Neto Halwabala said the move by the government does not instil confidence in Zambians that the constitution will stand the test of time.
Mr Halwabala pointed out that government has already spend a lot of money adding that there was nothing wrong with extending the process if some contentious issues have not been addressed in the current documents in order to come up with a durable document.
He said it was prudent for the government to realize that the constitution was a valuable national document adding that government should seriously look at the issues raised by the technical committee drafting the constitution before making ‘snap decision’ that will not help the country to have a document of national character.
“We need to give the technical team a benefit of doubt because much as we should be concerned about the money the process has already gobbled, we should also be mindful to have a document that is of merit and representative all wishes and aspirations of all Zambians,” said Mr Halwabala.
The Technical Committee drafting the Republican constitution had requested for an extension of six months in which other stakeholders could have an input on certain contentious issues
but government yesterday rejected the application by the technical committee to extend the process to six months from the initial timeframe of June 30, 2013.
The government rejected the proposed extension period on grounds that the document has taken too long and that it has gobbled a lot of money at the expense of other needy areas.
And the UPND says it expected the government to have increased fertilizer allocation to farmers at least for three years to empower them than removing the subsidies on fertilizer.
Mr Halwabala said the removal of subsidies on fertilizers will negatively affect the rural poor farmers who survives on agriculture and consequently threaten national food security.
He challenged the government to rescind the decision to remove subsidies on farming inputs and show its commitment to empower poor people as contained in its manifesto.
“As UPND we expected the government to increase input allocation to poor farmers for at least three years to empower them and help them to stand own their own,” said Mr Halwabala.
“And I, therefore challenge the PF government to show its proclamations to be pro-poor and not a pro-rich government by rescinding the decision to remove subsides on fertilizer for poor rural farmers so that they can be empowered,” said Mr Halwabala.
Meanwhile, Mr Halwabala said although preparations for the United Nations World Tourism General Assembly (UNWTO) have picked up pace, there was need for the government to have constructed a permanent international convention centre so that the country could benefit from such global event.
He also advised the government to continue investing in infrastructure development such as roads in Livingstone to further boost tourism.
ZANIS
I see, but there is nothing new about what their are doing….
That’s dealing with UPND for you, they accept the extention they are fncked they refuse to extend they still fncked. New kind of politics made in Choma.
That HH type of politics for u. Had the Government allowed the extension it could have been waste of resources.
These UPND chaps are turncoats like lights in a night club kikikikikikik to borrow Winter’s words.
But is the Livingstone UPND spokesman the right person to give the Party’s position on this? ZANIS please stop been mischievous!
He was given a written statement by the Top UPND Leaders. Its a shame that we have become an opposers’ political party. Maybe we should begining to think of changing leaders. I’m slowly losing confidence in HH and our Party advisers.
Whats wrong with UPND? Grow up you guys, you can’t be under 5 forever!
My UPND leaders please, lets be wise in the way we oppose issues.
People will soon begin to doubt us and we may end up losing favour even in our strongholds. We should remain silent on issues which have been generally welcomed and accepted by the majority since we have vowed never to praise Government on anything. Surely statements such as the following will make our beloved Party continue losing grip:
i. We will legalize operations (theft) of Jerabos
ii. We will restore maize and fuel subside
iii. Government should allow the extension of CTC
iv. link Zambia 8000 is useless
v. Allow KCM terminate employment of 2000 workers
vi. RB is clean
vii. Mentioning of region or tribe in every argument
Its high time we develop a Political strategy of our own not afterthoughts always.
How I wish there were more of your kind in UPND
Dear UPND and HH
it is very hard for you to win the support of some us even when we are considering. This move has been supported by the general public and other political parties. This constitution process has gobbled huge finances from one government to another. There is no reason for another extension. Besides what is it that will be done in 6 months that they haven’t done from the time this review started?
And you come here and oppose government for refusing an extension. What is your job as a political party? is it purely to OPPOSE? but even when it is not necessary. This shows like you actually dont know what you are supposed to be doing. You don’t qualify to be a government in waiting when you oppose common sense
Zambians! Zambians! wake up! we are talking about the constitution not confectionery. The defender of one’s rights, the defining document of who you are, what you can and can’t do, the binding document that is the law and the guideline of your forge forwards or indeed backwards back into the doldrums.
Stop this poor finishing mentality! Let this document stand the test of time and be the ultimate material that is representative of what you want as a people. I cannot imagine the technical committee would connive to fraudulently symphoon money out of a
financially whimpering country just line their pockets in broad day light. Kabimba’s statements are a shame and indicative of power gone to the head!
Cheap is expensive in the long run as you will need to spend more to re-do…
Its very disappointing seeing the so callled educated UPND members and leaders opposing the stance taken by kabimba.We cant allow this process to continue.The extension they wanted is only meant to fatten the pockets of the delegates and i think these extentions where not even called for in the first place.Alot of people have enriched themselves through this process at the expense of the poor people in society.
Iwe confused.com just shut up!You could be even one of the delegates advocating for this extension.
Only UPND& FODEP ar against, well, who knows?
@Doctor, what kind of a doctor are you? Medical or academic? No need to even ask as I know you are a just a street doctor or mad scientist. If you did not finish you thesis and told to hand it in before you finished it would you call yourself the street doc?
A bit of education is even more dangerous than no education at all. How in hell would you accept an unfinished constitution in your right minds? How? Can’t you see that will be the stem of all future problems that a trapdoor constitution would bring?
There is was no way in hell a technical team that is respectful of a law abiding government with a good measure of rule by law attitude would dream of stealing from public coffers in broad day light unless the government is stinking rotten.
Doc, trash your doctorate and start…
@Doctor, what kind of a doctor are you? Medical or academic? No need to even ask as I know you are a just a street doc or mad scientist. If you did not finish your thesis and were told to hand it in before you finished it would you call yourself the street doc?
A bit of education is even more dangerous than no education at all. How in hell would you accept an unfinished constitution in your right minds? How? Can’t you see that will be the stem of all future problems that a trapdoor constitution would bring?
There is was no way in hell a technical team that is respectful of a law abiding government with a good measure of rule by law attitude would dream of stealing from public coffers in broad day light unless the government corrupt to the core!
Trash Doctor doom!
I am fuming… how will the kaponyas understand what’s happening in the country when the grade 12s like Dr Today-today here can’t understand zilch? Excuse my typos in my earlier postings as I like to meticulously check my spellings and grammar as best as I can before posting. The gap of understanding matters of high national importance is widening between the oblongata haves and have not.
1. Devolution
2. Constitution
3. Subsidies
The above are contentious issues that require proper handling by capable people not people barking up the wrong trees like ‘Doctor Murray’ and the likes.
You cannot thank Kabimba for stopping this process. He has no right to single handedly stop the constitution building process. Let’s debate this issue in parliament and stop these little…
….hitlers from killing our beloved Zambia.
What a load of drivel! You truly are confused! How many constitution review commissions have we had in the past discussing the same issues over and over and never implementing them, but using the process as a means to an end for themselves? No more using these constitution review commissions as a cash cow for some chaps. Give us a good constitution now we have waited for far too long!
You have always something to say against not in support current GOVT. If they had agreed to the proposed extension,my God it was going to be fire on waste of resources.
@Mars plastic I haven’t got the bandwidth and time to waste on easy to understand issues like this one. Take this scenario, You are geared to eat Nshima, and your wife tells you the mealie is not enough and the Nshima is still in porridge form. What do you do? There are more of you to educate I am afraid. We need a good doc.
a) divorce her
b) eat your porridge, put up and shut up
c) supply more mealie meal so you have your hard earned meal of the day and more
d) dump the porridge and eat the relish and wait for things to take care of themselves Zambian style
The answer is there but you can’t see it. Dropping the exercise now will be deemed as failure by the government and snapping it in the bud would be too detrimental for the immense purpose of the document to even…
What a useless analogy! You are the kind that find it easy to compare a cockroach to a spider. If you as the head of the house are not proactive and ensure that there is sufficient food in the house to feed the family then you are totally useless. The more you try and shove your lack of reasoning down our throats the more you show us just how useless you are!
It reminds me of Sampa Miles example on the Assignment same example ,very shallow way of thinking.Nsima examples are a no no for someone educated what are marketeers going to use pa maliket?pitful
Ba LT. Why are you denying me my right to respond to confused.com?
I think the late Mwanawasa was right when he described UPND as bums that will always be behind.
So the unfinished document will be our constitution. Or may be someone wants to finish it for us? The problem was the committee was not being supervised by the appointing authority, they worked as they pleased, at their own pace. So now the supervisor has realised that he was not supervising, the work will be terminated. Then what?
Another George Kunda type of “Prefect” on the CTC? No, no, no! We already saw how that one went during the MMD attempt at this. And please tell me how long and how many billions the “George Kunda supervised” Constitution Conference took and gobbled up? The problem is NOT lack of supervision.
Do you know what HH (UPND), Mumba(MMD), Chipimo(NAREP), Miyanda(One man Party), etc., will be saying? Trust me, it would be worse than what UPND is complaining about now.
I think the PF govt was prudent in taking a hands-off approach so the process can be seen to be fair and neutral. So far not even those who are quick to accuse this govt of all sorts of shenanigans can accused this govt of interference with the process. Now you saying govt should have been closely supervising the CTC? Wow!