By Hjoe Moono
Listening to the Minister of Justice, Honorary Wynter Kabimba, ODS, SC give his ministerial statement in parliament left a repugnant feeling about the continued gimmicks being implemented by the PF and its government over the constitution. Re-reading the speech, I find that not only is it shallow, hollow and useless, but it is also heavily uninspiring and flat. It lacked the contents it purported to be delivering, and I am left to wonder just what Wynter was thinking when he was drafting and delivering such a shallow statement on a matter of extreme importance like the constitution. Something isn’t right here.
The statement/speech lacked content, failed to rhyme, rather focused on the many other things the PF promised to do in 2011, and failed to acknowledge, that the economy stinks-it would have been heroic anyway to hear such. There is nothing worth picking up from the speech, and just perhaps the opposition MPs chanting in parliament leading to the suspension of yesterday’s sittings are justified.
Among the many glaring faults of the speech, the biggest was the lack of reference to the president’s comments on the constitution, which have been heavily quoted, cited, praised and criticised by all in Zambia. These comments, which have been clear and confirmed over and over are that the PF does not see the need for a new constitution; and that the president should first be shown an animal driven constitution before he could perform his expected duties with regards the current constitution.
But further to this, it seems Mr. Kabimba thinks so low of us to make us believe that the draft constitution was ‘wrongly’ handed over to him when it was supposed to be to the appointing authority, the president.
Questions:
- How long does it take to re-direct the handed over constitution to the correct appointing authority?
- Weren’t we told that the government only wanted one copy for the president alone?
- Isn’t it Guy Scot, VP, MP, who disclosed that the PF does not support the 50%+1 clause in the draft because it will disadvantage them in the coming elections?
- So if the contents are already known, and partly reflected upon by the PF, and seemingly rejected, what submission to the appointing authority is Wynter lying about in Parliament?
- Wasn’t the nation told that government is studying the submitted constitution initially, only to U-turn that it has not received it? These people should be ashamed of themselves!
Mr. Kabimba states that:
“Yes, the Zambian people need a comprehensive constitution which should address some lacunas in the current constitution in line with the demands of the tenets of democracy in the 21st century. But our people also demand that this government guarantees them food security, a good healthcare system, employment opportunities, social security after retirement and education opportunities up to tertiary level. All these aspects of people’s lives are corollary to the demand for a comprehensive constitution. ….It is in this vein that we should all understand the position taken by His Excellency the President in his pronouncements on the constitution.”
Let us ask Mr. Kabimba, which pronouncements by the president is he referring to? The need for an animal driven constitution before he could attend to the current or that we do not need a new constitution anymore, and that debates and calls on the constitution should be ignored? These are the only pronouncements that HE. MCS, has made. Is Mr. Kabimba emphasising these and telling right in our faces that this is no longer a priority as by the president’s pronouncements?
In his concluding remarks, Mr. Kabimba cites the words of Abraham Lincoln and states:
“We should bear this in mind, and act in such a way as to say nothing insulting or irritating. I would inculcate this idea, so that we may not, like Pharisees, set ourselves up to be better than other people.”
I am left wondering what this hullabaloo by Mr. Kabimba was all about when we have a country that is screaming loud in your ears its demands-a constitution as presented in the draft! Who, if not himself and his colleagues are behaving like Pharisees by ignoring to yield to the demands of us, the ordinary Zambians? Who, if not his appointing authority has been insulting the Zambians by asking for an animal driven constitution, turning to comedy on a matter of extreme importance such as the constitution? Billions of kwacha have been spent on the constitution making process, submissions have been made, and a draft representing the desires of the people has been submitted. All we need is action, genuine action to deliver to the people there demands, a constitution as presented in the draft, period!
We would like Mr. Kabimba to note, as he may have faintly referred in his lame speech, that:
The trinity of freedoms; Political, Social and Economic do not live in isolation and cannot be pursued independently, indefinitely. The pursuit of one may precede the other, yet, they reinforce each other. The political freedoms make the pursuit of the others possible in a dignified and diverse environment. And therefore, the constitution, which is at the apex of these political freedoms is supreme. The economic freedoms makes it possible for people to live a decent, just and dignified life while the social freedoms makes possible the other two.
The constitutional freedoms which the PF promised are not being adhered to, and the utterances by the president and his justice minister do not inspire us to believe there has been any genuine will to deliver to the Zambians what they asked for- a just and people driven constitution. The calls for an animal driven constitution, if a joke, are misplaced, but if genuine, we encourage our current PF leaders to consider standing for elections in one of our many national parks and game management areas, where we hope the animals will be kind enough to give them an animal driven constitution. As we are not animals, we deserve the respect due to humans and our needs attended to as humans deserve.
But perhaps, since the Minister of Justice is an Honorary Member of Parliament without a voting constituency—he was just nominated and has never won an election—he may not understand fully the importance of being answerable to the electorates. We will keep vigil and for now, can only ask, what next? Sooner than later, until the peoples’ demands are met, all the tricks will be exhausted, and the people will speak again, just as they did in 2011.
The gang of thieves do not understand anything…. we need to chase them out in 2016.
The more this red lips talks the more he does not make sense…
A Minister of Justice who lies to the pipo in the House of Laws does not deserve the title of Honorable. He is a Dis-honorable Minister of Justice, Wynter Kabimba who lives in SATA’s F00Ls Paradise.
KABIMBA EXSISTS BECAUSE THERE IS A MAN CALLED SATA.WITHOUT SATA,THERE CAN NOT BE ANY KABIMBA IN GOVERNMENT.
I think its Zambians who are useless, that is why they are subjected to hollow and useless speeches. Even Sata calls MPs useless, I agree with him, they sat their listening from a dog-Kabimba barking, without shouting at it to SIT!! How on earth Zambians can allow to be lead by such a human as Kabimba?
I would not be surprised if I hear that you had a cardiac arrest.
you are too angry like the constitution is your personal or your UPND document grabbed from you and shredded to pieces.
In case you didn’t know, its a document for the whole nation.
Slow down whatever your name is
Every 1 is taking audit of your insults and Violence.
Your CREATOR is not a fool to usher you in govt with this conduct.Your HH and UPND can have many simpathysers but not in the way you are becoming.
People will not be able to differentiate you from arrogant former regime of MMD and the current jobless illiterate PF cadres.
Tone down otherwise every one of you will look useless to lead the country.Avoid tribal and regional politics because you are already a minority and disgruntled group of people.
Take stock of voter apathy in katuba.
As hollow as his party
These monkeys should be chased away from government. They are not fit for purpose.
People why are you always complaining? can you UPND sycophants do any better with your Hass Hole (HH) if given the chance to rule today?
Stop complaining and wait patiently for your next defeat in 2016-2031
@Kudos.
PF would be re-elected in 2016 if Sata:
a. did not dilly dally on the peoples driven constitution
b. improved the Kwacha strength to what Levy had left range bound K3 500 – K3 800
c. reduced the overblown cabinet
d. improved the country’s participation in the wealth of the mines
e. reduced chinese labour as per his campaign promises
f. stopped borrowing as though we are getting grants
g. stocked hospitals with drugs and reinstated fired nurses and employed more paramedics
hh. stopped interfering with bashilubemba
i. reduced price of mealie meal to RB prices
j. increased development to ALL provinces equitably
k. reduced tribal appointments
l. listened to the Catholics bishops and EFZ on constitution
m. improved the nation’s balance sheet.
50%+1 is not negotiable! It will be law by 2016, otherwise we shall let them vote for themselves. They better listen or leave office peacefully. Why break every promise when you could have delivered just 1 important one? This one will be the game changer. We can even look at other parties just for the 50% + 1. Watch this!
@kudos u must be ashamed of yourself u r changing the tone of the comments completely taking the insulting route. take a deep breath and ask yourself a simple question..”what am i trying to achieve by making such a contribution”
So who leaked the ‘daft’ I mean draft constitution? Hon. Mwansa is a lawyer of good standing I don’t think he could have ‘wrongfully’ handed over a document to a ‘wrong’ person. Wynter is trying to cover his sorry a@#$% on who received the document other than the President and who leaked it. Sorry Shamwali from Comesa Summit imwe ni fired!
Kambimba leaked it! Thank you.
Want it or not, we are getting a people driven constitution, latest 2016 when PF is out of power definitely. The constitution is the most critical issue in the 2016 election. The PF will lose that election based on this. Opposition MPs have started the revolt for a people driven constitution. Soon it will be the masses on the street. Watch the space.
Dear Blogger,
We need a new constitution but yo suggestions yabupuba! zambia is peaceful and it shall remain peaceful.Kindly take your monkey manners somewere else and draft your own monkey driven constitution.
Sincerely,
Lee Habaponta Bsc,Msc,Phd
this Moono guy should find something else to do.. anyway he has a platform to speak on..atleast he feels useful.. why cant you just make your point without using deameaning words? the same words used against the people you support will be translated as ‘insults’.. ‘one coin two sides’
Imagine how difficult the opposition agenda would be if Sata:
a. did not dilly dally on the peoples driven constitution
b. improved the Kwacha strength to what Levy had left range bound K3 500 – K3 800
c. reduced the overblown cabinet
d. improved the country’s participation in the wealth of the mines
e. reduced chinese labour as per his campaign promises
f. stopped borrowing as though we are getting grants
g. stocked hospitals with drugs and reinstated fired nurses and employed more paramedics
hh. stopped interfering with bashilubemba
i. reduced price of mealie meal to RB prices
j. increased development to ALL provinces equitably
k. reduced tribal appointments
l. listened to the Catholics bishops and EFZ on constitution
m. reduced taxes such as fuel levy
@Sibwelo.
1.Yes Sata is delaying on the constitution which is unncessary trouble for him
2.The strength of the Kwacha does not just happen like in the movie. this is not an autonomous economic factor which you can just manage inhouse. many major currencies are slamping against the dollar due to quantitative easing tepering in US. thats the reason the rand keeps droping against the kwacha. put simply the rand is perfoming worse thatn the kwacha against the dollar. you can prove this using cross currency exchange rate.
3.cabinet is a political effect
4improving participation in mines is not an over night dream . there are laws to be followed
5. reducing chinese labor were?
6.you cant develope infratstructure via bootstrapping
7.stocking the hospitals requires money
7. illegal strikes will always be illegal and require firing
8. the bashilubemba issue is another unnecessary busines PF has got into
9. meal meal prices dont just fall like gravity pulling unless government continues to subsidise that requires money and means the neighbouring countries will rather wait for you to subsidise the maize then they come to buy since its cheaper and will not waste time grown the maize
10.you can not take the same llel of development everywere. there are land issues and priority areas such as the line of rail. and there isnt just enough money to go around at once
11. The government need to head the call of the bishops
12. if you remove levies, wer are you going to get money given your small tax base?
@Matrix. Now that is constructive engagement! No insults, nothing tribal….but just a debate and that is the way it should be.
We both agree that Sata is simply not doing himelf and PF a favour on 1. Constitution 8. bashilubemba and 11. the bishops.
I will take a few issues. 7. Health care is cardinal to any socially attuned government. So they need to provide money. 9. Food prices and shortages thereof are what led to the abolition of the French monarch. 3. PF promised a lean cabinet and yet today they run the biggest cabinet in the life of Zambia including paying an unprecedented 50% of the budget into personal emoluments! I will stop here to allow others add their wisdom. Thank you, felllow bloggers.
That is the only language that is fit to describe them. Are you sick yourself? You don’t have relatives dying in hospitals because of these same people? you don’t have relatives without money to send their children to school because these same people are wasting money on useless byelections and on corruption at RDA State House? etc etc.
heath care is expensive everywer you go since its not an income generating portfolio you can only do a limited amount at a time otherwise it will be like pouring water in a bottomless pit.
for the french revolution it was a composite of many things As the 18th century drew to a close, France’s costly involvement in the American Revolution and extravagant spending by King Louis XVI (1754-1793) and his predecessor had left the country on the brink of bankruptcy. Not only were the royal coffers depleted, but two decades of poor cereal harvests, drought, cattle disease and skyrocketing bread prices had kindled unrest among peasants and the urban poor. Many expressed their desperation and resentment toward a regime that imposed heavy taxes yet failed to provide relief by rioting, looting’
@Jackson, come up with statistics then we can talk. people have been dying since the inception of age… otherwise this is just ranting that you are exhibiting.
yes the PF made a mistake by raising the wages 2high at the same time. that tilts the fiscal balance on expenditure and pushes up demand leading to inflation as marginal propensity to consume will have increased relatively to wages. the cabinet I agree is too bug, but i think it beacuse of trying to please diffrent parties who helped PF ascend to power.
@Matrix. Let us explore health care. It is costly but it still is a priority. Everywhere you go from Cuba to USA to the UK and even just close by in RSA, Health care is a major issue. Whilst you and I can afford CFB, Lusaka Trust and other private hospitals, we need to think of our countrymen who have to rely on Government health care. That is why for all his weaknesses, RB’s mobile hospitals are still a great idea. And whether we like it or not, we should seriously fund our Health delivery services.
if health care is funded to its full extent, ther wouldnt be enough money to go aorund. this is the budget in 2009
Health 1,823.4 million
Public Health Services 1,365.7 million
o/w Control and Management of Malaria 94.9million
HIV/AIDS 170.7million
Infrastructure Development 168.1million
This is the budget in 2014
Health 4,228.4million
o/w Drugs and Medical Supplies
738.7 million
Medical Infrastructure & Equipment 312.3 million
Healthcare is an exponential function because of number of people giving birth . we simply dont have the amount of money people alk about when campainging.. You cantell between 2009 and 2014 the alocation has grown by over 200% but that is a drop in the ocean.
This is a gang of liers. They lie about anything & u turn on things they have said. What a shame , I do agree with the writer on everything he has articulated.
this just goes a long way to show that HE Mr C Sata was correct he has appointed useless people into authority. Thanks your excellence for being candid on this matter of having useless MPs.
This speaks loads about the appointing authority. One’s gotta be a more useless to not have recognized the uselessness prior to appointing them. The buck stops at HEMCS. Give him a dunce!
In a nutshell;the arrogant Justice minster was basically saying its not among the top priority for his gov’t. The statement is deliberately filled with jargon to bore the masses….they will use this strategy to drag this process till 2016.
We shouldn’t ease the pressure of them.
Saulosi, i said ati nkatukana bulya bushiku. guess what, the day has come. Get up here and defend your injustice minister wynter kabimba mazende yanu!!!
GOOD RESPONSE TO THE ANIMAL DRIVEN CONSTITUTION
The calls for an animal driven constitution, if a joke, are misplaced, but if genuine, we encourage our current PF leaders to consider standing for elections in one of our many national parks and game management areas, where we hope the animals will be kind enough to give them an animal driven constitution. As we are not animals, we deserve the respect due to humans and our needs attended to as humans deserve
ANIMAL DRIVEN CONSTITUTION DRIVEN CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
Which animals will vote for them? Red serpents, Lions, Elephants, Hyenas (Chimbwi) etc are all waiting for these guys to go and campaign.
Campaign Managers are:
Luangwa National Park – Willie Nsanda
Kafue National Park – Hon. S Masebo
Jivundu forest – Hon – Kambwili
PF is also looking for those who know how to swim to compaign in the water to the Hippos, crocodies, snails ETC. While you spend time blogging your friends are busy campaigning in the National parks. I WISH YOU THE BEST PF – KEEP IT UP.
Wish I had any words to describe this guy! The English language doesn’t afford me one.
A monkey can not leave the maize field on its own.. You the zambian must soldier out and defend your country from these PF.. They won’t leave or resign on their own : (
This time around when there is change of govt those crooks who are defeated if found with cases they shud be hanged to deter those who take over not to fall on the same route.kabimba u,ll never enjoy peace when govt is changed coz together with dobo man u,ll be crucified for lying to the zambian masses abt gud things wen in actual sense u just went in govt to steal.we,ll feed u to the wild animals at munda wanga.
Not hanged but jailed so that they have opportunity to see their failures yield positive results under new management. However it would also be nice if they got fast track appearance and sentencing in courts of law. Wish I was a lawyer for there will be manna from what is currently corruptly being amassed.
Walinina sunu hampeyo
I have read somewhere that Zambia is receiving applications for the following positions that have remained vacant since September 2011:
1. President of Zambia;
2. Vice President;
3. Chief Justice;
4. Speaker of the National Assembly;
5. DPP and
6. Inspector General of the Police.
Any suggestions?
The constitution is the supreme law of the land. It follows that the constitution making process be a responsibility of a law making organ of the GRZ. Assigning a ministry, a part of the executive, was a violation of the principle of separation of powers.
The job of the executive branch is to deliver services to the people; it does not include sculpting the supreme law of the land. Big Mistake – HUGE!
Aba Bantu nabekuta… They are totally drunk with power…
Chumbu Mushololwa government full people who are following blindly!
If the only tool you have is a hammer you are most likely to cause a lot of damage!
Here is the Animal-driven constitution courtesy of George Orwell’s Animal Farm
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.
Of which this was reduced to a single maxim for ease of understanding
FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD (BIRDS WINGS WERE ALSO CONSIDERED AS LEGS)
Further amendments to this constitution as the Party and Its Government (PIG’S) consolidated power
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed WITH SHEETS.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol TO EXCESS.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal WITHOUT CAUSE.
Final amendments to this constitution
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
Kwena the President has been played by the cartel! Rendered so useless sure! These pipo will never go unpunished by God. Their end will be just as disastrous. Days are numbered.