The Constitution Coalition says the handing over of the draft constitution to the Permanent Secretary shows how the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) government has belittled the process.
Constitution Coalition Spokesperson McDonald Chipenzi observed that the draft constitution is the only document that has not been handed over to president which makes people wonder if the PF regard the document to be of great importance to the nation.
He said the handing of the document to the PS begs a lot of questions as all the documents including tribunal reports which in some case the tribunals were appointed by the Chief Justice have all been given to the president before anyone else.
He questions if people would be at fault if they started speculating to the reasons behind the behavior government.
“We are so surprised at how the government has belittled the constitution making process and the document itself. This is the first time that the commission or report of any committee has been handed over to the permanent secretary. All these others have been hand over to the president even if the appointing authority is the Chief Justice. This really shows how this government is not prioritizing the issue of the constitution making process,” observed Mr Chipenzi
“The other thing is that why has it gone through the ministry and not the president? so the issue or our speculations about abuses, doctoring may come true because this is the first time we are using dark channels to submit the constitution,” added Mr Chipenzi.
And Mr Chipenzi has challenged the government to release the document to the public as it is in their hands now.
He said government does not have any reasons to sit on a document that does not belong to them alone but the public as well.
Meanwhile Mr Chipenzi has commended the technical committee for making it clear to the public that they no longer have the document.
He said now that everyone knows who has the document they know who to target their demands to.
The technical committee hand over the draft constitution to the Ministry of Justice on Monday 31st March 2014.
silence is golden
Add up what the President and the various Govt officials have said. Then look at the sum of that in the light of the promise by PF to deliver a Consititution within 90 days, you will see that as Zambans we may have made the worst collective decision to put PF in Governement.
We can speculate t(and we may be right) that it’s some clauses in the document they hate, and never thought they would get in there.
Fellow Zambians, we shot ourselves in the rear-end!
You have been told in clear black n white that the constitution process is not an emergency. There re more pressing issues the govt needs to attend to. Why the rush!!!! Kanshi.
1. What are those pressing issues that needs to be attended to higher in urgency than the very backbone (constitution) for resolving them?
2. Would the cabinet that has been described as “useless” by its on top leader even ever figure out which are the pressing issues in the nation?
3. Do we need to be “told in black and white” about the constitution by a government? Is it not our responsibility to tell the government given that this is our document, with all the articles formulated by public contribution (not by government)?
4. Do you, and your government understand your role in the constitution making process or let alone the role of government in a democracy?
Tabomfwa nangumulande! Kuicushafye…
Chumbu mushololwa
For me UPND should start forming prosecution teams…A LOT OF THESE BSTRDS HAVE COMMITTED TREASON and then we’ll braai them !!
This Pf government, who are they serving? Is it the Zambian people or themselves? If you are a leader, do you serve yourself or you serve the people that you are leading? Now, if people say we need a school in our earlier and it is true there is need for a school in that earlier, cant that leader build that school? Pf remember you promised. Do as per promise.
the president is not interest in this documents for the following reasons
1. age clause, 2. reduction of his powers through provincial assemblies, 3. 50+1 votes, 3. Constitutional court
these issues do not settle well with him since as a person this disturbs his power-base. However, these are good for Zambians as they will ensure good governance and progress economically, unlike what is prevailing now
All what Zambians need today is a good constitution first. Anything else can wait, afterall we have been waiting for development for the past 40 years (except for the first 10 years when most of the critical infrastructure we see today was built). We have tried to depend on the so called good leaders but we have concluded that a good leader will never be (except for Mwanawasa who tried but was hijacked later by this same Cartel that is ruling today). So what we need are good laws so that any leader will know that the bad things they are doing have serious short term consequencies. The current law of the land is against the masses but for the leadership elite. We have to reverse this.