A process to amend the 2016 Constitution of Zambia has started to deal with lacunas following a resolution by Parliament to have some articles amended.
Justice Minister Given Lubinda told the Daily Nation on Saturday that he has written to all the ministries, government departments and agencies, and political parties with parliamentary representation for their contribution.
“I can inform the nation through you that I have already written to various government ministries and agencies and I have also written to political parties to seek their views on whether they have also experienced any lacunas or they have experienced any challenges of misinterpretation of any article in the Constitution and if they have, they will need to submit them to the Ministry of Justice,” Mr Lubinda said.
He clarified that the Member of Parliament who called for the amendment would cause for the publication of proposed articles to be amended in the government gazette and that 30 days’ notice shall be given before the question was put in Parliament.
Mr Lubinda said the 30 days would be the window period that was provided for any citizens or any organisation, NGO, private sector, media, churches, associations, unions to engage Parliament on the proposed amendments.
“The question that ought to be answered is whether or not there are articles in the Constitution which are problematic with regard to interpretation, whether there are any articles in the Constitution which are inconsistent, whether there are any articles in the Constitution which may have been overtaken by events in the country,” Mr Lubinda said.
“Those are the questions that anyone must ask as they look at whether or not there is need to amend the Constitution.”
He said listening to the debates that took place in Parliament, one gets to the conclusion that indeed there could be articles in the Constitution that might require looking at again.
“I made it very clear that the Government was in agreement with Parliament that there may be articles that require a fresh look and because of that the Government did not hinder the process. Instead, the Government will facilitate and encourage the process,” Mr Lubinda said.
of course 50% +1 threshold must be changed
I wish it was future President revisiting that thing Edgar signed without reading it. His extravaganza ceremony went in drain.
What Lubinda is doing is close to blasphemous acts.
Specialists in looting through use constitution amendments. stupid fools
Reduce Presidential powers – he shouldn’t appoint or have a say in the following positions PSs, Parastatal heads, Judges and all foreign mission positions below Ambassador/ High Commissioner/ Permanent Representative.
Agreed hands off any Civil Service appointments by the president and any appointment proposals should be subject to scrutiny by relevant parliamentary committees for suitability to suggested positions and by extension the speaker of the National Assembly should amass at least 75% of the representatives’ vote to assume speakership. There is need to do away with mediocrity just to appease cadres! @ MyZambia currently foreign mission positions are occupied by cadres who add no value to national gains by being in countries of assignment apart from behaving that they are out there to enjoy themselves!
What a country of i.diots, after spending so much money and promising to deliver a people driven constitution within 90 days the PF with a lawyer president have duped the masses, Who is going to speak out for the poor Zambians who are always taken for fools, less than a year after a person from chawama signed it with his eyes closed with PF thugs cheering him at a stadium now they want to change it again, I wish someone can stand up and ask how much has been spent on this useless paper which was used to gain political mileage by a man who could not even run a katemba legal firm.
The Constitution belongs to the citizens in their entirety. It is therefore false, ignorant and uneducated for Lubinda to think that stakeholders in the constitution are political parties, NGOs and Churches. Citizens in their corporate or unincorporate states are the real stakeholders in any national constitution. That this amended constitution which is barely one year old should require such a comprehensive review speaks volumes of the competences of those that apaparoved it in the first place. It is arrogant for those that gave us such a bad Constitution to come back within such a short time to claim that the Constitution is faulty and needs review! We need an educated Constitution Review Act and not this Kangaroo process.
The amended constitution was debated at length in Parliament late last year up to early this year. Why did the Justice Minister, Dr Siyambakula (lawyer by profession) take a half baked amended constitution to the Republican President for signing? Why is amending the amended constitution taking center stage instead of prioritizing finding solutions to fixing the economy?
What’s wrong with Zambian leadership?
The ink has not even dried from the last accentuation of the constitution. So much was made of the signing of the current constitution. It was signed at Heroes stadium and civil servants given half day.
Didn’t technocrats and advisers to the president scrutinise the document before the heroes stadium drama? Didn’t the President, a lawyer himself read through objectively?
Why are you wasteful without shame? Which world does our leadership live in? The same people who were in a hurry to pass the constitution, are the first ones to want to amend it.
Please, tell me why I should trust you to run the country with such clear incompetence ! What’s nauseating is that the President is a lawyer and had a Doctor in law as Justice Minister.
PF is only preoccupied to return power in 2021. There’s nothing wrong with this constitution.
Never ever allow them to manipulate the people.
Let them involve everybody to have a say. We allowed them to amend the constitution without asking the people, that’s why may be to there rotten ego there are saying is bad. Let everybody participate in this if there are serious.
They want only to extend the presidential term.
To remove 50+1 percent.
Not to vacate offices when parliament is dissolved.
To bring back Deputy Ministers.
Why the justice minister doesn’t mention what the clauses they want to amend.
Rubbish. Despite advice to the contrary PF went ahead to give a problematic Constitution. You made the bed now lie in it. Do not use the excuse of lacunas to manipulate the document to meet your narrow selfish interests
Please read Rtd General Miyandas contributions to the debate also pull out Dr Hansungule and Prof. Ndulos contributions why do you want to waste our time…..ndipo 2021 Zambia forward new leadership muzvina pelete….wait
From this Beginning you can tell that the amendment is ill-conceived and bound to fail. Stakeholders ati ministries, govtment agencies, political parties with MPs??????? Are people really serious with zambian constitution?
The kind of people we entrust leadership to in Zambia are the most incompetent nshatalamonapo! Zambians are suffering the pain of a bad economy and here we have representatives full of themselves pivoting to amending a constitution which the president was advised not to sign with eyes closed yet he went ahead disregarding sound free advice as @ changeweneed UPND! Why want to waste resources and people’s time?
Please reduce the powers of the president now……and when parliament gets dissolved the chief justice must take over presidence……
Please clean up the mess in the new constitution. We can’t have a situation for a long period of time before and after the elections we have no government in place. All businesses almost came to a stand still.
People please wake and smell the coffee. President ECL is serving his last and final term in office because he served a first in 2015…now if you allow these ‘amendments’ he wants to start singing that he is eligible to stand again given that the amendments will become operationally now…the current constitution bars him from seeking further election given the applicable conditions when he contested the presidency the first time..in 2015.
Whatever you do with this constitution make sure it does not come back to haunt you when you come back to a normal life. I say so because polticians have a tendency to think they have transformed into some kind of untouchables. They even take the ladder with them and forget they might need a smooth descent when the axe befalls them. Ask UNIP and MMD. They have a story to tell.