The three Church Mother Bodies says the Church has nothing against National Dialogue, but have had serious concerns with regard to the process and contents of the National Dialogue Forum Act.
The three namely the Council of Churches in Zambia, the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia has declared their unwavering desire to support any process that conforms to constitutionalism, democratic governance and respect for human rights in Zambia which has been their plea and desire of the majority Zambians.
They said the ongoing dialogue process is unlikely to achieve national healing and reconciliation compared to the process which they had embarked on.
They said the reason why the Church is not participating is the NDF Act of 2019 does not provide a guarantee for the protection of the contents of the outcome that will be generated by the National Dialogue Forum.
The three added that this is because there is no provision in the Act, as the final NDF resolutions will be subjected to further parliamentary deliberations and scrutiny.
They noted that contrary to the submission to remove the members of parliament from the Forum, the Act still maintained this provision which will give MPs undue privilege at the end of the NDF process, to look at the Forum resolutions again and where possible alter the agreed outcomes.
The Church says it finds this anomaly to be against the rules of natural justice, where in this case, the same people who will participate in the initial discussions will be the ones again to scrutinize the same contents.
They noted that it is best practice, especially in constitutional making process, to have an independent committee of experts that reviews and refines all the submissions from the people through such fora as the NDF before they are taken to parliament for enactment to reduce the inconsistencies and lacunas in the constitution.
The three church mother bodies said Given the limited time allocated to this process, they are still concerned, as a matter of procedure with the simultaneous handling of the constitutional refinements with other pieces of legislation which must derive their existence from the
Constitution as a supreme law.
They said the NDF Act does not provide for the enhancement of the Bill of Rights by way of a referendum which is too cardinal to leave out in this process because the Bill of Rights is essential to enjoying our rights under the constitution. Our call has always been having a comprehensive constitution making process that does not leave out the question of human rights.
Meanwhile, the three Church Mother Bodies say the composition of the National Dialogue Forum is highly dominated by people with undue influence from their appointing authority.
They are concerned that when it comes to voting on particular issues not agreed by consensus, the outcome may possibly go the majority way.
The three church mother bodies said in the spirit of genuine dialogue and reconciliation they feel that the punitive clauses put in the Act do not speak well to the objectives of the National dialogue process.
Church mother bodies have problems for sure…
You stayed away thereby exposing your unpatriotism.
We heard why you stayed away but sorry the process is going on, it has to.
TCMB, UPNDEAD and NDCINSULTS Vs the Elite PEOPLE of Zambia.
The National Dialogue Forum Act is by virtue repugnant to the Constitution of Zambia and hence is inconsistent with its provisions is void to the extent of the inconsistency. The Act should not have seen the light of day.
Afterall, the dialogue which was to be spearheaded by the 3 church mother bodies would have no legal backing, so what are these clergy men talking about? If Parliament will not adopt all the resolutions passed by NDF, what gaurantee do we have that they would have adopted the resolutions of the church-led dialogue? These guys are up to no good and have been highly compromised by UPND
The Church is not participating is the NDF Act, why is it then commenting on the processing going on very well? Not everyone who stands on the pulpit is holy, remember this and its no surprise that our so called three Church Mother Bodies is misleading itself. You refused to participate in the NDF and so stop complaining with your endless assumptions.
The Bill of Rights was decampained and it lost. So why talk about it now.
QUOTE
“They said the reason why the Church is not participating, is the NDF Act of 2019 does not provide a guarantee for the protection of the contents of the outcome that will be generated by the National Dialogue Forum”.END OF QUOTE.
It is sad to say that, the above statement is contrary to the presidents address to the Nation on MAY 1st 2019, where He said ” the church is being represented in the NDF”. My question is , WHO IS TELLING LIES HERE.
GOD please give US THE FATHER CHURCH BODIES , THE MOTHER CHURCH MOTHERS have literally failed US (Zambians)
clergymen go to pulpit PREACH ABOUT ADVERSE OF SINFUL LIVING.Tell your followers of what GOD requires of them, not promoting DISUNITY in the Nation.
SHAME
Dialogue by force is not dialogue at all. It is just another avenue money is being spent without real objectives. If religion plays a role in this country then the 3 mother bodies could have been given a chance to spearhead this dialogue. But as it stands and we always do in Zambia things are now almost always defined on political affiliation terms. So this is called a PF dialogue that aims at suppressing the opposition or opposition fighting the ruling party. Violence is the order of the day, childish politics of insults defines zambias democracy and individual citizens do not matter at all.
We really have a big problem in Zambia and if not solved we shall be running but in a vicious circle. Cant we for once stand together and define the Zambia we all want and then together move in…
“They said the reason why the Church is not participating is the NDF Act of 2019 does not provide a guarantee for the protection of the contents of the outcome that will be generated by the National Dialogue Forum.”
And what guarantee would there have been with the husbandless mother bodies?
I even hate reading the news of church mother body because they failed us.They like quarreling instead of showing good spirit of Jesus Christ.
You Bishops go to hell for you hold no peace.
F.uck you church f.ucking body!!!
Really what is the point of participation in the NDF when a part of all attendees (parliamentarians) will determine the final adoption of resolutions. I see no participating parliamentarian agreeing to a resolution stating that ministers be appointed from outside parliament when the ulterior motive for contesting to be an MP is the possibility of landing a ministerial appointment!
F..uck u …failures