The Church which has been vocal in calling on Government to slow down the process of enacting Bill 10 failed to take steps for generating further consensus through consultation, the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) has charged.
In a statement released today, YALI President said the Church failed to formally participate in the Constitution making process started in 2017 which has been inclusive, with dialogue, tolerance of opposing views and consensus building.
“Instead of promoting courteous discussions aimed at moving closer to a much wider consensus than what has already been achieved, we note that institutions such as the Church and civil society organisations kept shooting in the air and took a very antagonistic position,” said Ntewewe.
Mr. Ntewewe said the Church should have utilised the time Parliament had gone on recess to take steps for generating further consensus through consultation and engaging Members of Parliament from both sides, but it failed to do so.
He said Zambians have had sufficient opportunity to listen to different viewpoints on both the content and process of amending this Constitution.
“The measures to make process inclusive were humanly made possible through the National Democratic Summit under the auspices of the ZCID, the Siavonga Meeting of Political Parties, the National Dialogue Forum and more recently the Parliamentary Select Committee Sittings!! All these avenues put in place by government, civil society and Parliament were all aimed at ensuring dialogue, consensus and inclusion of all stakeholders,” he said.
Ntewewe said Parliamentarians should note that the church with other stakeholders deliberately overlooked and endeavored to dilute the consensus arrived at through the Parliamentary Select Committee Report and also wantonly ignored the subsequent Notice of Amendments pushed before Parliament by the Minister of Justice on the floor of the house.
“In the absence of genuine leadership by civil society bodies such as the church and its failure to put in place mechanism for bridging the gap between the two divergent viewpoints, it has only become necessary that the People’s Representative in Parliament must now take the lead and seek to find a common ground,” he said.
YALI said no matter how much time is given for this Bill to undergo further consultations, nothing more would change the opposing minds of the two sides.
“These consultations on the Constitution and the content have been going on since 2017. By and large consensus has been reached. The issue of trust has been dealt with by moving of the motion of Notice of Amendments,” he said.
Mr. Ntewewe said the resumption of Parliament today should be a point where Parliament must exercise its authority to make laws as per mandated given by article 62 and 79 of the Constitution.
“Parliament remains the only body that must find common ground in cleaning the Bill by taking the views of people from both sides into account and enact provisions which are agreeable to both sides,” he said.
Pf lives matter
ANOTHER,USELESS ***** LIKE KZ.SOBER UP ALL OF U.
Walasa. These church groups have been very political to lead this process
Let MPs take charge, the church can’t think beyond being denied to chair the process. Let them be preaching
More volume ba YALI. these church characters must go back to pulpit. Have they ever invited MpS to preach also?
Govt must not shy away this time. Just table bill so that when it fails it fails and we all forget about it. We won’t die if it fails. We can deal with it in 2045.
Freedom of expression at work. Keep on my guys
Time to move on! If the Constitution goes through or fails, so be it. We can’t be stuck with one topic for 4 years. Get it out of our way
Tribalist! We know how much u want Lungu to win
Why does PF and UPND think this is their party Constitution? Just allow MPs to debate and give Zambians the Constitution which will be better in reducing conflict
SML
Instead of taking us forward, UpnD taking us backwards. Let’s get done and forget about this. Elections are just round de corner
Ntewewe has diarrhea, he and his group have chewed ECL’s money to push for this bill against all odds,now he’s not very sure it will go through and he’s dead worried for lack of a deliverable to his benefactor.
Dark cloud hangs on Zambia….. Many small boys are edified as Best wise men…….. Surely , we have sunk so low……… Can Ntewewe compete with Chinese investor or American one……. .
Mr.Mtewewe.How many times are they going to tell you that Bill 10 is a sumptuous meal peppered with feaces.
Bring out sensible points you f00l, you cant debate without insulting.
No person in a right frame of mind, will oppose good legislation. The fact that there is so much resistance to Bill 10 should tell you that it is NO GOOD. Ntewewe is ignoring the fact that PF Cadres disrupted a dialogue forum meant to discuss Bill !0 at Intercontinental Hotel.
Any law enacted to benefit one person or a particular group of individuals is unacceptable,
@Kizito
Is it possible to insult a sumptuous meal?.I do not insult people.Graphical illustrations can help sink in a point.People who spent a little more time in school would understand.
What kind of reasoning is YALI advancing?
Do you mean to say YALI has the monopoly of wisdom over the Churche Mother Bodies?
It’s very dangerous and rather disingenuous thinking to say the Bill gets tabled and we live with whatever consequences.
This is typical Ostrich Mentality!
It’s like putting your head in the mouth of a Lion or Crocodile hoping for the best outcome.
What is clear is we know who has been restlessly advocating for bad things.
We’ll be the first to take YALI to task when hell breaks out because of supporting things with Hungry Stomachs!
Those church mother bodies don’t speak for many of us. They speak for themselves. Am Catholic and I don’t agree with the Church. The trouble is that Church has been compromised by UPND. They must never claim to be a reservoir of knowledge. We know what we want as citizens. Church can’t speak as if we asked them to speak for all of us.
Andrew will not rest until Lungu wins. Abena Chipenzi wake up as well and match the game
What consensus are you talking about when we the majority of Zambians have said “No to Bill 10.” Paid people to these useless dialogues does not constitute representation to the people of Zambia. Consensus would be to put the amendment up to a constitutional amendment election with clear spelt out points that have a Yes or No – then the people would have spoken. Parliamentarians represent their bellies so all the PF will not vote with their conscience but by directive from Party. Similarly the opposition Parliamentarians will vote by directive. Let the people speak through the ballot and the Government must not cry “No money to hold constitutional referendum” because they have always found funding for the useless ward by elections