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Lundazi residents bemoans lack of political will on constitution-makin

Lundazi residents bemoans lack of political will on constitution-makin
By Christopher Miti in Lundazi
Sunday March 18, 2007 [02:00]

LUNDAZI residents have observed that government lacks political will in the constitutionmaking process. And the residents have also called for more sensitisation on the adoption of the new constitution. During the Newsmakers Forum organised by the Press Freedom Committee of The Post at Tigone Motel on Friday, the residents said there was need to mount pressure on government to enact the new constitution by 2008.

Father Vincent Daka from the Catholic Church expressed concern over the inconsistency in the constitution making process. “People fought for the adoption of the constitution through the constituent assembly and after sometime government has accepted but up to now government has not availed to us the roadmap. This clearly shows that there is no political will on the part of government,” he said. Fr Dakad government should tell the people when it would set up the constituent assembly as proposed by the Zambian people.

Another discussant, Macwin Nyirongo from the Patriotic Front said Zambians should be listened to on constitutional matters. “After we got our independence we thought that issues relating to the constitution would easily be sorted out but that is not seen. I think Zambians are not listened to by the government,” he said. Nyirongo said there was need to come up with a constitution that would stand the test of time. Jones Chifwembe from UNIP said it was shameful that most submissions from the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) were ignored by government.

He said Zambians should not be invaded by terrorists who do not listen to them. Other discussants such as pastor Lawrence Mukena from Bread of Life Church said a lot of issues were not in order in the country because the constitution was flawed. Robby Khondowe said all the country’s three presidents that had ruled Zambia were selfish. “All the presidents from Kenneth Kaunda, Frederick Chiluba and Levy Mwanawasa are selfish because all they did was to protect their stay in office.We are sick and tired of these people because they didn’t want to listen to people, they ignored the voice of the majority on the constitution. Our members of parliament are useless, they only speak for themselves in Parliament and not for the people,” Khondowe said.

Boyd Muyanga said government had delayed the constitution making process because it wanted to remove certain clauses that were not favourable to it. “Government is dragging its feet because it wants to water down some elements that they think are not good but this is not a good development,” Muyanga said. Another Lundazi resident, Angela Kalambo said people should not just concentrate on the constitution because there were many problems that the country was facing. Muyunda Zulu challenged Lundazi residents to be interested in constitutional issues and get involved in the governance of the country. The residents also complained over the state of the Chipata/Lundazi Road that had remained in a bad state despite it being rehabilitated by a contractor - Steffanutti and Bressan.

Labels: CONSTITUTION

posted by MrK @ 4:40 AM