Maravi

Kunda rejects calls for his resignation

Kunda rejects calls for his resignation
By Mwala Kalaluka
Tuesday August 21, 2007 [04:00]

JUSTICE minister George Kunda has rejected calls for his resignation over his alleged poor handling of the constitution review process, describing such demands as malicious. But Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) executive director Bishop Paul Mususu said people calling for Kunda’s resignation were not being malicious but just wanted to salvage the situation in view of the delay it has taken to review the Constitution.

In supporting his colleague, chief government spokesperson Mike Mulongoti said Kunda’s colleagues in Cabinet felt that he had done a good job on the constitution review process and he was therefore beyond reproach. Featuring on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation’s (ZNBC) National Watch programme on Sunday night, Kunda said there was no way some members of civil society could call for his resignation when they were not privy to the advice he gives President Mwanawasa on the matter.

“I am not the only person who advises the President. It is a job of every minister to advise the President,” Kunda said. “I am surprised that people are calling for my resignation, I think it is just malice.” He said his job was defined in line with the statutory powers that President Mwanawasa gave him when he appointed him justice minister. Most of the viewers who sent messages to the programme also called for Kunda’s resignation and for Mulongoti to stop expressing incompetence on constitutional matters. Members of the Oasis Forum last week demanded that Kunda resign due to his failure to properly advise President Mwanawasa on the constitution review process.

And responding to Kunda’s sentiments, Bishop Mususu said everyone was entitled to their own opinion, the Oasis Forum included. “I think when you analyse the whole situation you are asking the question if it is malicious, who benefits? Whose interest is it that we are serving?” Bishop Mususu asked. “I believe I would just want to put it on record that on the third term, during the third term campaign when the Oasis Forum was constituted we had only one principle that we were championing and that was to protect the constitution at the time from the manipulation of an individual.” He said even in the current scenario, nothing had changed and the Oasis Forum in its quest to protect the Constitution was asking the government to listen to the people.

“We are not the ones that appointed the Mung’omba Commission. We had even boycotted sitting on it,” Bishop Mususu said. He said had government and the stakeholders agreed on the road map from the outset, people would not be arguing around the issue as was seemingly the case.
“We are talking about the road map because it eluded us,” Bishop Mususu said. “I would beg to disagree with the honourable minister (Kunda) that there is anything that is maliciously construed by the demand for resignation. It is simply because we seemingly are seeing the very thing that we have spent so much time and money on.”

But Mulongoti said the Oasis Forum was trying to flog a dead horse by calling for Kunda’s resignation since he was the one who was mandated by the law to table the constitutional National Constitutional Conference bill in Parliament. “So I think it is too late now to begin to ask for the resignation of the Minister of Justice,” Mulongoti said. “Now here is a man who has been leading this constitution discussion for a very long time. When we move him, are we saying that we should appoint another one and start all over again?” He said the government had a lot of confidence in Kunda, whom he described as a deep thinker and a bright lawyer.

“He is the Minister of Justice and they do not give those positions to people who are incapable,” Mulongoti said. “And in any case, a lawyer must not be there to preach falsehoods.” Both Mulongoti and Kunda, including Njekwa Anamela who was representing the Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) urged Zambians to move forward and enact the next constitution through the proposed constitutional conference. However, Bishop Mususu and Abraham Mwansa from the Law Association of Zambia said the composition of people in the constitutional conference was an inbuilt majority in favour of the government.

They called for the revision of the composition structure. In response, Kunda said this was one of the amendments the government was contemplating to make.

Labels: GEORGE KUNDA

posted by MrK @ 4:04 AM