Maravi

Avoid playing in Sata's hands, KK advises Levy

Avoid playing in Sata's hands, KK advises Levy
By Brighton Phiri and Masuzyo Chakwe
Monday October 15, 2007 [04:00]

PRESIDENT Levy Mwanawasa should avoid playing in PF president Michael Sata's hands, Dr Kenneth Kaunda advised yesterday. In an interview, Dr Kaunda said President Mwanawasa's threatening statement at the Lusaka International Airport was not the best way of resolving the stand-off between the government and key stakeholders in the constitution-making process.

"President Mwanawasa as head of state must avoid playing in the hands of people like Sata. If Sata or anybody else breaks the law, let the law deal with the matter instead of doing what he did when he came back from abroad," Dr Kaunda said.
Dr Kaunda said he intended to meet President Mwanawasa and the church leaders separately because it was obvious that the constitution crisis was growing bigger each day.
"My task at the moment is to see what I can do quietly by meeting President Mwanawasa and our church leaders," he said. "I agree with all concerned Zambians that this matter is serious."

He said it would not be in the interest of the country if the government went ahead to convene the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) without some of the key stakeholders. Dr Kaunda said the church leaders could not be ignored in the constitution making process.

"Our church leaders have been there...you cannot ignore them. I met them at Cathedral of the Holy Cross in 1991, so all what they are doing is not new," he said.
Addressing scores of MMD cadres and government officials at Lusaka International Airport soon after his arrival from London, President Mwanawasa said all those fighting the government over the NCC would be arrested and charged with treason.
President Mwanawasa warned that anyone daring the government over the NCC was committing treason and risked being charged with treason.
On Task Force chairman Max Nkole's revelation that Democratic Republic of Congo Katanga region governor Moses Katumbi would testify against former president Frederick Chiluba, Dr Kaunda commended the Task Force for having had reached Katumbi.
He further thanked Katumbi for having had accepted to come and testify against Chiluba.

"It clearly shows that there is more than we thought that we knew about Katumbi's relationship with Chiluba," Dr. Kaunda said.

Nkole last week disclosed that Katumbi would be a state witness in corruption cases against Chiluba and other persons accused of plunder of national resources.
And Non-Governmental Organisation Coordinating Council (NGOCC) board chairperson Marian Munyinda has declared that the women are ready to dance their way to prison over the constitution.

Commenting on President Levy Mwanawasa's threats to arrest and charge those opposed to the NCC, Munyinda said matters of the constitution were of great concern to women and as such they would continue to comment on the constitution-making process.

"We will actually dance on our way to the prisons - for ourselves - as opposed to dancing for the men at airports," she said.

Munyinda reminded President Mwanawasa that rights of expression of individuals were guaranteed to all Zambians regardless of office in Article 20 of the Laws of Zambia.
"In strengthening this view, NGOCC would like to quote a Zambian UK-based analyst, Malama Katulwende who said, 'Yet everyone ought to be wondering: how can we trust our political economy if a citizen's right to hold and even propagate dissenting views is violated by the government or politicians? On the other hand Dr Mwanawasa and his regime expect me, as a Zambian, to be governed uncomplainingly under a specific system of rules they call laws,'" Munyinda said.

She said NGOCC's commitment to dialogue had always been genuine and not mere rhetoric.

She said they would not want to participate in the NCC to be used as mere passengers on a bandwagon to legitimise an MMD agenda to give themselves a constitution to guarantee their stay in power.

"These issues being composition of the NCC, demand for complete overhaul as opposed to piecemeal amendments and presidential dissolution powers," she said.
On President Mwanawasa's threats, Munyinda said they would not back out from defending the people's views on the need for a good Republican constitution.
"We also wish to echo sentiments that forgiving the first and second Republican presidents for their failure to give us a good constitution may be easy as they are not learned lawyers as the saying goes. But to forgive Dr. Mwanawasa would be asking for too much especially that he holds himself highly in terms of the understanding of the law," she said.

Munyinda warned President Mwanawasa and justice minister George Kunda that should a bad constitution come out of the NCC, the women movement would lead a campaign to hold them accountable for abuse of office and waste of hard earned taxpayers' money instead of channelling the resources to social-economic delivery.

"In similar vein, we wish to advise our colleagues, the learned lawyers to immediately institute an independent team to investigate the allegedly spoilt ballots during their last extra-ordinary meeting. This should not be taken lightly as the public holds the lawyers' organisation highly," said Munyinda.

Labels: KENNETH KAUNDA, MWANAWASA, SATA

posted by MrK @ 4:41 AM