Maravi

We shall expose Sata, Miyanda - Teta

We shall expose Sata, Miyanda - Teta
By Lindiwe Banda, Mwila Chansa and Mutuna Chanda
Wednesday October 17, 2007 [04:00]

We shall expose Sata and Miyanda if they want to champion the constitution-making process because they have no moral right to do so, MMD spokesperson Benny Tetamashimba has threatened. Addressing trainee journalists at The Post offices on Monday, Tetamashimba said Patriotic Front president Michael Sata and Heritage Party leader Brig Gen Godfrey Miyanda were part of the 1996 Cabinet during the Frederick Chiluba regime that enacted the current constitution which people are complaining about.

“Sata was dancing on the floor of the House when they removed the majority president clause (50 plus 1 per cent requirement). He was singing ‘KK walala walala’. Mr Sata and Mr Miyanda should be the last people to talk,” Tetamashimba said. “Let HH (UPND president Hakainde Hichilema) and Ngondo (All Peoples’ Congress Party president Ken Ngondo) talk, we can’t blame them because they were not there. If they (Sata and Miyanda) continue talking, we’ll start reproducing what they said then on the floor of the House. The records are there.”

Tetamashimba said for the first time, Zambians should accept that President Mwanawasa had gone beyond what his predecessors did by doing away with the white paper and has therefore asked the National Constitutional Conference to adopt the contents of the new constitution.

“You all know that there used to be constitutional review commissions during president Kaunda and also during president Chiluba. What Zambians said during president Kaunda and president Chiluba’s time is not different from what they said during the Mung’omba Constitution Review Commission,” Tetamashimba said.

“But when it came to making changes to the constitution, the cabinet of president Kaunda and president Chiluba decided to produce a White Paper. A White Paper contains what Cabinet decides to adopt from recommendations by the constitution review commission.
“And this time round, President Mwanawasa appointed a Constitution Review Commission that produced a document.

President Mwanawasa has stated that he is not going to produce a White Paper; he wants delegates to produce a White Paper when they go to the NCC. It will no longer be 20 ministers making a decision on a White Paper, it is now members of the NCC.

What they will produce is not even going to Cabinet. When it is produced and presented by the chairman, who will give it to the Minister of Justice? The minister will not take that document to Cabinet. He is just going to start formulating a Bill to present the whole document to members of parliament.”

Tetamashimba said it was wrong for people to perceive all politicians to be the same because when they go to the NCC, they will look at themselves as Zambians first and not as political leaders.

“MPs should not be taken as politicians but should be regarded as peoples’ representatives and not that they are going there to discuss political agendas. I hope they are going to go back to their constituencies and ask the people who voted for them so that they can tell them how they are moving. We are not like some of the civil societies.

I was elected by more than 11,000 people. I do not think there is anybody in the civil society who was elected by that number. It is not right for the civil society to say the MPs do not have more power in having been given the mandate by the people. Go to Kabwata, Hon Lubinda had more than 20,000 people who voted for him. If you consider all the MPs and the people who elected them, they are more than those who elected the NGO leaders.”

And Tetamashimba said some civil society members wanted the constitution making process to drag on because they wanted to continue receiving donor money which they did not even account for. He accused them of leading more luxurious lives than Cabinet ministers or MPs.

“Some NGO leaders get more than K30 million every month. You go to the houses they live; they have the biggest dogs and horses. In government, you can’t have such a big house unless you are a thief,” Tetamashimba said.

And commenting on President Mwanawasa’s threats that those fighting the government over the NCC would be arrested and charged with treason, Tetamashimba said people had misunderstood the President.

“He did not say those who would not attend the conference would be committing treason; he said those who will disturb the sittings of the NCC when it is in session are the ones that will be committing treason. That’s how I understood him,” Tetamashimba said.

“Unfortunately, President Mwanawasa doesn’t allow for people to be killed. So if you commit a treasonable offence just know that you will be imprisoned for life. Even if you were a delegate and you don’t go to participate, the people who will lose out are those who chose you to go. So the treasonable cases are those which are stated in the Constitution and not a person who doesn’t want to participate.”

Tetamashimba also wondered why people who are not lawyers were fighting over the NCC when constitutional lawyers such as John Sangwa had indicated the NCC Act was not defective.

He said the real fight was in the conference and not outside.

Labels: BENNY TETAMASHIMBA, GENERAL MIYANDA, SATA

posted by MrK @ 3:26 AM