'It's primitive to formulate laws that target individuals'

'It's primitive to formulate laws that target individuals'
By Mwala Kalaluka
Sunday June 22, 2008 [04:01]

FEDERATION of Free Trade Unions (FFTUZ) president Joyce Nonde has said it is primitive for any government to formulate laws that are targeted against individuals. And Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Leornard Hikaumba has urged leaders to learn to be objective when formulating laws.

Nonde was commenting on President Levy Mwanawasa's comments over defence minister George Mpombo's recent withdrawal of his age limit proposal before the National Constitution Conference (NCC).

Mpombo said he withdrew the proposal in the spirit of the recent reconciliation between President Mwanawasa and PF president Michael Sata.

Nonde said in an interview that Zambia has had inconsistencies in its legal framework because of the targeted laws.

"I would like to thank the President for clarifying, because you know over the years, laws in this country, most of them are targeted," Nonde said.

"There should not be any discrimination in the way we formulate laws; let it be on age or gender...it is so sad that our politicians want to target their enemies. It is very primitive and that is why we are always backward."

Nonde said the withdrawal of the age-limit proposal enhanced the people's suspicions about the constitutional review process under the NCC despite assurances that the government means well.

"The composition is not okay. There are a lot of state actors," Nonde said. "So we are still very suspicious and worried."

Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) president Reuben Lifuka said it would be retrogressive for the NCC to sit down and discuss ways of curtailing the progress of political opponents. He said TIZ would not want to talk about what was happening in the NCC in view of its boycotting of the undertaking.

Lifuka said, however, that the constitution-making process should not be targeted because the constitution was beyond personalities.

And Hikaumba said law formulations that were targeted against a particular group of people or individual lacked objectivity.
Hikaumba, who is NCC vice-chairperson, said the age-limit proposal had not yet been a factor within the NCC and expressed surprise that it had come out prominently in the public domain before the NCC discussed it.

And veteran politician Dr Rodger Chongwe has criticised Sata's new approach of addressing contentious issues with President Mwanawasa as wrong for politics and development. Dr Chongwe said all opposition leaders could only be in direct discussion with the President on national issues such as defence and foreign policy.

He said on all matters that concerned the country other than national issues, opposition leaders in modern day politics were supposed to criticise the president in public.

Dr Chongwe said the thought that the country could only be developed if the opposition or any other individual associated with the party in power was not correct.

And commenting on UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema's invitation to United Liberal Party (ULP) president Sakwiba Sikota to rejoin UPND, Dr Chongwe said the approach was wrong. He said Hichilema should have invited Sikota for talks after which they would have jointly announced what they would have agreed on. He said Hichilema still had time to redeem himself by following the correct procedure in asking Sikota to rejoin the UPND.

"He probably was not serious in his invitation. What Mr Hichilema should have done was to have one-on-one talks with Mr Sikota and then at the end of that, the two could have held a joint conference to announce their conclusions," said Dr Chongwe.

"Perhaps it was the lack of experience by Mr Hichilema that led him to issue an invitation to Mr Sikota at an inappropriate platform."

Hichilema during a conference to welcome members of ULP, who had defected to UPND during the week, invited Sikota to rejoin the party that he broke away from.