A constitution has to be futuristic – Zaloumis

A constitution has to be futuristic – Zaloumis
Written by Katwishi Bwalya and Ernest Chanda
Sunday, May 31, 2009 11:35:14 PM

NATIONAL Constitutional Conference (NCC) spokesperson Mwangala Zaloumis has said there is need to put some criteria of benchmarks in the constitution for one to qualify to certain public offices.

Commenting on the proposal that a Republican President should be a degree holder, Zaloumis said if the constitution remained unchanged on that score, then it would not be a futuristic document.

"If you are talking about global economics, what is an economic meltdown? Now you get somebody who doesn't even understand what an economic meltdown is. How are they going to help you the constituents or even as a minister or even as President?" Zaloumis asked.

"You go to the G8 summit, you go to the North-South summit, look at the region in Africa, what levels of presidents do we have in our region? So, in any process we have to go forward, The Kaundas helped us to attain our independence at that level they were courageous, they fought, they were special people and after they contributed what they want is an enhancement in order to go forward. So, at every level you look at the Americans, at every level it is an additional enhancement of what they have been doing."

Zaloumis observed that if the Constitution remained the way it was then it would create problems.

"If the constitution stays the way it is, if the status quo stands then nothing changes. You don't have members of parliament with certain qualifications, you don't have councillors with qualifications because anybody will be able to become a councillor, but the minute you start introducing qualifications to enhance the standards, those who might think they would be left out will be happy now," she said.

She said people making the constitution should think of having Zambians who are literate.

"A constitution has to be futuristic, we got to think of a situation where we have literate people in the whole country who understand. If you are in the council, you want somebody who can read the council minutes. You need somebody who understands how it is to be in a meeting and the procedure of the meeting and what has been discussed. Not when there is an agenda, somebody doesn't even know they got to follow that agenda then you are derailed," Zaloumis said.

She said there must be criteria to any job in the country for the country to be governed as expected.

"We have just been talking about permanent secretaries and people are saying we don't want grade sevens to be appointed or party cadres to be appointed. There must be a criteria. So to any job to any position there must be a criteria of what sort of people do you want to either take charge of the affairs of the state, institutions or organisations of the state. You can't just leave it open, this is what they are saying. This is not my submission but this is what people felt," she said.

"Why do you talk about retirement age? So that the young people when they come they can find jobs. The elderly people can be channeled into something else they can go and look after themselves but if you say there will be no retirement age what you are saying is that there will be no opportunity for the young ones to come through. At any stage there must be a level, some benchmarks. If you don't have these benchmarks then you have a problem. It's like if you want to go to the university there must be criteria on who should go to the university."

Zaloumis said it was equally important for members of parliament to have certain qualifications so that they articulate issues for the benefit of the people in constituencies.