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HH advises against making laws targeting individuals

HH advises against making laws targeting individuals
By Patson Chilemba
Sun 24 Jan. 2010, 04:01 CAT

UPND president Hakainde Hichilema yesterday advised the nation against making laws which target individuals. And Hichilema charged that Namwala member of parliament Major Robbie Chizhyuka is a lunatic who wanted to beat him at one point.

Commenting on the adoption of a clause by the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) which required a presidential candidate to be a degree holder, Hichilema said he was a university graduate but that did not mean that every university graduate could make a good president.

He said equally, not every non-graduate could make a good Republican president.
“We should never make laws that target individuals, but for everybody. If you were a leader sometime and you made laws that targeted individuals, you are guilty,” Hichilema said when he officiated at a party workshop at the secretariat.

He said the constitution-making process had been mishandled from the beginning.
Hichilema said the nation wanted the 50 per cent plus one threshold for one to be elected president because the MMD had been a minority government since 2001.
He said he sat in the NCC when the delegates deliberated and voted on the 50 per cent plus one clause and watched how the ‘master-rigger’ walked about.

“When we find them rigging, timenya, that is why that day I was looking at the master-rigger, I was telling him ‘your days are numbered’,” Hichilema said.
However, Hichilema said he had no regrets for having allowed UPND members to participate in the NCC because it was a well thought-out move.

He said had UPND not sent their members to the NCC, the MMD would have bulldozed their way to block the 50 per cent plus one clause from the new constitution.
Hichilema said referring the matter to the referendum had given the nation another opportunity.

“We think through issues and we don’t make impulse decisions,” he said.
And Hichilema recalled that Maj Chizhyuka threatened to beat him.

“In there pointing at the UPND offices he wanted to beat the vice-president of the party, the other day he wanted to beat two MPs, when I tried to stop him, he almost came for me,” he said.

Hichilema said it was surprising that Maj Chizhyuka was now being given enough air time on the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) television when they never gave him space when he was in the UPND.

“So continue giving him space. If you have space for a lunatic, continue giving him space,” he said.

Hichilema said it was a lie for anyone to suggest that the PF-UPND pact had decided on the presidential candidate.

On the activities of MMD Lusaka Province chairperson William Banda, Hichilema asked UPND members not to be swayed by 10,000 kwachas.

“I am aware that William Tekere Banda is dishing out money. Tekere came by way of his viciousness, he used to run the UNIP vigilante. Who is sending Banda?” Hichilema asked, and the UPND officials responded “Bwezani.”

Hichilema said the people of Zambia should be saved from President Banda’s mediocre leadership.

Labels: BILL OF ATTTAINDER, CONSTITUTION, HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, NCC, ROBBIE CHIZHYUKA

posted by MrK @ 9:25 PM