Maravi

EFZ urges extension of NRCs exercise

EFZ urges extension of NRCs exercise
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Tue 06 Apr. 2010, 04:00 CAT

EVANGELICAL Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) executive director Reverend Pukuta Mwanza has said the confusion surrounding the mobile issuance of national registration cards (NRCs) shows how Zambian leaders lack the ability to think effectively on such important matters.

In an interview yesterday, Rev Mwanza said the national registration and voter registration exercises should be revised and decentralised. The Ministry of Home Affairs has commenced the third phase of the mobile registration exercise, which will run from April 1 to June 30, 2010.

The third phase would cover Luapula, Copperbelt and Lusaka provinces and the teams in the areas would spend approximately five days at a given centre in order to reach as many people as possible.

But people have complained about the long queues and called on the government to extend the five-day registration period.

Rev Mwanza said the long queues at the centres were a recipe for corruption because the delays could bring frustration and people could get tempted to compromise their integrity and offer bribes to get the NRCs.

He said there was need to decentralise the whole process so that the officers could deal with a smaller group of people.

“This exercise should have been taken to the schools while they were still open so that the pupils there get the NRCs from there so that townships are decongested. This would decongest the townships. The footage on television showing long queues at Matero Constituency just shows how our leaders lack the ability to think effectively on such important national matters. No Zambian should be disfranchised because of not having an opportunity to get an NRC or voter’s card,” he said.

Rev Mwanza urged the government to quickly act on the matter and ensure that it was addressed.

And Mwanza said while the church was an ally of the government on national matters, it could not keep quiet on government’s failures.

“Being an ally doesn’t mean we cannot speak out on things that the government is doing wrong. If we have a contrary view, we do it for the good of the Zambian people and that as a church, we have no political agenda but to ensure peace and stability in the country,” he said.

“We are helping them government to have a conducive environment in which to serve. The church is actually involved in the provision of many services to the people such as education, health, food aid and HIV and AIDS among others.”

He said the church’s role in governance matters should be appreciated and the government must not clip the clergy’s lips when they speak because they had their feet on the ground.

Rev Mwanza said the church was deeply concerned about the squabbles among politicians which were a threat to peace and unity.

He said the squabbles were causing doubts in the general public, especially that elections were drawing near.

Rev Mwanza said the trading of insults and personal attacks in public just showed that politicians were running away from issues of national development.

He said the politicking was an indication that the politicians were tired and must go into retirement.

Rev Mwanza said politicians were expected to put their energies and thoughts at lowering the cost of living for the majority of Zambians.

“They need to think of job creation, employment, education and health, as we have seen that the general social services in the country have totally collapsed,” said Rev Mwanza.

Labels: EFZ, PUKUTA MWANZA, VOTER REGISTRATION

posted by MrK @ 4:27 AM