Maravi

Bishop Mchombo calls for reflection on constitition

Bishop Mchombo calls for reflection on constitition
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Fri 08 Apr. 2011, 04:01 CAT

BISHOP William Mchombo says the defeat of the two constitutional bills in Parliament gives an opportune time to leaders to retreat and reflect on the need to deliver a truly people-driven constitution.

Commenting on the failure of the constitution draft bill to go through in Parliament, Bishop Mchombo, the Bishop in-charge of the Anglican Diocese of Eastern Zambia, said it was unfortunate that a lot of taxpayers’ money was spent on the Constitution.

“The failure of the constitution draft bill to go through in Parliament is not what we as a nation can be proud of. It is very sad and unfortunate. It sends wrong signals to the outside world that we are not capable of managing our affairs when the opposite is very true seeing the collective intelligence that we have as a nation,” Bishop Mchombo said.

He said the Church, which boycotted the constitution-making process, had been vindicated.“And as much as the Church has been vindicated, it is really sad that colossal sums of taxpayers’ money were spent to receive submissions countrywide followed by the sitting of the NCC only to reach a dead end.

The money could have gone a long way in ameliorating the suffering of most of our people.

This is an opportune time for our leaders to retreat and reflect on the need to deliver a truly people-driven constitution. People spoke through the Mung’omba Constitution Review Commission and are tired of piecemeal amendments to the national document,” said Bishop Mchombo.

Bishop Mchombo, who is the former Zambia Anglican Council presiding Bishop, is part of the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) which boycotted the National Constitution Conference.

Labels: CONSTITUTION, WILLIAM MCHOMBO

posted by MrK @ 4:31 PM