Musaluke says parentage clause is discriminatory

Musaluke says parentage clause is discriminatory
By Ernest Chanda
Mon 05 Mar. 2012, 11:58 CAT

LAW Association of Zambia vice-president Martin Musaluke says the parentage clause should be removed from the Republican Constitution because it is discriminatory and undemocratic.

Giving his opinion on the subject, Musaluke said the nation should take advantage of the ongoing constitution-making process and correct things. According to the current Constitution, one of the qualifications for a presidential candidate is that both his/her parents should be Zambians.

He said a lot of things were wrong in the current Constitution, which should also be corrected.

"For me it should be removed, that's my point. As long as somebody is a Zambian, let him qualify. There are a lot of qualifications, which we can come up with, but this parentage clause should be removed; that's my personal opinion," Musaluke said in an interview yesterday.

"This is the time to make it right. There are a lot of things which are wrong, but I think this is the time for us to make things right. So for me I think that clause is very unfair and it's undemocratic. As long as somebody is a Zambian, that's ok."

He said there were Zambians born to foreign parents and had been discriminated on the basis of the parentage clause even when they had never been to their parents' countries of origin.

"We have a situation whereby you could have somebody who is well qualified, probably one of his parents came to Zambia and abandoned that child and the person has been here in Zambia all along. So, why should we disenfranchise that person from being president if he qualifies? So, I think we should look at it seriously and see how best we can protect such situations," said Musaluke.

"We've got a lot of situations whereby, for example we've muzungus (whites) who've been here. They have children and they have never taken care of them. They go away and their mothers struggle; and this person goes through university, he doesn't even know where England is. Just because some parents came from England he can't be president even if he is a Zambian. The constitution review technical committee should remove the clause and replace it with other suitable qualifications."

Prior to the September 20 general elections, Zambia's former Ambassador to Malawi Milton Phiri, now Zambia's first secretary for politics in South Africa, sought a court order that former president Rupiah Banda be barred from contesting the presidency because his parents were not Zambians by birth or descent.