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Barotse issue can only be dealt with through constitution - Scott

Barotse issue can only be dealt with through constitution - Scott
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Sun 22 Apr. 2012, 13:29 CAT

VICE-President Dr Guy Scott says the Barotseland Agreement can only be dealt with through the constitution whose draft is under review. Featuring on a special radio programme on Zambezi FM yesterday, Vice-President Scott said devolution of powers was another way out to solve the Barotseland Agreement that was abrogated by a constitutional amendment.

"To re-instate it Barotseland Agreement will need an involvement to repeal the constitution and… best we have to reaffix the constitution is the process underway of redoing the constitution," said Vice-President Dr Scott.

He said the other way out of the Barotseland Agreement saga was the issue of devolution which ultimately affected all provinces as there was dire need of developmental decisions to be taken at grass root levels.

"The Barotseland Agreement was all about independence and through the devolution of powers. We will have that next year and I hope they will not turn the clock against themselves. Secession is not worth discussing," he said.

Meanwhile, Vice-President Dr Scott on Friday held a private meeting with former British prime minister John Major with whom he joked about African burial rites.

"It takes over eight hours to bury somebody in Africa. I remember how some 30 years ago I had to bury my mother in about 30 minutes," Vice-President Dr Scott said.

Vice-President Scott, Major and other high ranking officials were in Livingstone on invitation of Standard Chartered Bank's Creative Connections 2012 meeting.

Meanwhile, PF officials have threatened to make government officials at the provincial administration feel their wrath if they continue hiding programmes of ministers and other high ranking dignitaries when on tour.

In an interview, PF provincial women's chairperson Ann Nyirenda Tischer said it was embarrassing to the PF that high ranking government officials had been spotted in the province without the knowledge of the ruling party.

"The MMD sympathisers at Cabinet Office should realise that the MMD is no longer in power. We have respected them more than they were treated by the MMD but they need to now realise that PF is in power and we deserve to know who is coming in the province," Tischer said.

Southern Province PF vice information and publicity secretary Brighton Luhila said the ruling party would be tempted to petition the President to transfer some civil servants out of the province if they were still drunk with the MMD mentality.

"As a ruling party we need to be informed about various government programmes and visits. Only then will we be seen to be in government. The opposite of it only goes to confirm that the province is domicile to the UPND," Luhila said.

Aaron Mwiinga, PF provincial treasurer, said: "Unless they start meeting us, they will never know the challenges and developmental needs of the province."

Labels: BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, CONSTITUTION, GUY SCOTT

posted by MrK @ 6:23 PM