Government won't tamper with constitution - Akafumba

Government won't tamper with constitution - Akafumba
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Tue 19 June 2012, 13:23 CAT

THE PF government will not tamper with what the people of Zambia will come up with for the final constitution, says PF candidate in the Livingstone parliamentary by-election Joseph Akafumba. And the MMD-UPND alliance on Sunday shunned the Livingstone Press Club public forum held at Hindu Hall citing alleged insecurity.

Speaking during the Livingstone Press Club Forum, Akafumba said the PF central committee was yet to come up with its own presentations to the technical committee on the draft constitution.

"As a party, we have not yet come up with what we should present, but I can assure you that we will not tamper with what the people will want to be in the constitution and all we can do is to appeal to the public to participate in the constitution-making process," said Akafumba who is also party chairperson for Southern Province.

Akafumba said he was the best candidate for the Livingstone seat as he was a resident of the town.

He said the tourism sector needed re-investment as the Sun Hotel was monopolising the sector.

"We have lagged behind in development. We used to be a textile town and the town would be nothing without the Victoria Falls. That is why we have taken the provincial administration to Choma so that we can re-plan the sector. We need to get out of the monopoly by Sun Hotels and also we need to say come July 5, then casualisation ends," he said.

And independent candidate Stephen Zulu whose campaign theme is "I will walk with you, talk with you, listen to you and work hard for you" caused laughter when he said all prisoners should be released if prisons could not be rehabilitated.

Zulu said prisons in UK were like hotels.

"Not that I have been a convict but I have been told by people who have been there. If the prisons can't be rehabilitated then we should do as the Bible says, 'let the people go'," Zulu said.

Another independent candidate, Zondhwayo Soko, said members of parliament who do not work with the government of the day were very wrong.