Maravi

Govt accuses some parties of funding constitution confusion
By Kabanda Chulu
Thu 09 Jan. 2014, 17:20 CAT

GOVERNMENT will not surrender the constitutional making process to reckless and opportunistic individuals that intend to bring confusion in the country, says information minister Mwansa Kapeya.

During a media briefing in Lusaka today, Kapeya, who is also chief government spokesperson, accused (without mentioning names) some opposition political parties of funding some civil society organisations to cause confusion in the constitutional making process.

Government has credible information that money has exchanged hands from well known opposition political party leaders to some CSOs aimed at fuelling confusion in this process, Kapeya said. Indeed this process has been hijacked by selfish individuals who want to humiliate and embarrass this government. If we are pushed too far, we shall name the culprits and publish the trail of how the monies have been moving. We cannot allow a few individuals to undermine the sovereign will of Zambians.

He said the government was alert to the current political schemes and would not allow reckless and opportunistic people to bring confusion in the country.

We are in control, we initiated this process, so it is our duty to
complete the process. We shall protect the masses from those intending to hijack the whole process, Kapeya said.

When asked how much was involved to bring confusion by the opposition,
Kapeya said; We can't tell you now..unless they push us, then we will be able to speak out.

On the roadmap and assertions by the CSOs that it was the government which had hijacked the whole process by disregarding the terms of reference given to the Technical Committee, Kapeya said the government was the initiator of the process.

We are the initiators of the process, we know what we are doing, where we are going. We are driving the whole process, therefore, we can't hijack when in actual fact, we are the ones handling the whole process, we are driving the process. The Technical Committee is doing final touches and everything is being done according to their mandate, he said.

When reminded that the mandate of the Technical Committee ended on
December 31, 2013, Kapeya said, Honourable Kabimba did announce the way
forward.

When asked if the Technical Committee has handed over the 10 copies to President Sata, Kapeya said the committee was doing its final work towards the documents.

Asked if the documents would be made public this year or next year and if it was legally wrong for political parties to fund the constitutional making process, Kapeya said the normal procedure has been followed.

But current crusade is aiming at embarrassing and humiliating government. The initial process is moving on well?when you talk of hijacking, somebody wants to come middle way and say no.. it is this way or that way just to create confusion, he said. We are not ready as government to entertain this confusion being caused by some opposition parties; they want to portray us as if we have failed to deliver what we promised the people.

Labels: CONSTITUTION

posted by MrK @ 4:10 PM