Chief Government Spokesperson Mike Mulongoti says Government prefers to enact the new Constitution through a legitimate body like Parliament and not the Constituent assembly which had a lot of impediments.
Mr Mulongoti who is also Information and Broadcasting Minister said it would take
87 weeks for the Government to enact the new Constitution through Parliament which
was cheaper and a less time consuming road map unlike the Constituent Assembly that
some people and stakeholders were advocating for which could even take five years.
He further said Government preferred to tackle certain clauses in the constitution
that could be amended through an indaba without incurring the wrath of article 79 to
ensure that the new Constitution was enacted by Parliament and not the constituent
assembly.
ZANIS Kitwe reports that Government had already set aside K200 Billion for the
process to ensure that the Zambian people enacted the Constitution in a more decent
and sombre manner.
Mr Mulongoti said this in Kitwe today during a live radio programme on the Government Constitution review process on the Catholic owned Radio Ichengelo.
The minister noted that the majority of the Zambian people did not know the implications of adopting the Constitution through a constituent assembly and that
the advocates of this process were not helping Zambians as they were not telling the
truth.
He further said if the referendum failed to identify eligible voters by 50 percent then the entire process would be thrown in disarray and chaos which would be a waste of national resources and time.
The minister also wondered what would happen to the entire process, if Parliament
refused to accept the document and recommendations by the Constituent Assembly.
Mr Mulongoti added that there was need for Government to give direction to the
nation by allowing Parliament operate normally and enact the Constitution as required by Law to avoid the nation being thrown into chaos.
He said Government was more than ready to sit down with various Stakeholders and
amend certain articles in the Constitution to ensure that the nation moved forward and adopted a new constitution within the desirable time frame.
And speaking later, in an interview with some members of the press Chembe member of
Parliament Mwansa Mbulakulima said the enactment of the Constitution through a
Constituent assembly meant that Zambians had passed a vote of no confidence in their
members of Parliament.
Mr Mbulakulima wondered how the same people who had voted for them as their sole
representatives could today turn around and render them irrelevant.
He said the people who would sit on the Constituent Assembly would not have the
authority and legality that was given to the members of Parliament.
He appealed to Zambians to tread carefully and ensure that the constitution was enacted by Parliament.
Totally unsurprising, nothing short of what we’ve come to expect from our govt. The man is trying really hard, sounding very defensive about an issue that gives the MMD the creeps. Those figures Mike is quoting are pathetically without foundation.
I cant help but ask myself a fundamental question, are Mulongoti and the MMD the legitimate people to decide whether a public good of such importance is ‘too costly’? Who pays the bill?
I am now getting more and more convinced that LPM has a personal interest in frustrating the constitutional enactment. Given that he has also banned the leadership debate in MMD, it is time Zambians started bracing themselves for another third term debate. The final term of any president’s rule should be used to build a lasting legacy. Unless of course you have not intention of stepping down.
Reading this news, makes me sick and feel the democracy we want to flourish in Zambia will never. Zambians want the constitution that is driven by them and not by few individuals in the parliament who are actually prone to follow the directives of the Govt. Mulongoti is asking what about if the parliament refuses to accept the will of the majority of Zambians?What he does n’t know is people will also refuse the costitution driven by politicians who want to cheat every time to suit themselves.There will total uprising and the government will be in disarray.People don’t fear when they feel enough is is enough.It is wealth spending more on the costitution that will withstand the test of time.
The current costitution lacks certain powers that citizens can use when they feel it is right to exercise their right in any form. We have seen hospitals not having medications with few demoralised staff working uder unspeakable conditions whilst politicians are taken abroad for treatment.is it ok
Is the govt the final say in the enacting of the document or is it the peoples aspirations to decide how well they want the document enacted?This is a mess, because if LPM and Co had mapped out what the constitution was going to be, why did they bother Mungomba and his group to collect submissions?What were they for? This is now taking the innocent people of zambia far to much for granted.No wonder Levy is saying he will be irrelevant after 2011,what he has forgotten due to amnesia is he became irrelevant after 2001.
This man Levy has a hidden agenda, its like this Presidency is cursed, every other time when they are in their final rounds they completely cease thinking, they become like a knocked engine, his predecessor behaved the same way over 3rd term, now its this chap over the constititution,ala ba Levy twamipapata ,citeniko ifyapusana, may namulaba ati Teka farm is in Zambia,you are already thinking its in Bahamas,change your attitude you are dealing with peoples lives
Can some one please explain to me what thse mps are saying about enacting the the constitution by CA?This is my point do they consider themselves irelevant or not trstworth enough or or just weak to represent the pipo of zambia on something so importatnt as the constitution?Its a shame on anybody that is in parliament today that pipo can opt for the CA in their place.I tend to agree to some extent with goverment that instead of spending money on a CA in which it might be almost impossible to come to a consensus.Why can’t we just be stain with the pipo that we elected and tell them what we want?The constitution is very important but if there is a cheap way to arrive at that,we should exploit that.Shame on every member of parliament you should all resign because pipo have no confidence in you.If we can’t trust you on this one then what does that make you feel?
ah
Some of u pipo have been so vocal over the london court judgement,what do you say about this outsourcing by the parliament of its resposibilities to the constuency assembly?Basic civics tells me that the constitution is the supreme law of the land and parliament is law making organ of the gov’t therefore must be the one to tuckle this challenge.We are setting a very bad precedent for the future.The constitution is not going to stay the same at least in the short time to come.We are likely to have another amendment soon and we are soon going to realise how expensive this is.I would like to have pipo driven constitution but Iam also mindfull of the consquences of mihandling the all process.I believe if only we shift focus on who is in statehouse we can mobilise pipo to make parliament enact the pipo driven document and the power will be to the pipo.Talk about confused nation.
we have gone back to the old rhetoric way of doing things. we want apeople driven constitution and not one to suit the government of the day.
we ouugt to be ashamed when countries like south africa and even war torn uganda, rwanda and somalia managed to achieve a people driven constituion thru eiter a constitutional assembly or a constituent assembly respecttively.
you say it will be an expensive venture where did planning and budget go. but you can afford trips everyday, functions at state house, luxury cars for mps,come on let us be serious and show some political will.
people should feel that the have participated and achieved ownership.
why do wehave to be so greedy and only do what will suit one group of people.its not fair and i thought this wa sa government of laws not men.
argument that we shd enact thru present constitution doesnt stand that is why we want to change it coz its not legitimate. remember the 1996 hallabaloo.
Mulongoti the money for CA is not coming from pocket or your masters, it is our money. We want CA at any cost. Dont just use our money on useless trips to China, pls give us what we want, using tax payers’ money. No matter how costly it will be, we want it fast.
i am falling to understand why the people who were claiming to be servants during campaign are now not listening to us.the new constitution should be made thru a ca if all areas have to be tuckled.now these *****s want to manipulate it.lets continue advocating 4 CA .LPM must be shown that the will of the people is more important than the will of MMD.mike we are not going to use money from yo pocket so just shut up or tell muwelele to be serious chifukwa aza avi onela monga ni va ku bantu
It’s been clear Levy and the MMD have absolutely no appetite for a CA. The route they are suggesting is simply not gonna give us anything more than what we got under FTJ. So whats the point. Thanks AM, we demand a CA at any cost! Any semblance of a cheap CA would still be preferable to a fully functional Parliament.
They were happy to spend over K3 billion on an unprompted one-day indaba.
Ba levy na ba mike ya shani.Please learn from chiluba and listern to what pipo are saying,it will make your job easier.
Infact ba LPM, wrong advisers like mike will lead you into problems that have made chiluba to be in hospital.
Love your heart and let the pipo decide for there destiny.
The Govt knows that the only way their ideas and decisions can be passed is through a “rubber stamp” called Parliament made up of themselves again.Who will not even debate a sentence but vote for the constitution with confidence. What have the previous constitution commissions recommended? Politicians never listen
Ala bane ululumbi lwamulanda kukakata, Filya basosa ati umutombwa tumya kulu fyakale.Its’ we pipo who have elected these uncultured and bush products whom we thought are going to deliver.Today we have found our selves asking for how long are they going to cheat? During elections we are regarded as masters and today we are called names by these *****s.We don’t want our childred to ask us why didn’t you do some for us the future? This dearly wanted costitution driven by the pipo is wealth fight for whether this will bring bloodshed maybe psychotic LM will listen.LM should not even blame anyone, political parties or NGOs when second Chacha starts for the new costitution maybe he should ask our founder father Dr Kaunda.This is not to remove the govt but to make listern to what we want. no more lies. Power to the people,
Here we go again openning our vocal cavities wide and nobody seems to ask the the very importat quesition.What critheria are we going to use to get pipo in the CA?How are we going to get to fair representation?We are going into alot of mess because i know my pipo are not that politically mature to undertake such political venture.this constitution will not be enacted before the next election and I say that with confidence.The gov’t wants us to go with CA cause they Know how we are going to behave.Remember when Unip boycoted the voting in parliament over kaunda, the gov’t wanted them to do that and they did it.They thot they were fixing the gov’t but they fixed us.Unip boycotted the election thinking they wre fixing the boma but u know the story.Let us not think that because the govn’t says yes to CA then we are on the same page