OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT IN RESPONSE TO THE PRESS STATEMENT ON THE
CONSTITUTION
Thursday 9th January, 2014.
Your Excellency, President of the Republic of Zambia, we would like to express our sincere gratitude for responding to the cries of the people. Your response over matters concerning the constitution signifies that you are actually listening and this is one of the great hallmarks of a good leader. When people raise concerns a leader should be able to listen.
However, the response we got is very unfortunate. It is not the response we expected and is definitely not what the Zambian people want.
As Zambian Voice, we feel that you, Mr. President did not respond in a manner that encourages dialogue. It would appear that Your Excellency is throwing stones and pointing fingers at the Civil Society Organisations and all those who are calling for a new constitution, accusing them of having hijacked the entire process.
We are of the view that if there is anyone hijacking the constitution it is you Your Excellency and the Honourable Minister of Justice, Wynter Kabimba who have seemingly personalised the entire Constitution Making Process. On Saturday 4th January 2014, over 3000 people gathered at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross to call for the discharge of the draft constitution and there are still many more voices, some of whom you may not be alive to, but calling in the same vein all across the nation, on Social Media, in buses and on the streets.
It appears that Your Excellency has been hijacked from the people of Zambia who love you and voted you into office.
We would like to further remind you, Your Excellency that the Cabinet are not the people of Zambia. The majority of the people want the release of the constitution, the very people who submitted their views to the Technical Committee.
Our appeal is for you, your Excellency to reconsider your earlier position and give the Zambian People their draft constitution.
Yours sincerely,
Chilufya Tayali.
Executive Director
all this will fall on deaf ears. try to send un used urine bag which can function as a normal kidney then it will be received with two hands and a big smile
True that this may fall on deaf ears, but if it does go that way then us the people of this great country Zambia MUST rise and take it upon ourselves to demand for the release of the final draft constitution by protests and demonstrations countrywide.
It is not only through the ballot that leaders can be removed but also through protests & demos, these guys are killing our country more than they are rebuilding or building it.
The constitution begins with ‘We the PEOPLE of Zambia or We the Zambian PEOPLE’ not we the party in government therefore the PF and the rest of the people must act as AGREED upon when we ushered them into office, it was 90 day and we accepted to go beyond that, then now is to give or show the final draft to people simultaneously and cabinet. Put it on the NET.
@ Bwalya, insulting your leaders can bring a curse on you and your family. Read the bible and you will understand.
Its Sata that’s Hijacking it and betraying own PF manifesto page 42.
Our colleagues in uniform, the ideals we are fighting for are their ideals too- a better constitution, a free Zambia from poverty and oppression. There comes a time in Zambia’s history for all our colleagues in uniform to defend posterity-the enactment of a new constitution. It’s about your economic rights and freedoms- don’t defend that one person (the liar, deceiver and betrayer of our TRUST and that social contract in his own PF manifesto page 42), but rise to the higher moral calling-defending the new constitution enactment and the Zambian people. To you all uniformed who don’t believe in oppression and tyranny rise and defend the cause for a new constitution. Its a revolutionary act!! We demand a new constitution!!
Those are expensive furniture for a third world country if you asked me
Thanks
@Mushota,
I have yet to read a blog by you that has no grammar errors despite your self-acclaimed long list of degrees.
‘Furniture’ is a collective noun, you can either say ‘expensive items of furniture’ or simply say ‘that is expensive furniture’,
Ba Sata IS the PF and the PF is Sata so it goes without saying that this cumbu thinks he is the law of the land.
This is the big problem when one person believes he owns the Country, the same way he owns his party! Sata believes he owns the Zambian territory and all its people. Probably he owns Northern Rhodesia, certainly not Barotseland!
This Chumbu is rotting very fast, awe cha nunka sana, chi poseni mumukanda!!
Does Barostseland exist?
It exists like the illusions of a schizophrenic patient! Fools will help you start a war to enable then illegally secede. There is no such a place as Barotseland, there is only WESTERN PROVINCE. Take your medication please!
Cumbu Munshololwa is busy digging his own grave with wrong views in his head that he owns Zambia and its people.
Good on you Chilufya. Sata has created confusion & hijacked the consitutions. Look at his messy office with messy papers, books and carpet on the right. no wonder the country is messy.
He wont do what you want Zambians remember he is “cumbu munshololwa”
what does chumbu munshololwa mean?
Please respect the head of state for once.
let him respect us also.
Respect is mutual
From probing my, not only Bemba speaking, but also blue Bemba, I have come to understand that “chumbu mushololwa” simply means someone who is incorrigible. Which of the following definitions of incorrigible given by an online dictionary is defamatory?
impossible to change; impossible or very difficult to correct or reform;
unruly and unmanageable; impossible or very difficult to control or keep in order;
somebody or something that is impossible or very difficult to correct or reform.
Which of these does not capture the behaviour and conduct of the president for “chumbu mushololwa” to be deemed defamatory?
Respect is EARNED!! He insults & belittles his ministers, so what makes him so special??? He is just a chumbu munshololwa!!!
Who is Tayali and Executive Director for what? He has not indicated the organisation he represents.
Tayali is the man, with full rights like sata for a better Zambian enterprise! But more importantly focus not on the individual but the critical constitution issue at hand and the leadership need to deliver not LIES. Sata’s lies are appalling, what a shame!!
To Tayali constitution issue, well articulated, never undaunted, all Zambians are with you!! Abash Sata! Abash lies……Viva progressives!!!
Chumbu munshololwa doesnt listen.
The problem with Sata is that he cant be advised. In addition he has a short memory. I wonder if he ever reads the reports that are submitted to him. I remember too well what the technical committee drafting the constitution said. Among the terms of reference for the committee was this one which said that they would handover the draft constitution simulteneously to the president and the general public. But what did we hear, the president through Kabimba that the committee should only print and sign 10 copies and be presented to the president alone. Now talk of u-turning on important issues….
Sata and his govt is taking the people who put them in power for granted. His ending will be disastrous. God in heaven is watching all the injustices committed by this greedy ans self centered govt.
The is a reason he has a short memory…. lack of education. His brain is not well developed to store information
Proof that the Constitution making processing was heavy and sluggish is abundant. First, appetite for more time and delaying tactics was evident. Government assignments are surgical and rapido. Time is money. Second, debating antiquated ideas took center stage instead of focusing on current trends and best practices like Kenya or Egypt or South Africa. If you debate English as sole official language, the Christian Nation doctrine and sexual ethics for years, that means that you are not on top of the situation. Third, when government requested 10 copies first, the Technical Committee responded in master rather than servant. There is only one government at a time. The State deserves benefit of doubt until election time.
Egypt a best practice? Are you yourself on top of current trends? Don’t skirt around the main issue by bringing in unnecessary facts. Despite everything you have said, at the end of the day, there is a document that Zambians, with every right bestowed under heaven, are demanding to see. Constitution-making is about the people, nationhood, and not the state. And why should there be any doubt as to what the State’s intentions are? You can live in la-la land for all you care and wake up in 2016 to find it’s too late. Go on dreaming.
Just what is wrong with this i.d1ot we call president kanshi? Doea he have a brain anymore,let alone a non functional one.Awe ine,I am disgusted beyond words.Wish I was in the Army,mwe…chi coup fye or five bullets in his thick head,even if I am sentenced to death,I would have liberated the Zambia people from this rubbish!!!
lmao ati we love no loves sata and he knows that even the bus drivers, kaponyas and the thugs that were celebrating when he won the elections dont want him go to any compound in lusaka ask them no one wants sata and his kamimbya
chuumbu mushololwa is deaf to advice
The chap is not only deaf,he has no ears/ear drums anymore and I am sure he is even blind now…..so no form of communication,not even sign language!!!!
Hear, hear, hear, hearrrrrrrrrr, that is really what we want Mr. President our draft constitution released in hard and soft copy to the Zambians who are the rightful owners, whose tax was used to come up with it. We are also demanding that after its release a clear road map leading to a referendum to pass it into a constitution is drawn.
CSOs and the Churches please start a signature collection to prove this demand to the President that really the majority need it released ASAP.
FOR ONCE SOMEONE HAS THOUGHT OF TRYING TO TALK TO SATA. BUT EVEN THEN, WAS THIS LETTER SURELY WRITTEN IN GOOD FAITH OR WRITTEN TO ATTRACT ON-LINE INSULTS TO WARDS THE PRESIDENT? I THINK WE CAN GIVE DIALOGUE A CHANCE. LEVEL-HEADED ELDERS CAN APPROACH THE PRESIDENT AND TALK TO HIM ON THE IMPORTANCE OF COMPLETING THE PROCESS HE INITIATED.
if you want a constitution that will stand the test of time remove all what has been added and identified as foreign to what the zambia people put in the draft and not what the technical committee included without the consent of the zambian people and trace it to social contract theory. Remember that the issue of constitution making process started before some of you were born. the issue is not Sata but what in the draft. If we can all agree to remove these inclusions by the technical committee. in short I am suporting president’s stand. Why should civil servants retire at 65 years and when will our children get employed? look to the future!
Are these my tribesmate? are they eating mice on that table?
The picture of the man on the front left reveals among other things the man’s unstable state of mind and urgently needs thorough medical intervention. He seems overwhelmed by the numerous self inflicted problems.
This makes a good reading! it is a polite leter to the president!
Taking advantage of being president and scrutinise the constitution alone (in cabinet) ignoring terms of the Tech Committee is in itself hijacking the making process by president with his stooges so called Ministers. Zambians are in quandary to have elected a former colonial informer and traitor who betrayed our freedom fighters and got them arrested.
Chilufya Tayali.. Thank you for talking to the President of the Republic of Zambia, Mr Michael Chilufya Sata. I want to ask one question. Were the Civil Society Organistions in R.B ‘s consititution making called NCC? if they were they are the ones who made the consititution which they thought was good, because they had some people in mind whom they wanted to eliminate. like rejecting the 50+1 % The university degree for President clause, 75 years clause.
Note that the current consititution which the Civil Society made is the one which will be used even in 2016 so that who ever wins by simple majority becomes President. Civil Society will taste their own madecine. why did you not change things when you had chance… look at the fulishi Church mother bodies, they allowed a bad…
A size-able number of us Zambians are naive and really naive. We believed this MAN when he said he would deliver the new constitution in no time (90 daya)?, put more money in your pocked etc. This MAN will only deliver a new constitution over his dead body. And someone sane needs to explain to him that Dual citizenship does not mean that the whole world becomes Zambian or obtains Zambian citizenship. If anything he should be made to understand that the home affairs still will consider cases of application for dual citizenship. Mr Sata should also understand that many Zambians have acquired citizenship elsewhere and are still Zambians by virtue of the fact that they are born and bred in ZED, all their relatives are in Zambia and most have helped develop Zambia through remissions.
YOUR EXCELLENCY WE ARE DEEPLY UNSETTLED BY THE RECENT HAPPENS IN OUR GOVT. WE HAD A LOT OF FAITH IN YOUR ABLE LEADERSHIP. WE ARE SLOWLY LOSING FAITH IN YOUR GOV’T.
KINDLY RELOOK AT YOUR STANCE AT THE CONSTITUTION MAKING PROCESS. WE VOTED AND CAMPAIGNED FOR YOU BECOZ WE NEEDED A PIPO DRIVEN CONSTITUTION.
SECONDLY,LOOK AGAIN AT THE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR PIPO. YOU STARTED VERY WELL BUT YOU ARE DIVERTING AWAY FROM YOUR TRUE SELF.
I can predict what the response to Mr Tayali’s letter will be:
Dear Mr Tayali, You have never been a ward chairman, or constituency chairman; have you ever been an MP?
To Sata the above are very important benchmarks for anyone seeking to challenge what he (Sata) is doing. Mukomfwako….
Am sure by now a lot of damage has been done to it so by next week they will say we can now have it.
I am a very very dissapointed citizen who voted with all my heart for the former man of action anyway I don’t blame you so much because maybe you have been pushed to behave in the manner you are behaving by Kabimba which is a shame really a same. Chanda chimba na Kaunda told us we didn’t listen. That you are really chumbu munshololwa.