UPND senior presidential advisor Douglas Syakalima has told justice minister Given Lubinda to stop lying through his teeth on the parliamentary select committee on Bill 10.
“I read where Lubinda is saying that the parliamentary select committee is expected to support Bill 10. Lubinda must stop lying in between his teeth! What is on the table is Bill 10 and not the [select] committee’s report,” Syakalima, the Chirundu UPND member of parliament, said in an interview. “If Lubinda is saying the select committee’s report is something to go by, then 90 per cent of his bill is dead. If that is the case, why should we go ahead when the select committee crippled 90 per cent of the clauses in his bill? Have you seen how nonsensical they are as PF?”
On Friday, The Mast quoted Lubinda saying he expects all members of parliament on the select committee on Constitution (Amendment) Bill Number 10 of 2019 to support it.
The minister said the practice in all Commonwealth parliamentary jurisdictions was that select committees operated on the basis of conscience.
But Syakalima countered that Lubinda was hoodwinking unsuspecting Zambians.
“What is on the table is not the select committee’s report; the select committee’s report are suggestions to the House which stakeholders gave. If you recall, these are the same people who were saying 90 per cent of the things which are in the bill were rejected by the people,” he said.
“Does it mean that if that select committee’s report is binding Lubinda is going to amend the entire bill? If that is the case, why doesn’t he bring a new bill which will incorporate what stakeholders said? You can see how they are trying to lie in between their teeth.”
The lawmaker argues that “in the unlikely event” that the scandalous Bill 10 was re-tabled, “it is the bill which is going to be debated” unlike the select committee’s report.
“The question will be asked on the bill and not on the committee’s report. No one will be debating the report! It is the bill which is debated. Even when they attempted to debate that time, were they debating the [select committee’s] report?” Syakalima asked. “So, why does he (Lubinda) continue to lie? Anyway, maybe Lubinda might not be a liar but I think that it is lack of intellectual capacity for Lubinda. This is why I have always advised that speaking English, just like my Grade six daughter…But it does not mean that my Grade six daughter who speaks fluent English is intellectually balanced. No!”
He charged that: “Lubinda doesn’t have intellectual capacity.”
“He doesn’t just have it! Probably when he finishes law school he will have that intellectual capacity. He can’t be feeding Zambians that this is what happens. No! He is lying. The question is going to be asked on the bill and never on what the select committee report stated,” Syakalima said. “If Lubinda is saying the select committee’s report is something to go by, then 90 per cent of his bill is dead. If that is the case, why should we go ahead when the select committee crippled 90 per cent of the clauses in his bill? Have you seen how nonsensical they are as PF?”
Meanwhile, Syakalima reiterated that the PF government must never take Zambians for a ride.
“He (Lubinda) can’t be telling the Church to keep their own lane. The Church has members and he shouldn’t think that 81 of them (PF members of parliament) or hundred and something of them can determine the fate of all Zambians,” said Syakalima. “Never take God’s people for granted. They give you power and when they want, they withdraw it from you and this is exactly what the Zambians are doing now – withdrawing their trust from this wicked and unrepentant PF.”