DON’T USE PF AS BENCHMARK…what will you achieve as a country – Munir
By Kombe Chimpinde Mataka
WE are a country that is centred on vengeance that is why we cannot come up with a proper Constitution, says Lumezi Independent member of parliament Munir Zulu.
Zulu agrees that the “Constitution is sick but equally those that have been given the mandate to help us with interpretation have decided to keep quiet for reasons best known to themselves. So we have become a
polarised society.”
“There is no harmony. We should have reached a stage where UPND is not going to use the PF as benchmark. Now if you put PF as your benchmark what will you achieve as a country?” he wondered.
Zulu suggests that the Constitution should “perhaps be left to lawyers to draft and for members of parliament to merely enact” because politicians could not be trusted with the process.
Featuring on Muvi TV Special Interview on Monday evening, Zulu said he did not understand why politicians were blinded
once voted into positions of power that they fail to give Zambians a constitution devoid of selfish interests.
“10 years of the PF, we are discussing the interpretation of the Constitution. With the UPND, we are still discussing the
Constitution. Everyone now has become a lawyer in our country. We are not discussing economics, we are not discussing development. Every day, it is what is Article 72 saying? What is Article 52 saying?
What is Article 97 saying? Everything is being subjected to interpretation,” he said in reference to the current debate on the
eligibility of former Kwacha PF member of parliament Joe Malanji and former
Kabushi PF member of parliament Bowman Lusambo to recontest their seats in the by-election due on September 15.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia last week rejected the nominations
of Malanji and Lusambo in accordance with Article 72 (4)(h).
This follows the decision of the High Court to nullify the duo’s election due to violence and malpractices in the case of Lusambo
and submission of an invalid grade 12 certificate in the case of Malanji.
The Constitutional Court upheld the High Court decision.
“What I have failed to understand with we, Zambian, politicians is why we are so blinded with power the moment people give us the mandate to do the right thing. I do not know why people suddenly change. They suddenly become blinded to reality. Maybe it is time we hired lawyers. Let them craft a Constitution for us and we just pass it into
parliament because for how long are we going to sing the song of amending the Constitution? Each and every government that comes wants to amend [Constitution] to suit their needs, to suit their demands,” he noted.
Zulu said politicians should delegate the role of Constitution making to lawyers and assume that of merely endorsing.
“Maybe for a change can we hire a crop of lawyers, put them in Mulunguishi and tell them ‘just give us a document that will meet the aspirations of the people because when it comes to parliament PF is going to say ‘they shot down our bill 10 we also have to shoot it
down’. We cannot be a country that is centred on vengeance. That is a problem. You find that UPND is saying ‘PF did this, we are also going to do this’. There is no harmony. We should have reached a stage where
UPND is not going to use the PF as benchmark. Now if you put PF as your
benchmark what will you achieve as a country?” Zulu wondered. “Maybe tell us (about) the time of [Levy] Mwanawasa. The country did this or the time of MMD. Now you want to use PF as a benchmark, what will you achieve?”
He also expressed concern over state counsels in the country on constitutionalism.
“Who caused that by-election is it the petitioner or the respondent? If I was to go with my interpretation, in the literal sense, I would say the petitioner has caused the by-election and not the appellant but there will be another interpretation to say because ‘you did ABC, you went on buying people. Malanji’s issue has got nothing to do with bribing people but people want to blame on him and say ‘you cannot contest because you caused a by-election’ yet the court has already punished you by nullifying your seat,” opined Zulu. “The silence of state counsels in this country has also become too loud. State Counsel John Sangwa is mute, State Counsel Sakwiba Sikota is quiet. So we don’t know who will give us interpretation of our times. I agree the Constitution is sick but equally those that have been given the mandate to help us with interpretation have decided to keep quiet for reasons best known to themselves. So we have become a polarised society. It is a society where every cadre can interpret the law to suit their demands at that particular time but above all the biggest constitution that we have are the people of Zambia themselves. That is what I believe in. Time will come when the people
will say we can no longer continue discussing constitutionalism.”