NGOCC Board Chairperson Beauty Katebe has urged President Hakainde Hichilema to appoint more women to Cabinet and other key decision-making positions.
Katebe adds that President Hichilema should use the provision for 11 nominated parliamentary seats to increase the number of women in the National Assembly.
President Hichilema’s Cabinet before dissolution of Parliament only had four female Cabinet Ministers namely; Princess Kasune as Justice minister, Sylvia Masebo as Lands minister, Brenda Tambatamba as Labour minister and Doreen Mwamba as Community Development minister.
Chushi Kasanda was appointed Information minister in President Hichilema’s first Cabinet, but was later replaced with Cornelius Mweetwa.
President Hichilema is expected to announce his Cabinet after being sworn in on September 1 at Heroes Stadium.
On Monday, Kasune said the percentage of elected female MPs had stagnated, despite more women winning seats in the August polls.
In an interview, Monday, Katebe said there was need to appoint more women, as preliminary election results show that women’s representation in Parliament remained far below 50 percent.
“It is good if we have parliamentarians that are also advocating for that because that has been our goal. The Political Parties Bill has been something that we have been advocating for as one of the reforms that should come through quickly. Our expectation is that they go and represent the people that are sending them there, not to go and just joke, and not do what the people want. If you look at those that voted against their people’s wishes on Bill 7, most of them have been left out. Not because they didn’t do a good job, but because they decided to do what the people did not ask them to do. Women are less, hence the need to stand and outshine men,” said Katebe.
“So, when they go to Parliament, they must always remember that they are carrying the people’s aspirations and interests. Parliament is not their own. Preliminary election results once again show that women’s representation in Parliament remains far below the 50 percent. We therefore call on the government to use the provision for eleven nominated parliamentary seats to deliberately and strategically increase the number of women in the National Assembly, in line with Zambia’s constitutional provisions and international commitments to gender issues, including the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. We are calling on the President to appoint more women to Cabinet and other key decision-making positions. We emphasise that as the economy grows, families must feel it. Women need to be able to buy food and other basic things”.
Meanwhile, GEARS Initiative Board Chairperson Luckson Lungu advised President Hichilema to appoint people who understood the law.
“What is very important is to make sure that these people must be the individuals who understand the law. Some of the people fail to adhere to constitutionalism because of failure to understand what it’s provided for or what their positions provide for. So, as people get appointed, the first thing they need to do is to acquaint themselves with the provisions of the law, be it the Acts of Parliament which are applicable to them, the Constitution itself and various regulations. They need to understand them very well so that when it comes to application of the law, they do things in line with the law because sometimes people use power as opposed to using the law,” said Lungu.
“When we talk about the rule of law, it simply means that we expect people to be using the law to govern and not to be using authority or power. The essence of having a Constitution is to avoid making use of power and concentrate on making use of the law, especially this time around that we are talking about progress and growth. It is very important for people to stick to the law because that will help them to prevent possible abuse and indeed corruption.
Corruption is born out of failure for people to live by the provisions of the Constitution. So, we expect people who will work for the people and not necessarily work for themselves. We are expecting to see people who will not enrich themselves for holding public office, but the ones that will provide a service to the citizens who are paying them. After all, citizens are the ones who are paying them for whatever role they are going to play when given an opportunity to hold government positions”.