Press statement for immediate release
20th March 2020
HYPOCRISY OF THE PF ON THE DISABLED
The Republican Constitution is not short of clauses that addresses the inclusion of youths, women and even the physically challenged in the governance system of our country.
It is therefore hypocritical of the highest order for the ruling party (PF) to mislead the nation that youths, women and the physically challenged can only be included in our governance system through the enactment of Bill10.
The current Republican Constitution allows the President to nominate 8 Members of Parliament. In that 8, if President Edgar Lungu wasn’t a hypocrite, he would have nominated 2 youths, 3 women and 3 physically challenged persons to Parliament.
The nomination of 8 Members of Parliament doesn’t require Bill 10, the current Constitution allows it.
But as it stands, he has misused this Constitutional clause by denying youths, women and more especially the physically challenged to also take part in the governance system of the country.
Instead of prioritizing the youths and the disabled, President Lungu has used patronage by nominating Bwalya Ng’andu, Richard Kapita, Raphael Nakachinda, Godfridah Sumaili, Joyce Nonde Simukoko and Nathaniel Mubukwanu to Parliament, and all these are old people who have taken the positions that were supposed to go to the youth and the disabled.
And when it comes to adopting candidates for positions of Councillors, Mayors, Council Chairpersons, MPs and President, our current Republican Constitution allows youths, women and the disabled to also run for these positions.
It doesn’t require Bill 10 for our youths, women and the physically challenged to vie for these positions. It is clearly provided for in the Constitution.
PF’s failure to adopt youths, women and the disabled in elections just shows how less concerned they are for the three groups of people.
Further, the current constitution requires gender balancing to top government positions nominated by the President. But President Lungu again didn’t use the opportunity to nominate women.
And talking about social security, it is clear that PF has no love for people
living with disability.If the PF government was sympathetic to the cause of the disabled as they now claim, they wouldn’t have stolen donor funds that was meant for persons living with disabilities. You don’t need Bill 10 to protect money meant for the disabled in Social Cash Transfer, you need the Police, the Courts and the jails.
So, all in all, the seclusion of youths, women and the disabled in the PF government is not as a result of the absence of the law but the PF’s lack of love for the youths, women and disabled. Citizens are aware from the recent incidencies of gassing, that if the Patriotic Front begins to excitedly issue random statements using ZNBC and their rogue media outlets to point fingers at the UPND, then it means they are deeply involved in the scam.
Samuel Ngwira
Deputy National Youth Chairman
UPND