KUDOS TO KANCHIBIYA MP SUNDAY CHANDA; THE REAL LAW MAKER
BY GEORGE CHOMBA
What Sunday Chanda, the Kanchibiya Member of Parliament, has done in the National Assembly will definitely be engraved in the history of Zambia and the law maker will no doubt be viewed as the real law maker.
For starters, over the years and since most Zambians who follow Parliament could remember, the movers of bills or amendments to laws have always been the preserve of Government Ministers.
Opposition members of Parliament or their ruling party counterparts have always restricted themselves to moving motions urging Government to do something about a particular challenge in the country or the law or indeed shouting either in the affirmative or in the negative.
The closest memory drive one can get to was in 2002 when an attempt was made by Lusaka lawyer, Sakwiba Sikota who was UPND Livingstone Member of Parliament to move a motion on the Freedom of Information bill.
The end game was that the MMD administration took over the proposed media bills and since 2002, the media organisations have been fighting without success for the Freedom of Information law which now has been renamed as Access to Information draft bill.
This was some 20 years ago.
But now Mr Chanda has probably done the unthinkable in the minds of most Members of Parliament.
Using Article 64 of the Constitution which states as follows; A Member of Parliament or Minister may introduce a Bill in the National Assembly”, Mr Chanda has submitted before Parliament the Fisheries Amendment Bill of 2023.
The Kanchibiya law maker has not even used the Attorney General who is used by the President’s administration but the bill is under his signature.
The object of this bill is to amend the Fisheries Act of 2011 so as to provide for the appeal process for those found in breach of the law pertaining to fishing.
At the moment, the Fisheries Act of 2011 in Section 19 sub-section 2 does not provide for an appeal.
It states as follows; A person who contravenes (fishing) subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable, upon conviction, to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand penalty units or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or to both.
This is what Sunday Chanda wants to change if he is supported by other ordinary Members of Parliament including the ministers.
He wants those suspected to have breached the Fisheries Act to be provided the following reliefs;
That; The principal Act is amended in section 19 by— (a) the insertion of the following new subsections immediately after subsection (1):
(2) A person aggrieved by a decision of the Director under subsection (1) may, within fourteen days of receipt of the decision, appeal to the Minister.
(3) A person who is aggrieved by a decision of the Minister under subsection (2) may, within thirty days of receipt of the decision, appeal to the High Court;
For now it is a wait and see affair whether Mr Chanda will be given chance to read the bill for the first time on the floor of Parliament.
Indeed, Law making is an interesting journey, if one is really a law maker.