By Masuzyo Chakwe
CIVIL Society Constitution Agenda has welcomed the commitment from the Ministry of Justice to facilitate an open, transparent and people-driven constitutional process that intentionally avoids capture by the Executive.
Meanwhile, government has informed civil society that the public order Act and Access to Information bill will only be tabled in the next session of parliament.
CiSCA, after a meeting with Minister of Justice Mulambo Haimbe, Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha and other senior Ministry of Justice officials last Thursday, was elated and optimistic about the new government’s expressed intentions to facilitate a constitutional reform process for a people driven constitution that includes an expanded Bill of Rights.
CiSCA chairperson Judith Mulenga said, representing a broader civil society who could not attend the meeting due to conflicting schedules, members of CiSCA, Action Aid Zambia and Alliance for Community Action (ACA) sought to hear the government position on the “completion of the constitution reform agenda and revive the process of expanding the Bill of Rights to integrate economic, social and cultural rights” as per the ruling party’s campaign promises.
“In particular, we implored the minister to ensure that the constitutional reform process begins as soon as possible and is inclusive from the design of the roadmap until the end of the process. We further articulated the importance of the review process being insulated by a legislative framework that will fortify the people’s will,” she said.
“Civil society’s preference for an independent body, acceptable to majority of stakeholders, leading the process and government’s role being merely facilitative was also expressed to the minister.”
Mulenga said Haimbe reiterated the government’s prioritisation of the constitutional reforms which he said would occur well ahead of the next general elections in 2026 to avoid contested politics becoming an influential factor.
“He emphasised government’s determination to facilitate a broad-based stakeholder driven constitution reform process from end to end and that the process would be protected by a legal framework. The minister stressed government’s receptiveness to engaging with various stakeholders on the reform process and on other related matters,” she said. “The minister admitted budgetary constraints and appealed to CSOs to complement government efforts in information dissemination, civic education and resource mobilisation considering the huge outlay of funds needed to conduct a referendum to change the Bill of Rights. He indicated that the new government considered civil society as strategic partners aligned to good governance.”
Mulenga said the civil society representatives, for their part, committed to being actively engaged with not only the justice ministry but the full review process as has occurred in previous constitutional review processes.
“We expressed civil society’s hope that the process would not be jeopardised at adoption stage due to partisan political influence as has happened in the past. We stated to the minister that while civil society would engage with the government on the process, we would not deviate from our mandate of providing checks and balances, ensuring that the process and content reflected the aspirations of the Zambian people. We would also continue mobilising other CSOs to fully review the process,” she said. “The minister informed the meeting that other legislative reforms of interest such as the Children’s Code Bill would be presented to Parliament in the current session. He however said that other pieces of legislations of fundamental importance to civil society such as the public order Act and Access to Information bill will only be tabled in the next session of parliament.”
Mulenga said other legislative reforms being worked on were the review of the penal and the criminal procedure codes with the aim of bringing them in line to modern tenets of justice.
“Civil society welcomes commitment from the Ministry of Justice to facilitate an open, transparent and people driven constitutional process that intentionally avoids capture by the Executive,” said Mulenga. “We sincerely hope that the government’s commitments are accompanied with clear time bound steps towards a new people driven constitution.”