UPND DOES NOT COMPREHEND LIMITS OF THEIR POWER, SAYS SINKAMBA
By Isaac Zulu
Green Party leader Peter Sinkamba has charged that the UPND administration does not comprehend the limits conferred on the Executive and Legislature by the Constitution.
And Sinkamba has said that the law relating to the death penalty did not find itself on the Zambian statutes by accident or tyranny.
Sinkamba, speaking in an interview, pointed out that the UPND government cannot embark on the repealing and replacement of the Penal Code with a view to abolish the death penalty, without holding a National Referendum.
“Yesterday (Friday) during the official opening of Parliament, President Hakainde Hichilema stated that his government had commenced the process of repealing and replacing of the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. The President indicated that among other things, the review seeks to amend provisions relating to the death penalty. He further indicated that the Justice Minister has since concluded drafting legislation to repeal and replace provisions relating to imposition of death penalty,” Sinkamba explained. “Now, it appears to me that the UPND government does not fully understand the limits of power conferred upon the executive and legislature by the Constitution. For, if the UPND government fully understood the limits, they would have not contemplated to repeal and replace the provisions relating to death penalty without a Referendum.”
He reminded the UPND administration that the death penalty did not find itself on the Zambian statutes by accident or tyranny of preceding governments.
Sinkamba said that repealing and replacing the law relating to the abolishment of the death penalty would require amending Article 12 of the Constitution, Amendment of 1976,
“Death penalty in our statutes did not find itself there by accident or tyranny of preceding governments. Rather, it was imposed into the statutes by the people themselves through a Referendum. And this being the case, those provisions in the Penal Code providing for death sentence can only be repealed and replaced by the decision of the people through the Referendum. This entails amending Article 12 of the Constitution of Zambia Amendment 1996,” Sinkamba said. “If the UPND government proceeds to repeal and replace the Penal Code, and wilfully omits to include death penalty, that act or omission will be a contravention of Article 1(2) of the Constitution of Zambia Amendment 2016, and therefore,
illegal and of no effect.”
Sinkamba also said that the UPND government should not use short cuts to repeal and replace the law relating to the death penalty, saying that can only be applicable to amending the law relating to defamation of the President.
“In this regard, I simply advise the UPND government to follow the right procedure, and not short cuts. There are things that permit short cuts, such as the law relating to defamation of the President. This particular one on death penalty does not permit short cuts,” said Sinkamba. “The least that UPND government can do, if it is so much desirous to repeal and replace the death penalty is to source funds to run a Referendum so that the people themselves decide on the question of death penalty. Mulekutika, ba UPND government?”
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