Sondashi Says He Doesn’t Expect Lungu To Do Anything About The Constitution

Dr Ludwig Sondashi says he does not expect Edgar Lungu to do anything miraculous about the constitution which Wynter Kabimba did not.

In an interview, Dr Sondashi said ministers relied on instructions and policy guidelines from the Head of State.

Commenting on Lungu’s statement in Livingstone on Monday that the new draft constitution was full of intricacies and could not be released at the moment following his assurances shortly after he was appointed that he would ensure the constitution-making roadmap was released, Dr Sondashi said he was amazed at the celebrations people engaged in after Kabimba’s dismissal, where some civil society organisations even said they were hopeful that the constitution-making process would be accelerated.

“People that don’t understand politics were celebrating Kabimba’s removal thinking that the new justice minister would deliver the constitution; they don’t know how government functions. I did not celebrate myself. In fact, what I said from the time the new minister Lungu said that he was to give us a roadmap on the constitution-making process, I said ‘it would not be different from what Kabimba was also looking at’,” he said.

“I said it won’t be different because the Minister of Justice or any Cabinet minister does not have the power to do that. Everything comes from the President. If the President says ‘let the people of Zambia have a better constitution’, the people will have a better constitution.

Ministers are just little boys in the darkroom who are working for him. There is nothing Lungu will do which will be better for the nation than what he is instructed or mandated to do.”

Dr Sondashi said he does not expect Lungu’s position to differ from the position which Kabimba gave the nation on the document.

“It’s like the right [hand] does not know what the left [hand] is doing and vice versa. Why should Kabimba’s roadmap differ from that of Lungu? Because these things are discussed by government through Cabinet where the roadmap is drawn. In fact, Mr Lungu is drawing a roadmap which we understand was drawn before the members of the technical team started their work,” he said.

“This is my view, and watch my words. You will see that there will be nothing. Lungu is just playing with words. The problem with people in Zambia is even when you just give them a bag of mealie-meal, they change and start clapping hands for you…”

Speaking when he opened the Legal Business Conference for State Advocates Workshop at Chrismar Hotel on Monday, Lungu said he would love to have the new draft constitution released by October 24 but that it was full of intricacies.

Lungu said Zambia risked running bankrupt if it was to be governed through regional assemblies as proposed in the new draft constitution.

But Dr Sondashi said having provincial assemblies was the best way to devolve power.
“Running government itself is an expensive venture, even paying Mr Lungu’s salary is, because we don’t even know how many salaries he is getting; maybe he is getting three salaries. As a government, you have to meet the expenditure of running the government,” said Dr Sondashi.

“It is better to spend money on provinces to ensure they are empowered to run their own affairs, instead of running affairs from Lungu’s office. This will also enhance competition among provinces and encourage them to work hard. For me, that is the best way of governing. That is why our party has proposed federalism.”

Posted by Kunda on October 11, 2014. Filed under POLITICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry