By Isaac Zulu
Former Matero Patriotic Front member of parliament Faustina Sinyangwe has implored parliamentarians to put the interests of their constituents ahead of party interests in their service delivery.
And Sinyangwe has said that it is costly and irrational for the country to continue spending colossal sums of money on the Constitution amendment when the matter could have been dealt with some years back.
In an interview with Daily Revelation, Sinyangwe observed that Constitution reforms and amendments were costly undertaking, stressing that had previous governments addressed the lacunas in the Zambian Republican Constitution; successive governments would have not been spending colossal sums of money on the Constitution amendment process.
“If you remember very well, there was the National Constitution Conference, which was very representative of all stakeholders. We had the academia, politicians – and that was the time I was serving as Matero Member of Parliament – we had representation form the Church mother bodies, traditional leaders, students and labour movements. At that time the party president was my uncle [the late president Michael Chilufya Sata]. And because Matero Constituency is a complex and complicated; I had to make wide consultations with the people in Matero Constituency. In Matero, you find retired politicians, the elite, the middle class and the lower class. These are the people that urged me to ensure that I go and sit on the NCC. I then approached my uncle who, unfortunately, was very much against the idea of having Patriotic Front Members of Parliament sitting on the NCC. But I had to go and sit on that National Constitution Conference because I had sworn that I had taken oath to abide by the Republican Constitution and represent the interests of the people in my Constituency. And because of that, my uncle expelled me together with my other colleagues…we were 22 of us,” explained Sinyangwe. “The point I am driving at is that it is important for Members of Parliament or any politician to ensure that they put the interest of the people that send them to Parliament before self interest. When you are given the mandate to represent the people in your Constituency in Parliament, you need to represent them effectively and diligently without looking at political party interests. It is for this reason that I would implore parliamentarians to put the interests of their constituents each time they are in the National Assembly.”
And Sinyangwe has said that it is costly and irrational for the country to continue spending colossal sums of money on the Constitution amendment when the matter could have been dealt with some years back.
“In the same breath, I would like to state that the current President [Hakainde Hichilema] has, so far, made very inspiring pronouncements with regard to how he wants to rule this country. And one of the things the President has promised is fight corruption and ensure that we have Constitutional reforms. That is very welcome. But the question is: For how long are we; as a country, going to be attempting to address the lacunas in our Republican Constitution? We have made several attempts to perfect our Republican Constitution, but all the recommendations, including the recommendations that we got during the National Constitution Conference sittings. As things stand, I can state that we have been working on Constitution amendments for some years without making progress on the matter. We have been going back and forth. And my thinking is that it has, consistently, been costly and irrational for the country to continue spending colossal sums of money on the Constitution amendment when the matter could have been dealt with some years back. Previous governments addressed the lacunas in the Zambian Republican Constitution; successive governments would have not been spending colossal sums of money on the Constitution amendment process. Already, the UPND government and, President Hakainde Hichilema in particular, is on record of telling the Zambian people that the Government Treasury is empty. For once, can we address the lacunas that we have continued failing to address in our Republican Constitution.”
Sinyangwe has since urged the UPND administration to ensure that, once it embarks on the Constitution reforms, it will be a consultative process.
