By Mubanga Mubanga
Youth and Sports minister Elvis Nkandu says it is not the job of some civil society organisations (CSO’S) to make laws, but members of parliament (MPs).
He added the CSOs need to respect other people’s offices.
Following the enactment of the Bill 7 into law, the OASIS Forum argued that an unlawful process could not yield a lawful statute and no amount of political packaging or numerical advantage in parliament could cure foundational illegality.
But in an interview with Daily Revelation last week, Nkandu said CSOs should not claim to speak for the Zambian people, when some of them are not even elected, but appointed.
”No, who do they report to? Who elected them? Some of them are not even elected. They just came up with… today they say they are going to come up with this CSO. So, l think we need to respect each other. Niku siyana, siyana kwama offices (we have different offices) us members of parliament have been mandated to do that. That is our job,we are in parliament to make laws,” Nkandu said. “I have never seen a country where roles are promulgated from CSOs. Yes, they can also participate, but it is not necessarily their duty to or their mandate to formulate laws. We should listen to them. Yes, we can listen to them, they can advise us. And at the end of the day, the function of making laws is the National Assembly. It is the National Assembly that makes these laws.”
Nkandu said the opposition should not thinking that only they were interacting with the people.
He stressed that a lot of the people among them, students, churches and workers spoke that they wanted bill 7.
”The fact that l was voted, l was given …the people of Kaputa deposited their trust and confidence in me,” Nkandu said. “It means a lot, it means l am representing those people. So, those members of parliament, the formulation of laws are vested in the members of parliament in the national assembly. I don’t know why some people would want to hijack the formulation of laws to CSO’s.”
Meanwhile, Nkandu said what was going to determine if the UPND would get reelected in the 2026 general elections was on account of what they had done since they were elected in office.
“Winning an election is very different from what was happening yesterday. I should not attach what happened yesterday to the 2026 general elections. What l should attach to the general elections in 2026 is what we have done so far. This is the only government since Zambia was born, in the few that we have been in office, that we have really done a lot. And also, fulfilled a lot of promises,” Said Nkandu. “The fact that we can have one or two issues that have not yet been resolved, doesn’t mean that we have not performed. This government has really performed. So, we can only attach our performance to the 2026 general elections.”
