YALI asks govt to stop hide and seek on constitution

The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) has advised the Ministry of Justice and the Civil Society to stop playing hide and seek in the Constitution making process.

YALI Governance Advisor Isaac Mwanza says both President Edgar Lungu and Justice Minister Dr. Ngosa Simbyakula must take a genuine lead in engaging stakeholders and civil society in open dialogue on the process of selecting clauses that will be taken to Parliament for amendment and enactment.

Mr. Mwanza says his organization is greatly concerned with the warning by the Minister of Justice that the country will fail to go to a referendum if citizens get divided over modalities for such an undertaking.

Mr. Mwanza says the warning by Dr. Simbyakula reinforces his organization’s call to Parliamentarians to first enact a legal framework that will protect the remaining process before proceeding with piecemeal amendments on non contentious clauses.

He says the enactment of the legal framework is important in assuring citizens that this process will once again, not be stalled because of differences in opinions.

Mr Mwanza adds that his organization also notes that although Government had in good faith released the roadmap on the constitution reform process for the public to offer feedback which was later followed by a Ministerial statement in Parliament on the way forward, Government has not reverted to Zambians with a revised roadmap on the constitution and the process has now been left to guesswork on what is happening at the Ministry of Justice.

He has also cautioned some civil society groups champion misleading ideas that once the referendum is held, the process would preclude Members of Parliament, whom they claim not to trust, from having any say on the process and content.