Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
CiSCA Chairperson Bishop John Mambo
The Civil Society Constitution Agenda (CiSCA) has urged Zambians to speak up and not to allow the Patriotic Front make the Constitution Impotent.
In a statement, CiSCA Chairperson Bishop John Mambo says citizens have a responsibility to stop the PF regime from willfully butchering country’s supreme law-to suit and advance a partisan agenda.
He says CiSCA expects and demands nothing less than total allegiance to the provisions of the republican constitution by the President and the ruling party functionaries.
Bishop Mambo states that whenever the exercise of political power by the governing party is unrestrained by the constitution, a dictatorship emerges.
He says it is clear that there is wanton disregard to the Constitutional provisions by the ruling elite seemingly abetted by judicial gaffes, ineptness and in some cases professional negligence.
He says the constant pursuit by the PF government to malign and constrict democratic space by restraining dissenting political and civil society voices is unceasingly rendering the constitution impotent.
Bishop Mambo says CiSCA firmly believes that any nation which is not governed by constitutional limitations on the exercise of political power, as is the current situation in the country, is a dictatorship.
He recent developments in the recent past including the ruling by the Constitutional Court on the President Elect’s refusal to hand over power to the Speaker of the National Assembly as provided for under Article 104(3) by the Constitution, renders the Constitution not worth the paper it is written on.
Bishop Mambo further states that the Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC)’s findings on the interpretation of the 14 days as per Article 103(2) for hearing a presidential petition and the general conduct of the Constitutional Court judges during the 2016 presidential election petition hearing is a serious indictment on the impartiality of the judiciary.
He adds that CiSCA is of the view that the ConCourt in its current form cannot be trusted to handle the present and future election disputes, stating that the judges’ conduct or omission is a threat to Zambia’s constitutional democracy and political stability.
Bishop Mambo says CiSCA therefore holds the view that the current judges of the Constitutional Court should all be retired in national interest with immediate effect and be replaced with the most experienced and courageous legal authorities that Zambia and other countries have to offer.