Copperbelt PF provincial chairman Nathan Chanda says the ruling party will not allow the UPND and its sponsored CSOs to deny the people of Zambia their rights by underscoring the Constitution Amendment Bill No. 10.
In a statement, Chanda stated that the ruling party will not allow the UPND and its CSOs to continue misleading Zambians by denouncing and saying that the Constitution Amendment Bill No. 10 is retrogressive.
“The United Party for National Development, some well to do people and some evil Civil Society Organisations who are able to put food on their table because of their pay masters will not be allowed to continue misleading the Zambian people. It is strange that out of selfishness and greed, the UPND and its sponsored civil society groupings don’t mean well for the Zambian people,” Chanda stated.
“We can’t allow the UPND and its sponsored CSOs to be denying the Zambian people their rights. We know the lies of the UPND and its sponsored CSOs. UPND and its sponsored CSOs denied Zambians their rights by shooting down the bill of Rights in the Referendum. And we know they want to achieve this again.”
He charged that the UPND were not interested in seeing development.
“We say this because the UPND are not interested in seeing any development reach the people. The debate on the Constitution Amendment Bill 10 should not be looked at in a negative aspect. Surely, is the UPND and some sponsored CSOs telling us that there is nothing progressive in this Bill 10? Bill 10 gives us the opportunity to bring development close to the people. There is the exercise of delimitation, which is currently underway, which will increase the number of seats in Parliament and wards. We need to amend the Constitution to achieve this. The seats for the youths, women, disability, in short the marginalized people, issues to do away with the bye-election,” he explained.
“Creating more constituencies and wards will bring development close to the people. This means more funding for development through Constituency Development Funds (CDF) and Ward Funds, but first, we need to amend the number of seats in the current Constitution of Zambia. For once, we expect the UPND and its sponsored CSOs to put the interest of the people first.”
He urged Zambians to support Bill 10.
“This is the time that we need to stand together and support Bill 10. If they have some contributions, let them submit to parliamentary committee. Today, we are in this situation because of the opposition propaganda against the bill of Rights in the Referendum and lies that we were going to have same sex marriage, which was not correct. The Zambian people should monitor who means well,” urged Chanda.
“Finally, we want to remind the members of parliament that they are in that House because of the people. Just because HH never attended the NDF then the Zambian people must suffer? No, Sir! Put the interests of the people who took you to Parliament. As leaders, we need to look at the future generations, we come and go, but what are we going to leave for the next generation? We need the Constitution that will stand the test of time regardless of the party we belong to.”
