Bishop Mpundu reflects on NCC performance
ARCHBISHOP Telesphore Mpundu has observed that the people of Zambia have once again been dribbled over the constitution making process.
And Archbishop Mpundu has said the degree clause adopted by the NCC as one of the qualifications for a presidential candidate is retrogressive.
Reflecting on the performance of the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) whose sittings have been adjourned, the Lusaka Catholic Archbishop said the nation had been given a raw deal considering the amount of money spent on the process.
He said it was sad that NCC delegates chose to represent themselves other than the ordinary Zambian.
“As regards the proceedings of the NCC, it is my considered opinion that the Zambian people have once again been given a raw deal; especially considering the enormous amounts of money spent on this exercise and the recent alleged attempts to fleece the taxpayer for a few more billions.
It is up to the people of Zambia to judge as to whether or not the NCC is or has lived up to their expectations. I personally think that once again the people of Zambia have been dribbled,” Archbishop Mpundu said.
“We have been through this process twice before in 1991 after the Mvunga Commission and in 1996 after the Mwanakatwe CRC Constitution Review Commission report when the government of the day rejected at least 70 per cent of its recommendations. This time around after the Mung’omba CRC report will be the third and, in all appearances, as it appears, will not be the last.”
He warned that the nation was sitting on a time bomb as there would continue to be tension in the nation after every other election.
“As a nation we just can’t find the right formula to make a constitution ‘that can stand the test of time’! We are, however, sitting on a time bomb.
There has been a loud enough alarm bell already that unless we handle very cautiously the issue of a new constitution and take on board the much needed and long overdue electoral reforms to ensure free, fair and transparent elections we should not be astonished if much more severe unrest comes our way before, during or after the 2011 election,” he said.
Archbishop Mpundu said although the nation was over 18 months away from elections the atmosphere was already charged.
“Though the elections are still almost two years away the atmosphere is already charged. We should not forget that political cadres who at this time can act with impunity, insulting public figures and threatening them with untold atrocities in the open will even be more sadistic at the time of elections,” he said. “What happened in Kenya in December 2007 to January 2008 could happen in Zambia if we are not vigilant. Let us pray that it is not yet too late for the NCC to deliver.”
Archbishop Mpundu questioned the morality in promising Zambians a new constitution before 2011 even though it was clear that such a thing would not happen.
“Some key clauses that are meant to strengthen our elections legal framework and level the playing field for election contenders have been referred to the referendum. Some questions we need to ask at this point are: Is the referendum going to take place this year or next year?
Is the electorate going to vote only on the referred issues or on the whole constitution? Is the electorate going to the polls in a referendum and general elections in one year,” Archbishop Mpundu asked. “The people of Zambia have been promised a ‘new constitution’ before the 2011 general and presidential elections.
The chances are that we shall be given a ‘new constitution’ which is only a shadow of what we expect and deserve and then go to the polls in a general election in 2011. The referendum when and if it comes, will be long after the 2011 presidential and general elections.”
He maintained that a Constiuent Assembly would have been more balanced than the NCC.
Archbishop Mpundu said everyone who boycotted the NCC had been vindicated by the outcome of the deliberations so far.
“A Constituent Assembly would have been more representative of the Zambian people, more inclusive and broad based. However, the NCC which was put forward as a form of Constituent Assembly, though certainly larger, is decidedly neither all inclusive nor broad based.
This tilted balance has negatively impacted on the process in the NCC and it is therefore little wonder that the content of the Mung’omba report has equally been affected,” Archbishop Mpundu said. “My view, which I share with many other citizens, is that the NCC seems to be writing a parallel document to the Mung’omba report which took thirty months to produce after listening to submissions from citizens, government agencies, civil society and experts in constitutional law and related matters of constituionalism. Consequently we have witnessed the purging from the Mung’omba CRC report of clauses which were widely agreed upon by the people of Zambia.”
And Archbishop Mpundu said there were many leaders in world history who succeeded without attaining a university degree.
“The degree requirement the NCC has decided on is short sighted, discriminatory, restrictive and retrogresssive. Examples abound in past and present histroy of national leaders at the highest level who never saw the inside of a university lecture room and yet performed to the highest expectations.
Winston Spencer Churchill for example, though he was a precocious child in his field of interest, struggled through secondary school and managed only as far as junior commissioned army/cavalry officer and self-made journalist or correspondent during the Second Anglo-Boer War,” Archbishop Mpundu recounted. “He was Prime Minister of Britain at three different times and is one of the greatest British men of all times in a country with many centuries of excellent university education. In the Ivory Coast it is a discriminatory clause of their constitution that plunged that country into civil war and for the past five years it has not been able to go to the polls to elect a president!”
He said the ability to rule a country was not a preserve of degree holders, but that anyone capable of leading people could become president.
“Ability, vision, intelligence and wisdom are not an exclusive preserve of degree holders otherwise it would be impossible to explain such ‘phenomena’, for lack of a better word, as Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Lula de Silva of Brazil and Jacob Zuma of South Africa to mention but a few.
Thomas Edison, an American, was dismissed from primary school as a child for being ‘too slow to learn’! His mother taught him at home; when he died the whole of the America honoured him by two minutes of darkness during which all lights were switched off because Edison was the ‘too slow to learn’ child who later invented the electric light, the gramophone and motion pictures! Bill Gates is certainly one of the richest men, if not the richest man today. He is a self-made high school dropout whose success is there for the world to see,” said Archbishop Mpundu.
Source: Post Newspaper
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its time this divise bishop is dealt,he really wants his brother in law to be in at all costs.please iwe ka mpundu spare us yo talk,team up with mpombo
Lets not argue for the sake of it.This constitution is not going to stand a taste of time.Its a shame that Zaloumis and Chifumu Banda among others have been used for selfish gain to come up with a constitution that is individual targeted.Shame on You.I can assure you that when a new Government comes in place, they will equally change this piece of shit!
Bishop Mpundu is spot on, a God feared man, evergreen, full of wisdom and respect for mankind, very intelligent and clean spiritually and in deeds. Those that are condending him are doing so out of jelousy. Leave him alone, if he is not an inspiration to you alone, no one will inspire you in your life. No wonder you are a begger, a shameless thief and a parasite. You always want to be helped, its time you helped others as well. I am not catholic and have never been one, but I like their attitude towards mankind. In Zambia Catholics have been very helpful in everything. The results are there for evryone to see.
Without positive contributions from the catholics through Bishop Mpundu and other leaders, I dont know where we could have been. Catholics are not only vocal, they are practical too, they are not devicive, they bring people from all wallks of life together, they are consistent.
Bishop Mpundu is an excellent man, only those with crooked and unstable minds have difficulties in understanding him and misinterpreting whatever he says. Again I say, NCC is a waste of resources, that money should have been used to repair Serenje / Mpika road.
Bishop Mpundu is a divisive element who sees his Mulamu losing out on the presidency. He speaks like a man who has never heard the preaching of Christ, not that he understands!!
Can he truthfully say that the entry qualification for a catholic priest is grade 7? Why has he put grade 12. Mr Bishop you are a big hypocrite.
Just clean your house of the many priest/brothers who are dying of celibacy – resulting in adultery and homosexuality. Many people know these things but they are afraid of the CATHOLIC CHURCH!!!
His (un)Holiness has put his foot in it again. The National constitution making process will never please everyone. Indeed it does not please me on two issues. But this is the very essence of the democratic process that we will not ALL agree and indeed the majority in any electoral college will carry the day. On the issue of education, I do not agree that the Presidential candidate should be a degree holder, but surely, in this day and age, any person who has not passed through the education process cannot be considered good enough to be a leader. I would leave that decision to be made by the electorate as those who are educated punch the necessary holes in the uneducated person’s credentials. The Archbishop is wrong on Bill Gates. Bill Gates did qualify for University education but he dropped out because he had found a ‘better’ idea. Thomas Edison attempted to make the light bulb over a thousand times! Perhaps had he had a University education it would not have taken him that long! Besides that, Autistic and Asperger’s syndrome children were excluded from main stream education, because they were not understood. Most geniuses belong to this category of people. They tend to be very good at repetitive tasks. Modern education systems would not have excluded such people. University education has only one advantage, and that is it allows a person to question the known body of knowledge. A lower school pupil is spoon fed to accept whatever is taught as ‘truth.’ Postgraduate education allows a person to extend the horizon of knowledge. It is that incisive mind that is developed in university that is a necessary pre-requisite to political leadership. Doubtless, many may have that mind even though they have never set foot in a University, but society agrees that the only way to know that one possesses that mind, is that they have been to University, been tested and they have passed to be awarded a degree.
Patriot, I wonder why you deliberately miss the target and start shooting an innocent man. Talk issues, you are not a kid. If you have nothing to offer, take a leave, dont blog, no one will miss your reheasaled contribution. Why are you panicking?
As Zambians we are concerned about lack of development which is a result of a useless constitution, which gives too much power to an individual.
You saw Mulongoti today on television getting upset and embarrased by the poor state of Serenje / Mpika road where trucks are stuck in the mud right in the middle of the road. And this is the road I reffered to last year that it was more urgent than Mfuwe road. A stupid senceless blogger kept saying Mfuwe,MfuweMfuwe. It has taken the Minister 4 months after I talked about it for him to realise that he is paid taxpayers money for shouting meaningless slogans and condeming Sata as if Sata is our daily bread.
This NCC is a waste of taxpayers money. These guys have built shopping complex at Katungu Villa, extended and built houses within the same yards in Roadspark and everywhere in Lusaka and they want more money to waist, how different are they from FTJ and his plunders?
We salute all those that refused to participated in the looting and we accord them the highest respect on the land, because they are principled, they dont want to be associated with theiving.
IWE CHI BISHOP MPUNDU.WE KNOW NOW WHEN YOU TALK YOU SUPPORTING YOUR PHONICATING MULAMU CALLED SATA. YOU WANT TO PREACH TO US,YOU COULDNT PREACH TO YOUR SISTERS.WHAT CAN YOU TELL US.JUST SHUT UP BEFORE WE REPORT YOU TO THE POPE.YOU CANT FVEN PREACH UNITY. PLEASE GO TEACH YOUR SISTERS TO LEARN HOW TO CLOSE THEIR LEGS TO ONE SATA. GOD SHOULD STRIKE YOU FOR BEING A HIPOCRITE. AM SHOUTING AT YOU BISHOP.HOPE YOU READ THIS.YOU DONT DESERVE TO WEAR THAT WHITE COLLAR.GO REPENT FOR YOU HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED.MPUNDU FAMILY REPENT,YOU HAVE EMBARASSED US CATHOLICS.
Patriot or riot or whatever animal.here they are not talking about that individual you hate but its about something to protect the nation that should last for a long time.grow up,no wonder our country can not move forward.By the way what grade did you reach to present your cheap thinking? Just like now the current.. should be given the utmost respect.No one should just sing about the topmost seat of any land.
In a democracy where rules take precedence and convicted criminals whose records retain a certificate of release from a criminal conviction jail term, blogging and dreaming to vote for a criminal is an option in vanity. You are free to waste your vote on a an illegible convict.The Zambian Government ECZ managed election ballots and election nominations retained by the Chief justice will carry no criminal name on the ballot.But fanatics are free to go to hell with their dreams that the country’s constitution would curve in for convicts.
The Archbishop’s reflection is very objective, stating facts that are largely shared by Zambians and the majority of the democratic world.
NCC is a rip off. Many of us have friends who are members or delegates of the NCC. We know how much money has been milked out of the National Treasury by considering how much each delegate has been paid for sitting.
Some of them have bought cars, while others have built houses out of the allowances.
Don’t be cheated, no one who has participated at the NCC has done so because they love Mother Zambia. That is a lie; if they loved Mother Zambia, would they be so ungrateful as to demand further allowances as if NCC was their day job? These are greedy parasites sacking Zambia dead.
The Archbishop is to be highly commended. And by the way, who is talking about the PF when we say that it was silly of the NCC to support the degree clause? if that is what they want, why not state further that the degree should have been obtained in the last five years to make sure the degree is informed?
One hopes that all of us Zambians will reject this manipulative move of the NCC parasitic delegates, and leave Zambia open to be governed by those naturally gifted by God to lead our nation. Let us not start insulting the intelligence of people by prescribing for everyone what their need is. We have not told you that we want a degree. What we need is responsible leadership.
Just wondering what this bishop is all about. Zambia like Kenya, yada yada. How many times have we have these prophesies from the so called men of God. Just because the catholic church has taken an unbridled stand to support Sata does not mean this view should be forced down our throats. What makes him thing every catholic is pro PF? Men of the cloth can sometimes be so full of shit.
Archbishop is being divisive by shooting at the NCC and in the same breath stating that its not too late for them to perform.’Those who boycotted are vindicated’…how can you make such a conclusion before they produce the final document? If they listen to him and change the items he disagrees with, will he then condemn those who boycotted as being unpatriotic?
The holy grail lies in him singling out the degree clause but he then fails to elaborate why he finds it particularly hard to swallow. It would appear he has ‘brother in law’ reasons to oppose this…..Bishop please be a unifying factor, dont abuse your position to con Zambians into electing a leader simply because of your personal preference.
Does one need a degree to understand this sentence????
“Ability, vision, intelligence and wisdom are not an exclusive preserve of degree holders otherwise it would be impossible to explain such ‘phenomena’, for lack of a better word, as Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Lula de Silva of Brazil and Jacob Zuma of South Africa to mention but a few.
People of Zambia, Please Wake Up!!! Lets change the gear from 4th to 5th and cruise in harmony. Sata may die soon but that stupid piece of legislature will remain there. Shame on you NCC.
Does one a degree to understand this sentence????
“Ability, vision, intelligence and wisdom are not an exclusive preserve of degree holders otherwise it would be impossible to explain such ‘phenomena’, for lack of a better word, as Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Lula de Silva of Brazil and Jacob Zuma of South Africa to mention but a few.
People of Zambia, Please Wake Up!!! Lets change the gear from 4th to 5th and cruise in harmony. Sata may die soon but that stupid piece of legislature will remain there. Shame on you NCC.
It’s such a shame we are practicing politics of individuals at the expense of the future of our country. Instead of strengthening institutions, we have a governements that are bent on clinging to power at all cost and crashing the opposition… Once elections are over, one would expect the President, the Vice, etc to start working on issues that would benefit the entire country but what we see are campaigns that stretch from one election to the next. Having said this, I will not give up hope!