LAZ Warns On Bill No. 10 Amendments

The Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) has warned that the Constitution Amendment Bill No. 10 has not been amended to remove contentious provisions.

 The group’s president is quoted as stating, “Next month, that Bill is expected to go back to Parliament. Our hope, as we stated last year, was that that Bill should have been withdrawn. I must also take this opportunity to state again that there is a misconception in the public that Bill 10 has been amended because there was a Select Committee that rendered a report on what stakeholder said. That report is not an amendment to the Bill. The Bill that we saw in June is still the same Bill that is going to be debated on the floor of Parliament next month.”

 Opponents, from the UPND and the NDC, to the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) and Linda Kasonde’s Chapter One, are objecting to the Bill on the basis that it strengthens the existing powers of the executive and President to the detriment of Zambia’s democracy.

Among the most contentious and concerning provisions in the Bill are the re-introduction of deputy ministers, the permitting of ministers to stay in office during elections and scope for interference in the appointment of judges. All of which opposition and civil society claim are designed not to benefit the citizenry, but to strengthen the PF’s grip on power ahead of elections next year.

 The Bill also contains some worrisome provisions relating to Government’s economic and financial management, giving the President the power to contract debt without requiring parliamentary approval. This has served as another red flag ahead of elections.

 “If Bill 10 becomes law, there is a great danger that our democracy will be weakened, our separation of powers will be weakened, and then, there will be Executive powers that will be enhanced, which will cause an imbalance in the way the governance system is supposed to be,” Mwitwa has stated.

 The divisive Bill No. 10 of 2019 has been championed by Government as a necessary measure to address lacunas in the existing Constitution, but has been virulently opposed by several opposition parties and civil society organisations. 

 The Bill was restored to the Order Paper last month, when opposition members of Parliament registered their disapproval with both its contents and the process, by staging a walk out. Further deliberation of Bill No. 10 was deferred until February 2020. The official reason for the deferral given by Government was that there was insufficient time to debate the Bill in the last sitting and the need to prioritise the Budget Act, although it seemed likely that the Government was also scrambling to secure the necessary votes it needed to pass the controversial document. As an amendment to the existing Constitution the Bill requires a two-thirds majority to pass, equivalent to 111 of the 167 MPs. The PF has just 80 elected members, with eight nominated MPs.

 While the matter is delayed it is far from over. Although the Constitutional Court has recently thrown out petitions challenging the Bill from LAZ and Chapter One, its ruling was made on the basis that the Court’s jurisdiction relates to Acts of Parliament, rather than proposed laws in the form of bills. As such, further more substantive legal challenges can be expected should Bill No. 10 come to pass.