‘Moot presidential gift code of conduct’

…Let’s take advantage of temporal suspension of Constitutional review process to come up with code stating gifts entitled to President, says NCP

By NATION REPORTER WE MUST take advantage of the temporal suspension of the constitutional review process to incorporate progressive code of conduct that will clearly state the gifts the Head of State is entitled to, New Congress Party (NCP) president Peter Chanda has said.

Commenting on the raging debate on whether it was irregular for President Edgar Lungu to receive land as a gift from King Mswati, Mr Chanda said those who were accusing the Head of State of corruption were being petty.

He said going forward, a law over such a gesture must be put in place to prevent such controversies.

He said the current situation presented an opportunity for Zambians to address the lacunas in the Constitution by putting in place progressive clauses that would seal all the contentious issues which the current document did not address.

He added that it was a waste of time for some disgruntled politicians to start calling for President Lungu’s blood as he had not abrogated any law to warrant such punitive action against him.

“For the record, President Lungu has neither abrogated any law nor engaged in any corrupt activity in the acquisition of that piece of land in Eswatini which has generated this debate. However, this presents an opportunity for us to rectify the shortcomings in the Constitution by coming up with a national leadership code of conduct especially now that the Constitution review process has been temporarily suspended to pave way for the national dialogue.

“Instead of dwelling on nonissues over that land, we must be debating what must constitute gifts to the president and how much the Head of State must be entitled to so that we clear this issue once and for all other than creating hegemony where there is no case.

“As politicians, we must depart from dwelling on trivialities but engage in progressive dialogue on national matters by coming up with laws that will spur national development,” Mr. Chanda said.

And ZRP president Wright Musoma said it was surprising that while successive presidents had received gifts from various quarters of society within and outside the country, the same people who were now making noise were quiet.

Mr Musoma challenged former Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Kalaba to state which law prevented President Lungu from accepting the gift from the King.

“There is no law or regulation that bars President Lungu from receiving gifts from well-wishers and those who are making a meal out of the piece of land in Eswatini must tell us what yardstick they are using to come up with this alleged irregularity. If they fail to do so, they must as well shut up because there is no case worth debating.