CLERIC CANES LAURA MITI
CAPITALImpact Church Overseer, Bishop George Mbulo, has taken a swipe at human rights activist, Laura Miti, over her sentiments she made against the Constitution Amendment Bill number 10 of 2019.
Bishop Mbulo and other clergymen were tasked to scrutinise and debate the report of the Parliamentary Select Committee appointed to scrutinize the Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) Bill.
Ms Miti was alleged to have accused clergymen of allowing ruling party actors to lie to them on the bill.
This is after the clergy called on Members of Parliament (MPs) to objectively debate the report from the Select Committee tasked to scrutinize the amendment Bill.
The clergyman said it was unfortunately that a person who was claimed to be a thoughtful contributor to national issues, would have presented her case in the manner she did.
“I have failed to understand our Zambian reasoning that anyone who seems to agree with one’s nemesis, they must be paid by their nemesis to regurgitate their master’s agenda. Of interest is to note that the only ones accused, by perception, without facts, are those who seem to agree with some, not all that the ruling party stands for.
“It has never occurred to us Zambians that this same wrong perception, if it were always true, may equally be applicable to anyone who aligns themselves with the political opposition’s views that they may have been paid to tout their political opposition party’s views,” Bishop Mbulo said.
Bishop Mbulo said the committee would make the independent and objective voice heard in the country, especially on matters of national concern, without any particular person or grouping shutting them down.
“What an unfortunate scenario! Zambians, we should be above such base thinking; and justly consider that someone doesn’t need to be paid to express their personal opinion on national matters,” he said.
Ms Miti was quoted having said, “To Pastor Mbulo and the 200 clergy I say - the only document on the floor of the
House is Bill 10. Read it for yourselves for goodness sake.
“Understand how the Committee system works. Stop being used to lead your members and the nation into lazy and unquestioning acceptance of all that comes from power holders. Bill 10 is evil and very much alive,” Ms Miti had said.
But Bishop Mbulo explained that that they mobilized the Lusaka Pastors’ Fellowship to brief them on their encounter with the representatives of the Select Committee, and inform them of the serious outstanding issues in the report.
“Following our submissions to the Parliamentary Select Committee, it would be foolish ofus to detach ourselves from the outcomes of the Select Committee’s analysis and subsequent presentation of their report to Parliament for first reading and pending second reading debates to ensue this February.
“Therefore, after reading through and scrutinizing the report of the Select Committee, we noticed that the majority of submissions from our Christian Fraternity were adopted into the Report, despite still troubling clauses in the Report that overlooked some submissions, which we felt were equally paramount,” he explained.