KBF warns ‘kindergarten lawyer’ Simuuwe
By Mast Reporter
UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) media director Mark Simuuwe must stop misleading Zambians on the constitutional amendment process he does not understand because he is not a lawyer, Kelvin Fube Bwalya has warned.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lusaka, Bwalya, who is Zambia Must Prosper (ZMP) president, told Simuuwe to stop talking about the Constitution amendment process when he was just a kindergarten figure in the legal system who had never practised law anywhere.
He urged Simuuwe and the UPND to teach and pronounce principles and doctrines of the law in practice, not in theories.
“Just because you are a media director of the UPND, you go on TV and you begin to wash people with stories. Go and ask Mark Simuuwe, which court has he ever stood in? What case has he won? Which magistrate has he argued before? Which judge has he appeared before? Which court? Do they even know him? There’s a difference between paper law and trial law,” Bwalya said.
He said Simuuwe had not practised law at any platform in Zambia but was busy posturing as a legal mind on the Constitution.
“Don’t mislead Zambians. Where did you practise law? I have watched clips. Someone telling the Zambian public, ‘no, we have broken no law’. You’re breaking this tradition. I am showing you now, you’re breaking this tradition,” Bwalya said, addressing Simuuwe directly.
He said Simuuwe should not fool Zambians with his basic knowledge of law by saying that President Hakainde Hichilema was within the confines of the law by abrogating the Constitution of Zambia.
Bwalya said no one should just wake up from sleep and say ‘we are going to change the Constitution’ like Hichilema had done.
“You just don’t wake up and pick a cherry like you’re at a braai and you decide ‘this is what I want to change’. It doesn’t work like that. Any amendment, any intended amendment of a Constitution must always have a procedure,” Bwalya said.
He said the Constitution amendment process in the country had precedents which were legally binding.
“Every previous government has always understood that amending any part of our Constitution requires the Zambian people’s approval and involvement for the process and the result to have legal legitimacy,” Bwalya said.
He urged Simuuwe to behave and stop telling people that the UPND had not broken any law with regards to the bad process it had taken to amend the Constitution.
Bwalya said allowing Hichilema and the UPND to handle the Constitution in the manner they were proposing was manufacturing a dictator.
He said Hichilema was killing the democracy of the country by enacting laws that were promoting dictatorship.
“Whenever we want to touch the Constitution, we go back to the people. We just don’t wake up. The moment we, as a people, allow any government to do what this government wants to do, under this government gazette, we are creating a dictator. We are killing democracy. Slowly they’re chipping off and you are watching. My fellow Zambians, the UPND’s intention here is to kill democracy,” Bwalya warned.
Bwalya warned Simuuwe and those in the UPND that think like him that they only have one year remaining in government.
“You’ve got one year to go and if you’re going to be an accomplice to inequality, we shall come after you. Who do you think you are? This is the law. This is the law. Which law are you talking about? We’re not playing here,” he said.
Bwalya said Zambians had seen lying and cheating of the highest order, highest level by a president and the abuse of government resources and the ugly head of tribalism begin to take root in the country.
