GUY SCOTT WONDERS WHY HE DOESNT ACT AS PRESIDENT VICE-President Dr Guy Scott says he does not know why President Michael Sata does not appoint him acting president when he leaves the country. And Vice-President Scott says the constitution has become a professional politician’s subject matter. Meanwhile, Vice-President Scott says the selling of huge chunks of land by chiefs is giving him sleepless nights. Speaking at a public discussion forum organised by the Press Freedom Committee of The Post at Southern Sun Hotel, Vice-President Scott hoped that one day, President Sata would wake up in a joyful mood and appoint him acting president. “It does not make any difference to me. The reality is that if you are the acting president, you are basically Mr Sata’s chola boy which I am anyway. Sitting at the end of the phone so that he can growl at you over the phone from America or wherever he is. It is not a big deal. Exactly what his reasons are for not appointing me acting president, I don’t know, but it is his prerogative. May be he doesn’t want someone rushing to court and saying ‘but the constitution excludes him because his parents were not born in Zambia’ or something like that. I don’t lose any sleep over that one at all. I don’t think I have one night loss of sleep over that one,” he said. And Vice-President Scott said chiefs had discovered that if they could bend the rules, they could sale land and become millionaires. He said chiefs were not the owners of the land because the lands Act was very clear as land was vested in the President and that chiefs were one of the trustees in addition to the councils and the commissioner of lands. “There is huge land grab going on, people getting land in irregular ways even though the lands Act is very clear. You have to look at one of our neighbours and ask what their situation on land is like and that will keep you awake. Our safety in this country comes from people having the land to feed on, hunt, cultivate. If the situation is not addressed, we shall find our land has been sold to foreigners,” he said. And Vice-President Scott said the constitution issue had become political. “The constitution has become a professional politician’s subject. It is a political thing. We are not sincere most of the times because if we were sincere, we would have had the constitution,” he said. Vice-President Scott said his personal views on the constitution was that it should be given a period of 10 years before it comes into effect so as to give people enough time to make the necessary changes that might be required. Meanwhile, Vice-President Scott said the PF had experienced a number of challenges in the agriculture sector in the three years the party has been in office. He said there were a lot of parastatal bodies that considered themselves to be independent of government. “This issue has not been given the attention it requires. We have nice ililombas set up to do certain jobs but they are not doing it,” Vice-President Scott said. He said the PF had managed to score a lot of success in areas of construction and the media such as ZNBC, which he said aired a lot of propaganda of good NAZI German quality. Vice-President Scott also condemned violence against journalists, saying it was not part of the PF policy. “I am sorry on the barring of journalists from privately-owned media houses during the official opening of Parliament, it should never have been the case,” said Vice-President Scott.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 21:30:32 +0000
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