LAZ ASKS THE GOVERNMENT TO ENSURE MINISTERS APPOINTED IN NEW AND RE-ALIGNED MINISTRIES ARE SWORN-IN AGAIN.

By KETRA KALUNGA THE Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) has written to the Ministry of Justice to ensure that ministers appointed to new and re-aligned ministries are sworn-in again after National Assembly approval. LAZ President, Abyudi Shonga, confirmed that the association had written to Justice Minister, Mulambo Haimbe, demanding that the anomaly surrounding the creation and merging of ministries be corrected. Mr Shonga said ministers who were sworn-in to spearhead new ministries would have to be sworn-in again after parliamentary approval in line with the constitution. He said new and merged ministries would only take effect after they had been approved by Parliament, insisting that President Hakainde Hichilema erred in swearing in ministers to non-existent ministries. “There is no problem with the appointment but there might then be a problem with swearing-in because swearing in must come after the ministries have been properly approved by the National Assembly,” he said. Mr Shonga said the matter should be corrected by ensuring that the right process of creating and re-aligning ministries was followed in line with the constitution. He said creation of new ministries was a process allowed by the constitution but it starts with the President deciding to create new ministries and ends with approval by the National Assembly. “We are in discussion with the Minister of Justice on this matter, our role as LAZ is when we see something wrong we engage them to try and see if it can be corrected,” he said. Mr Shonga said in the event the National Assembly does not approve the creation of new ministries, the President had the constitutional right to take the matter to the Constitutional Court and that the decision of the court on the matter would suffice. Article 92 (2)(d) mandates the President to establish, merge and dissolve Government ministries, subject to the approval of the National Assembly.