Ndola — The National Constitutional Conference (NCC) yesterday resumed sittings with chairperson, Chifumu Banda, urging the members to carry out their functions with the necessary speed as Zambians were anxious for a new Constitution.

Mr Banda said the members shouldered a heavy responsibility of ensuring that the Zambians got a Constitution they had always yearned for. Speaking at the official opening at Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka yesterday, Mr Banda said the current sittings would end in mid-May.

"We have a heavy responsibility on our shoulders to give the Zambians a Constitution that they have always wanted. "We are presenting to you a heavy programme of activities. This is to take into account the fact that we have only 12 months of sittings in which to conclude our work and render our conference report and the adopted Constituion," he said.

He said he was confident the members would deliver according to expectations of the Zambian people. Mr Banda said he was also hopeful that the delegates would share information on the work of the NCC, particularly with the organisations, groups and constituencies they represented. He said the major assignment the secretariat had when the members went on recess was to place them in various committees. The committees were constituted in accordance with the qualificatioans and experience of the NCC members. Other members were categorised in line with their preferences. Also taken into consideration was the need to spread members across the various committees to ensure that no single grouping dominated any committee.

Mr Banda said the conference would from April 22 to 23 approve the committees, conduct elections of chairpersons and their deputies and elect one member of the disciplinary committee to replace the late Cornelius Matandiko who died on April 2. The conference would from April 24 to May 12 carry out a general orientation for the members on the Constitution-making process.

From May 13 to 14, the conference would carry out orientation for chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of the committees. "After these activities, we are proposing to adjourn the conference so that we give chance to the committees to commence their detailed work to consider matters before them," Mr Banda said.