OIL FROM GRASS SEQUEL
Continued From Last Week
ALTHOUGH the reasons given for the introduction of the one party state in Zambia was to stop inter party conflicts which was distracting the country from economic development and national unity, if the truth must be told, it was UNIP, the party which was in government, that was largely responsible for these conflicts, which were characterised by acts of violence, intimidation and suppression and UNIP youths often carried out random card inspection to ensure that every person carried a UNIP card at such places as bus terminuses, markets and work places.
Travellers without UNIP cards were barred from boarding public buses and it was not unusual for people to be forced to purchase UNIP cards regardless of whether they belonged to UNIP or the ANC. Being a civil servant was a preserve of UNIP supporters and a slogan was coined, “it pays to belong to UNIP”.
These inter-party conflicts notwithstanding, what is often forgotten is that the greatest threat to UNIP was intra-party conflicts within the party. At the UNIP’s General Conference in August 1967, aimed at electing members of the Central Committee, the political rivalries within the ranks of UNIP showed that the party had degenerated into two ethnically based coalitions.
The Bembas teamed with the Tongas which resulted in the election of Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe as Vice President at the expense of Reuben Kamanga who had the support of the Lozis and the Easterners. This also resulted in the firing of Nalumino Mundia from UNIP and subsequently formed the United Party which was basically Lozi dominated both in leadership and support.
Kaunda refused to be drawn into these ethnic debates, and tendered in his resignation until he was persuaded by church leaders and other senior citizens to rescind it. The final threat to UNIP came in 1971 when its former vice president, Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe, resigned and formed the United Progressive Party (UPP). The coming of UPP on the political scene threatened to sweep UNIP’s support from the Bemba dominated Luapula, Northern, and Copperbelt Provinces. The impending power shift would have created further political tension in UNIP thus weakening the party further.
With the ANC in full control of Southern and Western Provinces, the formation of UPP meant UNIP was losing its national flavour. By late 1971, UPP had caused havoc in Luapula and Northern Provinces, and coincidentally, negotiations about a possible merger with the ANC had reached an advanced stage.
The possibility of the ANC and the UPP working together made UNIP’s chances of survival very bleak. Efforts to revamp UNIP were getting frustrated by the ANC/UPP manoeuvres.
On 11th September, 1971 at the ANC Annual Conference, Nkumbula had indicated that negotiations for a possible ANC/ UPP merger had reached an advanced stage. While one school of thought alleges that Nkumbula’s popularity had dwindled at the time the idea of one party state was being formulated, the other school of thought denies this. In fact it claims that as late as 1972, Nkumbula was still popular and pressing for the removal of excess powers vested in the president by the constitution.
He continued fighting for the marginalised minority. By 1972, he was still able to address mammoth rallies on the Copperbelt. In Chamboli, armed police had to use tear gas to disperse a big crowd being addressed by Nkumbula.
These rallies were getting more and more inclusive, especially with many people against the introduction of a one party state, thus increasing UNIP’s fears of being voted out.
It was evident that since independence, UNIP had exhibited insecurity due to the persistent presence of the ANC in certain parts of the country like Mufulira, Southern, Western and parts of Eastern province.
By 1972, UNIP had come to a realisation that the opposition would not be silenced. For those in the opposition, the exacerbation of politically motivated violence was simply a scapegoat for introducing a one-party state which UNIP had always advocated for. Nkumbula declined Dr Kaunda’s offer to be on the Commission.
However, not withstanding these sentiments, it cannot be denied that Dr Kaunda achieved internal stability partly through tribal balancing in appointments (this became a sore point with the MMD who were advocating for the appointment of people on merit), and this was appreciated by most Zambians. The image he projected to the world was one of maturity and responsibility, of calm and sanity, of stability and security. If a vote had been taken for the most respected African statesman he would probably have won it hands down.
Negotiations continued until KK and Harry Nkumbula made a joint declaration in Choma in Southern Province on 27th June 1973 that UNIP would absorb ANC. Following this, a new national Constitution was adopted on 13th December 1973, and Zambia formally became a onemotto, party State. People, of course not all people as is normal in any political dispensation, supported the change because they saw it as the way to avoid tribalism, division and coups.
It was seen as the best practical way of ensuring that the national ‘One Zambia, One Nation’ became a reality.
The theory that lay behind the one-party system was adapted from Lenin. People – “the masses” - were encouraged to join the Party and become involved in it. Their wishes would be channelled through section, branch, ward, district and provincial meetings to the national level where they would be co-ordinated and passed to the government for implementation.
That was what underlay the phrase “the Party and its government”. The Party theoretically represented the people, and the government was its executive instrument. After the president, the most important political figure in the country was not the Prime Minister but the secretary-general of the Party. The Prime Minister was third in the hierarchy. The most important policy-making body was the Central Committee of the Party. It made decisions and passed them to the National Assembly to be enacted into legislation. The Assembly was the executive arm of the Party and was totally subservient to its control, especially since a programme of decentralization in the early eighties had been introduced. Zambia had three overlapping systems of administration: the Party, the government with the civil service, and the traditional rulers. The Party had supreme powers but, at least in the nineteen eighties, little popular support; the government was well meaning but ineffective and its hands were tied by the Party. In the 1980s, a newspaper referred to the “Party and its Government” as PIG perhaps because a pig is a despicable animal or perhaps because it was reminiscent of Napoleon in Animal Farm. It was severely reprimanded. So when the idea of making oil from grass was propounded, it went unchallenged, the party and its head were infallible.
Dr Kaunda worked steadily and successfully to make Zambia a multi-racial society and was consistent in his opposition to apartheid, and in supporting the liberation movements in Rhodesia (previously Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe), South West Africa (now Namibia) and the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique.
That support cost Zambia dearly: estimates of the cost to the Southern African region of the tension with South Africa during this period vary from ten to twenty-five billion US dollars. Whatever the real figure may be, the price was high, especially in view of Zambia’s land-locked position. Whether the return on investment on the liberation struggle was justifiable is debatable.
The dissolution of the Federation in 1963 was followed by Northern Rhodesia gaining its independence from Britain in 1964 to become Zambia.
In 1965, Southern Rhodesia, led by Ian Douglas Smith, unilaterally declared independence to become Rhodesia.
Zambia observed the international sanctions imposed on Rhodesia and assisted and harboured the Zimbabwean Freedom Fighters and their leaders to fight the Smith regime.
Both Zambian and Zimbabwean human lives were lost in the war for Zimbabwean Independence and the Zambian nation sacrificed both human, financial and other resources to assist the Zimbabwean liberation war.
Zimbabwe finally got Independence in 1980. I remember vividly copper, as heavy as it is, being air lifted to the port of Dar es Salaam because the usual southern route was closed. To Be Continued Next Week