GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS:
The opposition must not go to sleep
STILL have faint memS it ories true of that that there distant is none afso ternoon blind as those in Mufulira’s who can see? Central I ask Street this question in the because late 1950s. almost I was every a little Zamkid bian when does Mr. not Harry see Mwaanga or realise why Nkumbula there is came a tendency back to from resort England; to dictatorship he was received by those by that a large are crowd given as some he rode form in of a authority convertible. in our People country. marched
alongside Every Zambian the motorcade who occupies and they a public were singing office in to this the land praise does of the what Old he Lion. thinks is correct “Ba bwela by his eee, own ba bwela, instincts ba rather bwela than eee ba by the Nkumbula, laws of the ba
land. bwela eee ba bwela, ba bwela
uko The baile” policeman (He has come wants back, to arrest Mr. Nkumbula and judge, has come the judge back is from supremo where he and went). he cannot be I criticised. was barely A six politician years old in power but that can day order remains the a silhouarrest of ette any stuck person in my he memory. feels has At insulted that time, him, there and was Zambians only one don’t African seem political to realise party, why the we have African this National situation. Congress. I
also The remember bottom very line well is that Zambia my late cousin does not Lawrence have a Chola good constitution. Katilungu was From once a the vice prestime that ident we of the amended ANC under the 1964 Mr. constitution, Nkumbula. we have concentrated I also remember too much that power anothin er cousin the state Mr. represented Jeffrey Milandu by the who president, was nicknamed the police, “Jimen” the
because he liked Jimen Taxis,
Drug Enforcement Commis
was an organiser of the ANC
sion and Anti-Corruption
in Kansuswa Township. Those
Commission. who lived in Mufulira at the
The country should urtime will remember Jimen
gently consider promulgat
Taxis.
ing a constitution which
But as would be normal in
promotes parliamentary
any mass organisations, dif
democracy. That is what our
ferences soon developed in the
independence constitution
African National Congress.
promoted and protected.
A more radical faction broke
My opinion is that the first away and formed the Zambian
constitution was good be
African National Congress
cause there was no presiden
(ZANC), which later be
tial eletion. Dr Kenneth Da
came the United National
vid Kaunda became the first
Independence Party (UNIP).
president of the Republic of
Soon after the formation of
Zambia by virtue of the fact UNIP, the African National Congress went into panic mode. Their strategy was to oppose everything that UNIP demanded from the colonial powers; and in so doing, they resorted to dirty tactics.
UNIP burnt schools and bridges to force the colonialists to give power to the Africans, the ANC said this was savagery by the Bembas who did not want to go to school.
UNIP preached national unity, but the ANC told its supporters that UNIP was a party led by thieves who would take away their cattle and wives. They called Elijah Mudenda and Mainza Chona tools of the Bemba thieves because the two nationalists were supporting independence.
UNIP demanded immediate independence but the ANC preferred continued colonisation. As a result, when the first one-man-one-vote
Ithat UNIP emerged victorious during the first one-man one-vote in 1964.
Dr Kaunda was in fact elected as Member of Parliament for Mkushi and he had to resign the seat to assume the office of president. The current constitution encourages abuse of power and does not offer any protection for the ordinary Zambian. A good constitution should become the focus of the opposition parties henceforth.
The opposition must wake up and stop the trend of amending our constitution to fit the manifesto of any ruling party. Our opposition parties must work together to come up with a better constitution which must then be subjected to a referendum.
Let the Zambian people have a say. After all, the purpose of a constitution is to protect the individual rights of every citizen.
The constitution should not be a matter of he who laughs last laughs best, it should be a document that pleases and protects all players; politicians and the citizens