BIZARRE POLITICS

IT is totally surreal and bizarre.

Nobody would have expected that in 2024, democratic space would be so constricted by such institutions as the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) as to produce a zero result for the major opposition political party on account of the illegal and unjustified manipulation of goal posts by the executive.

The Patriotic Front (PF), the former ruling party received zero (0) votes in Shitambuli polling station of Mumbotuta Ward in Milenge Constituency, a former stronghold of the party. At 49, the Socialist Party fared better.

The truth, however is that our political circumstances have evolved into a total disconnect from reality that nobody could have predicted in 2021 when the UPND was in opposition aspiring for power.

Even some of the worst excesses of the former ruling party, the United National Independence Party (UNIP), which saw the introduction of the one-party state have been exceeded by far and pale into total insignificance.

Cadres are no longer in markets but at ECZ, Judiciary, Parliament, Police and all governance institutions. That is why Miles Sampa can have his way.

It is frightening, very frightening because we have lost the way.

Who would have guessed that the Police would protect an illegal assembly intended to steal the main opposition party? Who would have guessed that the courts would acquiesce to machinations of electoral Mingalato in Kabushi and Kwacha, let alone the by-election scandals in which the former ruling party receives zero votes because the goal posts have been changed by the ECZ?

Who would have guessed that the Police would become so powerful as to detain people indefinitely on unbailable offences of aggravated robbery simply to punish opposition activists? They cannot expect relief from the compromised Judiciary.

And who would have guessed that Cabinet Office would become a shunting ground for civil servants whose ethnic loyalties would become a matter of tenure consideration.

It is bizarre because those who interacted with President Hakainde Hichilema in the opposition trenches believed in him and believed that he would deliver a country fully observant of the rule of law.

Instead, a photographer taking pictures of the razing of Munyaule market is reported to have been detained, leading to the untimely death of her mother.

This remains unconfirmed but if true, this would place Zambia in a pole situation in the league of dictatorships.

Who would have expected that cancer patients would be allowed to die because the government did not allocate money for the repair of diagnostic and treatment routines? Who would have expected that hospitals would run dry of essential medicines completely on account of incompetence and politically-inclined leadership and the politicisation of the procurement of drugs?

The situation is indeed surreal for many Zambians who expected better, who expected a Zambia thriving in freedoms and abundance.

To the contrary, for the first time in more than 30 years, the security system has become a dreaded presence, charging and marauding citizens whose mistake was to express a contrary view to the “norm.”

For the first time in many years, mere suspicion has become a ground in which property has been lost. The state does not have to prove any wrong doing but simply raise doubts about the acquisition of property to justify sequestration. The judiciary will oblige and now even within a politically prescribed five months.

And for the first time, foreign investors, roam freely exploiting resources, including sugilite, emeralds and gold worth billions of Kwacha which they export with impunity, while Zambians with minor assets are subjected to harassment and prosecution for possessing properties which they are suspected to have obtained through criminal enterprises which remains unproved.

Nobody is asking the foreigners to explain the export of billions worth of minerals from Zambia. Truckloads of precious ores are exported as copper concentrates when in fact not.

The current political circumstances are as unusual and surreal as to defy description. A former President who complains of Police brutality is accused of treason. How?

It is as if a time will come when the nation will awaken from the “dreamlike” state where the Miles Sampa, ECZ, Police and Judiciary do not exist in their present form.

If indeed Zambia does not wake up from this nightmare and the Kampungwes of this world continue to dominate the narrative, where will it end?