ARCHBISHOP Emeritus Telesphore Mpundu says a dark cloud hangs over the country as we go towards the 2021 general elections.
Analysing the year 2020, the former archbishop of Lusaka Catholic Diocese attributed the country’s shrinking democratic space to the poor state of the Republican Constitution.
“Without a good constitution we shall continue to wallow in political wilderness where there is only the law of the jungle. What we have now is a dark cloud over Zambia as we move towards the elections,” he said in response to a press query from The Mast. “We have been shown the instruments of war under the custody of government. This war will not be engaged with another country. It will be war against the people of Zambia.”
Archbishop Mpundu passionately called for national gathering that would craft a better Constitution for the country.
He said there was still time to heal the nation and get back to democratic governance.
“Time is now to call a national Indaba, a serious one. Its job description is to come up with the constitution to guide this nation’s good governance and movement forward away from the current floundering,” Archbishop Mpundu said. “Zambia can do it, so let us do it for the sake of this nation which we love and the country that is our home and that of our children and their children’s children. Let the rally cry of One Zambia, One Nation be heard everywhere in this land so richly endowed by God through its sons and daughters and natural resources.”
On what to look forward to ahead of the 2021 elections, Archbishop Mpundu said, “In short, there is nothing to look forward to in the coming elections unless this nation first of all addresses the task of hammering the Constitution to the last detail as [advised by] the Commonwealth team that came to assist us in our endeavours following disastrous elections that needed the intervention of the ConCourt, the results of which are well known to all of us.”
He said without a good constitution, people should only expect chaos.
Archbishop Mpundu argued that the bad state of the current Constitution had given President Edgar Lungu courage to seek a third term even when he does not qualify.
“We are told that the current Head of State intends to stand for elections even though the law says he cannot. It is further suggested that even if he is allowed to stand yet he fails to go through, he may not be willing to hand over power; though we are speculating,” he said. “Clearly without a good Constitution, what do we expect apart from chaos? Which laws can be cited to the Executive in order to indict them and charge them with high treason with the consequences that go with such a conviction?”
Archbishop Mpundu, who gave a historical perspective about the country’s constitution making process dating back to 1967, said it was difficult to determine what to look forward to in 2021.
“It is difficult to determine what we should be looking forward to as regards next year’s general election and presidential elections. This is because our collective or institutional memory as a nation is very poor, if at all it exists. We are facing a scenario whereby we as a nation have failed and indeed even refused to learn from our past mistakes in order to rise to the challenge and glory of a truly democratic country,” Archbishop Mpundu said. “This brings us to the present PF era. The PF government had promised to give the nation a good constitution within 90 days of coming to power, the Annel Silungwe Constitutional Technical Committee went to work and came up with a road map for producing a constitution to stand the test of time.”
He said because of selfishness from those in government, the country was back to square one in the constitution-making process.
“…Unfortunately, again the process was dominated by the government and government institutions, but it made progress. Unfortunately, a lot of issues were left hanging in the air which issues were later named ‘lacunas’. We are all witnesses to the mess that was created after the [2016] elections due to the term ‘lacuna’,” said Archbishop Mpundu. “This is where we are today: the PF government response to the ‘lacuna’ phenomenon has been to introduce the Bill 10 – constitution amendment Bill. Almost totally government driven to the exclusion of the people through their representatives, Bill 10 failed to sail through and we are back to square one.”