ConCourt has dismissed Contempt proceedings raised against the Speaker and all MPs aimed at stoping them from passing Bill 7

 MATTERS ARISING | Bill 7 Enters a Decisive Political Week as Courts, Clergy, Lawyers and Politicians Collide

Zambia’s constitutional reform debate has taken a sharper institutional turn this week after the Constitutional Court dismissed contempt proceedings that sought to stop the Speaker of the National Assembly and Members of Parliament from proceeding with Constitution Amendment Bill No. 7.

The ruling clears the path for Parliament to continue with the legislative process as the Select Committee work advances ahead of the next reading of the Bill in the House. The decision removes, for now, the legal chokehold the opposition had been attempting to place on the parliamentary route.

At the same time, a high-profile public debate on Bill 7 is now officially set for Friday, December 12, at Mulungushi International Conference Centre under the live broadcast of Diamond TV. The exchange will pit Foreign Affairs Minister Mulambo Haimbe against United Liberal Party leader Sakwiba Sikota, after Sikota initially challenged President Hakainde Hichilema to a direct duel on the Bill.

Haimbe shifted the contest to a lawyer-to-lawyer format, declaring that “what you want to debate is a legal issue”, setting the stage for what is shaping up to be the most substantive public encounter on the proposed amendments so far.

Inside the political trenches, rhetoric is hardening. Presidential Adviser Levy Ngoma publicly classified the Oasis Forum as “political opponents” rather than neutral civil society actors, promising to confront them accordingly.

The statement marks a sharp escalation in tone from State House toward one of the country’s most influential constitutional watchdog groupings.

The Oasis Forum, however, maintains that its objections are procedural, not partisan. Its leadership insists that the Constitution amendment process itself is the “nullity”, not necessarily all the clauses in the Bill. That position is now colliding directly with government messaging that opposition actors are engaging in spectacle rather than substance.

Parallel to this, the Law Association of Zambia remains openly opposed to the reintroduction of Bill 7, arguing that Parliament is acting in defiance of earlier constitutional guidance.

While no new injunction now stands in Parliament’s way, LAZ’s sustained resistance keeps the legal legitimacy debate alive outside the courtroom.

Sources within political circles allege growing coordination between sections of the opposition, some Members of Parliament, and civil society actors, with reports of closed-door engagements between opposition figures, LAZ officials and selected MPs. While none of the parties have confirmed these meetings on record, the optics are fuelling government suspicions of a coordinated front aimed at derailing the amendment process from outside Parliament.

As the Select Committee continues to receive submissions, the battle lines are now clearly drawn across three fronts: the courts which have stepped back from intervention, the legislature pressing ahead with scrutiny, and the political theatre that now shifts to public debate on December 12th.

What was initially framed as a technical constitutional exercise has fully transformed into a national political contest over power, process, and legitimacy.

With Parliament preparing for the next critical stage of Bill 7, the coming days will test whether Zambia’s constitutional conversation stabilises into structured engagement or slides deeper into institutional confrontation between politicians, lawyers, activists and the State itself.

© The People’s Brief | Ollus R. Ndomu