HOW MAPATIZYA FORMULA ENTERED ZAMBIA’S POLITICAL DICTIONARY
Somewhere along Zambia’s political journey, the word “Mapatizya” stopped being just the name of a constituency in Southern Province and became a political adjective.
The story begins in 2005, following the death of incumbent UPND MP Grace Judith Sialumba on March 13.
Earlier in the 2001 general election, Sialumba whitewashed her closest rival, Ackson Sejani of the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD), polling 6,649 votes against Sejani’s 1,447.
Sejani was no political lightweight. He had represented Mapatizya for the MMD from 1991 to 2001 and had served as Local Government Minister under President Frederick Chiluba. He later left the MMD, joined the FDD and became its secretary general.
By 2005, however, Sejani had made yet another political journey, this time into the UPND fold.
And politics being politics, the man who had been thoroughly defeated by Sialumba in 2001 was now being handed the UPND ticket to replace her.
Enter the Mapatizya Formula.
At a press conference after his adoption as the UPND candidate for the June 9, 2005 by-election, Sejani declared a political jihad against electoral corruption and alleged rigging by the ruling MMD.
The message was essentially: enough is enough; this time Mapatizya will not be business as usual.
And business as usual promptly disappeared.
The by-election campaign descended into violence, with accusations flying in every direction. Then MMD national secretary Vernon Mwaanga appealed to the Home Affairs minister and Inspector General of Police to intervene.
Former Sinazongwe UPND MP Raphael Muyanda was quoted by The Post declaring that the UPND had effectively overrun MMD camps in Mapatizya.
The UPND campaign team was accused of operating a “militia” that attacked government vehicles, intercepted food-supply convoys and harassed ministers.
In other words, this was no longer merely a contest over who would occupy a parliamentary seat.
Mapatizya had entered its “bring your own helmet” era.
Then Southern Province Minister Alice Simango even transferred some police officers, accusing them of failing to prevent attacks on ministers and MMD members by UPND cadres.
Meanwhile, back in Lusaka, the situation had become serious enough for prayers to be held, with President Levy Mwanawasa leading MMD cadres in praying for their candidate, Emmanuel Siamweela, to survive the political battlefield and make it to Parliament.
Unfortunately for the MMD, the heavens apparently had other plans.
Sejani won the by-election.
And with that victory, “Mapatizya formula” entered the Zambian political dictionary
Over the years, opponents have used the phrase to describe a hardline campaign strategy involving aggressive grassroots mobilisation, intimidation, cadre activity and, at its ugliest, political violence.
UPND leaders and supporters, however, have traditionally offered a rather different interpretation: that the “formula” was about strong grassroots organisation, vigilance at polling stations and protecting votes from manipulation during and after counting.
A perfectly respectable explanation.
The problem is that whenever politicians announce they are taking the Mapatizya Formula to another by-election, the local people in that particular constituency, tend to start checking the location of the nearest police station.
The 2010 Mufumbwe by-election where the Mapatizya formula was applied for instance, again became associated with serious political violence.
So, depending on whom you ask, the Mapatizya Formula was either about defending democracy at the polling station or Zambia’s political version of “if you come looking for trouble, we have already opened the door.”
Either way, one thing is certain: Mapatizya gave Zambian politics a phrase that outlived the by-election that created it.
Sejani, the man at the centre of that political drama, died on July 28, 2025, aged 67, while receiving medical treatment in South Africa.
And so the archive records another chapter in Zambia’s political history where a parliamentary by-election produced not just a winner, but a political formula whose meaning has been debated ever since.
Mapatizya: where “grassroots mobilisation” acquired a very interesting reputation.
– The Zed Informant