EDITOR’S NOTE | Politics of Memory & The Narrative Battle
The debate over Bill 7 has turned volatile phase. Monday’s State House Livestream, which featured pro-Bill 7 voices ranging from student leaders and rural CSOs to Pentecostal and SDA clergy, has triggered a sharp counterreaction from the PF base and its online allies.
The screenshot now circulating is not a clause from the Bill. It is a tweet from Hakainde Hichilema in 2020, during the Bill 10 debate, warning that “a good piece of legislation does not need to be heavily marketed” and praising the Catholic Church, LAZ and other stakeholders for opposing it.
That post is now being used as political ammunition to ask a simple question: If UPND demonised Bill 10, why should PF support Bill 7?
This is not an unfair question. It is a political one. Zambia’s politics are rarely driven by principle. They are driven by region, tribe, personal interest, and historical memory. The UPND’s failure to frame a convincing narrative around Bill 7 has created a vacuum that is now being filled by old quotes, screenshots, and ideological reminders.
The PF base sees Monday’s Livestream as hypocrisy. The UPND base sees it as overdue correction. Meanwhile, the public is stuck between two blocs that increasingly speak past one another and not to the issues.
The reality is clear. Those supporting Bill 7 appear to support everything in it. Those opposing Bill 7 oppose everything in it. The arguments are no longer clause-based. They are identity-based. They are regional. They are emotional. The ongoing narrative shows that the reform now sits at the intersection of constitutional law and political class antagonism.
The Oasis Forum and Catholic bloc are perceived as Lusaka-centric elites. The pro-Bill 7 clergy and CSOs are perceived as provincial and “grassroots” actors. Each side believes it speaks for “the people.” Neither side has shown the humility to admit they only speak for a constituency.
This reminds us that Zambian political memory is long. When people are presented with public debate, they reach back to older grievances. They pull up tweets. They resurrect past votes. They extract old soundbites.
Hichilema’s 2020 criticism of Bill 10 is now being reinterpreted as a moral contradiction, even though the content of Bill 7 and Bill 10 differ significantly. The political class is no longer debating clauses. It is debating consistency, loyalty, and credibility.
Our task here is simple. We are a nationalist voice. We fact-check and contextualise political claims to protect the public from misinformation. Politicians speak for constituencies, interests, and electoral goals. They do not speak for truth. They do not speak for the whole nation. They speak to survive. And because memory is now part of this fight, we will continue to provide independent, sober, fact-based context so that Zambians can judge not by tribe, crowd size, or noise, but by evidence.
© The People’s Brief | Editors
Parliament voted against Bill 10 and not LAZ, CSOs or the church. In the same way let parliament vote. They will determine the fate of Bill 7. Just lobby your MPs. Don’t threaten or blackmail them. If you do or accuse them of being bought, they will teach you a lesson by overwhelmingly voting to pass the bill so you can understand it is their call and not yours.
President Hakainde Hichilema is the subject here sir, not bill 7 or bill 10.
He is INCONSISTENT. The Catholic church and other competent institutions were against bill 10 because they did not agree with it’s content. HH liked their stance because it resonated with his. Fast forward the clock we have bill 7 which is unpopular to all Zambians except Tongas, Toka leyas and ilas. The same institutions he agreed with have seen through its unpopular contents and are unanimously against it.
He now wants them to accept this bill. This is typically a “chawamila galu chaipila mbuzi” situation.
These institutions are consistently against manipulation of the constitution to suit an individual’s evil agenda just as they did in 2020 against Lungu’s evil agenda.
So they are not wrong at all.