SIMUUWE TAUGHT A FEW LESSONS
Response to Mark Simuuwe: Justice Must Be Blind, Not Guided by the Executive’s Hand
By Thandiwe Ketis Ngoma
Mark Simuuwe, the United Party for National Development (UPND) Media Director, recently told the opposition to “stop weeping” over the arrests of its members. His remarks are not only cynical and condescending; they are a dangerous deflection from the serious erosion of our democratic institutions. His words are an insult to every Zambian who values justice, and they expose a government that would rather weaponize the law than uphold it.
Let it be made unmistakably clear: no citizen is above the law, but no government is above scrutiny. When arrests and prosecutions disproportionately target opposition leaders while ruling party elites enjoy immunity and invisibility, we are not witnessing justice. We are witnessing political warfare disguised as legal process.
Simuuwe wants us to believe these arrests are clean and apolitical. But Zambians are not gullible. We see the pattern. Opposition voices are gagged, harassed, and dragged through the courts, while UPND allies enjoy untouchable status. This is not law enforcement; it is selective persecution. And it reeks of a regime that fears dissent more than it fears corruption.
Let us not sugarcoat the truth: the judiciary today is compromised. When judges rule in favor of the Executive with suspicious consistency, when bail is denied to political opponents but granted swiftly to ruling party cadres, when courtrooms become rubber stamps for State House, we are not operating in a democracy. We are living in a constitutional hostage situation.
Mr. Simuuwe references the Constitution, yet he conveniently ignores Article 118, which guarantees an independent and impartial judiciary. But what good is a constitutional guarantee when it is trampled daily by an Executive that treats justice like a personal tool of revenge?
If the UPND truly believes in the rule of law, let them prove it.
Let opposition leaders be treated equally before the law, not as targets of political cleansing.
Let judicial processes be free from interference, not guided by party interests.
Let the courts serve the people, not protect the powerful.
Let us be very clear. Mocking citizens and leaders who demand fairness is not bold leadership. It is arrogance born of unchecked power. It is a page torn from the playbook of every fallen regime that believed it could silence the people forever.
Zambians are watching. We will not be silenced. We will not be intimidated. And we will not let this nation slide quietly into authoritarianism under the guise of law and order.
What the people want is simple: justice without bias, leadership without arrogance, and democracy without deception. If Mr. Simuuwe and the UPND cannot understand that, then they have already failed the Zambian people. History will remember them not as defenders of justice, but as the architects of betrayal against a free nation.