By Kombe Mataka
ACTIVIST Laura Miti says she is amazed by how many people are expecting to get jobs from President Hakainde Hichilema because they worked to ensure there is change of government.
Miti said when she featured on ZNBC’s Sunday Interview Programme that it was unfortunate that some people were even angry, bitter and vowed they would have the President removed in 2026 because they did not get a job.
“What seems to amaze is the number of people that feel they should have jobs because UPND is in government. Which trenches? The point is you cannot demand a job. None of us deserve a job. What we should all expect when we have a new government is that they should improve the conditions for the majority. Improve education, improve employment. One person cannot say ‘I should get a job so that my family should live well’. We even have the general public saying ’that one was not rewarded’. Why should they be rewarded? The President owes no one a job. The President should appoint the best of us as citizens. Some of them never did nothing and just lived their lives but they are the best,” Miti said. “Let us work hard to ensure the bottom is lifted and so that there is less hunger and more employment.
I am one of those people who the day I die people will be saying ‘ata, that is me!’ You know how we laugh at people when they die. We laugh at how they did not have anything.”
And Miti said it was not true that she was propagating gay rights to get funding.
“I am not pushing for gay rights. To have gay rights you have to put them in the Constitution. I don’t think we should. I don’t think we are ready. If you look at the Western constitutions it took them 100 years to get to a point where they could put gay rights in the constitution. My point is we must not put people in jail. Let us make small movements. By small movements, for me is you cannot break down hotel rooms. All the people who go in prison they had private relationships. It is two consenting adults doing what they are doing. All I ask for is they should not be put in jail,” she said. “So we should change the law and not make this criminal. Let us decriminalise it. I could never be paid to say something I don’t believe in. For me I don’t pursue wealth. I don’t want to be rich. I don’t just have a kind of mind. Let me tell you what we should be dealing with which breaks my heart. Sex problem we have in the country is non-consensual sex – young girls and even girls of the age of consent routinely have sex they don’t want because they are looking for a job. Because they are trying to enter the police and hierarchical offices. We have girls raped by their uncles, raped by their parents and issues are being resolved at home because we seem to understand a man having sex whenever he wants to. We have so many broken people.”
Miti added: “What I am saying is as a country, we are very myopic. The things that affect us like poverty, the issues of extreme abuse of girls, especially young police officers, we are not dealing with this…instead of putting people in jail.”
Miti warned the UPND should not dare Zambians because they were more alert after their experience with the PF.
“The UPND had better not mess with this public, it is much more alert. It is much more inquiring and the reason for this is those scandals that we went through,” she said.
Miti said civil society players must not seek recognition.
“Civil society leaders are never meant to become heroes or heroines. They shouldn’t be. It is a bit of a problem. I cannot be running around thinking of myself as a hero. I have a job and I have a space within which to do it and that is what it is. It is not building heroes. It is more important to build a country that can speak for itself, analyse issues, and hold government to account but in terms of whether we become friends with those in office, I would not say so,” she said. “The current government I don’t know whether it is a friend of civil society to the extent that we cannot speak about them. Nothing has changed for me in the way I engage this government with the last. The only difference is this government does not throw out scandals everyday as we had in the last seven years. In the last seven years, it was firefighting every single day. Asking that the civil society should be standing on a hill and screaming when there is no problem is problematic.”
Miti, who has been appoint commissioner of the Human Rights Commission, said the position is the best anyone in civil society can be appointed to because it is not a job.
“It is not a salary position. If you remember, the Human Rights Commission was the strongest remaining voices that were able to hold the last government to account. We had FIC (Financial Intelligence Centre) and the Auditor General reports. A commissioner is like you…You get your commission from your day’s job. You do not swear allegiance to the President. The President should not expect you to have allegiance to him or anyone in government. The only reason I accepted that position was because it absolutely does not in any way interfere to think, my ability to do what I believe is my job right now,” she said. “It is on the demand side; it is not on the supply side. You are not government. If this government is at all imagining that it will be allowed to harm the nation it will not. And it will not because of them or us, it will be because the nation is larger than us. If anyone in power begins to harm the nation they must account.”
Asked how she reacted to criticism from people bordering on her personal life, Miti said, “I don’t know what people say about me”.
“I just don’t go beyond my page and so it took me time to understand how far what I write goes. In my mind I write for a small audience and then people will take them and spread them. I almost never follow them. I am in a very few WhatsApp groups. I am put in a WhatsApp group and I leave,” said Miti. “On my page I just don’t allow people that would go for my person or attack someone’s person. I block them immediately. My page is very interactive. You find some very intellectual debates. The reason why that is possible is because people can disagree about the topic. For me there are two things that don’t define me, that don’t affect me – praise and criticism. I believe that as a country we must speak about things that affect us together.”