THE WAGES OF ‘SIN’ ARE JAILABLE IN ZAMBIA

THE WAGES OF ‘SIN’ ARE JAILABLE IN ZAMBIA

Amb. Anthony Mukwita 30th Aug

I read somewhere that the wages of sin in Zambia will soon be jailable for up to five years—that is regarding a planned legislation against cybercrimes.

This ominous announcement was made by Mr. Jack Mwiimbu the Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security flanked by Science and Technology counterpart Mr. Felix Mutati early in the week.

I watched that early morning presser by the two as Mwiimbu said the incoming law that will enhance the already existing law is aimed at ´protecting´ Zambians from all manner of abuse by cyber bullies and even criminals.

I had a slight stich of laughter on my mouth as the presser rolled on because I recalled vividly that pre-2021 controversial polls in Zambia, Mr. Cornelius Mweetwa, current government spokesman then UPND spokesman described the cyber law under President Edgar Lungu as repulsive.

Hell, the law was so repugnant according to Cornelius that the first thing his government and Don H would do on top of the ´to do list´ would be to scrap it, finito.
It took away Zambians freedoms , aid Cornelius high on opposition steroid power and bluster.

Unless Zambians have short memories, what I speak is truth and nothing but truth hence the reason I can’t wrap my head around extemporaneous statements from Cornelius, Mwiimbu and Mutati today.

It’s like one cynic said, “*the more things change in Zambia, the more they remain the same.”*
I wonder why something that was so wrong under President Lungu suddenly becomes so right under Don HH, don’t you?

What has changed between 2021 and 2023 brother Cornelius and uncle Jack?
Are there pangas on the cyber streets you must remove by tightening the noose around the Law you said you would scrap on day one because it was a bad law?
Are we under a state of emergency or leaving in Nazi Germany or past Soviet Russia era where Dictators like Hitler and Stalin controlled, not only how citizens thought but spoke?

Is there something you don’t wanna hear from the electorate such as the crippling and escalating cost of mealie meal and acute prolonged power blackouts going beyond 24 hours in some neighbourhoods today?
Sadly, in a democracy, people have one major fundamental right and that is the right to speak freely without being curtailed via some primitive stone-age legislation sir.

You can only shut people up in a dictatorship, autocracy or absolute monarch.
If the law was ok when you were in opposition and Rome didn’t burn down, why tighten the noose today and decide to ´police´ the cyber space.

I shuddered when I watched Mutati the quota matic say, “on the internet today there´s what is called a ´digital footprint´ which you leave every time you post something so we shall use that to smoke you out and catch you.”

I bet he learnt that line from watching a George W Bush presser against terrorists after 9/11.
It didn’t sound original.

I am for law and order,  please don’t get me wrong,  and the gentlemen said they are passing this law to jail you and I for five years once found guilty, only if we  break the law.

They are worried that some Zambians are posting stuff that could set the country on flames and deep the nation into a sizzling pot of instability of insurmountable magnitude of war, and I share the concern because I love my peace and as the Bembas say “mwikala patalala mwiine apatalika.”

My major gripe is who will decide whether what I have posted is insidious, inflammatory and or seditious?
Do you catch my drift?

There are so many grey areas here nothing stops any UPND chappie with a badge that hates Mukwita from arresting me over a made-up crime under the new cyber law, for absolutely nothing.

Why can’t we ´police´ cybercrime using the existing laws that have seen Sean Tembo thrown into Cell 9 where it leaks and has beetles or Chilufya Tayali, Why Me etc?

North Korea, China, Ethiopia, Iran, Eritrea, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cuba according to the Committee to Protect Journalists or CPJ has the worst incomprehensive and degenerate media laws like the one Mwiimbu plans to introduce to Zambia.

If you take a casual glance, you find that most of the countries CPJ has fingered are either at war or under a dictatorship, Zambia is not, yet its about to walk this long road of shame in the 21st century, even when people more intelligent than myself have in the past opined that ´if it aint broke, don’t fix it.”

In my humble view as an international relations analyst, diplomat and published author, Mwiimbu must try his hand at fixing the more than 24-hour long power absence, the expensive meal, the acute joblessness and acute poverty including but not restricted to giving hope to the six million Zambians whom OXFAM says face starvation and possible death due to shortages of maize partially induced by exports.

Writing a new law at a poverty time like now is like the *tail wagging the dog*  it makes no sense and infact shows desperation on the part of the UPND to shut down dissenters.

When I wear my diplomatic hat, it gives Zambian a bad name of ‘rogue state’ written in rancour, it smacks of autocracy.

Priority if I was on the A Team of Don H would be to fix the endemic poverty in Zambia which smells now and is visible on the faces of many people going to sleep hungry.

The saying is that when a nation wants to chart a dictatorial or autocratic path, it scape-goats, targets the legislature, the judiciary and police and finally free speech and association.
Ask not whom the bell tolls for fellow Zambians, it tolls for thee!

Censor yourself real hard next time you write anything that goes on the internet in case you annoy the powers that be. You could be jailed for five years.
I warned you that you gotta be strong to read my column to the end. I rest my case.

Source: The Daily Nation newspaper on Friday
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Contact: mukwitaone@gmail.com
Amb. Anthony Mukwita is a former Ambassador of Zambia to several European countries and a published author whose books are available in Bookworld, Grey Matter and Amazon.