´To Lacuna or Not, that is the Question´- Anthony Mukwita

´To Lacuna or Not, that is the Question´

Anthony Mukwita

Friday the 13th was an important day on the political calendar of Zambia in more ways than one this year of the good Lord.
President Hichilema laid out his plan for Zambia ahead of the national budget to be presented before parliament in a few days, reactions to his presentation before the house are mixed.

Some said it was inspiring presentation while a tard lot more observers think it lacked inspiration, I have no dog in this fight.

I am just an analyst, and I look at facts and facts alone before giving my two cents on a matter of national importance.

Given the convoluted preamble, my major take-back on Don H´s presentation was the ´lacuna´ issue, a word that has found itself a home in the Zambian vocabulary since Friday the 13th.

A word no one gave two bits about until it was invoked by the Don himself on that day in the house on live TV during a three-hour speech read from a more than 30-page statement.

My little knowledge of the word that has its root hairs in Greece way back in the 1700´s is that it means, a ´gap, a hole´ in a statement or a document. 

No better man that John Sangwa SC explained the word best when he said Lacuna in law means, “there´s something missing that makes a statement or document incomplete such as reading page 1, 2, 3…then it jumps to page 6. There´s a lacuna because pages 4 and  5 are missing.”

JS was referencing President Hichilema´s claim in the house that the Zambian constitution was wrought of lacuna´s, by the way there´s no such thing as ´lacunas,´ because the plural for the word is lacunae.

Diverting from his written speech, Do H made jaws of legislators and those watching his speech live on TV drop when he made this claim.

He iced it by adding that Zambia could have no presidential polls for about eight years because of the ´lacunas´ in our law book.

Disagreements emerged on the very first day from his predecessor the sixth President of Zambia Edgar Lungu followed by myriad others such as Socialist Party leader Fred Membe, Harry Kalaba from CF, Sakwiba Sikota SC from UKA and others.

Reactions were the same from all political talking heads—there´s NO lacuna in our law book, its as iron clad as the ten commandments of holy Moses, it needs No amendments.

I am not a lawyer but when I saw the arguments against the proposed amendments by the Don, I agree that we don’t need amendments.

I still can´t wrap my head around why Don H even broached the subject, like the wise say, sometimes  just ´let the sleeping dogs lie.´

At a time like now I thought the Don, whom I love, and respect so much should have been looking:
• Ending crippling power blackouts lasting beyond three days in homes and industry. Food is rotting because storage fridges aren’t working

• Arrest the runaway double-digit inflation and reduced value of the kwacha against convertible currencies such as the green buck, euro and pound
• Allow civil society and opposition stakeholders to publicly demonstrate
• Arrest the escalating cost of living in a country where 40pc of the population live in abject poverty on less than a dollar per day for everything

• Create jobs for the millions of unemployed Zambians in the dirt-poor copper rich southern African country wallowing in poverty with reduced dignity and integrity
I could go on forever, but I am constrained by space, I can only say so much about the Presidents constitution sabre-rattling, the constitution amendment aint no priority, it’s the broken economy that needs attention.

There´s about a year and a half remaining before Zambia goes to the polls and elect presidents and MP´s in a traditional event calls elections held annually on 12th August.

Does Don H really want to spend time on an acrimonious and divisive amendment campaign instead of addressing the poverty of six million Zambians due to the drought and bad economic decisions?
I say NO and if I were on the Don´s advisory tea, which I am not, I would have said ´My good sir…lets keep our eyes on the prize and the prize is seeking re-election which we can only get if we create jobs, curb loadshedding and slashing endemic hunger, forget the Lacuna it doesn’t exist.´

I believe that the advisors aren’t laying down the start reality of how Zambians are living today and how food and electricity matters more than lacunae.
On the other hand, I belive the opposition in Zambia have gone to sleep, as a Comms person and diplomat, I miss the Michael Sata days when opposition knew how to milk a crisis to their best end.

I have witnessed opposition sleeping walking on the power shortages when political handbooks say, ´you need to milk a crisis as politician,´ if you do it legally.
Look at how former POTUS Donald Trump is riding the high tide in the USA regarding the two foiled assassination attempts on his life by two losers! 

Back home, ´insala kapondo´ boss HH, sort out that and your path to re election is assured, ignore that and the dream of re election democratically will be just that, a dream.

I close with a trending campaign gaffe by the Don in the USA Trump who said, “they are eating the cats…they are eating the dogs of the people that live there.”
Do we really need expensive or cheap constitutional amendments in the face of a crippling poverty time?  

John Sangwa, an astute lawyer I personally respect said the Don H has nothing on this matter just like ECL had nothing on Bill 10.  
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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.

Source: Daily Nation Zambia