WE SEE REMNANTS OF ONE PARTY STATE
…weaponising law enforcement agencies to deal with perceived opponents – Lifuka
By Fanny Kalonda
GOVERNANCE expert Reuben Lifuka has noted that there is weak separation of power among the three arms of government adding that the executive will always have an upper hand.
He told The Mast in an interview that, “I think if we look at the state of democracy in Zambia, we are still a work in progress. We’ve been a multiparty democracy for over 30 years. We still see remnants of a one party state”.
Lifuka, a vice-chair – Transparency International and an advocate for good governance, transparency, accountability and environmental sustainability, said there is still a lot of power that reside in the presidency that needs to be addressed.
He noted that there are remnants of what happened in previous regimes where the ruling party could weaponise the law enforcement to deal with perceived opponents of the ruling party.
“We also see very weak separation of powers between the three arms of government because of the fact that the Executive still retains the power to provide financial support or to in a way allocate budgets to the Legislature as well as the Judiciary. There is no financial autonomy of the Judiciary or the Legislature. As long as that arrangement continues, the Executive will always have an upper hand on the other arms of government,” Lifuka said. “When we look at the appointments made by the President and where the President by the Constitution is mandated to make appointments, there is still a lot of powers that reside in the presidency. And these are some of the things that we need to address. But also we talk about protecting the rule of law which is important, but we still see remnants of what happened in previous regimes where the ruling party could weaponise the Zambia Police or any other law enforcement agency in order to deal with perceived opponents of the ruling party.”
He said there is need to strengthen the country’s legal regime and undertake governance reforms.
“All these are not really adding up to how we, in a way, uphold the tenets of democracy – where we have tolerance for divergent views, where we protect the rights of freedoms of expression, freedom of association, etc. So there’s still work that needs to be done,” he said. “We need to have in place appropriate laws like the access to information, which should enhance the freedom of expression, and freedom of association of every Zambian. We need to conclude the constitutional reform process so that we expand the Bill of Rights to go beyond civil and political rights, to include third generation rights which economic and social rights. We need to strengthen the legal regime, but most importantly, we need to undertake governance reforms.”
He said the government needs to put in place a comprehensive governance reform process, which allows to improve access to justice where the judiciary is concerned.
Lifuka noted that the country still sees remnants of a one party state.
“I think if we look at the state of democracy in Zambia, we are still a work in progress. We’ve been a multiparty democracy for over 30 years. We still see remnants of a one party state. If you look at the dominance of the ruling party in the legislature, for instance, it is still very reminiscence of a one party state in that the ruling party can get through parliament any law that they would like to be passed because they’ve got a dominance of numbers,” he noted. “Therefore, it is the wish of many of us that government puts in place a comprehensive governance reform process, which allows us to improve access to justice where the judiciary is concerned, which allows our legislature to be more accessible, and not one that is just tipped in rules, some of them very outdated rules while we also allow local governments to really be responsive to the needs of the community.”
He added that the local government system does not yet respond to the needs of communities.
“The local government system as we know it at the moment does not yet respond to the needs and specific needs of communities. We have a number of local governments that are essentially or technically bankrupt. They do not have sufficient resources to undertake their mandate,” said Lifuka. “So all these then call for reform. How do we reform governance so that we provide support to the people, the most marginalised people in communities?”