Where’s justice, rule of law, democracy?
WE JOIN the rest of Zambians and organisations in expressing alarm at the ridiculous jailing of Mfuwe Member of Parliament (MP) Maureen Mabonga by a Lusaka magistrate last Friday on politically motivated charges. Mabonga becomes the seventh MP to lose her seat in a well-planned and well-resourced but evil scheme to weaken the opposition and turn Zambia into a de facto one-party state.
The aim is to prolong the current ruling party’s stay in government despite all the evidence that it has lost the trust and support of the people of Zambia because of its lies and unfulfilled promises.
It is now clear to even the most naive person that under President Hakainde Hichilema and his United Party for National Development (UPND) regime Zambia is in a tail spin towards the diabolical one-party state the country fought so hard to get rid of in 1991.
At first, Hichilema and his league tried to be smart by trying to woo opposition members of Parliament, including independent lawmakers, to cross the floor of the House and join the looting bunch. But after realising that the strategy was not working, they turned to crude methods.
State security agencies – the police, Anti-Corruption Commission, Drug Enforcement Commission, intelligence services – and the Judiciary have now been weaponised as the main instruments for helping the UPND achieve the two thirds majority it desperately needs in Parliament to amend the Constitution and avoid ignominious defeat in 2026.
UPND has realised that it has become so unpopular that it doesn’t stand a chance of obtaining the constitutional 50 per cent and one vote majority to win the presidency next year.
The agenda is therefore to use selective justice targeting opposition MPs and independent lawmakers who do not support the inept and unprecedentedly corrupt regime to swell its numbers in the House. And the pattern has become very clear. Slap them with trumped up charges, then haul them before members of a specially assembled team of magistrates and judges who will convict them and sentence them to custodial sentences. Then as they are trying to appeal the equally compromised Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) holds the by-election.
Zambians must realise that they are dealing with a regime that is willing to go to any length to stay in power even when it by know knows very well that its time is up, that citizens are no longer interested in listening to blatant lies, false promises and self-praises.
The systematic imprisonment of opposition MPs on politically motivated charges will continue because it is a silent part of the UPND’s manifesto. Instead of addressing the many issues that have made it lose popularity among the citizens like the suffocating cost of living, intolerable load shedding of electricity, high fuel prices, high cost of transport, high cost of doing business, rampant corruption, the weak kwacha and selective prosecution, the UPND regime is obsessed with retaining power at all cost.
But this is not how to remain in power. Listening to what the people are saying and taking remedial measures is the only panacea. Attend to their grievances and give them hope.
Turning Zambia into a one-party state by using the police, ACC, DEC and the Judiciary to grab opposition seats in Parliament will not save the regime. Zambians are determined to defend and protect their freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.
It is no too late for Hichilema and the UPND to introspect on their dangerous crusade to turn Zambia into a de facto dictatorship.
We are happy, though to note that even some politically compromised NGOs have now realised what kind of regime they have been rubbing necks with.
We commend the Non-Governmental Gender Organisations Coordinating Council (NGOCC) for redeeming its tattered name by condemning the jailing of Mabonga and the continued application of selective justice against the opposition and government critics.
NGOCC board chairperson Beauty Katebe said her organisation was concerned about the selective application of the law reflected by the imprisonment of Mabonga.
“While we fully respect the decisions of the courts of law, we firmly believe that the rule of law must be applied consistently and impartially to all citizens. Unfortunately, we have observed a concerning trend where critics of the government appear more likely to face prosecution and incarceration than those perceived to be aligned with the ruling authorities,” Katebe said in a statement made available to the Mast at the weekend.
Katebe said the rule of law was a cornerstone of democratic governance and should be rooted in fairness, justice and equal treatment of every individual under the law.
This is timely advice to the UPND regime from a non-political entity. Zambia cannot revert to the diabolical one-party system of governance just to keep an unpopular and an unpopular government in power.
