NO THIRD TERM
…Zambians won’t tolerate it, Kapwepwe, Changala warn UPND
By Thandizo Banda and Adrian Mwanza
CIVIL rights and governance activists Brebner Changala and Mulenga Kapwepwe have warned the United Party for National Development (UPND) government against entertaining a third term agenda.
Changala and Kapwepwe said in separate interviews Zambians would not tolerate the extension of the constitutional term despite their perceived collective docility.
They were commenting on increasing calls by UPND members for the amendment of the Constitution to give President Hakainde Hichilema a third term of office or remove the term limit.
“If there’s something Zambians will not tolerate even in their collective docility is a third term. I wish to tell those calling for that to think twice before they create problems for the nation and themselves,” Changala said.
He warned the UPND not to be deceived by the Zambians’ wait-and-see reaction to the scheme.
Changala urged citizens not to make the mistake of changing the Constitution to favour an individual as the ruling party was advocating because doing so would be catastrophic to the future of the nation.
He said the recent general elections proved that many Zambians did not want UPND, pointing to how millions of citizens rose to back the opposition National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP) only weeks after its emergence.
He warned that any attempt to abolish the presidential term limit would trigger an imminent backlash from Zambians which the government might find difficult to manage.
“The UPND should not take Zambian’s silence after the disputed August 13 general elections for granted,” Changala said.
He said the nation was groaning from post-election trauma, where the military was deployed to intimidate citizens and interfere with the management of the electoral process.
“I want to warn this administration that Zambians hate oppression and like their peace. They may not receive this machination with kindness and that is when the giant will wake up from the slumber,” Changala said.
He said the ruling party should not believe it could do as it wished just because it now controls Parliament through numbers.
“Let them not believe that they have control over Parliament and can do as they wish. Let them stop it. We now need to be talking about how to reform the compromised Electoral Commission of Zambia, police, Judiciary and the entire civil service,” Changala said.
In a separate interview, Kapwepwe said any change to the Constitution would only favour an individual and not the country.
She said the Constitution was a serious document which could only be changed based on facts.
Kapwepwe wondered why the rush to amend it when the country needed healing from its post-election crisis.
“What is wrong with the Constitution for people to start pushing a narrative that the Constitution should be changed to allow the current head of state, Hakainde Hichilema, to continue even after his two terms elapse?” she wondered.
“I was part of the constitution-making team and what I learned from there was that people should not change the constitution to favour an individual or a group of people but the country at large,” she said.
Kapwepwe dismissed remarks by nominated Member of Parliament Florence Chileshe suggesting that Hichilema must continue beyond 2031 because women in Zambia do not want democracy but development as personal.
She said it was clear people were tasting the waters to push an agenda meant to encourage the removal of the third term limit.
“It is wrong for Chileshe to say women did not want democracy just because she is in cohorts with the current regime. Chileshe should not say all of us women do not want democracy when some of us have divergent views and would want to defend the Constitution,” she said.
Other well-known UPND members have in the recent days called for the removal of the two-term limit from the Constitution to give Hichilema a third term or remove the term limit entirely to allow him to rule the country for as long as the party wishes which has, however, attracted a public backlash.
