Thursday, March 28, 2024

Minimum Vs Equivalent – A War of Words: My Reflections on My Membership of The Electoral Technical Committee

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By Kellys Kaunda

President Levy Mwanawasa was Head of State at the time the Electoral Technical Committee was set up to reflect on the electoral system and everything that has to do with elections in Zambia and make recommendations. At the time, State Counsel George Kunda (now late) was Minister of Justice and signed letters of appointment for committee members. At the time, I was chairperson of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, the MISA-Zambia chapter.

Chaired by Counsel Mwangala Zaloumis, the Committee traveled around the country and held public hearings receiving submissions from members of the public. Some of the submissions touched on the electoral system while others on the qualifications of candidates. Some of the submissions reflected what had been submitted to previous Constitutional Review Commissions.

To reflect on the submissions and draw up a report, the committee went to Siavonga and stayed for several days. One of the hotly debated submissions was the qualification of presidential candidates and other public offices such as Member of Parliament and Councilor. The opinion was deeply divided over such qualifications as a degree, a diploma or a grade twelve certificate.

While no one was opposed in principle to a degree as the desired qualification, there was a feeling among some members that the committee was going to be seen as targeting some political candidates that were not known to possess degrees. Others felt that the degree was too high a standard and would result in disenfranchising many people.

This debate leaked to the media the following day and I was blamed for it and subsequently ordered to leave the camp. I was to head back to Lusaka the following day but a friend of mine in Lusaka who learnt about what had befallen me decided to drive in the night, arriving around 22hrs, and picked me up.

The spirit behind the submission on qualifications was embedded in the word “minimum”. It was the intention of those that submitted in favor of qualifications that someone seeking public office needed to have evidence that they were educated. They reasoned that the work of governance meant engaging with policy and legislative matters that required some level of education if someone was to make meaningful contributions.

In the end, the law reflected grade twelve as a minimum qualification or its equivalent for President, Member of Parliament and Councilor. According to Section 33 of the Electoral Act No. 12 of 2006 a candidate running for any of these public offices must have, “obtained, as a minimum academic qualification, a grade twelve certificate or its equivalent”.

In the constitutional court ruling, the word “equivalent” has been defined to mean nothing below and nothing above. In effect, any higher qualification is not included in the law as defined. What about the word “minimum”, what if the court had attempted to define this word, would it have made a difference? I think it would. When a minimum standard is set, it means there is a higher standard which is more desirable. The word is used to sympathize with those that may not be able to meet higher standards. In other words, someone is saying, “the standard is this but if you can’t, at least meet this standard which is the lowest I can go”.

Those that submitted had in mind higher standards of education, but they were also sympathetic to those that could not meet them. Subsequently, a compromise was reflected in the law which lowered the threshold to grade twelve. But the court has ruled, so what do we do? Well, my suggestion is this: amend the law immediately and include professional qualifications as acceptable.

Between now and nomination time, parliament can make these amendments and avoid disenfranchising the many professionals that do not have grade twelve certificates.

19 COMMENTS

  1. You can’t have semi literate people as leaders when the rest of the world is moving forward……..

    Should have also included no convicts standing for leadership , we would not be facing the problems we face today if they had done that…..

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  2. The question is how does someone obtain a diploma , degree, masters or indeed a PHD without a grade twelve certificate in Zambia? This shows how we have belittled education in this country. Imagine someone failing at grade twelve and yet passes at degree level? This is the reason we have leaders who can not espouse the ethos and esthetics of whatever profession they are engaged in, The is issue is very clear no grade twelve certificate no standing, full stop.

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  3. This need to be done otherwise many serving MPs will be knocked out. If I were to stand on any party ticket would not qualify because I have misplaced my form 5 ECZ certificate despite having higher qualifications. The sooner the MPs push for an amendment before dissolution of parliament the better.

  4. I liked interview of Innocent Kalimanshi, he was honest that is a grade 7. But he qualifies to be MP, he has experience in leadership from his gang activities just like Mwaliteta and Lusambo. The only difference is Lusambo has grade 12 certificate.

  5. Kaizer Zulu, start assembling your grade 12 results. How many O levels have you put together in the last 5 years?

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  6. I can tell that bamwine has never been to school, because if he had, he would know that not all higher education require you to have a form 5 certificate. You can be accepted on a higher education qualification, based on age or maturity and even work experience.

  7. If a person has a higher education qualification, it means s/he is above the minimum. It is the same with position: requirements are meant to indicate what minimum is needed to do the job. The trouble we have is the way clauses in our laws are phrased. The legal drafters leave a lot of things to interpretation. We must have clear clauses that even my non-English natives from the east can understand. Our constitution is also full of clauses like this. Let’s strive to have clear laws, effective institutions and independent arms of governance. Independent for 56 years and we still debating basics!

  8. Indeed. that is why I said job requirements. Each job has its demands and hence the minimum. So if as a country we need MPs at x qualification, it is up to us to determine the requirements. It must just be clear so that there is fit-for-purpose.

  9. Grade 12 School Certificate for a minimum Qualification should not even take center stage of today’s discussion. If anything why NOT raise the minimum include some form of tertiary education as well.

    They should recorgnise Professional Qualifications as well. We can not be debating Grade 12 or form 5 this time around. I feel this era has a lot of user friendly platforms to allow anyone to go back to School and mend their tires for the necesarry trips.

    A Policy maker to be and all they have is something below a Grade 12 level of intellectual capability? Nowander the house is full of the yah yahh…yyyyahhha song coupled with a lot of group walk outs on pertinent issues instead of debating issues. Let them at least show that they can pass that exam to be our Leaders. Don’t some…

  10. Go back to stating it as a minimum qualification and not the only qualification. As it stands now a grade 12 is more qualified to hold public office than a PHD holder.

  11. How does tertiary education qualification become inferior to Grade 12? I do not want to comment on the court decision but it is just ridiculous that the interpretation of Minimum can be substituted with the word absolute. This to me is what has happened. My verdict: Pathetic. We are even failing to adequately define academic…

  12. Why are we creating a problem where there is none. It’s simple just produce a grade 12 certificate even those with 6 points like Mwila can do so.

  13. Entry into a university is set by the university itself. Before long people entered UNZA at mature age (without School Certificate) . All they needed was proof that they had improved their academic papers after school. Some did certificate courses and they qualified to enter university for a degree programme. Today some of these are professors but do not qualify to stand as ward councillors, under the new Concourt ruling!

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