By Venus N Msyani
The new dawn administration argue that Zambian people will start noticing change after the proposed 2022 budget comes into effect.
The argument doesn’t make a complete sense. Time for Zambians to start noticing change is past due.
Ending unnecessary defamation of the president arrests, stopping cadres to storm police stations, and allowing political parties to freely flash their party symbols anytime anywhere don’t need the proposed 2022 budget.
PF arrested people for defaming the president, UPND is arresting people for defaming the president. The budget will not stop that but people voice. Defamation of the president law must go and never come back.
The arrest Patriotic Front (PF) Chairman for information Raphael Nakachinda is disappointing. To people who are against the defamation of the president law in particular. Before last August election, it appeared like UPND had their back.
Mr. Nakachinda claims that president Hakainde Hichilema has been summoning judges in the night at his community house to force them to be unfair to Patriotic Front legal matters.
On December 15th Nakachinda was arrested and charged with defamation of the president. He is appearing before the magistrate court in Lusaka.
From mid-2017, when a university student in Lusaka was arrested for insulting president Edgar Lungu on Facebook to the last day of PF rule, Zambia has witnessed countless unnecessary defamations of the president arrests.
The arrest of a 15-year boy in March 2020 for defaming the president is one of them. It made Zambians realize that the law is damaging and embarrassing on top of undermining free speech. Since then, the call to get rid of the law has been going on.
It appears more president defamation arrests are expected under the current UPND administration. The arrest of Mr. Nakachinda for defaming HH implies that the new dawn administration has chosen to keep the defamation of the president law.
One can conclude that Zambians prayed and voted for a wrong version of change on August 12th. The change is not complete if being rejected defamation of the president law stays.
PoA too must be buried.
A failed government. This government is just driving us into tough times. People are crying everywhere.
FIRST AND FOREMOST
POLITICANS AND THE PRESIDENT SHOULD UNDERSTAND THEY ARE CIVIL SERVANTS VOTED IN BY US SO AS TO SERVE US
THEY ARE OUR SERVANTS AND NOT OUR GODS AS THEY SEEM TO THINK
THIS SELF IMPORTANCE HAS TO BE RECTIFIED !!!
People are crying everywhere because looting gas stopped. Well done Bally thieves are feeling it now
ECL had more defamation cases in court than all the former presidents combined.
The tyrant really abused the law and was thankfully kicked out on Aug 12.
Deformation of the president law must remain because the PF clique supporters are drunk with stolen loot and freedoms of expression and association already there…..
They have the capacity to inflame the nation and cause civil breakdown because of their lies…………
Why do you want the law removed if you are not going to tell lies ?????
Say what you want , but tell the truth , otherwise prove it in courts …………
What can be wrong with that ……..????
From my observation from abroad, is that this HH government is equal thuggery by cadres beating innocent people, increased commodity prices, and poverty for the Zambian people, and the pain of voting for a liar, the five year period will be too long to be Zambia.
All the problems in Zambia start and end with the rejected PF. Instead of coming up with progressive laws when they were in power they were busy coming up with toxic bill 10s, they left the economy in a mess, the mess which even started before covid, they promised more money in peoples pockets, at the end of the day there was nothing, the biggest failure this country has had since 1964 was just having PF in power, look at the decent economy left to them by MMD, everything is grounded
Absolute power corrupts…
Believe it or not;
HH and UPND will never amend;
1. POA
2.Defamation of the President law
Power has already began to fill HH’s head, watch the space.
But if you are telling the truth………
Why fear the defamation law ?????
Unless you are intent of spreading unsubstantiated lies, then you have every thing to fear……….
Defamation of the President’s law, can ONLY be removed once Politicians like Nakacinda, Sean Tembo, Lusambo (to name a few) learn to respect the institution of the President. The push to disband this law IS NOT being done for the purpose of the ordinary Zambians BUT intended for such Politicians for political mileage. Imagine what filthy will be coming out of Nakacinda or CK or Lusambo, without this LAW. When Politicians will realise they need to show respect to their leader even in terms of political differences, they will realease, there is NO NEED for such effort being exerted now. PRIORITY is the economy, RESPECT yourselves, and that Law can be stripped off in 5 – 10 years. In fact, when people`s wellbeing is improved, No one will be talking about this LAW.
Continue dreaming you gullible sausages. We warned you about upnd
LET IT BE KNOWN TOO THAT PF LIKE UNIP
WILL NEVER RETURN !!!
Ten years of zero money in our pockets, after the ubomba mwibalya alya mwibala promised more money in our pockets. What moral right do you have to question UPNDs promises, when you failed lamentable to deliver anything when you were in government, that is why you were kicked out. You are still crying, wait for Kabwata
The PF leader even warns before hand that I don’t have a vision and the Zambians ‘vote’ for him somehow. At Mulungushi, during the PF first sham convention following Satas death it was by way of pangas that the PF leader won. Then towards the August elections in their usual scheme of things PF comes up with fake opinion polls, they tell lies that Dr Kaunda said HH was not right for Zambia as if Kaunda was voting for us, then they campaign using ZNBC and ban others from being shown on the TV station and other public media, they then go to do more registrations by issuing more NRCs in their strong holds, then they ban opposition from campaigning with them the PF campaigning openly, this was indeed an evil party which should never ever resurface in this country. So help me God
“I’m the village king, don’t insult me”. Really disappointed in HH and the UPND. I have stated several times on here that if the HH and UPND really want to achieve meaningful reform, they should get rid of the Public Order Act (and associated laws like defamation of the president).
If HH wants to be a chief or village headman, let him go and become one in his village.
We have civil legal process that deals with laws of insults and defamation so if HH feels defamed, he could utilize those laws as an individual.
I have not realized this guy is a fraud and there’s no appetite for him to be a watershed, a revolutionary leader that Zambia really craved for. His reluctance to change non progressive laws is a huge disappointment. And I was no fun of the corrupt and tyrant Lungu…
@general Kanene and @Independent, not good to discuss respected fellow bloggers but guys I’m starting to get disappointed in you. Usually I regard you guys as objective but your failure to condemn HH and UPND for not getting rid of archaic, non progressive laws like defamation and POA is disappointing. Don’t be complicit in supporting everything this president does, we are not helping him or helping ourselves as a country.
It’s not like everything HH does and will do is good and everything Lungu and PF did or does is good. Be different and be better than these other numskulls and syc0phants who supported Lungu in everything.
Following the total collapse of our country due to sheer PF incompetency in all spheres of our life, let us ensure PF becomes extinct, we have other parties in existence, so the necessary extinguishing of PF will not imply that we are going back to the one party state, please Zambians I am begging, I am not even UPND but please lets ensure that PF is buried and forgotten, that way will also allow us to forget the many atrocities which the rejected PF brought about in Zambia
Sorry #16 should read: “…I have now realized this guy is a fraud…”
I dont know if some zambian people do really understand the practicality of life. Why should be this law be removed? To allow people to say lies? Even lying about your neighbors is never allowed. If your neibour lies that your chiken were stolen bu Sean Thembo, knowing well is lying, he must never be let free, but face the law. So if Nakachinda lies that HH is meeting jufges at hus home, knowing is liying, why should he be allowed to lie. Please, people of zambia, be realistic, or you will creat zambia to be a country of lies. Its allowed to criticise but not to lie. Be factual, otherwise you dont have to mislead people. If you say you dont trust and you think HH is lying, there is nothing wrong about that. But if you say you saw CK, with my wife at a hotel, knowing well that you are…
Defamation of the President law, POA, the PIG syndrome must all be removed or at least amended to be user friendly.
It’s time to lobby your lawmakers, not the president. Nanga tizapunzila liti kuti there are three branches involved? The Executive does not make laws. So let your MPs table amendments and then if the executive resists signing that amendment then you know how to use your vote. Vutani ma MPs you elected. We nangu just doze mu parliament.
@Jigga Kayama Simangulungwa,
You raise an important point, not to be “complicit in supporting everything this president does”, and I can I assure you I am not supportive of everything, I d rather maintain my objectivity. HH & UPND have committed to removing POA and DOP laws, there is no question about that, all Iam saying is that, current priority is the economy, those laws can be changed at any point. Lets be fair, the President is not using the POA, and the talk about the Defamation Of the President(DOF) came with Nakacinda’s case. Should I condemn HH, based on Nakacinda`s lies? HELL NO !! We have too many immature politicians, who will do everything to embarrass the President ( and I mean any President).
We will only remove POA and defamation once we use them on PF for a minimum of 3 years. Let’s pack it for now and talk about in 2025. But let’s start using them on PF, they are assembling a lot, though they are not a threat, as they have no capacity to mobilise after being paralysed by August 12 elections, and Kabwata will be August 12 volume 2
#20 David Moyo
Thank you……..
Those calling to remove the law can’t tell us why , if not to spead and support lies ……….
“Lies” can be countered by the “truth”, not by criminal justice. “Lies” or “insults” don’t injure anyone and we have enough libel laws that protect people from being defamed. There’s no need to create fear by locking your political opponents. Problem with such laws are they get abused and any criticism of the president end up being interpreted as defamation of the president. You know better because HH and other ruling politicians have been victims of such laws. They save no purpose other than fixing political opponents. We should never rule by “we shall see who is boss, I will fix you”.
If PF did bad thing, UPND shouldn’t have to do a bare minimum to match them or slightly better. They should be transformative and do bigger things.
@general Kanene #23, fair enough… but I have to respectfully disagree with you mate. Removing these laws have nothing to do with fixing the economy as the author rightly points out. The 2 are completely independent and don’t depend on each other. It won’t take away any time or priority from the economy for Parliament to pass a bill to remove the POA and the DOP… a day or 2, definitely less than a week. It’s a complete repeal and not an ammendment we are talking about here. Hiding in the economy is cheap and being disingenuous.
See these are cheap, easy wins that HH and UPND govt can easily score themselves on. The economy will take more than 5 years to fix, trust me.
“”Lies” can be countered by the “truth”, not by criminal justice. “Lies” or “insults” don’t injure anyone and we have enough…..”
But you are the same one who said GRZ does not have to respond to every thing opponents say ………????
Some Lies can cause civil breakdown………
@Spaka, #28: “But you are the same one who said GRZ does not have to respond to every thing opponents say ………????”
Yes I said that and I stand by it. How does that got to do with ‘lies being countered by the truth’? Or how is that got to do with criminalisation of defamation of the president?
Again the govt don’t need to respond to every qu@ck’s noise looking for their 15 mins of fame (they can pick and choose topics worth responding to; and DOP needs to go… we already have libel laws in the civil justice system). The govt needs to be proactive and be trendsetters when it comes to public conversation.
Let’s say Nakachinda goes on to claim that he believes “HH is a woman masquerading as a man”… is that really worth responding to? The “truth” will always…
…Let’s say Nakachinda goes on to claim that he believes “HH is a woman masquerading as a man”… is that really worth responding to? The “truth” will always counter that lie. Spaka you live in the UK, I’m sure you know Boris gets defamed every day but he doesn’t go round arresting people.