…can another MMD emerge…
By Gregory Mofu
Last friday, renowned politician Hon. Mbita Chitala announced a call for a national indaba under the National Consultative Conference (NCC), a non-partisan platform he says will bring together political parties, progressive organizations, and independent citizens to chart a new course for Zambia.
Mbita argues that Zambia is facing political division, corruption, poor governance, and economic hardship. He has therefore called for urgent reforms to restore peace, constitutionalism, and fairness, while tackling tribalism, inequality, and abuse of office.
This is not the first time Mbita has stepped forward at a critical moment in Zambia’s history. In 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and growing disillusionment with President Kenneth Kaunda’s one-party state, he (then known as Derick Chitala) together with Akashambatwa Lewanika, convened the Garden House National Conference on the Multiparty Option at Garden House Motel in Lusaka to discuss the state of the nation and the need to reintroduce multiparty democracy.
Although Kaunda tried to undermine the meeting by holding a UNIP Central Committee gathering at State House on the same day, the Garden House meeting went ahead with a number of brave Zambians attending. The meeting adopted a charter and framework, which also created the National Interim Committee headed by Arthur Wina.
The MMD then called for a referendum to repeal Article 4 of the Constitution, which had entrenched UNIP’s one-party rule.
On 17th December 1990, after months of sustained public pressure to return the country to multiparty democracy, President Kaunda repealed Article 4 of the Constitution that had proscribed other parties. This action paved the way for multiparty elections. He also cut short his term, which was supposed to end in 1993, and called for early elections in 1991.
The MMD was subsequently registered as a political party, with trade unionist Frederick Chiluba emerging as its president. In those elections, Chiluba and the MMD defeated Kaunda and UNIP, marking a historic turning point for Zambia.
The question now is whether Mbita can once again create a movement strong enough to reshape the nation, this time against tribalism, economic decline and poor governance as he alleges as he did in 1990.