𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭: 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐀𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐝, 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠
By Dr Mwelwa
What confronts us is not merely a revised document but a deliberate performance of constitutional theatre. The Technical Committee’s draft reads cleaner than the original Bill 7, yet its foundation remains soaked in the illegality already pronounced by the Constitutional Court.
Even improved content cannot cure a corrupt process. You cannot baptise a flawed beginning with attractive clauses. Echoes of past constitutional reports appear, but even familiar wisdom cannot repair the absence of integrity at the origin of this amendment scheme.
The exercise resembles a Gumbo soup fragrant on the surface, yet hiding repulsive meats beneath. Non-contentious provisions have been mixed with explosive delimitation proposals, all justified by an unseen technical study shielded from public examination.
The frantic speed of this project reveals an arrogance that undermines national consultation. A Constitution is a covenant, not an emergency statutory instrument. Rushing such work is the surest path to weakening the Republic’s spine.
More troubling are the expanding appointing powers subtly grafted onto presidential authority. What emerges is a President who stands as chief employer, paymaster, tender master, custodian of loyalties, and dispenser of political rewards. No democracy thrives under such gravitational power.
Proportional representation, as presented, is a cosmetic display flowery, seductive, yet empty. It repairs no constitutional deficit. It solves no real governance problem. It rests on no proven link between representation formulas and national development outcomes.
Our developmental struggles do not arise from insufficient demographic representation. They stem from the absence of meritocracy, institutional discipline, and administrative competence. Representation without capability merely deepens stagnation and recycles failure.
The belief that increasing numbers of youth and women through closed-list PR will trigger transformation is naive. Without constituency accountability, these seats risk becoming controlled appendages of party leadership rather than genuine voices of citizens.
The financial burden of expanding parliamentary and council seats is ignored. Infrastructure, logistics, allowances, and operational costs will stretch a Treasury already under strain. Reform cannot be funded by optimism alone.
Before preaching proportional representation, political parties must first reform their internal cultures. A nation cannot harvest democratic balance when its parties refuse to cultivate internal democracy, transparency, and accountability.
Nothing prevents government today from reflecting proportional balance through appointments, boards, commissions, and delegations. Real transformation requires political courage, not constitutional gymnastics staged for electoral convenience.
If the process is genuinely untied from the 2026 election, government must show sincerity by suspending implementation to a future cycle. Only clear distance from electoral motives can restore public trust and calm national suspicion.
For now, Zambia faces a refined text emerging from an unrefined process a nation asked to swallow sweetness prepared in a poisoned pot. Constitutional reform must pursue unity, not ambush it. The people deserve a process worthy of their Republic.
This person calling themself Dr Mwelwa, what he is a a doctor off?
From reading the nonsense he has written, it conveys to me he may be a doctor of bush politics.
Typical of many so-called African’s who claims to be highly educated, (in his case a Ph.D.,) are in fact very dumb and have difficulty in understanding well written text
Also, there many fake institutions that sells PhD’s and you can buy them off the shelf, could it be that he obtained his via that route?
This guy can write this nonsense because he is not challenged and there are too many Zambians who are uneducated and do not find out for themselves.
simply reply or comment on what he has raised instead of insulting him. It shows us who is dull between the two of you
Mbuzi, tuma cadre ku embassy writing nonsense. Mwelwa is always right
Shut up, Man!