By Dominic Liche

The Case

On 11th June 2023, media stories made rounds on social media and mainline media houses about a 20-year-old woman, a student of Evelyn Hone College who was arrested and charged for the offence of abortion contrary to Section 152 of the Penal Code Act. This was after the foetus and blood clots were found in a student’s bathroom and a blood trail was traced back to the woman’s room who was found in a weak state needing medical attention.

Apart from these brief facts, there is nothing much going to this story, only that it has fuelled a heated debate on the legality of abortion in Zambia. Very few have delved in the morality of abortion in Zambia. Ironically, many tend to think if something is illegal, it automatically becomes immoral, which is not the case. Acts can be legally right but morally wrong, legally wrong but morally right. The determinants of what is legally right are provided by statutes and common laws of the nation where abortion is being discussed, whilst the determinants of what is morally right are solely based on reason using ethical norms, principles, and theories. Whilst it is easy to determine the legality of abortion, it is painfully difficult to morally argue for or against abortion, because there seems to be some very good reasons on either side. In the end, morally speaking, determining the rightness or wrongness of abortion should be done on a case-to-case basis after thoroughly reviewing the facts, circumstances, intentions, norms, and reasons at hand. Morally speaking therefore abortion cannot outrightly be condemned nor condoned without facts at hand.

Introduction

Abortion is illegal in Zambia in many ways and are provided for by Sections 151-153 of the Penal Code Act, Chapter 87 of the laws of Zambia. These include intent to procure miscarriage of a woman (Section 151), intent to procure her own abortion (152), and supplying drugs or instruments to procure abortion (153). It must be noted here that the key words are doing so by unlawful means. This is because according to Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1972, Chapter 304 of the Laws of Zambia, abortions in certain circumstances are legal if provided conditions are met. The penalty for abortion related offences range from 3 years (unlawfully supplying means of abortion), to 7 years (abortion by women with child) to 14 years (when another attempts to procure abortion of a woman).

In the case at hand of the Evelyn Hone student, she has been formally charged with abortion by woman with child provided for in Section 152 of the Penal Code Act. And if found guilty, she could face imprisonment for 7 years. The Section states that “Every woman being with child who, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, unlawfully administers to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means whatever, or permits any such thing or means to be administered or used, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.”

Social media has been ablaze at this news that broke over the weekend. Many seem to outrightly condemn the woman in question for aborting her foetus mainly using convoluted religious justifications and others simply appealing to the Penal Code Act. The cut and paste news stories on this are also not helpful because none has done an in-depth story to find out if indeed the woman aborted or it was just a miscarriage (not clear whether it is just mob thinking in labelling abortion when foetus was discovered by students), if the women procured the means for abortion, or another person is involved (influencing her or supplying the means for abortion). The stories making rounds (which are the contentless same ones) are also quiet in how old the foetus was. These are relevant facts to make any judgement on the culpability of the woman in question. Without these facts, it would be very difficult to condemn the woman and find her guilty in the public court of social media. Of course, these facts are what the defence team of the woman will be seeking and presenting to either plead guilty or not guilty.

Moral Issues Surrounding Abortion in Zambia

Without making any judgment on the woman’s actions surrounding the alleged abortion, this story, and in many others that don’t come out in public raises many issues of concern to our society that many don’t want to raise or discuss. Most of these issues are moral in nature. I want to raise at least four ways the abortion debate in Zambia remains largely on the condemnation side rather than on the helpful side.

First, despite abortion being illegal in Zambia as prescribed by the Penal Code Act, abortion is legal in Zambia following the provisions of the Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1972, Chapter 304 of the Laws of Zambia. This simply means certain abortions are legal and others are illegal depending on the case at hand. That Act clearly makes abortion legal if the pregnancy is terminated by a registered medical practitioner on his recommendation and two other registered medical practitioners (one of whom should be a specialist in the branch of medicine under where the woman is seeking help). The recommendation should be done in good faith and should be contained in a signed certificate of opinion completed before termination of pregnancy is performed. Notification of all termination of pregnancies performed should be made to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health. The termination of pregnancy must be carried out in hospital. There are four reasons that could be used to make this recommendation This are; when the pregnancy poses;

i) risk to the life of the pregnant woman,

ii) risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman,

iii) risk of injury to the physical or mental health of any existing children of the pregnant woman,

or if iv) there is substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.

Despite this elaborate provision on when a pregnancy may be terminated, in emergency situations, a medical practitioner may terminate the pregnancy without consulting two other medical practitioners. If medical practitioners who are approached conscientiously object to terminating the pregnancy, the law does not force them to participate in the abortion unless when termination is necessary to save the life of the woman or to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant women.

What are we to make of these provisions. It is clear that if life of the mother is at risk in allowing the pregnancy is continue or it is necessary to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical health of the women, pregnancy should be terminated, and many would not find problems with it including medical practitioners. There is a lot of debate on what constitutes risk to mental health of the women or existing children and how this can be assessed. Many students or school going children qualify for an abortion using this provision because for many, pregnancy presents a risk to their mental health in the following ways, threat of stopping school, threat to the performance at school, the burden of taking care of a child with minimal resources, not being prepared to take care of the child, being too young in age to take care of the child, diminished future prospects if they have a child and the hustle of dealing with the father of the child (who may want to marry the woman immediately or grab the child immediately it is born), risk of being disowned by the parents or family, loss of friends who may now classify the mother as older than them, and other mental problems that may come with not being prepared to have a child or carrying an unwanted pregnancy.

If a person therefore is unprepared for having a child, does not want the child, and the child presents harms to the present and future life, a pregnant woman should go forth to a health facility to seek a legal abortion. Most of the urban health institutions (public and private) have medical practitioners ready to help such women with termination of pregnancy if they fall in any of those four categories. It is highly recommended that such women present themselves as early as possible or at least in the first trimester of the pregnancy before the foetus grows too big because then more intrusive means of abortion (including surgical procedures) may be required that may pose complications to the pregnant woman.

Second, despite clear legal provisions, many abortions, safe and unsafe, continue to be carried out. This is mainly because pregnant women and their partners sometimes are ignorant that abortion is legal on legally provided grounds, rely on dogmatic unclear and unhelpful religious beliefs that consider abortion murder (after all, Zambia is a Christian Nation!), are shy to go to a hospital to specifically ask where termination of pregnancy can be done, some health care professionals are hostile to especially young woman who go to HC facilities seeking the service, face stigma from their friends of being labelled one who has aborted and thereby want to do it in secrecy, do not have the means to secure a medical abortion (transport fees, consultancy fees, ultrasound services, lab tests, hospital visits). In the early stages of pregnancy where the ‘abortion pill’ may be all that is required for the procedure, an abortion may cost anywhere in the range of K500 to about K2000 depending on which health facility one goes to, and whether they go to a high-cost public institution or private health facility.

Because of the stigma on abortion, perceived hostility from some health care personnel and the rampart misinformation surrounding the legality of abortion in Zambia, many who qualify for an abortion, like students who don’t want the pregnancy, may not access a safe legal abortion and may prefer illegal underground private arrangements, use traditional medicines whose safety and efficacy remains in question, and use dangerous instruments to do so. Most of these private illegal arrangements pose serious risk of harm to the woman as in many cases, no follow up hospital visit is arranged, pregnancy tends to be terminated very late (mostly in the second trimester with a few in the third), and the safety of the procedures is not guaranteed.

The irony is we live in a country with very liberal abortion laws, yet many feel that abortion is illegal, unsanctioned, and almost impossible to get even when they may be aware of the laws.

Third, certain abortions should be seen as, not only legally permissible, but also morally permissible. Philosophers and others have presented many arguments for such abortions where it may be seen as being within the reproductive rights and autonomy of the woman over body and life, in cases of incest, rape and defilement, abortion as self-defence, where generally there are more good consequences over bad ones in abortion compared to having the child, where the foetus especially in very early stages is seen as not a person thereby not have moral status compared to people after birth, where it is necessary to save the life of the mother or prevent grave harm to her, where if born the child would be severely deformed, where pregnancy is seen as unwanted bodily evasion of the body, where necessary precautions were taken but pregnancy still occurs, and that provision of safe legal medical abortions will make women less likely to seek dangerous unsafe illegal ones. Interesting analogies have been used such as the ailing violinist who finds themselves attached to another body, rapidly growing child in a tiny house risking bursting the house, burglar and people seeds analogies and the right for self defence… (see: Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion).

Certain other abortions are morally wanting. I won’t go into broad arguments against abortion that have been given (abortion is murder, it cheapens life, unnecessarily in face of contraceptives, foetus is a person with same rights as adults, abortion leads to more harm than good, deprives foetus of a valuable future, could lead to allowing infanticide and even euthanasia). But I think some abortions are morally wanting and even unjustifiable like; abortion for very trivial reasons (like aborting to avoid losing good looks, not missing a trip abroad), late abortion other than when there is grave risk to the life or physical health of a woman, abortion to extort money from a man or hold a man to ransom or to psychologically injure the man responsible for the pregnancy, and being sexually reckless and taking no precaution at all but planning that should one become pregnant they will seek abortion services.

Fourth, there is an urgent need to cultivate a culture of freely discussing the morality of a number of moral issues in our society. For long our society seems to avoid and discourage us to openly talk about the moral permissibility of controversial issues like abortion, homosexuality, possible immorality of eating meat, polygamy, the morality of having children, prostitution, pornography, early marriages, food wastage at household levels, and many other issues. Without talk and discussion on these issues, we are not solving the problems that may be surrounding them but just perpetuating them. If open discussion were to take place, we could see some of these acts morally permissible even when legally impermissible. This could help us take steps to amend our viewpoints, policies, and laws on these to provide for their permissibility. They could also help us sharpen existing laws. For example, the provision in the Termination of Pregnancy Act that termination can only be performed by a medical practitioner in consultation with two other medical practitioners, one of whom is a specialist, may discriminate many women in rural areas where health facilities may not have a luxury of having many medical practitioners available for the practice. Also, the provision that abortion should only take place in health facility may be inadequate especially for terminations that happen very early in the term of pregnancy. For many of these, a prescription of ‘abortion’ pills may be enough with a follow up hospital visit after the termination occurs in the comfort of one’s home. Lastly, there should be less punitive measures for desperate and vulnerable young women who access abortion services outside the prescribed systems for the reasons given above (stigma and being made a laughingstock by peers, misinformation about the legality of the procedure, the need for privacy). Slapping a young woman for 7 years imprisonment for an abortion that they may have qualified for had they gone to a hospital is not only excessive but counterintuitive.

Conclusion

It is good that Zambia has clear laws for when abortion is legal, and one can ‘easily’ access it especially in urban areas. It is good that such laws are liberal in nature, where many that may need an abortion can easily access one especially if they are informed and very early on in pregnancy. It is good that our laws provide limitations to curb possible abuse of these laws. But safe and unsafe illegal abortions continue to happen with some posing serious physical and psychological harms to the women. Unwanted children continue to be born after failed unsafe abortions posing serious harms to the mother and the children themselves. And a mushrooming ‘black’ market in ‘safe’ abortion provision may be fast brewing.

This calls for serious education on abortion laws, regulations and policies targeting populations that may easily be misinformed on the legality of the practice. It calls for open discussion on controversial moral problems like abortion to inform policy and legal reforms. And it calls for disputing myths surrounding abortion that may be making rounds (such as if you access a safe abortion you will not have children in future, abortion ‘finishes’ the woman, abortion is outright murder, etc).

Let us not just rush to condemn those who are exposed in public to have ‘illegally’ aborted without gathering our facts and getting them right. We should not rush to condemn without having a critical mind of our own on the issue.

In the end in many such cases, we may discover, “palibe mulandu!”.

Dominic Liche is a lecturer in ethics and philosophy at the University of Zambia.

By Aristide Bance

Let me take an excerpt from one of my favourite songs by Dr. Dre, the watcher off his 1999 album…..2001.

“ ‘Cause everywhere that I go
Ain’t the same as befo’ (The watcher)
People I used to know
Just don’t know me no mo’ (The watcher)
But everywhere that I go
I got people I know (The watcher)
Who got people they know
So I suggest you lay low (I’m watching).”

I chose to start with this because I feel that’s exactly how the former ruling party, the Patriotic Front Party (PF) that served the People of Zambia from 2011 to 2021. I like the usage of the word ‘serve’ as used by my brother Simon Mwewa Lane on his SML podcast. As a government, you are elected to serve and not rule. The humility in that word, ‘serve.’ While back to the topic at hand, the Patriotic Party (PF) is not doing a lot of watching but doing what they think they should be doing as a party that is now in opposition by providing checks and balances. While this is good, my opinion (and it remains mine) is that they are concentrating a lot of energy on things that are not pertinent to their existence. In the case of the lyrics, I can relate to them as a watcher as I have been watching and have not written an article piece in a while but here goes. I want to provide the Patriotic Front (PF) with some pointers on rebranding. I will also provide an example on how this has been done.

It is important to note that rebranding is a complex process, and its success depends on various factors, including the party’s internal dynamics, external political landscape, and the ability to connect with voters and this holds true with what we are seeing in the Patriotic Front.

When a governing political party loses power, rebranding becomes essential for the party to rebuild its image, connect with voters, and regain political relevance. The first order of business that the Patriotic Front (PF) did or as they claim was do an assessment of why they lost power. I hope that the assessment was truthful and should have set a course of corrective action and as my first strategy I cite:

Assess and Reflect: After a loss, it’s crucial for the party to reflect on the reasons behind their defeat and conduct a thorough assessment of their policies, messaging, and public perception. This analysis helps identify areas that need improvement and informs the rebranding process. As Patriotic Front goes around on media platforms and say, “yes, we lost of cadrerism, arrogance, commanders etc, but look we brought unprecedented infrastructural development.” While this statement is true, the issue here is the semantics, when you say something and you connect that first statement with the word ‘but’ you are in effect cancelling the first statement. It is still a sign of arrogance. Other statements like, “ yes, Patriotic Front had cadres, but we have apologised and the People of Zambia punished them by voting them out.”
Again, one can see that the Patriotic Front is non-repentant. Listen, Zambians are very forgiving people and not docile as many politicians have miscalculated, case in point, Dr. F.T.J Chiluba’s third term bid (M.H.S.R.I.P). What the Patriotic Front should have done and should be doing is going around the country and spreading a message of apology, in the same way they went around campaigning and in not a nice way de-campaigning the United National Party for National Development (UPND).

The second suggestion has to do with the issue of party leadership.

Party Leadership: Parties often consider a change in leadership to signal a fresh start. New leadership can bring new ideas, energy, and vision, creating a sense of renewal within the party. As I watched, Tuesday’s edition of the programme of Let the People Talk on the 13th June 2023, whose guest was Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba who by the way I follow and enjoy his show, The Brief, was the guest. He said something regarding leadership and membership which was very well-put. A caller told him that the issue with Patriotic Front is the leadership and violence and PF should get rid of the old leaders. To which Ambassador Mwamba wisely replied, “ in a village you cannot get rid of all the old people, you still need them.” The Patriotic Front should systematically inject new and fresh leaders who will be advised by the older ones. This change may involve electing a new party leader or re-organizing the leadership structure.

The third suggestion revolves around how the party processes the idea of ideas.

Ideological Reorientation: Parties may undergo a rebranding by re-evaluating their core ideologies and policy positions. This reassessment helps the party align its values with the evolving needs and aspirations of the electorate. For example, a party may reposition itself as more centrist, progressive, or focused on specific policy areas. The Patriotic Front is a party that is Pro-poor. How can you project the message of being pro-poor? It is not a matter of just saying you are pro-poor. I believe three aspects regarding this killed the Patriotic Front:

1. Grassroots Engagement: The Patriotic Front lost this and that is why their 2021 defeat shocked and is still shocking them. They failed to demonstrate the party’s commitment to engaging with and listening to the concerns of marginalized communities, for example, Amendment Bill Act 10. People saw that, this bill was retrogressive and the intention of the PF was seen by many. On this, they actively failed to involve community leaders, grassroots organizations, and civil society in the policy development and decision-making processes. They didn’t show a genuine interest in understanding the challenges faced by the poor and didn’t actively seek their input in shaping their party’s agenda.

2. Transparent and Accountable Governance: Patriotic Front didn’t promote transparency, integrity, and accountability in governance. As much as the party claims that President Lungu communicated the party’s commitment to fighting corruption and ensuring that public resources are used for the benefit of all citizens, especially the poor. For example, the issue of the EUROBOND default. You see, the leaders of PF say that, Zambia was not the only country to default and the lousy excuse of COVID-19. The issue here should have been handled differently. After the default, the leadership should have come and informed the nation on the default and the way forward. The plans of repayments should have been one of their party campaigns but instead, PF chose to first show the creditors, we will not pay. How do you build confidence as a country that way. But anyway, the damage was already done because what made people angry lies with the fact that, while the country became the first country to default amid claims by government that we were broke, its own cadres were busy showing off millions of cash in Zambian Kwacha as well as American Dollars on various social media platforms. This made people livid as the majority of people were trying to make money. Some Cadres even went to the extent of burning American Dollars with fire which by the way is a Federal crime. Kindly look at that deeply and reflect and stop excuses of COVID-19.

3. Self-centeredness, greed and arrogance: This one is very unfortunate as it is still very evident in the party. The first signs of this reared its ugly head after President Sata died. (M.H.S.R.I.P). The PF members still go online nowadays and exhibit this trait. On the hot seat of Tuesday 13th 2023, former Kabushi Member of Parliament, Bowman Lusambo still goes around saying, “politics is for politicians.” His demeaner is still arrogant as when he was called to serve the People of Zambia as an MP. He speaks on and on and does not afford the interviewer a chance. The interview also implicates Mr. Lusambo who asserts that Police in Zambia are working under difficult conditions as they act on the basis of pollical office bearers’ instructions and he says he speaks from what he knows citing the current Home Affairs Minister Hon. Jack Mwiimbu. He implicates himself as having the knowledge that police officers acting because a political office bearer has instructed them to. Now, this makes Zambians confirm the actions of the Police officers under PF. Controlling what your party projects out there is important for rebranding. Mr. Lusambo may claim to be a political heavyweight but his lack of tact often exposes him. No one is born a politician in as much as he loves to compare people (Remember his remarks regarding President Hakainde’s political size (Wachepa sana) to that of President Lungu’s?). One thing I fully agree with Lusambo, is that President Hakainde can seek counsel from President Lungu on governance issues as he has experience. Another aspect that Lusambo commented on was the issue of the resignation of Mr. Mwanza. Another blunder…..all he needed to say was thank you to his brother and not go on by saying he should not have resigned publicly. The issues Mr Mwanza raised are pertinent to be discounted by Mr. Lusambo. Another sign that people in PF have not learnt anything. No tolerance for divergent views.

The third suggestion is on policy agenda.

Policy Agenda: Rebranding involves crafting a new policy agenda that resonates with the concerns and aspirations of voters. Parties may emphasize new policy priorities or revise their stance on certain issues based on public sentiment. Remember, my suggestion on apologies across the country? For instance, a party could shift its focus to climate change, income inequality, or healthcare reform, depending on prevailing public concerns. Running on the issue of unprecedented infrastructural development as PF is not enough and by the way, a government providing a road, a hospital etc is the mandate of the government and governments are elected to provide those and should not be used to bait the voters. As Africa, we should move away from this narrative. We appreciate what PF did for Mother Zambia and development is a continuous development, others should carry on. We should not have an incumbent government saying, elect us to finish developmental projects. That is nonsense! Development will not stop because, you are out of government. We are where we are because of previous governments. Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) built on what the United Party for Independence Party (UNIP) left and Patriotic Front (PF) built on what the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) did and the United National Party for National Development (UPND) will build on the PF legacy.

The fourth suggestion is on messaging and communication.

Messaging and Communication: It was sad seeing the resignation of Mr. Antonio Mourinho Mwanza from the once mighty PF. He highlighted a lot of issues and if the party is serious, they should really look into. Rebranding requires a fresh messaging strategy to effectively communicate the party’s renewed vision and policy positions. This involves crafting clear and concise messages that resonate with the target audience. Parties may employ new slogans, taglines, or catchphrases to reinforce their rebranding efforts. The same way Dr. Kambwili and Geofrey Mwamba went around the country mobilising people (Well, not to mince words, the northern blocks of Zambia), should be the same way they go around apologising and making people aware that PF is rebranding. The other issue that PF cannot evolve over is the issue of Edgar Lungu. On Tuesday’s edition of Let the People Talk on the 13th June 2023, as alluded to earlier, had Ambassador Mwamba as guest, a caller called and mentioned the issue that Edgar Lungu has been elected twice as per Constitution of the Republic of Zambia to which the Ambassador replied that the Constitutional Court had already ruled on the eligibility of Lungu and he is eligible. Now, this is one thing that the Patriotic Front doesn’t seem to see. Still stubborn as a donkey (No Pun intended)! One of the reasons, PF lost was because of their leader, please acknowledge this!!! Zambians simply rejected Lungu’s third stint in office via the ballot and they will do it again. Lungu’s leadership style of laissez-faire…..not saying or doing anything especially when things went wrong. A leader should be seen to be proactive. The Constitutional Court judges were intimidated and warned by Lungu not to stand in his way. Another reason PF lost was Lungu’s running mate, Luo. I hope your post-mortem analysis identified this. If you did not, then you are extinct as a party, we do not need an election to see you are finished and in fact, what elections will do, is to dimmish the PF numbers in Parliament. A good example of a proactive action is the action taken by South African President Mr. Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa in the second week of June 2023. As a Cholera outbreak is wrecking havoc in the Township of Hammanskraal, Mr. Ramaphosa went to apologise to the people an I quote:
“I want to apologise to all of you on our collective behalf, in this case, we will admit that we have failed you.” End of quote.
He said the constitution gave residents the right to have access to clean running water.
(www.businesslive.co.za).
The government has since started the process of correcting this problem and I can assure you, Mr. Ramaphosa will not come and say elect us, we gave you clean water as he understands that he and his government are mandated to do so.

The fifth suggestion is on engagement.
Grassroots Engagement: Parties often rebrand by actively engaging with grassroots organizations and communities. This includes building partnerships with local groups, attending public events, and listening to the concerns of voters. Grassroots engagement helps rebuild trust and demonstrates a commitment to working for the betterment of society.

The sixth suggestion for the PF is on identity.
Visual Identity: Parties may update their visual identity, including logos, color schemes, and branding materials, to give a fresh look and feel. You say President Lungu has retired but you go around with vitenges with his face. It already shows a division. PF could make a new chitenge with Micheal Sata (M.H.S.R.I.P) and Edgar Lungu together holding hands as a message of solidarity and continuity (Suggestion). A visually appealing and modern design can help attract attention, signal change, and create a sense of unity within the party.

The seventh suggestion is on communication.
Communication Channels: Rebranding involves revamping the party’s communication channels to effectively reach and engage with voters. This includes leveraging social media platforms, launching a new website, and utilizing digital marketing strategies (Which the current government has allowed in that, PF members all have visual and radio reach and other opposition parties are holding press conferences like there is no tomorrow). Parties may also consider creating podcasts, hosting webinars, or utilizing other innovative communication methods. Although a party should be smart about this, you cannot be having members of a party issuing statements anyhow as is seen by PF. It already shows that once these people go for their convention, there will be ‘bloodshed’ as one can see the individual agendas.

In summation, the above provides a non-exhaustive list of suggestions for re-branding. A practical example of a political party’s rebranding is the UK Labour Party under the leadership of Tony Blair in the late 1990s. The party, which had experienced electoral defeats, rebranded itself as “New Labour.” This rebranding involved a significant ideological shift toward the center, embracing market-oriented policies, and focusing on issues such as education, healthcare, and economic prosperity. The party’s messaging emphasized a modern and inclusive vision for the country, appealing to a broader electorate. This rebranding strategy contributed to the party’s subsequent electoral success, allowing it to form a government in 1997 after a period of 18 years in opposition.

My parting words for PF are to evolve in terms of electioneering. Yes, the strategy by Michael Sata (M.H.S.R.I.P) worked for him but you cannot that to work for PF now. The electorates have evolved. Do not take Zambians as docile or not interested in reading. We all saw what happened in 2021.Tell the electorate what you will do differently and not what you have done. No one can take away what you did, hence tell us the people what you will do. Many events led to the defeat of the PF. Patriotic Front should not run with the narrative that, they lost power because people did not a choice of “better the devil you know than the angel you do not know” as the acting president Mr. Given Lubinda has used this phrase. Kindly look within and reflect. From what I am seeing, the post-mortem as alleged by PF has not done justice and as Mr. Antonio Mwanza said, there is no direction in PF. Shouts that PF is united shall be tested when they go to their ill-fated convention and we will come back to this article and say, the PF is not united.

As I continue…..being the watcher……..

When they came to our village, they were in threadbare clothings and flip-flops like the rest of us. Their hair was quite overgrown and unkempt while their teeth was yellowing as they could not even afford to buy toothpaste. They invited us to a meeting in the village square and coaxed us to join them in their boat.

“If you come with us in the boat; we’ll take you to the land overflowing with milk and honey…….” they pleaded with us.

“For more in your pockets, lower taxes and more jobs…….nipamaka fye!” They shouted their lungs out as they punched their fists into the air.

“Pamaka!” We roared in unison, exuberantly.

Considering the long hours we spent breaking our backs slogging away in the Choncholis’ factories for a pittance; what they were saying to us made a lot of sense, of course. We were particularly enchanted by the leader of the boat although he confessed he had no vision of his own. He struck us as humble and humane. He had no qualms accepting our offers of Kachasu. He’d imbibe generous amounts of the highly potent alcoholic beverage after which he would take to the floor and mesmerize us with his dancing prowess. The women particularly loved him. They’d go ecstatic as he dexterously gyrated his flexible waist.

“We’ll create 1 million jobs for our youth, enhance tenets of democracy and account for every penny we’ll collect from you…” he was literally waffling at this juncture as he tried to maintain his balance. “Don’t be misled by that Kachema from the South; come with us in the boat and you won’t regret.”

Eventually, a judge came to our village bearing a box. He handed us slips of paper with photos of the humble leader and Kachema on them. All we needed to do was tick the box adjacent to the face of one we wanted to be our village headman. We obviously settled for the humble leader! And thus commenced the journey into the wilderness …….the boat would sail haphazardly for the next 7 years without making any meaningful progress. We couldn’t stomach our patience anymore! We started complaining…….in whispers, of course; all of us – the youth, students, women and the aged! The humble leader was livid upon learning that Kachema was bragging that he’d run the village better than him.

“I’ll fall on him like a ton of blocks,” the humble leader warned, sternly.

In the fullness of time, students were stripped off of their meal allowances. Shortly, their bursaries were equally scrapped off. Obviously, the students didn’t take this kindly. They immediately hopped out of the boat and took to the streets to express their displeasure. The humble leader didn’t waste time unleashing the cops on them. They gave chase like a pack of vicious hounds and followed them all the way to the hostels. They smoked them out by lobbing tear gas canisters into their rooms after which they ordered them to drop their trousers or lift up their dresses. Each student was lashed on their bare buttocks 1000 times leaving them scarred! Poor Mapenzi, a devout adherent who endeavoured to steer away from any trouble wasn’t so lucky though. The fumes from the gas severely chocked her and made her suffocate. She was pronounced dead upon arrival at hospital.

In no time, the youth equally joined the frenzy! Fearing for their lives, they took their protest to social media lampooning and denouncing the leaders of the boat, day in and out. Others simply took refugee in the bush and demanded for change. Armed with all manner of weapons – guns, pangas, catapults and knives, the thugs from the boat bayed for their blood! Lawrence, a fearless youth leader of the reds, otherwise popularly known as Gaddafi amongst his peers, was traced to Kaoma and shot dead at point blank by the barber man of the humble leader. Mutapa, another indefatigable youth mobilizer of the reds was trapped by the thugs in Mtendere and bludgeoned to death by hammers and knobkerries!

As the thugs drove back to their hideout at Kamugodi, they spotted an elderly woman clad in a red T/shirt. She had just arrived in the capital from Barotseland. The thugs mistook her for a member of the reds. They descended on her and tore it off exposing her floppy breasts! A scribe from Uncle Fred’s The Past Newspapers witnessed the unfortunate incident and wrote about it. The thugs were obviously unhappy. They went after him and pinned him to the ground. They pried open his mouth using a claw bar and emptied the entire contents of their bowels in him!

When Uncle Fred’s The Past Newspapers still recounted a story about a teenaged girl in Kitwe who had herself baptized with chibuku by the thugs as others stripped off her clothes and played with her genitals for pitching up at a pub in red attire, the humble leader was raving mad! He ordered the tax man to immediately close The Past Newspapers for a bogus case of tax evasion.

With Uncle Fred’s The Past Newspapers no longer poking their nostrils into the affairs of the boat, the humble leader and his thugs went on rampage looting the little the villagers possesed. They awarded themselves massive contracts of building roads, bridges, schools and clinics in the village at inflated prices! Their greed took them as far as printing new Bank notes during the night and sharing them amongst themselves. They transformed into multi-millionaires, instantly! They went into a overdrive amassing assets everywhere as if in a competition – they acquired state of the art SUVs straight from the showroom, built breathtaking mansions in exclusive neighborhoods and established businesses in Dubai, Uganda, Eswatini and other places!

While the majority of villagers remained trapped in absolute poverty, the thugs enjoyed life of opulence. They used $100 bills as toilet paper, flew to Cape Town for their English breakfast, jetted to London for shopping and lunch and stopped over in Paris for dinner before retiring to their mansions in New Kasama.

“If you can’t afford bread and butter, you can still eat sweet potatoes; they’re very nutritious!” they would retort each time they heard us complain.

Meanwhile, the popularity of Kachema who was reputed to own thousands of cows was soaring to the skies! Many people in the village were now looking up to him as the messiah who can easily solve their nightmare! When the humble leader learnt about this from the Shushushis, he wasn’t impressed at all. He had previously tried to break the back of Kachema by condemning him to a congested dungeon for being found on the same road as himself. As a villager who grew up in the village herding cattle, 120 days of confinement into a maximum prison was nothing to Kachema. He came out much stronger than before and breathed hard on the neck of the humble leader.

“We’ve to come up with something to lock him up for good….” the humble leader kept reminding his kandiles.

When the blame for the gutted markets failed to stick on Kachema, they came up with a more sinister plan. Once we retired for the night, the thugs would go around spraying deadly chemicals into our mud huts. This would choke us and force us out of our huts huffing and puffing as we gasped for air. A number of us decided to abandon our huts and opted to endure nights out in the cold with our eyes peeled off.

“This can only be the work of the thugs from the boat…” we confided in ourselves. “There’s no way Kachema and his red team would sink so low.”

Their plan had obviouly backfired on them! As if on cue, the Katolikas finally chipped in. “We are appealing to government to bring this Satanic act to an immediate end!”

Suddenly, the gassing petered out. We could now go about our chores unencumbered and come back home knowing we’d sleep soundly. We vowed to teach the humble leader and his thugs a bitter lesson for traumatizing us, come August.

Unbeknownst to us, the humble leader would still be scheming to send Kachema back to prison so as to keep him out of the race for leadership. Shortly, controversy surrounding some land belonging to the Hatembos reared up its ugly head. Like the serpent in the Bible, lady Edith sweet talked the Hatembos to complain to the cops that Kachema had defrauded them out of their property years back despite forking out a huge amount of money for the same.

This was the golden opportunity the humble leader had been waiting for! Although the investigations revealed that there was impropriety on the part of Kachema, the humble leader determined to send him to prison! However, before Lady Edith working in cahoots with the thugs from the boat would pounce on the Hatembos and compel them to testify against Kachema, they sneaked out under the blanket of darkness and went into hibernation.

Finally, the long awaited month of August came knocking. Fearing reprisals, we devised the watermelon strategy. We pretended to belong to the boat as we quietly vowed to rid ourselves of the monkey on our backs – the humble leader and the thugs! When the judge finally came, all of us ticked the box next to Kachema’s face. The judge tried to rig the numbers but the villagers threatened to burn him alive! August 12 will be remembered as the day our nightmare was resolved!

Prince Bill M Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst