Economic and Equity Party – EEP President Chilufya Tayali has called on Zambians especially opposition political parties to be part of an Alliance that will lead to the formation of the Government of National Unity whose agenda is to put Zambia first.

Mr Tayali said that the unity of the opposition political parties is very real, as they have been having discussions and interactions on the Alliance, and he is happy that a lot of people have welcomed the idea of forming an Alliance where they put Zambia first.

“Things are going on very well, am encouraging Zambians to be part of the Alliance, as we are all gifted differently and some of you are intellectuals who are learned and understand things from a different perspective, am also encouraging the young people to be part of this Alliance and offer whatever they can. Let us all unite by putting Zambia first,” Mr Tayali said

He mentioned that looking at the agenda of the Alliance which is to put Zambia first, people should forget about the political party affiliations which they belong to but everyone at this point in time should come together irrespective of the different political ideologies, and affiliations.

“From my point of view, am very grateful with a number of opposition party leaders who have shown positivity in this and are willing to work together, am so humbled and praying that we succeed in this Alliance,” he said

Mr Tayali has urged members of the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) who have seen that President Hakainde Hichilema doesn’t mean well for this country are free to come and join the Alliance as the Alliance is not excluding the UPND but rather including reasonable UNPND members to come forward.

“I know in UPND there are some people that mean well for this country, and those who are indoctrinated by not thinking properly should continue staying in UPND,” Mr Tayali said

“Whether President Hichilema likes it or not, his going as he has failed and the UPND is gone,” he added

He explained that the independence that we are celebrating now means that, this country belongs to all Zambians who are supposed to be part of the leadership of this country, the independence that the fore father won meant that people have attained that self-rule, as they were being ruled by the colonizers the British but the forefathers fought by saying they want to rule themselves and 58 years ago they lifted the flag of independence to say they have attained self-rule, that is what independence means.

Mr Tayali said that because of this independence that was attained, young people should not relegate the responsibility of running this country to only a few individuals, all the young people are supposed to be part of the governance of this country.

“Am emphasizing that all the young people are supposed to be part of the leadership of this country, don’t seat back and wait for President Hichilema to appoint you or give you a join in the government and now you will feel like you are part of the governance, no, by the fact that you are born Zambian, you are supposed to be part of the leadership of this country, don’t allow a few individuals to take this country into oblivion and disaster,” Mr Tayali mentioned

He disclosed that young people can be part of governance by making sure that they speak out on the issues relating to the governance of this country, young people should not shun away from this by stating that they don’t talk about politics or anything related to politics, everyone should talk about the governance of the country as politics affects everyone including the church.

“All of us are supposed to talk about politics and the affairs of this country,” he said

Mr Tayali has since called upon all church leaders not to sit back and let the affairs of the country to only be in the hands of the politicians as the church is also a part of this country and therefore leaders in the church should also contribute in the affairs and the running of this country.

“The issues of politics should not be relegated, even the church and Pastors should be free to discuss politics,” he stated

He noted that the intervention of the church through prayers and advice will help the politicians to come up with ideas that will be of great benefit and work for the country.

“Am encouraging church leaders to come forward to talk to politicians and pray for us, we need to heal, and unite this country which is highly broken,” Mr Tayali said

Transparency International Zambia – TIZ has called on all political players, both in the ruling party and the opposition, to jealously guard the peace and democracy that Zambians have enjoyed for many years, and to ensure that their political discourse and practice do not polarize the country along narrow partisan interests.

Transparency International Zambia Executive Director Maurice Nyambe stated that TI-Z is particularly calling on the United Party for National Development – UPND, being the ruling party, to exercise lots of restraint and lead by example in its political discourse and practice, by virtue of being the party in power, there is a greater scrutiny and expectation that has been placed on it, and TI-Z is urging them to rise to the challenge and deliver on those expectations.

Mr Nyambe said that the fact that the country has had three peaceful changes of regime in the last three decades is testament of the maturity of the democracy, TI-Z is cognizant to the fact that there remain real threats in the quest for democracy to thrive, as many of which have emanated from the conduct of political players over the years.

“TI-Z commends the many gallant Zambians who have contributed to the growth of our democracy over the years,” he said

“As TI-Z, we also see Independence Day as an opportunity for us as a country to look back on our anti-corruption efforts in order to ascertain how far we have come in fighting a scourge that has the potential to claw back many of the gains that we have made in the 58 years that we have been politically independent,” he added

Mr Nyambe has since urged the UPND Administration to enhance its anti-corruption agenda and make the fight against corruption more coordinated and broad-based.

“We therefore wish to repeat our challenge to the UPND administration to develop and implement a comprehensive country strategy for the fight against corruption, we are convinced that such a strategy will not only provide a clear strategic focus for fighting corruption, but will also help to free Zambia from the devastating effects of the scourge,” he explained

He has commended the efforts that the Anti-Corruption Commission, Drug Enforcement Commission and other law enforcement agencies are making in fighting corruption, but TI-Z believes that the fight would be even more effective if it was anchored on a clear, comprehensive country strategy.

Mr Nyambe disclosed that Zambia is proud and free today because of the determination and sacrifice that was put in by the gallant men and women who were involved in the struggle of the country’s independence, and TI-Z has challenge today’s breed of politicians to take a leaf from the selfless contributions of the independence heroes, and ensure that they not only protect the peace and democracy that the country has enjoyed for so many years, but also do their utmost best to unite Zambians even in the midst of different political views.

“We have only one Zambia and the need for us to be good stewards of it cannot be overemphasized,” Mr Nyambe noted

“In celebrating the 58th anniversary of Zambia’s independence, it is commemorated under the theme “Zambia at 58: Promoting Inclusiveness towards a Sustainable Social and Economic Recovery.” As a country, we have risen above so many challenges to carve for ourselves a path to economic prosperity, premised on the peace that we have enjoyed for all these years. Some challenges remain, and it is our hope that we will come together as citizens to actualize our resolve to make Zambia a better place for ourselves and the future generations who will inhabit it long after we are gone,” Mr Nyambe stated

The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) says the celebration of 58 years of independence provides Zambia with an opportunity to introspect and check the worrying tendency of crippling and destroying the opposition by hook or by crook.

JCTR Executive Director Fr. Alex Muyebe, S.J said for democracy to thrive in Zambia, a healthy and vibrant opposition is needed.

Fr. Muyebe said:”We end by quoting a renowned and respected politician in this country: ‘Winning an election without your main competitor is no election at all. That is why ruling parties that we have seen before, have won by-elections and when the general elections come they lose because of creating uneven playfield in the by-elections.’’

He said the 58th independence anniversary celebration should be used to advocate democracy in the country.

“As long as the constitutional reform process continues to be driven by the Executive, a perception that “the current administration is manipulating the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and the judicial process to increase their number of MPs in parliament for the purpose of amending the constitution to entrench themselves in power” will persist. We all know too well that this will inevitably have a negative impact on our budding democracy. This celebration of 58 years of independence provides the nation an opportunity to introspect and check the worrying tendency in this country of crippling and destroying the opposition by hook or by crook. For democracy to thrive in Zambia, we need a healthy and vibrant opposition,” Fr. Muyebe said.

Fr. Muyebe has since called for credible and people centered constitutional reforms.

He said the executive arm of the government should not interfere with constitutional reforms.

“Over the past 58 years, the nation has made some strides in realizing the true potential of democracy through a democratic system of government in which supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodic free elections. Some of the characteristics of a good democracy which successive governments have been entrenching to varying degrees include respect for basic human rights, a multi-party political system paired with political tolerance, a democratic voting system, respect for the rule of law, democratic governance, and citizen participation. One outstanding issue in Zambia’s democratic architecture is the on-going process of refining the Constitution of the Republic. Zambia has had the constitutional reforms of 1972 and 1991 under President Kaunda, the reforms of 1996 under President Chiluba, and the reforms of 2016 under President Lungu,” Fr. Muyebe said.

“All these attempts to refine the constitution have struggled to give Zambia a solid legal foundation which expresses the hopes and dreams of the people. Unfortunately, the constitutional reform agenda has many times been driven by a party in government with a motive to entrench itself in power. It is not clear if the current administration will be any different and avoid the pitfalls of the past by ensuring that the constitutional reform process really does result in a document that the people have participated in drafting by considering the input of different interest groups in the country. The Problem of a Process Driven by the Executive A major problem with past amendments of the Constitution has to do with the process of amendment. Previous presidents have opted to establish either commissions of inquiry under the Inquiries Act, or have used their executive powers to establish committees to prepare draft constitutions.1 Therefore, we have had drafts prepared by such commissions as the Mung’omba Commission under President Mwanawasa in 2003, and by the Technical Committee on Drafting the Zambian Constitution, instituted by President Sata in 2011,” he said.

Fr. Myebe said in order to ensure a people-driven constitution Zambia needs a legislative framework, the amendment of Article 79 of the Constitution and getting input from different stakeholders.

“In order to ensure a people-driven constitution the following three components to constitutional reform need to be in place: A Legislative Framework The first component involves legislation. To avoid the Executive branch of government being able to exert a disproportionate influence on the process, and to give all stakeholders a chance to provide their input, a legislative roadmap needs to be enacted. When South Africa was preparing its draft final constitution, this was done by following the roadmap set out in the Interim Constitution. When Kenya was preparing its draft constitution, the process to be followed was stipulated in the Constitution of Kenya Review Act of 2008. Therefore, in South African and in Kenya, legislation was needed to carefully set out the procedure to be followed. This legislative framework is crucial to a successful constitutional reform process,” Fr. Muyebe said.

“Amendment of Article 79 The second component involves the amendment of Article 79 of the Constitution of Zambia. Article 79 deals with situations where the text of the constitution is modified. In particular, it stipulates that if any provisions of the Bill of Rights are to be modified, a national referendum would need to take place. However, the wording of this section needs to be amended in order to avoid the injustices of the past. The wording indicates that in order for a successful national referendum to take place, not less than 50 percent of the registered voters need to vote. This formulation of the provision led to an injustice in the 2016 referendum. According to the results of that referendum, 71% of people voted in favour of the referendum. However, because only 44% of those entitled to vote actually voted on the day, the referendum failed,” he added.

Fr. Muyebe continued:”Getting the Right Balance of Input Between Different Interest Groups The third component involves getting the right balance of input between three key players in the reform process: namely, the politicians, the legal professionals, and the public. As much as one would advocate avoiding a disproportionate influence by politicians over the reform process, one needs to provide space for their input. They are the elected representatives of the people. As such, their ideas will be important in producing a solid constitutional draft for the people. Additionally, the views of legal professionals are required, since the constitution is essentially a legal document. Finally, submissions from the public are indispensable, since we desire a people-driven constitution.”

“The only problem is how to justly deal with the input from each of these players and arrive at a reasonably representative document, without allowing input from politicians to trump over input from other interest groups to ensure that the document enshrines the aspirations of the people and thereby providing the much needed legitimacy and ownership,” he concluded.