By Sean Tembo – PeP President

1. The world over, an independent, objective and competent judiciary has a major role to play in not only promoting peace and unity but also in fostering economic development. When people quarrel in the community, they need to be assured that if they take their quarrels to authorities, they will get justice. Without such assurance about the independence, objectivity and competence of the judicial system, people will not waste their time taking their conflicts to the authorities for resolution. Instead, societal conflicts will be resolved using underhand methods of revenge, ostensibly using violence. That will take us back to the pre-civilization times when violence, murder and mayhem was the standard way of resolving societal conflicts.

2. That said, the behavior of our senior courts in the handling of the Kabushi and Kwacha petitions leaves much to be desired. Three courts were involved in these petitions; being the High Court, Court of Appeal and the Constitution Court. The first to take a bite at the apple was the High Court, which nullified the two elections. As per provisions in the Constitution, the High Court is the court of first instance for election related matters, and any appeal has to go straight to the Constitutional Court, not the Court of Appeal nor the Supreme Court. So subsequent to the nullification of their seats by the High Court, Bowman and Malanji went to appeal at the Constitutional Court.

3. The Constitutional Court decided to uphold the judgement of the High Court, which is fine. Nothing wrong with that. However, in upholding the nullification of the two seats, the Constitutional Court failed to clearly state in it’s judgement whether Bowman Lusambo and Joseph Malanji were eligible to stand in the by-elections which had been caused by a nullification of their seats. That was problem number one. At this juncture, allow me to state that judgements of the Constitutional Court are traditionally vague and either lack clarity or create additional debate and confusion. Whenever the Constitutional Court issues a judgement, litigants are often left wondering who has won the case! Time and again, this has resulted in additional litigation as was the case with Former President Lungu’s eligibility matter. The Constitutional Court has often failed to bring matters before it to a finality, despite being a court of final instance. Why this Court behaves in this manner has always been a wonder to me. But l am inclined to believe the submissions of Counsel John Sangwa which he made at the very inception of the Constitutional Court, that the judges of this Court lack the necessary qualifications and experience. Indeed, there appears to be very little competence at Constitutional Court level and it is only by the grace of God that they have not plunged this country into a constitutional crisis.

4. Anyway, back to the issue at hand. So in upholding the nullification of the two seats, the Constitutional Court omitted to state in their judgement whether Bowman and Malanji were eligible to stand in the upcoming by-elections. This prompted another lawsuit by the two, before the same ConCourt. In the second matter, the Constitutional Court ruled that nullification does not amount to disqualification, meaning that the fact that Bowman and Malanji’s seats were nullified does not mean that the two are disqualified to stand in the upcoming by-elections. In a properly functioning democracy, this second pronouncement by the Constitutional Court would have put this matter to bed once and for all. But not under the current regime.

5. A few days later, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) issued a statement that it will not accept nominations from individuals whose seats were nullified in Kabushi and Kwacha constituencies. This statement by ECZ was contrary to the second judgement of the Constitutional Court which made it clear that nullification of the two seats did not mean that Bowman and Malanji were disqualified from re-contesting.

6. As a result of the ECZ statement, Bowman and Malanji approached the High Court and commenced judicial review proceedings against the Electoral Commission of Zambia for their decision to ignore the judgement of the Constitutional Court and try to exclude Bowman and Malanji from filing in their nominations. As the matter before the High Court was being allocated, ECZ proceeded to conduct the nomination process for both Kabushi and Kwacha, and true to their word, they refused to accept nominations from Bowman and Malanji. A few days after the nominations, the High Court, after constituting a panel of three judges, granted the Applicants leave to commence judicial review proceedings against ECZ, which also acted as a stay of the elections. In other words, the elections could not take place until this matter was concluded.

7. A few days later, the Government through the Attorney General applied and was joined to this matter as a Respondent. Immediately thereafter, the Attorney General approached the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay of all proceedings in the High Court. This was despite the Constitutional requirement that only two courts will deal with election related disputes; the High Court and the Constitutional Court. The Attorney General as learned as he is, knew or should have known that the Court of Appeal had no jurisdiction in this matter, and that if he wanted to appeal the High Court ruling in the judicial review proceedings, he should have approached the Constitutional Court and not the Court of Appeal. Similarly, the judges of the Court of Appeal, as learned as they are, knew or should have known that they had no jurisdiction to hear this matter, let alone grant a stay of the proceedings of the High Court. But both the Attorney General and the Court of Appeal decided to proceed with their illegality.

8. In issuing it’s illegal stay of the judicial review proceedings before the High Court, the Court of Appeal also claimed to have stopped the 21 days from running. Judicial review proceedings need to be concluded by the High Court within 21 days, otherwise the whole proceedings are considered null and void. But the Court of Appeal claimed to have stopped those 21 days from running, despite not having the jurisdiction to hear this matter and not having the authority to stop a statute-established timeline from running. Additionally, after the Court of Appeal stopped the proceedings before the High Court, they did not go on to expeditious hear the appeal which the Attorney General had filed before it, so that the appeal could be determined and the stay on the High Court proceedings can be lifted. Instead, the Court of Appeal just stopped the High Court proceedings and went on holiday waiting for the 21 days to expire!

9. About a week ago, and despite the High Court stay of elections still being in force, the Electoral Commission of Zambia announced that it will hold the Kabushi and Kwacha by-elections on Friday, 21st October 2022. President Hakainde Hichilema then proceeded to go to Kabushi and Kwacha to campaign. A day before the scheduled date for the elections, the Court of Appeal scheduled a hearing of why the Attorney General had obtained a stay of the judicial review proceedings before the High Court. However, the lawyers from Attorney General’s chambers did not show up, because, according to a memo from the Acting Chief Justice, all the lawyers were attending a workshop and all matters involving the AG needed to be adjourned.

10. On the same day however, the Constitutional Court sitting in Ndola ruled that the Court of Appeal had no jurisdiction to stop the judicial review proceedings that were before the High Court because any appeal of an election-related dispute is supposed to go to the Constitutional Court and not the Court of Appeal. The ConCourt further ruled that the Court of Appeal had no authority to stop the 21 days from running. However, l do not believe that this ruling by the Constitutional Court came as a surprise to both the Attorney General and the three judges of the Court of Appeal.

11. I strongly believe that the judges of the Court of Appeal knew fully well that what they were doing was an illegality, but decided to do it anyway, in order to subvert the course of justice and allow the Kabushi and Kwacha by-elections to take place without Lusambo and Malanji being heard by the High Court. Knowingly defeating the ends of justice is a serious criminal offense, and it is for this reason that l call for the arrest and prosecution of the three Court of Appeal judges who knowingly defeated the ends of justice in this matter. If the police do not act, we will consider private prosecution in this matter.

By Isaac Mwanza

When Seer 1 tells President Bally about learning something from usual departure of Dora Siliya from a former ruling party to a new party, his sentiments must be understood just like that and not be underestimated. Let me put them into context.

Seer 1 is right: Just like the MMD, the PF largely lost the 2021 election because of selfishness and greedy. Many who worked with former President Edgar Lungu and were in position to shape decisions cared more about themselves and their narrow interests than they did with ordinary people in their party structures and ordinary Zambians generally.

Ordinary PF members saw no reason and benefit to wage a relentless fight to retain power when only the Ministers and those that surrounded them were swimming in power. At some point, even the crumbs could not get down to those in the party structures. The leadership became detached from its own members and also the voters generally.

The relationship most of those who were leaders in PF had with the former ruling party was about the benefits they could get. That is what kept these leaders closer to the former ruling party and the humble President.

Immediately, PF lost power, these very leaders who portrayed themselves as darlings of the party and the President chameleonically moved on and are looking for opportunities to transform themselves from Green to Red. When time comes, they will portray themselves as more Reds than the actual people who fought for the Red to come into power.

The list does not exclude Independent MPs. The biggest mistake those that surrounded former President Lungu made was to think that by supporting independent candidates, the strategy would help them gain numbers to remain in government. Independent candidates who were supported by those that surrounded President Lungu had more resources, party materials and vehicles than their own candidates on the party list.

But among these independent MPs who won and thrived on the support they received, how many have remained grateful and loyal to those who supported them? Only Munir Zulu, the man who was not even supported is standing with them.

The many independents who received support are now behaving as if nothing ever happened. They are busy working out opportunities to dine from the King’s table with both hands. They can and will probably do anything to even support the persecution of those who supported them to become independents all in the quest to be seen as the good ones. This is a test of loyalty.

What lessons are in this which Seer 1 would like President Bally to learn:

1. The ivory you see from people’s smiles can be fake and temporal. Instead of giving you the best advice, they will come to you with huge smiles asking you to toast to the victory in Kabushi and Kwacha but they won’t tell you the truth about the political outlook on the Copperbelt, Lusaka, among others;
2. Defectors will always come to you, nicely dressed in your regalia and standing next to the very riches they amassed while they worked against you, their intention is not because they believe in you but they believe in the power you possess that has capacity to continue changing their lives.
3. At most, be loyal to those who were loyal to you. A man’s and woman’s true loyalty is defined when one is struggling or in trouble. There are politicians who don’t just love the idea of staying in opposition as you did but seek a smooth path all the way. They need to protect their businesses and continue living a good life. These will bring you down.
4. People in institutions such as the Electoral Commission of Zambia will help you get some temporal victories, as it has happened in Copperbelt, because that is the nature of these Commissions under any executive arm but it usually dawns that soon they may not manage to deal with peoples pressure. The election in Copperbelt must be an eye opener than being considered a victory.

Remember, be good to the people who were with you on your way up the ladder, you will need them on your way down, that’s the way it is.

By Kapya Kaoma

If you want to remain sane, stop following HH’s politics of foolishness. The Copperbelt sham By-elections prove one thing–Mr. Hichilema’s poor judgment and insecurity. Assume these elections were in Dundumwezi, would he have panicked? Why is he so afraid of a fair fight? The truth is, he knows that he doesn’t have enough votes on the Copperbelt–thus cheating is the only way to save face. What a shame to the man who sleeps in politics of foolishness!

Since he put on Seer 1 blessed gloves, one can hardly tell the mental state of our Head of State. All things foolish, President HH has proved. What else qualifies him as President save his Alzheimer–for in amnesia his head he holds high, always living today as if a baby which never knew that just last year in diapers soiled. Is the HH who insulted Presidents Mwanawasa, Banda, Sata and Lungu day and night, the same one who is now defending the arrests and torture of Zambians for speaking against the Presidency? When did the Presidency become sacrosanct to Hichilema? This man of no shame has no honor–for in politics of foolishness he daily baths.

The politics of foolishness has its own benefits–it exposes despots for what they are; insecure egomaniacs. HH is a self-proclaimed egocentric individual and many Zambians have finally seen through him–a narcissist without solutions. This is surely an understatement. “Bally will fix it” is now a slogan of shame to the masses. To redeem it demands more to it than pictures with white people. Of course–Joe Biden wants Zambia for Military reasons as opposed to HH’s leadership. This is for another day. For now, the egomaniac genius has found it hard to fix anything but himself by overstepping–attempting to destroy our democracy.

HH believes Zambia is UPND–he can run it like his little kantemba. Wrong! We love our democracy. Chiluba tried to destroy it and he failed. Utter foolishness made Chiluba believe that Zambians wanted him to temper with our hard fought for democratic institutions simply because he was the President. And what did he get? He was forced out, arrested and had his underpants paraded on camera as Zambians cheered. Sadly this is what awaits Mr Hichilema. The day will come when he will be held to account. Like Chiluba, in shame he will dwell as Zambians call him names. One thing I know is this, the battle against democracy is the battle HH is set to lose!

Moreover, his sham Copperbelt elections will surely be overturned by the courts. This is the best thing for the opposition. The criminal HH will be exposed and his officials cited for Contempt. In addition, his image will finally be revealed for what I saw from the very beginning of his reign–a lawless man hiding by the office of the Presidency. The good news is that he will survive it now, but when he and his cronies are out off office, this crime will follow them. He will be saved by immunity, but not his officials.

How about the lower turnout? Fallen! Fallen is Bally the Great! Within a year, Bally can hardly get a handful on the Copperbelt. How the mighty have fallen. You wear the Bally brand at your own risk. Yet the desperate and shameless President and his Vice President will go back to Kabushi and Kwacha again and again with their tails between their legs to campaign against opposition candidates–knowing too well that they tried twice before. Worse still, should UPND lose those seats, the politics of foolishness will be served at HH’s dinner table at State House, Community House and in Diplomatic Houses. The good news is, toddlers have no shame.

President HH should have behaved like an adult. He knew the court ruled on these elections. Wouldn’t he have been at the forefront of guiding the nation in ensuring that the rulings of the Courts are upheld by all Zambians? Besides, doesn’t he hold the majority in Parliament? If the law is illogical, wouldn’t he have worked with Parliament to address the 90 days limit for holding by elections so as to avoid similar situations in future? The problem is HH doesn’t think like an adult. He wants to prove he is the best, but always comes out as the worst. Shame is his lot; but thankfully he has no shame.