New Heritage Party president, Chishala Kateka, has warned Zambians against calls to extend or remove presidential term limits, saying the move would reverse the country’s democratic gains and take the nation back to dictatorship.
Kateka said the warning was particularly targeted at young adults who would soon be in charge of steering the nation.
In a statement issued on Monday titled “Why Zambia must resist the term extension for anyone”, Kateka said the debate on term limits cannot be understood without reference to Zambia’s history under colonialism and one-party rule.
Kateka said colonial rule treated Zambians as sub-human and as a source of cheap labour, with economic deprivation, inadequate education and massive wealth shipped out, with only 100 graduates out of a population of 4 million at independence.
“Even socially, the colonialists configured the social structure resulting in our being discriminated against. Our governance structure was interfered with. They appointed chiefs who did not exist and removed chiefs that existed – pretty much like what we are seeing now – interference in the affairs of traditional leaders,” she said.
She said the fight for independence and the demand for one-man one-vote was meant to establish the sovereignty of the Zambian people and ensure that leadership chosen by the majority would carry the day, as opposed to imposed leadership.
Kateka said after independence Zambia initially had multi-party democracy before the Constitution was amended to create a One-Party Participatory Democracy under UNIP, where all other parties were banned and more power became vested in the President.
“The period under KK became a dictatorship. In a dictatorship, the dictator becomes the state and the state becomes the dictator. Everything is viewed through that lens,” she said.
She said the period was characterised by shrinking political space, arbitrary arrests and disappearances of political opponents, vigilantes wielding immense power, widespread fear, and an economy that had almost ground to a halt by 1990, leading to food riots.
Kateka said Zambians were resentful of and resisted the one-party state, leading to the emergence of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy and the voting out of Kenneth Kaunda in 1991.
She argued that basing a decision to extend or do away with term limits on an individual considered to be a great leader was myopic, asking what would happen when that person was succeeded by a bad leader or dies.
Kateka said term limits were introduced to avoid the “Wamuyayaya” (forever) syndrome with its attendant excesses, adding that President Hakainde Hichilema had already demonstrated dictatorial tendencies.
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“HH has already demonstrated his dictatorial tendencies as well as his insatiable appetite to cling to power at all costs,” she said.
Kateka cited the bulldozing of the unpopular Bill 7, use of the army during the just ended election, the stopping of counting and announcement of election results, the brazen announcing of clearly inflated election results for himself and his lawmakers.
Additionally, the closing of the courts during the petition period, the weaponising of state institutions, are but a few of what Zambia and the world can expect from him.
She said a termless presidential tenure flies in the face of democratic ideals and the Republican Constitution which treats the presidency as an institution and not a person, coupled with a running mate and Cabinet in recognition of human fallibility.
Kateka warned that the drive to legalise term extension would result in the Republic being done away with and replaced by a de-facto monarchy where the elite perpetuate themselves, become unanswerable to the people and take away people’s rights one by one.
“Those calling for no term limits were beneficiaries of the current system acting out of self-interest and not love for the country, noting that the call was not a national outcry,” she said.
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