28/07/2021
Over 70% of Zambia's adult population is disqualified to run for public office
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A Big Man democracy with personal fiefdoms purveyed by gangs of old pals to an exclusive feast — and there is nobody among them to clear the morass of corruption, mismanagement, tribalism and nepotism. Then a glut desire for power?...“Comrades,” he said, “here is a point that must be settled. The wild creatures, such as rats and rabbits — are they our friends or our enemies? Let us put it to the vote. I propose this question to the meeting: Are rats comrades?”...“After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters. It did not seem strange to learn that the pigs had bought themselves a wireless set, were arranging to install a telephone, and had taken out subscriptions to John Bull, TitBits, and the Daily Mirror. It did not seem strange when Napoleon was seen strolling in the farmhouse garden with a pipe in his mouth−no, not even when the pigs took Mr. Jones's clothes out of the wardrobes and put them on, Napoleon himself appearing in a black coat, rat catcher breeches, and leather leggings, while his favourite sow appeared in the watered silk dress which Mrs. Jones had been used to wear on Sundays.
A week later, in the afternoon, a number of dogcarts drove up to the farm. A deputation of neighbouring farmers had been invited to make a tour of inspection. They were shown all over the farm, and expressed great admiration for everything they saw, especially the windmill. The animals were weeding the turnip field.
They worked diligently hardly raising their faces from the ground, and not knowing whether to be more frightened of the pigs or of the human visitors...”
When the colonists came to claim proprietary territory over the land far from being theirs, they used predatory methods of divide and rule. Most importantly, they used devilish methods that went straight to the mind of the colonised so much that they remained ingrate characters to collective progression in order to keep them under perpetual exploitation. That is the character that has remained stuck with African leaders — an incredible predatory law system of the minority over the majority. It is morally moribund and a crude suggestion that, “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT OTHER ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS!”
On 30th October 1962, the Northern
Rhodesia Legislative Council (and subsequent by-elections) were carried out under the 15-15-15 system. This meant that 15 seats were elected by the upper roll of the house, the next 15 the lower roll and the last 15 by the national roll. But the irony with the qualification was that to qualify to the upper roll, voters had to have an income of at least £720 or own at least £1,500 worth of immovable property. Although the requirement was adjusted downward to £480/£1000 for those with a full primary education and £300/£1000 for those with at least four years of secondary education, the idea was to use property rights to disadvantage the poor majority.
Although several people were allowed to register as upper roll voters, its was those with specific mention such as chiefs , hereditary councillors, native authorities and members of bodies such as: municipal councils; township, housing boards, religious boards, leaders with at least two years of secondary school education, pensioners and university graduates, holders of awards from the Queen, those with letters of exception under the African Exception ordinances dated prior to 1st July 1961 that were qualified to vote.
The common person’s right to fully participate in the governance of their country is a matter of right which is why the Universal Declaration on Human Rights unanimously adopted by the United Nations in 1948 to put this right not only in clear perspective but ground it into international law and as an integral role that transparent and open elections play in ensuring the fundamental right to all participatory governments is well engendered both in international and national law.
Article 21 of the declaration says that: “Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his/her country, directly or through freely chosen representatives” . Representation here means standing in place of the principle being. It is not representation if the voter does not qualify to the same office. The rule and law of representation
is therefore ultra vires if those represented do not qualify to wield the same authority. Muslims for an instance, can not be represented by Christians the same way that women can not be represented by men or Zimbabweans represented by Malawians.
Going for another milestone, “Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his/her country” by adopting a law that excludes the majority of the country from seeking elective public office, Zambia is a red-light breach of international law to which the State is a party. A brunt of blatant discrimination of the majority by an elite minority band and that is a kind of apartheid practiced by a class of a few people over a the entire nation.
If the argument is that the introduction of this law was made in a transparent fashion, then the state and parliament should have every reason to worry that the very low literacy levels makes it extremely difficult for ordinary people to process these law proposals.
Further, heavy handedness of the State to protesters muddles people concerns and dissolves the confidence in the few that elect to stand against bad laws and the result is the rights crisis we now witness in Zambia’s newly found “apartheid” piece of legislation.
But what is also certain here is how leaders have completely ignored the faintly taunting voice of the people to their ears and yet laws must not be made to advantage a few and dis- advantage the majority.
Clearly, this is a demonstration that leaders only want to hear what they want to hear — making leaders become people’s mis-leaders.
Often, the supposed advisors easily coil back into submission. This is fore-mostly the reason why leaders should stop advising those they appoint to advise them.
These are the only logical explanations of how Zambia got to a position of enacting a law against the majority of her people.
What started as a mere intention to bar a few candidates considered unwanted political opponent elements presumed not to possess the Grade 12 Certificate, has become a widespread discrimination of international law violation in which the majority are now overwhelmed into submission for want of knowledge and confidence.
This law is not only in clear breach of
the provision of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but, brings even closer home, an open violation of The African Charter on Human Rights which states that: “The member state of the OAU (AU) parties to the present charter shall recognise the rights, duties and freedoms enshrined in this chapter and shall undertake to adopt legislative or other measures to give effect to them”, yes, NOT TO ABROGATE THEM.
Article 19 of the Africa Charter states that, “All peoples shall be equal; they shall enjoy the same respect and shall have the same rights. Nothing shall justify the domination of a people by another”. In other words, the said rights shall have a universal implication in their application and not subject to any secondary law elements. They are simply non-negotiable rights and cannot be selectively applied.
One may argue that raising the education benchmark among leaders is a relevant aspiration in the quest to compel many to be educated, but this presupposes that the majority have, by their own choice, simply opted out of being educated when in fact it is poverty and the gross inequality of opportunity that continues to prohibit access to quality education and on account of poor education policies of successive administrations.
The cost of education in Zambia is highly prohibiting to the poor and yet the provision of education is both the responsibility of the government itself and a right for the citizens to enjoy. It cannot, therefore, be used to disproportionately disadvantage majority citizens from seeking elective public office and in wider matters of national civility and leadership. Every citizen who is mature of making a decision has an expressly implied right to elect and to be elected to public office and this should be the foremost pride in their duty and responsibility to their own country. Yes, there must be qualification and their can be no better and relevant qualification that supersedes and overrides citizenship, period!
The right to vote is a right that cannot be separated from the right to run for public office. The two are intractably bound. Even where they are not explicitly stated, they are implied all the same. A violation of each one of them is a violation of all of them. Any prejudicial case to one must be foregoing to the other. The stated law grants the other a state of an implied law which is not expressly expressed — for it is deemed necessary and proper by all other fact statements.
The constitution should therefore extricate this right rather than restrict it considering that this Republic was not bought by a single person or group of people from God and let alone from the hand of colonialists and it is not for sale either. It is simply a priceless sovereign nation. It is communal and must be fully enjoyed in its accommodation for all of its citizens with the foremost way to inaugurate, celebrate and commemorate a nation’s sovereignty being a continuous civility in broad participation — granting all a full sense of belonging.
Both citizenship in material observation and the full exercise of the human faculties of civil liberties are continuous acts of patriotism through which a nation such as ours celebrates its sacred and solemn making. To shortchange citizens on the inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms fully paid for by their founding forefathers can only be an insular politics and of renegade beings.
Those who gave their lives for our freedom gave them for free and in order to free the entire nation — yes, freedom in perpetuity —the freedom that is the highest maxim to national patriotism.
Our forefathers did not lose everything for a small section of the nation. President Edgar Lungu as a lawyers must know this to be true and is therefore expected to frame his administration accordingly rather maintain a loss at law on this matter as much as at civility and patriotism in order for him to discharge this presidential duties with a sublime sense of true patriotism to the nation. That is the only way our solemn dirge to nationalism can be commemorated.
Moreover, our leaders do not come from another planet. They are a standout among society and therefore a true reflection of whom we are. If our leaders are so uneducated therefore, our worries ought to be formed out of the realisation that our literacy levels are so low and we must accordingly deal with what makes our society illiterate.
It should also be added that national leadership is not a professional occupation and perhaps should not even be remunerated for save for a mere living allowances.
This explains why parliamentary democracy in Zambia is incredibly dead.
The massive influence the political party system exerts on parliament business creates a paralysis of parliamentary democracy and profoundly affects the quality of debate and of laws that ensue — suggesting laws that favour those who control parliament more than the people who establish it.
Much of the outcome of laws in parliament therefore are the ones dictated by the sponsoring political party more than the logic of “right and wrong” the more reason why Zambia has crafted a law that excludes an astounding majority — over 70% of adults from seeking public office. What a fraudulent law wide shame.
According to the Central Statistics Office, only 37.3 percent of the population and 31 of the adults aged 25 and older has by 2013, reached the level of grade twelve (12) and yet this too does not mean that they obtained full grade twelve certificates.
The accuracy of this statistics in the affirmative is conservative if you take into account the survey methodology used — which is simply by asking people to volunteer their educational levels. Many are bound to causally give
incorrect information in the affirmative out of social shame, by simply acknowledging having reached grade twelve (12) when in fact not. That alone is a grey area that knocks down the 37.3 percentage record. Certainly, getting to grade twelve (12) is one and obtaining a full grade 12 Certificate another.
Dr. Francis Chigunta (May His Soul Rest In Peace) of the University of Zambia, in his paper titled “Perspectives of Zambia 2016 elections” also introduced another view point that questioned the morality of this clause particularly in respect to citizens with higher qualification who did not merely posses the required grade twelve qualification and he wrote:
‘The Amended Constitution states that to qualify as President ([Article 100 (1) (e)]), Member of Parliament ([Article 70 (1) (d)]), and councillor ([(153) (1) (c)]), someone should have obtained, as a minimum academic qualification, a grade twelve certificate or its equivalent. This requirement is paradoxical.
On the one hand, the clause is intended to ensure that better qualified contestants take up political position. On the other hand, the clause will make it difficult for contestants to qualify for political office. Not only is the clause paradoxical, it is also ambiguous and confusing. Does a contestant who possesses a Bachelors, Masters, or even a PhD without a Grade 12 certificate qualify? In some cases, someone can obtain a higher qualification from a prestigious institution of higher learning based on other considerations such as work experience. The Constitutional Court (which is yet to be established), together with the two ECZs (Electoral Commission of Zambia and the Examination Council of Zambia) will have to interpret this’.
Article 70 of the Amendment Constitution of Zambia of 2016 disqualifies not on over 70 percent of the adult population in Zambia but goes against values enshrined in Part II of the same constitution — none discrimination.
