THE Zambian constitution has been changed several times. Each of the three parties that have ruled the country since independence in 1964 have changed the constitution and it is inevitable that the United Party for National Development (UPND) is going to do the same.
Before I make my contributions on what I think should happen to the constitution, I would like to reproduce a few quotes from the second president of the United States of America John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826).
John Adams was an attorney, diplomat, writer and founding father of the United States and leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain. He had a lot to say about the American constitution which he drafted with other statesmen of that time.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
John Adams goes on to say that “there is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
Power thinks… that is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws while liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”
John Adams has used the word “pervert” which is defined as to distort or corrupt the original course, meaning or state of something. Pervert can also mean to lead someone away from what is considered natural or acceptable.
Adams has also stated that liberty can only be preserved with general knowledge of the people. Let me deal with the issue of perversion to start with.
The first change of the Zambian constitution which was preceded by a referendum to remove the referendum from the constitution. The purported intention was to change the constitution so that the president could be given power to repossess land from absentee colonial land owners.
At the end of the day, it turned out to be a plot to allow for constitutional amendments without the participation of the Zambian public. Before that referendum to remove the referendum from our independence constitution, the law required that there should always be a referendum before any amendment could be effected to the constitution.
The original intention of holding the referendum in 1969 was perverted by men who then took advantage to change the constitution at will and eventually introduce the One-Party State, detentions without trial, everlasting states of emergency and unrestricted power vested into the hands of first Republican President Dr Kenneth David Kaunda.
In 1991, the Zambians without going to a referendum forced President Kaunda to amend the constitution to reintroduce multiparty politics in the country.
Discontent with the UNIP government led to rioting and threatened army takeovers and these events gave signal that the people wanted change in the constitution.
Unfortunately, all that changed was the repeal of one article. The rest of the constitution remained the same and second Republican President Dr Frederick Titus Jacob Chiluba took advantage of the absence of a referendum to amend a few clauses that barred President Kaunda from standing for re-election.
Michael Chilufya Sata promised a better constitution within 90 days, but after three years in power and at the time of his death, the draft constitution was hidden in a drawer at the Ministry of Justice, that is according to rumour. His successor President Edgar Chagwa Lungu accented a new constitution in 2016.
In 2020, the Patriotic Front tried to change the constitution through Bill 10. The effort was defeated when the UPND Members of Parliament boycotted debate on the Bill.
We are yet to know how the UPND government proposes to undertake the anticipated constitutional changes. Whatever route they take, I think the public should this time be allowed to participate and be the final arbiters.
For me, having come this far in our democracy and going by the ever rising interest in our natural resources, I would like to think that the most important issue in our constitution is the power to control the issuance of licences for the exploitation of our minerals and the land.
I would like the constitution to stipulate the mineral royalty taxes that should be paid instead of leaving such powers in the hands of each subsequent government.
It is not safe and fair for taxation on our minerals to be determined by parties in power. Such powers should be vested in the people and that can only be done through the constitution.
In fact, the constitution should even entitle chiefs to get royalties from mining concessions. The law which says that minerals do not belong to the land owner is archaic. It was enacted to give Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company monopoly over our minerals. Historians will remember that we had to compensate him when we got independence for us to reclaim the right to our minerals!
The great thing I remember about the first Zambian constitution is that there was not presidential election; the leader to the party with the highest number of seats in parliament became the president. That entrenched parliamentary democracy as opposed to sweeping presidential powers.
There was also a provision for a coalition government thus the pre-independence self-government was a coalition between the African National Congress of Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula and the United National Independence Party of Kenneth Kaunda under the governorship of Sir Evelyn Hone.
Our constitution must vest economic power into the hands of Zambians. The constant constitutional changes must also come to an end and this can only come if the politicians can allow the Zambians to exercise the ultimate authority on the issue.
Failure to do that, John Adams ominous warning may come to pass:
“Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Yours truly
Troubleshooter
pentvision@gmail.com,
ecchipalo@icloud.com,
ecchipalo@yahoo.co.uk
