ZAMBIA’S POLITICAL SPACE HOSTILE
CONSTITUTIONAL lawyer Professor Muna Ndulo has cautioned that the current political environment in Zambia is not conducive to dialogue over the development of the country’s durable Constitution.
And Prof Ndulo has advised that there is need for those in government to understand constitutional concepts and principles such as the independence of the Judiciary, decentralisation, the rule of law, and indeed the doctrine of the separation of powers.
Prof. Ndulo, who is based in the United States of America says the political and economic atmosphere in Zambia is so hostile for the political leadership to engage in negotiations for consensus building in the constitution-making process.
In an interview, Prof Ndulo said the constitutions, which were inherited by former British colonies at independence were not fully democratic as they were negotiated settlements with Britain.
He said the issue of consulting stakeholders in the constitution-making process had remained one of the challenges in the development of a durable constitution. “The prevailing political atmosphere in Zambia is petty and focuses on personalised politics. It is amazing that even by so-called intellectuals in many ways are as petty and it is an indictment of the educational system,” Prof Ndulo said.
He said he was deeply concerned Zambia’s constitution-making process had been crowded by what he termed too many cooks in the kitchen claiming to be experts, stating that no one person had the monopoly of wisdom on everything. “We should look at processes which have succeeded such as Namibia, South Africa, and Kenya to inform our discussions. There is a need, as we go forward, to understand constitutional concepts such as the independence of the judiciary, decentralisation, rule of law, and separation of powers.
We require experience and comparative studies in terms of knowing what has been tried elsewhere and has not worked and learn from there,” Prof Ndulo said.
He explained that the British, Zambia’s former colonialist had imposed a presidential system of governance in Zambia yet the United Kingdom (UK) itself had maintained a parliamentary system of government.
Prof Ndulo said in historical context of Zambia’s constitution which was inherited from the British, it was not fully democratic and that was why it had been going through amendments but with little success of attaining a durable Constitution.
Prof. Ndulo observed that in the period between independence and the late 1980s, instead of democratising the independence constitutions, successive governments had been making amendments to the document which had concentrated power in the presidency.
He said the concentration of State power in the presidency had made the country’s constitution more undemocratic than it was at independence.
“In terms of the Zambian efforts, we have had many constitutional commissions such as the Chona, Mwanakatwe, Mung'omba, and Mvunga, among others.