Zambia’s democratic credentials in tatters

By NATION REPORTER

IT is a charade that Zambia should play host to the Summit for Democracy when the country’s detention centres are holding several political detainees while the affinity for breaching the rule of law by the UPND government is ever growing, Wright Musoma has said.

Mr Musoma, the leader of the Zambia Republican Party (ZRP) says the new dawn adminstration has been abrogating the rule of law and that people with divergent views are being harassed, arrested and detained on politically tramped-up charges.

Mr Musoma said it was ironical that the UPND government was talking about hosting the Summit for Democracy when political opponents were being harassed by state police for only expressing their views on the governance of the country.

“For me, it does not make sense that the country will be hosting the Summit for Democracy when opposition political leaders are being detained wantonly and harassed just because they have opposing views. Our democratic tenets are being eroded at the fastest rate ever by a government that has decided to abandon the rule of law in governing the country. Zambia is being governed at the whims of man and not according to the rule of law,” Mr Musoma said.

He said recently, a group of opposition political party leaders were arrested for trying to protest the recently signed Ndola-Lusaka dual carriageway which a number of Zambians have objected because they believe the deal is bad.

And Mr Musoma said that President Hichilema should consider cancelling the Ndola-dual carriageway deal because it was just a way the UPND was using to siphon money for its campaign for political longevity in power.

He said that it was shocking that government opted for NAPSA to fund the project which the contractor would use for 25 years to recoup their money.

Mr Musoma said he was sure that NAPSA could engage contractors like AVIC to build the road and be able to pay off with ease and not the current situation which was very hard to explain.

He said the deal was surrounded in so much complexity and that it was evident that there were some UPND members that wanted to benefit from the project.

Mr Musoma warned that the contract would be cancelled once the UPND left office because Zambians were not happy with the raw deal.