My first trip to Zambia was more than a decade ago when newspapers had the sort of budgets that allowed political reporters to chase news beyond borders.
I remember marvelling at Lusaka and its endless roundabouts, vibrancy and electric nightlife. But I was not there to write a travel piece. I was covering a summit of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) heads of state and government. The same summit President Cyril Ramaphosa is attending in Malawi.
The region was different back then. Thabo Mbeki was president of SA; Armando Guebuza ran Mozambique. Levy Mwanawasa, now late, was Zambian president and incoming chair of Sadc. His country was experiencing relatively good economic growth, having disentangled itself from the kleptocracy of Frederick Chiluba.
But the star of the show was one Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, whose land was in the midst of a devastating economic and governance collapse. He was responding to it in the worst way Mugabe knew how — clamping down on dissent, stealing elections, imprisoning opposition leaders and muzzling critical media.
The gathered international and local media were enthralled with Mugabe, studying his body language and interaction with his peers at the Mulungushi Conference Centre.
We were curious to find out if Southern African leaders would finally “grow a pair” and call him to order. Needless to say, all we got from the regional body was another flat statement expressing “concern for the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe, urging dialogue to resolve the crisis ... blah blah blah”.
Of course we all know how Mugabe eventually left, deposed in a coup by his own army and Zanu-PF comrades, who had had enough of his madness; though if you ask Zimbabweans they’ll tell you the madness hasn’t ended.
Zambia can teach us here at home – and the rest of the continent – a thing or two about owning democracy.
Zambians on the other hand don’t have time to waste on wannabe autocrats. Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema stunned us all with a landslide victory over incumbent Edgar Lungu, with a one million vote gap. An absolute drubbing.
Hichilema, a wealthy businessman, who was trying his luck for the sixth time, was carried to state house by a wave of youth support.
Zambia is in the midst of an economic crisis. It defaulted on repaying more than R500m in interest on an external bond, and debt has ballooned to 110% of GDP. The country owes everyone from the Europeans to the Chinese.
The youth — largely unemployed and angry — have shown the ruling Patriotic Front the middle finger. Lungu was already displaying worrying signs, having grown drunk on power. He tried and failed to pass a controversial constitutional amendment, the provisions of which included reducing the power of the national assembly to impeach the president. His administration also faced numerous allegations of corruption involving millions of dollars.
Realising that the numbers were not looking good, his mandarins pulled a ghastly trick out of the classic autocrat playbook by attempting to block the internet during the polls. However, activists took them to court and won.
Zambia can teach us here at home — and the rest of the continent — a thing or two about owning democracy. We continuously vote the ANC back into power and when it inevitably lets us down, we take to the streets to protest lack of service delivery or moan endlessly on social media. How many times does the ANC have to show us that it is incapable of governing before we use the power of our vote to boot it out once and for all?
I’ll admit that the alternatives are dire; the opposition is largely weak and prone to scoring own goals. But the days when opposition parties are sole custodians of your vote will soon be past. Local government elections have always made provision for half the councillors to be elected directly by their constituencies. At the next local polls get involved, identify an independent who best suits your values, who’ll best deliver for your area/community and vote that person into council, not a political party.
Amendments to the electoral law will soon extend this provision to national and provincial elections. If opposition parties depress you, run for office or use that law to directly elect your chosen representative to parliament. We cannot be beholden to party politicians for the rest of our lives; we must take our future back from them.
The people of Zambia have voted for change. If Hichilema fails them they will make him a one-term president, guaranteed.
Someone posted the following response to a tweet I put out on Monday congratulating Zambians for using the vote to punish politicians gone rogue. “Time people woke up to the fact that elections aren’t something that happens to voters. Elections are something that happens to politicians.”
I couldn’t have put it better.
