from ARNOLD MULENGA in Lusaka, Zambia
Zambia Bureau
LUSAKA, (CAJ News) – AMID indications the country is headed for a disputed poll next year, the conduct of Zambia’s political rivals is akin to washing dirty linen in public.
This is a spectacular slump for a country that has a prestige of masterminding the independence of fellow nations in the continent, particularly the Southern African bloc, where it is located.
At a time, a matter is pending in South Africa over the burial of its (Zambia’s) ex-president, Zambia has plummeted into a prodigal country that lately cannot handle its affairs and increasingly desperate for neighbouring countries to help it resolve them.
Unable to keep its house in order, Zambia is an emerging headache for the region.
The elections that are less than a year away have exacerbated the internal rifts and self-humiliation as the countries seek pity from and intervention of regional and international bodies.
The ruling United Party for National Development (UPND), desperate to retain power gained in 2021, but losing popularity, and the Patriotic Front (PF), craving a return to government. but increasingly factionalised.
PF recently wrote to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to send a mission to Zambia to assess the situation ahead of the 2026 elections.
This is amid months of the former ruling party alleging a ploy by President Hakainde Hichilema to rig the elections.
PF reported this week that SADC had assented to its request and would send a team to probe the allegations.
No sooner had the opposition party disclosed it had lodged its complaints with SADC than the UPND confirmed it had in response written to SADC, the European Union and United States Embassy on a different political matter.
PF has recently also expressed its concerns to the US Embassy, alleging an erosion of democracy.
UPND’s issue is about the exiled former diplomat, Emmanuel Mwamba, a senior official of PF.
Branded a fugitive by the UPND-led government and said to be exiled in the US, he is formerly Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Ambassador to Ethiopia, Permanent Representative to the African Union and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
UPND stated it sought to clarify that Mwamba had fled his day in court.
“This is important as it will also create a basis for understanding fugitives like EM and the malicious publications aimed at tarnishing the image of Zambia, in a country which has seen a lot of restoration of the rule of law,” UPND stated.
Mwamba is among some administrators from the former government that have been arraigned in court over charges the opposition argues are trumped up.
Meanwhile there is an interesting twist to the opposition’s dragging SADC into Zambia’s domestic issues by PF.
Former Vice President, Nevers Mumba, accuses the PF misrepresenting facts on SADC acceding to an invite to assess the situation in Zambia.
Mumba is a divisive figure in Zambian and SADC politics.
He leads the smaller opposition, Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, accused by critics as a “stooge” of Hichilema and UPND.
In 2023, he was the head of the SADC Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM) for the Zimbabwe general elections.
The SEOM’s negative report on the conduct of the elections triggered a diplomatic war between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Mumba said SEAC was not coming to Zambia to PF’s letter to SADC but advised the opposition party to take advantage of the presence of SEAC in Zambia to air its grievances.
He accused the PF of distorting the responses of SADC for political purposes.
“SEAC visits every SADC country at least six months ahead of a general election. This is the standard procedure,” Mumba explained.
Organisations protesting against and those in solidarity with the government are planning events to be held at the State House this week.
Meanwhile, the government and the family of the late former president, Edgar Lungu, are deadlocked over his burial since his death in South Africa in June.
A decision by South African courts is pending, with the Lungu family eager to bury him outside Zambia (if Hichilema is to attend the funeral) and the government requesting the ex-president’s repatriation.
– CAJ News