By Mwansa Kaumba
Former Finance deputy minister Jonas Shakafuswa has posted a story where former justice minister Wynter Kabimba warned that some of the mistakes and tendencies that led to the collapse of former ruling PF are beginning to emerge in the ruling UPND, over the push by the UPND and its surrogates to remove term limits from the constitution.
In his own writeup where he posted Kabimba’s article, Shakafuswa stated that school taught about doing things within a given timeframe. He stated that people were trained to work within a term limit, as “repeat” showed lack of adequate preparation.
”You can’t time a constitution to an individual. If a leader fails the time limited for his leadership. That leader is a failure. Constitution cannot be seen to allow failure. A good political leader works within a Party frame of intentions to uplift the people. This is well known when a political party is being formed. It’s leadership has to put together a manifesto which works within time limit,” Shakafuswa stated. “This is and should not be owned by one person. If a leader personalise leadership, then he is a bad leader. Leadership should be collective responsibility which in the absence of one person, someone should definitely emerge to carry the touch. If a political Party hasn’t such quality. They should be voted out for lack of leadership.”
Shakafuswa stated that “you can’t spend five year(s) fending off opposition instead of delivering.”
”Only to realise you have wasted valuable time. Going by how competitive the last elections were, continuity should be a preserve of the people themselves. Zambia is not short of leadership,” Shakafuswa stated. “Dictators will use armed forces to suppress people’s will of change of leadership. So you end up with infinite leadership of an imposed authority. That should not be tolerated at any time. Imposing oneself on the people using force to gain and maintain power is unconstitutional. It is treason.”
Shakafuswa then posted a story quoting former justice minister Kabimba warning that some of the mistakes and tendencies that led to the collapse of PF were beginning to emerge in the ruling UPND.
Kabimba was being quoted as saying so “in direct reference to growing push by the UPND and its surrogates to amend the constitution to allow President Hakainde Hichilema contest the 2031 general election”.
Kabimba is said to have warned that leaders who have insisted on remaining in power for a long time have ended up badly.
Kabimba said removing term limits would be a bad idea, citing former president Frederick Chiluba was pushed to extend his stay in office to create a strong veil that allowed his corrupt practices to thrive.
Speaking on WMK Insights, Kabimba is quoted as having said he was surprised that the UPND that opposed the removal of the term limits when they suspected that Edgar Lungu wanted to change the constitution to extend his rule were turning around and want President Hichilema to rule beyond his mandatory two terms limit.
“History has taught us that the longer somebody stays in power, the more they become abusive of power. So, people that have insisted on remaining in power for a long time have ended up badly because of the temptation of power,” Kabimba is quoted as having said. “President HH is a human being of flesh and blood, and this debate should not be about HH. HH maybe a good man, the next man might be a Rascal, and we have seen this before. Can you imagine if they [bad leader] had continued in power, they would have run this country to the ground under the pretext that the Constitution says that ‘I can continue governing.”
He continued: “If UPND does its job properly, if they can avoid the mistakes, the tendencies that led to the collapse of PF, some of which are beginning to emerge in UPND today; if they can avoid those, they can win the next election. Immediately you start tying power to an individual, then you’re headed for trouble; then you’re headed for calamity. Power should not be tied to an individual; power should be tied to institutions.”
