By Angela Moonga
The Oasis Forum has rejected Bill 7 which it says is being legitimised using the Technical Committee appointed to consult the people and draft amendments to the Constitution.
This entails that they are not among the stakeholders to make submissions to the Technical Committee on drafting the Zambian Constitution which opened public sittings yesterday at the Mulungushi International Conference Center (MICC) in Lusaka.
And the forum says it will formally be writing to President Hakainde Hichilema an open letter urging him to provide leadership and halt the process.
Meanwhile, the Oasis Forum says in an effort to build momentum against the current reform by the UPND government, it has launched the “Coalition Against Bill 7” which initially launched on June 16, 2025 aimed at highlighting the dangers and oppose the current narrow, non inclusive and election centred reform process being undertaken by the government.
The Oasis Forum consists of the Council of Churches in Zambia ( CCZ), the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) Non-Governmental Gender Organizations Coordinating Council (NGOCC) and the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB).
In a statement after a meeting held at NGOCC on Monday, the Oasis Forum stated that it had resolved not to participate in making submissions to the Technical Committee constituted by the government to legitimize Bill 7.
The forum stated that participating in this rigged process, which was a sham and contemptuous, only served to sanitize a process whose result would not be inclusive, not holistic and not serve the interests of citizens.
It stated that it had also resolved to petition the Constitutional Court to declare the process a nullity and contemptuous, for failing to comply with its earlier pronouncements as well as unconstitutional for violating the same provisions found mandatory in the earlier case.
The forum also staged that apart from writing an open letter urging the President to provide leadership and halt this process, it would also initiate Black Friday Campaign:
According to the Oasis Forum, it will undertake a nationwide campaign encouraging the wearing of a black ribbon, placing Black Car Disks to signify mourning for constitutional integrity.
” Every Friday, we shall undertake a “Honking Campaign” – coordinated car honking from 15:00 to 17: 00 hours, countrywide to protest this unwarranted interference with the supreme law of our land,” the forum stated. “We shall write to each and every member of Parliament to remind them of their constitutional duty to protect national interest and public will and urge them not to support any amendment Bill that undermines constitutional principles.”
The Forum stated that it will also write to the Inspector General of Police notifying him of the plan to conduct a march past against Bill 7, on Independence Avenue, from Freedom Statue to State House, on Friday, November 28, 2025.
The Oasis Forum has since called on civil society organisations, traditional leaders, faith-based organisations and all well-meaning citizens to join the crusade against Bill 7
The forum also noted that the members of the Technical Committee were appointed in their individual capacities and appointed without any consultations with stakeholders, hence were not accountable to any other person serve the appointing authority who is the President.
It also expressed concern with the lack of legal framework governing the work of the Technical Committee.
The Oasis Forum stated that the absence of a governing framework to assure functional autonomy and credibility of the process, which ultimately protected content, a process that should be citizen-driven was exposed to undue executive influence.
It has also stated that the road map given to the technical committee clearly showed that this was a rushed process to make electoral related amendments to the Constitution and not a holistic reform of the supreme law of the land, which must include an expanded bill of rights, for the benefit of citizens.
“The entire process is about Bill 7, whose initiation was already declared Unconstitutional hence a nullity: From the terms of reference given and accepted by the Technical Committee, it is clear that the current process is aimed at legitimizing resurrecting an illegitimate process which the Constitutional Court has categorically declared a nullity for breaching various provisions of the Constitution,” read the statement in part. “The terms of reference unfairly restrict members of the public to issues which have been unilaterally drawn up by the UPND Government and not what the public consider pertinent and for their benefit.”
It stated that the result of the process would not be a constitution to benefit the public who had no input in isolating issues they consider important, but for the UPND who drew up the terms.
The Oasis Forum observed that incredibly, Bill 7 continued to remain on the floor of the National Assembly without being withdrawn and how what the Technical Committee would also draft will also be Bill 7 remained mind boggling.
It noted that the government had refused to formally withdraw Bill 7 from the floor of the National Assembly, a situation it described as regrettable breakdown of the Rule of Law, saying the executive was clearly failing or refusing to give effect to the orders of the Constitutional Court in Munir Zulu and Celestine Mukandila vs Attorney General (2025/CCZ/009), which declared the initiation of Bill No. 7 of 2025 unconstitutional and therefore a nullity.
‘Having declared initiation process a nullity, the reform process is required to “start afresh” before a neutral body and “not continue Bill 7 under a technical committee”. Despite being fully aware of these and many other concerns with the current Constitutional reform process, the government has conveniently decided to ignore these concerns,” the Oasis Forum stated.
“In the circumstances, as Oasis Forum, we re-echo our opposition of Bill 7 being legitimized using the Technical Committee appointed to consult the people and draft amendments to the constitution,” the Oasis Forum stated.
