By Daily Revelation
Anyone can clearly see an invisible hand in that nonsensical memo from the Chief Registrar Thandiwe Mhende that she did not act on her own volition.
It’s just painful to see those in state institutions laundering themselves to carry out such divisive, silly and undemocratic machinations. More painful is witnessing a complete deterioration in the operations of such institutions when the nation should now be discussing in unison, strengthening the effectiveness of state institutions. However, we keep going round the same circles, where state institutions serve at the mercy of the powerful instead of discharging the noble roles they were established for.
In a notice to political parties dated October 10, 2023, the chief registrar of societies Thandiwe Mhende used Article 60 (2) of the Constitution of Zambia No. 2 of 2016 of the Laws of Zambia to remind political parties about some important provisions they need to adhere to, including promoting the values and principles in the Constitution, have a national character, promote and practice democracy through regular free and fair elections within the party, respect the right of its members to participate in the affairs of the political party, respect the right of its members to seek redress from a court or tribunal when aggrieved by a decision of the political party, and subscribe to and observe the code of conduct for political parties, as prescribed.
Thandiwe’s memo would have made sense if it ended there, maybe with a strong caution for political parties to adhere and work towards abiding with the same provisions.
However, the nonsense is in the subsequent arguments where Thandiwe argued that to ensure that political parties were in line with the Constitutional provision, they should proceed to hold meetings and conventions as well as intra-party elections within 60 days from the date of the publication of the memo to elect and replace office bearers and members of the party leadership to fill up existing vacancies.
Wonders indeed shall never end, sometimes even making certain decisions to try to appear relevant to the powers that be, it is important to reserve some little room for common sense.
The importance of conventions in political parties of course cannot be overstated, they are important for the same provision the article was introduced in the Constitution. We have no problem with all those provisions in that article.
However, we have a problem with the motivation from Mhende. We feel the motivation is not really driven by the need to promote those important clauses. There is an ulterior motivation behind this move hatched by some invisible hand.
Anyone who lives in a country called Zambia knows that the talk about Edgar Lungu running or not running for office has especially in the recent past dominated political talk. Everybody knows also that Edgar has given strong hints to run for the presidency again and his loyalists have deliberately made maneuvers in PF to try to ensure that the presidential position is kept vacant so that he can simply come back in and fill it up. But we do not think that the Registrar of Societies should become a party in PF internal squabbling.
Thandiwe seems to have been used to take that position in order to force out where Lungu stands as far as his political ambitions are concerned so that the ruling party can then prepare on how to tackle him, or anyone that would be elected to take over from him at the PF conference. They want to be clear on who they should be dealing with.
We have said we wonder if Thandiwe applied any common sense, in fact only little is needed in this matter, when she chose to come up with a position she came up with. How does she for instance expect political parties, especially those without the financial muscle to conduct intra party elections in all the 10 provinces plus the general conference in two months? Such a task is even more difficult for instance for already established parties with the resources, just on the mobilization side alone.
Holding these elections is not just about turning up to hold them, they require resources. They require candidates to canvass for support to their members. They require preparation of campaign materials, fuel, and accommodation etcetera. So Thandiwe wants them to hold elections just to make a name that they have held elections just because some position has been filled up by a human being without following all the tenets necessary for a democratic enhancement?
We are not sure if Thandiwe has also prepared the resources for these political parties to hold elections in two months, given her warning that failure to abide by these directives shall result into serious sanctions as provided for under the Societies Act Cap 119 of the Laws of Zambia.
Is this the democracy the UPND campaigned for so strongly and is trying to implement in this country? Is Thandiwe’s conduct what they meant by promising to strengthen state institutions in the country? If so then we are in serious trouble as a country.
The conduct of these state institutions surely leaves much to be desired. There is simply no country on earth that could hope to make progress with state institutions that operate in the same manner those in Zambia do. Such state institutions cannot serve as an effective oversight on the powerful, cannot protect and enhance democracy and cannot promote good governance in this country.
No wonder this country keeps going in circles, election cycle upon election cycle, and it seems the main beneficiaries, those in power, simply enjoy it for state institutions to operate in this manner because it serves their interests, despite their many protestations outside power. The PF today is complaining about the operations of people like Thandiwe when they could have used their 10 years in power to strengthen the office she occupies, so that it doesn’t serve political ends of those in power.
Truly, Thandiwe’s conduct and those of her colleagues heading other state institutions leaves much to be desired. We just hope those in UPND can open their eyes to do something now to strengthen such offices to avoid being the subject of such abuses when their time in power is over.
