Zambia’s Democratic Space Shrinking, claim more

By Kalata News,

 

Lusaka: THE Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) has become the latest grouping to warn of diminishing freedoms in Zambia.

Last month, about 16 civil society organisations (CSOs) issued a statement lamenting what they called shrinking democratic space.

Read by Linda Kasonde of Chapter One Foundation, the CSO at a press conference said in their statement that, “recently, we have observed worrying trends with the failure by public authorities to protect the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, which are the bedrock of our democracy,” the statement read.

The statement adds that in June this year, the state-owned Zambia Daily Mail fired a photojournalist for photographing people queuing up for maize meal, which is used to prepare the country’s staple food, nshima.

The statement also lists the cautioning of a privately owned radio station after it hosted Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa, a critical Zambian academic.

“These incidents show a growing intolerance for dissent and have the potential to plunge the country into the abyss of demagoguery and political repression by the government,” the statement adds.

The Catholic Bishops in their pastoral letter signed by all the 12 Bishops of Zambia, noted a disconnect between policies intended to remove rigidity and bottlenecks in service delivery and their implementations.

They said the work culture being exhibited by some public officials in their service delivery leaves much to be desired. There are some public officers who when engaged have no courtesy to either acknowledge or respond. They respond only with recourse made to the highest office.

On Democracy in Zambia, the Bishops noted the shrinking of democratic space.

They stated, “Human rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are arbitrarily being trampled on especially against those considered to hold dissenting political views or persons belonging to opposition political parties. Intimidation of media houses by state institutions, based on the guests they invite, and the content discussed on their platforms, curtails both media freedom and free speech. This practice also sends an indirect message to media houses to stay away from discussing uncomfortable but very important topics of public interest and to shun or marginalise certain voices whose views may be deemed as unfavourable to those in authority.”

The Bishops also observed that the right to peaceful assembly was a fundamental liberty that sustains the activities of political parties and civil society groups in constitutional democracies.

“On several occasions, however, the police have denied opposition parties the opportunity to exercise this crucial right on the grounds of lack of adequate manpower and unspecified security concerns,” they stated.

They said it has become a tradition for the police to arrest members of the opposition in a violent manner, keep them in detention longer than necessary, and never take their cases to court, long after being finally released on bond.

The Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) President Lungisani Zulu also noted this arbitrary arrest of members of the opposition parties by the Zambia Police, their long detention in police cells without taking them before the courts.

LAZ noted a trend that opposition political party leaders once arrested are denied bail and more often are just kept in cells and their cases never see the light of day, a behaviour they note is only aimed at intimidating the opposition leaders.

The Government, through the Chief Government Spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa said they would not be responding in public to the Catholic Bishops (and CSOs) but would instead call them for a meeting so they could have dialogue.