ZAMBIA: A Pastoral Statement of the Catholic Bishops

ACT
JUSTLY AND WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD

A
Pastoral Statement

To the Catholic faithful and all people of
goodwill.

Grace, mercy and peace, from God our
Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

“This
is what Yahweh asks of you, only this: to act justly, to love tenderly, and to
walk humbly with your God.”  (Micah
6:8)

On the occasion of our January 2013
Plenary, we want to take this opportunity to raise pertinent issues on the
state of our nation.

1.0 Introduction

As pastors and shepherds that serve among
you, we share not only in your joys and hopes but also in your daily struggles,
sorrows and anxieties. In Zambia today, we all have a lot to thank God for,
both as individuals and as a nation. Apart from the relative peace in our
country, we can attest to God’s goodness through the gift of life, the
fellowship of our families, communities and friends as well as the endowment of
abundant natural resources upon which our livelihoods depend. We all are
beneficiaries of God’s kindness. 

In return, we must remember and be mindful
that God calls upon each one of us as individuals and institutions to be
instruments of his love, justice, mercy, truth and peace. This is what it means
“to walk humbly with your God”. The question
then is to what extent have we been faithful to this mission, as a nation? 

2.0
Prevailing political environment

It was certainly not by mistake that
Zambians reverted to multiparty politics in 1991. Zambians wanted to restore to
themselves liberties that had been grossly eroded during the one party era.
Unfortunately, looking at what is happening around us, it would seem to us,
that the ideals of a politically plural society have not been fully understood
and appreciated by those that aspire for political leadership in our successive
Governments. This can be seen by the high levels of political intolerance that
continue to characterise our political environment, especially in intra-party and
inter-party relationships. Squabbling for hegemony within and across political
parties has taken centre stage. All of this is at the expense of working for
the wellbeing and making better the lives of ordinary Zambian citizens.  Again and again, we see this intolerance
manifested through repeated acts of violence and lack of harmony between and
within political parties.

We appeal to our leaders across the
political spectrum to demonstrate maturity, dignity and magnanimity in the way
they exercise their leadership and in the manner they relate to each other. Their
focus should be on promoting the common good and especially uplifting the lives
of the weak in our society.

3.0By-Elections

Another phenomenon that we have observed,
with great concern, is the rate at which by-elections in our country are
occurring. We acknowledge that the Zambian laws provide for the holding of by-elections
to fill elective political positions that become vacant. Whereas this provision
had good intentions of dealing with a leadership vacuum, it has at the same
time led to great abuse. Much as we acknowledge that there are by-elections occasioned
by deaths of office holders, we are also increasingly seeing more and more by-lections
motivated by greed, individual interests and a selfish propensity for political
dominance. This is being done without care, serious prior consideration of the
views of the electorate and sensitivity to the colossal amounts of money these by-elections
are imposing on our economy.

We call upon our leaders to prudently exercise
the power that the Zambian people have entrusted in them. Many of our
hospitals, schools and other service centres cannot offer quality services due
to inadequate funding. This is because they are subordinated to wrong
priorities. We hope that the new constitution, which is in the making, will
provide for mechanisms that will control the occurrence of unnecessary by-elections.

4.0 Lack
of political integrity among our leadership.

Another concern that we note in our
political dispensation is the clear lack of political integrity among our
leaders. Many of our leaders seem to find it easy to change positions on
policies solely for personal gain, expediency or convenience. We have seen
leaders subscribe to particular principled positions when in opposition only to
repudiate those very positions when accorded the instruments of power. It is
such behaviour that gives our politics a bad name.

We appeal to the conscience of each of our
politicians and call for a new era of good political leaders, who are
consistent to their avowed principles, truthful and committed to the wellbeing
of the public.

We are concerned about the manner in which
the Public Order Act is being applied. While we commend the police for efforts
they are making in combating crime, ensuring law and order, their enforcement
of the Public Order Act leaves much to be desired.

For whatever reasons, we have observed
over the years that each ruling party seems to have unlimited freedom to
conduct public activities of any type on any day and at any time while
opposition political parties and some civil society bodies are literally discriminated
against whenever they try to conduct public activities. Legitimate questions
are being raised about the level of professionalism in our Zambia Police Service.
We believe in the principle of equality before the law.  Maintenance of ‘law’ and ‘order’ cannot only
mean preventing opposition political parties from exercising their basic right
to freedom of assembly.  The unfair
restriction of people’s liberties is breeding dangerous discontent.

We call upon the Government to embrace the
spirit and letter of democracy before the nation is plunged into chaos. The
Public Order Act, in its current form, has no place in our statutes. It is both
repressive and anachronistic. It needs to be repealed.

6.0 The
Barotseland Situation

We are aware of a climate of intimidation
and serious human rights violations currently prevailing in the Western
Province: abductions of citizens; arbitrary arrests and individuals being
subjected to long periods of interrogations, even torture. These acts are
totally unacceptable. They must stop forthwith. This country is not in a state
of emergency. We are not convinced that a de
facto state of emergency should therefore exist in the Western Province.

We reiterate the call we made in our
Pastoral Statement (That they may have
abundant life, 29 January 2012) for the current administration to work with
all stakeholders towards creating a more conducive environment that would lead
to the amicable resolution of all matters surrounding the Barotseland
situation.

We further urge all our leaders to especially
avoid making unsubstantiated alarming statements and threats as these only serve
to block opportunities for dialogue.

7.0 Human
Rights

The Constitution of Zambia guarantees all
people in the country fundamental human rights and freedoms among which are the
right to life, freedom of expression, freedom to association, movement and
conscience. The Government has therefore an inescapable obligation to promote
and respect the human rights of citizens. This obligation also extends to citizens
to respect each other’s rights.

Despite having instruments and
institutions designed to promote and protect human rights, the human rights
situation in Zambia is deteriorating in a manner that is causing worry.  Examples include the arbitrary use of power
by Government officials; intimidation and threats of arrest against leaders and
individuals who speak against Government; deportations and even threats to our
own Catholic priests for sermons seen as critical of Government.  

We demand of Government to respect and
promote human rights.

8.0 The
Judiciary

For some time now, there has been persistent
discourse on the state of the judiciary in Zambia with respect to its
independence and impartiality. This situation has undermined public confidence
in this institution. There is need to restore confidence in this important arm
of Government. There are also many unresolved questions of public interest that
have been left hanging and unanswered by the Executive. For example, when shall
we see progress on the much talked about reforms in the judicial system? What
is the current status of the Judge Chikopa Tribunal that was appointed last
year? Why do we still have an acting Chief Justice and Deputy Chief
Justice?  When are these structural
issues going to be resolved?

These and other questions need answers
from the Executive because the nation deserves to be informed to avoid
unhealthy speculation and rumours.

9.0 The
Constitution making process

Up to now a people driven democratic
constitution continues to elude us as a nation. This is in spite of colossal
amounts of money and time that have been gobbled and wasted on this exercise.
The Patriotic Front (PF), in their pre-September 2011 election campaigns
promised the Zambian people a new constitution within ninety days of their
accession to power.  Today, sixteen
months down the line, little progress, if any, seems to have been made on the
constitution. There are public misgivings on the current constitution-making process,
in part, due to the following reasons:

a)     The
refusal of the current administration to give the constitution-making process a
legal framework that would protect the process and the content;

b)     The
uncertainty and lack of a roadmap and a predictable timeline on the process has
also led to doubts about the sincerity of Government on the constitution. From
the time that the Technical Committee started work on the constitution, several
deadlines for completion of the process have been promised and missed. Currently
we have a new deadline of 30 June 2013. We hope that
this new milestone will be upheld and honoured;

c)      The
non-publication of the projected budget for the entire constitution making
process: This state of affairs is unacceptable because it goes against the need
for Government’s accountability on expenditure. Government needs to exhibit transparency
in this matter;

d)     Uncertainty on the referendum question: The people of Zambia deserve
better.  We need a categorical assurance
of a Referendum by the Executive because that is what the Zambian people want
and this is what they were promised by the current administration.

10.0 The
need for more consultation

In the recent past, we have seen unprecedented
Government decisions and actions being made by way of decrees.

a)     This has
especially been the case when Government has announced the creation of new political
boundaries and governance structures. We appreciate the noble objectives behind
these decisions, namely, to enhance participation in the governance system and
make services more easily accessible to citizens. However, though the
constitution gives powers to the Republican President to make decisions even by
decree, it is desirable and sometimes necessary to consult, as this facilitates
prior understanding and appreciation of issues and guarantees success at
implementation stage.

b)     Another
case of the absence of consultation is in the areas of education. The
Government–Church relationship in the education sector is governed by the
Education Act. As major stakeholders, in the education sector, we are dismayed
by the growing tendency for unilateral pronouncements, circulars and directives
coming from Government functionaries. Some of these directives have
far-reaching consequences in the manner we run our schools and sometimes border
on matters of policy. Government would do well to consult with key local
partners and stakeholders on such matters e.g. issues to do with school fees in
our schools.

c)      In the
area of health, the Catholic Church’s relationship with the Government is
governed by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). It is disheartening to see
major decisions such as the realigning of our medical institutions to new Government
ministries taken without due consultation.

It is our fervent hope that the Government
will do some objective and serious introspection in this area and act to carry
everyone along when important decisions are being made.

We take note of the call by Government
through the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA)
for all mobile phone users in Zambia to register their SIM cards with service
providers or risk having them deactivated. According to ZICTA, the move is
meant to deter criminality in Zambia and would be in accordance with the
Information Communication Technologies (ICT) Act No 15 of 2009 and the
Statutory Instrument on the Registration of Electronic Communication Apparatus
No. 65 of 2011.

While the intention to deter criminality
and control abuse of communication technologies is noble, we call upon the
Zambian Government to put in place legal guarantees for the protection of
personal data and privacy.

12.0
Conclusion