AND behold, our Republican President Edgar Lungu has lived up to the promise he made early this year by giving Zambians a new Constitution through a referendum.
The President made his commitment on the referendum when he met 25 chiefs from Southern Province at State House when he assured the traditional leaders that he would support the decision taken by them regarding Article 296 in the Draft Constitution considering that the traditional leadership has raised concerns over the article.
Now Cabinet has approved the introduction of the Referendum (Amendment) Bill of 2015) in Parliament to amend the Referendum Act of 1967 to bring it in conformity with the Constitution on the eligibility criterion for voting in a national referendum.
With this radical move, we hope some quarters of society who have politicised the matter would now be calmed with the goodwill from the Government.
We say this considering the amendment, a historic event in the political history of this country since the Cabinet has also approved the introduction of a Bill to increase the number of elective parliamentary seats from 150 to 156.
We also hail the Government’s approval of the National Resettlement Policy to protect the resettlement schemes from illegal land allocation because it will lead to the creation of stable and sustainable human settlements which are economically productive and socially just.
The amendment could not have come at a better time considering the fact that Zambia is currently beset by incidents of illegal land allocation.
Also commendable is Cabinet’s approval of the revised National Disaster Management Policy, which seeks to introduce a paradigm shift from the hitherto reactive approach of disaster management to the emerging proactive approach of disaster risk reduction and climate change issues.
Lastly but not the least, Cabinet has also approved the contraction of an asset lease facility from Stanbic Bank Zambia Limited amounting to K175.310 million for the purchase of motor vehicles and other requisite equipment for Government institutions in order to ease their transportation and logistics challenges.
Unless opposition is about condemning anything that comes from the other side, we feel all parties interested in our country moving forward should hail the Government’s stance because it is a giant leap in democracy.
Referendum amendments are greatly resisted in many countries where democracy has not taken root.
Fortunately, President Lungu has scored a first by shaming the critics who thought his Government was dragging its feet on the matter.
This is a manifestation that the Patriotic Front (PF) Government attaches great importance to issues, like the referendum, which affect a large number of the citizenry.
The Government’s move can be likened to the referendum on ending apartheid which was held in South Africa on March 17 1992.
The referendum was limited to white voters who were asked whether or not they supported the negotiated reforms begun by then State President FW de Klerk two years earlier, in which he proposed to end the apartheid system that had been implemented since 1948.
The result of the election was a large victory for the ‘yes’ side, which ultimately resulted in apartheid being lifted.
On February 2, 1990, in his opening address to Parliament, Mr De Klerk announced that the ban on different political parties such as the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party would be lifted and that Nelson Mandela would be released after 27 years in prison.
Mr De Klerk announced that capital punishment would be suspended and that the state of emergency would be lifted. The State President said in his speech to Parliament that “the time to negotiate has arrived.”
Mr Mandela was released on February 11, 1990 from Victor Verster Prison in Paarl near Cape Town.
Zambians should now wait and see how the amendment will affect the governance of this country.  OPINION