By
Paul Shalala
Zambia’s latest draft constitution has
guaranteed freedom of worship and also maintained the 16 year old declaration
of the southern African country as a Christian nation.
According to Part five of the draft
constitution which was released to the public in May 2012 for public scrutiny,
all Zambians have a right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief
and opinion.
This means that Zambians will continue to
enjoy their freedom to practice any religion of their choice without state
control.
This proposed legislation means that that
the country does not recognize any single Christian church but citizens can
choose their own denomination.
If passed, the draft constitution also seeks
to allow religious institutions to establish, maintain and operate education
facilities in order to help the already struggling Ministry of Education which
is at the moment failing to maintain its schools spread across the country.
At the moment, Zambia has hundreds of
churches spread across the country and some years ago they had increased in
number to an extent where the government threatened to stop registering new
ones due to a perception that some clergy were personalizing and
commercializing evangelism.
Meanwhile, the draft constitution has also
maintained a clause which proclaims Zambia as a Christian nation.
In its preamble, the draft constitution
states: “We the people of Zambia in
exercise of our constituent power, acknowledge the supremacy of God Almighty,
declare the republic a Christian nation but uphold the right of every person to
enjoy that person’s freedom of conscience or religion.”
If this preamble will be adopted, Zambia
will continue observing Christianity as its official religion and also allowing
other religions to continue operating in the country.
Since 1964 when Zambia gained its independence
from its colonial master Britain, the country was officially a secular state
until 1996 when late President Frederick Chiluba amended the constitution and
declared it a Christian nation.
Despite the declaration, other religions
such as Judaism, Islam and Hinduism have continued to grow with the Muslims
building more mosques around the country.
The country has powerful church mother
bodies which are very vocal on many religious and governance issues. These religious
bodies such as the Council of churches in Zambia, the Evangelical Fellowship of
Zambian and the Zambia Episcopal Conference, usually influence public policy
and have a large say in many legal and social issues through the issuance of
periodic pastoral letters which guide their followers on various issues.
During last year’s general elections, the
declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation was a huge campaign issue which saw
some politicians accusing each other of planning to scrap off the Christian
nation clause from the constitution once they win.
Newly elected President Michael Sata, who
is a devout Catholic, has on several occasions emphasised that he would govern
the country on the Ten Commandments as contained in the Christian Bible.
He has further told the nation that being a
Christian nation is not enough but should be coupled with the observance of the
Ten Commandments.
With the release of the draft constitution,
Zambians now have 40 days in which to read and submit comments on the draft
constitution.
Thereafter, a Technical Committee appointed
by President Michael Sata is expected to produce the final constitution in
September this year before the document is subjected to a referendum and later
enacted into law by Parliament.
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