The Republican Progressive Party (RPP) is fully committed to playing an active role in the ongoing constitutional amendment process. We commend President Hichilema for his leadership in setting the tone for this important national undertaking. His foresight and commitment to constitutional reform establish the groundwork for a more inclusive, transparent, and people-centered legal framework.

As a party, we pledge to engage constructively in the process and ensure that the voices of all Zambians are heard. We recognize the importance of a constitution that reflects the aspirations of the people and supports the growth and stability of Zambia. Our commitment includes contributing to the amendment of provisions that have historically hindered progress, ensuring that the new constitution promotes justice, equity, and sustainable development for all citizens.
The RPP firmly believes that by participating in this process, we can help shape a constitutional framework that will foster long-term peace, democratic governance, and a more equitable society.

While we applaud President Hichilema’s efforts in appointing more women to key positions, such as 42 out of 81 judges, the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Minister of Justice, and other significant roles through the utilization of Section 259 of the Constitution, we believe there is a need to enshrine gender equality into the constitution. The president has shown goodwill in these appointments, but future administrations may not maintain this level of commitment. For this reason, it is essential to ensure that provisions for the appointment of women to positions of authority are enshrined in the Constitution, securing a lasting framework for equal representation in Zambia’s governance structures.

Lesli Chikuse

In our last epistle, we promised to tackle a matter which is closer to our hearts this week – STREET KIDS!

For those of you who are fond of posting comments, for the sake of it, without bothering to dissect, chew and digest the contents contained therein, we’d implore you to think twice…..this is a delicate and emotive issue.

The police in Lusaka have arrested 47 junkies in Kamwala South….then what next? Are they going to send them to jail? Of course, not! What charges are they likely to be slapped with? Most likely ‘shishita’ (idle standing). Before long, they’d have gone back to their vomit in our communities!

But who are these junkies and where do they come from?

Junkies do not just pop up from the blues in our localities like mushrooms! They come from dysfunctional or broken homes and, of course the streets!

When children arrive on our streets in their droves and earn themselves the nomenclature, STREET KIDS….they mainly eke a living doing odd jobs and asking for alms from the Good Samaritans; and when we refuse to give them anything, they resort to eating from the rubbish bins.

Have you ever bothered to investigate why they’re always ‘glued’ to those small bottles before condemning them?

There are mainly two reasons that make them eventually succumb to the temptation of genkem: 1. Like every human being, they are obviously ashamed to find themselves living a life of shame on the streets. For them to muster some ‘Dutch courage’ or indeed escape from the hell-hole they find themselves in, they seek solace in genkem 2. Most of us can imagine the pain of enduring cold nights in the open air on a hard floor. Genkem is the ‘blanket’ that keeps them warm at night and enable them insulated from the mosquitoes.

Once the street kids transition into adolescence, they obviously become ashamed to continue life on the streets.

What happens next?

They start retreating back to their communities, mainly seeking shelter in the uncompleted shelters. In the fullness of time, they team up with their peers who are equally running away from home due to abuse at the hands of cruel relatives or lack of basic needs. Henceforth, they become like OWLS. During the day, they’ll go into hibernation……mainly keeping themselves busy consuming copious amounts of highly potent alcoholic beverages and smoking marijuana.

By the time night replaces the day, they literally take over the alleys and the streets, lying in wait for their prey. Those kids can be quite something else; if anyone makes a mistake of coming into close proximity with them, they’ll charge on you like hungry wild dogs and dispossess you of all your earthly possessions – phones, money, wrist watches, clothes and shoes! And if you dare pretend to be Rambo and try to fight back….oh boy, oh boy, you’d have booked yourself a ward at the University Teaching Hospital or space at Chingwere cemetery!

For those of you who may not be in the loop; for several years, we had been calling upon successive governments to consider calling for a National Indaba on Street Kids so as to bring all stakeholders on board (the Church, traditionalists, NGOs, political players, corporate world and the donor community) to thoroughly interrogate the problem and identify possible solutions! Alas all our pleas landed on deaf ears!

However, immediately the UNPD formed government and we repeated our calls; government wasted no time acquiescing to our request. It actually had to take us to endure a punishing 365KM marathon walk from Kitwe to Lusaka for us to be heard.

The Ministry of Community Development & Social Welfare finally organised a symposium at the Mulungushi Conference Centre and all who mattered attended. As usual, speeches were made, plenary sessions were held and resolutions were made. What happened up to the resolutions is a matter of guess work as the plight of street kids remains the same!

As we conclude, we would like to appeal to the New Dawn Administration, particularly the responsible ministry to revisit the plight of street kids. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel; the resolutions are already sitting in one of the offces gathering dust.

As for the junkies, this requires a radical approach! Can we take this matter to parliament so that we can come up with the necessary legislative framework which will compel all the junkies to be rounded up and whisked away to the State farms under the auspices of ZNS for them to get ‘cleaned’ as they utilise their energy helping improve the national food security by growing winter maize, beans, onions and raising goats for export to Congo DR and the Arab world, respectively! Why should we always rely on Copper which is a diminishing asset to generate foreign exchange? Don’t even allow the donor community to lecture us about human rights; a good number of our people in the shanties are getting killed and injured by the junkies! Donald Trump has already set the tone by ejecting unwanted people from the land of opportunities!

Until next time. Shalom!

Prince Bill M Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst

There’s a voice note of Seer 1 currently trending on social media in which he observes that it will be a landslide victory for President Hichilema whereas it will be an uphill battle for most of his Members of Parliament (MP), including some of his cabinet ministers.

You don’t have to cry into a crystal ball or indeed consult a Sangoma crouched in a cave in the mountains to steal a sneak peek of what to expect in 2026!

First and foremost, a few challenges not withstanding here and there, this particular President has delivered to the best of his abilities: there’s jobs galore in the civil service – thousands of youths are being employed as teachers, health workers, police, military and security personnel; thanks to the enhanced CDF – schools, health facilities, bridges and feeder roads are being constructed everywhere; the plight of vulnerable people is being mitigated through the social cash transfer and cash for work whereas university and college students are enjoying bursaries and meal allowances. Caderism which was a nightmare for many of us has since been nipped in the bud while the precarious Lusaka/Ndola road is now being upgraded to a dual carriageway, not forgetting free education that has seen a record number of pupils being enrolled in schools, the list is of course endless. Secondly, there’s no formidable opposition to speak of that can easily eject Hichilema from power!

But lo and behold, most of his MPs, particularly those that have overstayed in the August house face a Herculean task of making it back. Seer 1 has made things easy for us by clearly spelling out reasons as to why this may be the case. Some of these cabinet ministers and MPs have neglected going back to their constituencies, worse still picking up phone calls in the mistaken belief CDF has already campaigned for them. This is wrong bwana, the credit on this goes to the President. We saw this happen to Mwanawasa; he won a second term but most of his MPs lost lamentably. At times, the masses just desire the presence of their representatives to share their concerns and grievances and not your ‘tuma change!’

Seer 1 speculates that part of the Plan B is to move a motion on the floor of the house to impeach the President in case Tonse amass enough numbers in Parliament. We’ve every reason to believe the veracity of this. Tonse will be more than happy to see the President expressly stripped of his immunity, even on flimsy grounds and send him to Mukobeko Maximum Prison in a van littered with human waste on bogus charges!

The President is better advised not to leave anything to chance. He must not delegate the responsibility of adopting aspiring MPs to anyone, but take it upon himself to identify saleable candidates! We are privy to disturbing reports that some party officials are seeing this as a golden opportunity to sale adoptions to the highest bidders…..opportunists who do not stand any chance of winning the elections!

What happened to Health Minister, Elijah Muchima in Ikeleng’i recently is very unfortunate. As Seer 1 observes, some ministers and MPs have been ‘sneaking’ into their constituencies accompanied by a few people to avoid giving a ‘ka sumfing’ to the local officials. We can assure you, even if some these MPs bullied their way into being adopted as Muchima was bragging, we don’t see them making it. Who is going to campaign for them when they’ve neglected the very structures that are supposed to go door to door convincing people to vote for them?

To ensure that UPND adopts credible candidates that are going to easily win the elections, the party is left with no choice but reintroduce the primary elections. This is the best option to get rid of the dead wood. Mulekutika?

Prince Bill M Kaping’a
National Coordinator
HH Mpaka 2031 People’s Alliance