Africa-Press – Zambia. Subject: A Plea from One Freedom Fighter to Another: Amend the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act to Protect the Zambia We Dreamed Of
Your Excellency,
I write this letter not merely as a citizen but as one who walked the long and painful road of hope alongside you.
I remember the days when your voice was silenced, when your rights were trampled, when the full machinery of the state was unleashed against you for daring to speak truth. I remember the indignities you suffered — arrested, humiliated, cast as a villain in a land you only sought to serve. I remember how we prayed for you, how we stood for you, because your suffering was not just yours — it was the suffering of every Zambian who longed to be free.
You taught us that injustice must never be tolerated. You taught us that power must serve the people, not enslave them.
Today, Mr. President, I am burdened by a deep fear — a fear that the very pain you once endured could return, not to you, but to others, under laws written in our time. The Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act of 2025, though crafted with good intentions, holds within it seeds of oppression — seeds that, if left unchecked, may one day grow into the same tree that once bore the bitter fruits you tasted.
Section 19 criminalizes “false information” without a clear standard, a tool that can silence the honest mistake as easily as it can silence the inconvenient truth.
Section 21 conceals government actions from the very citizens who entrusted you with power.
Section 23 punishes what is “offensive” — a word that tyranny always defines at its convenience.
Section 37, in its vastness, risks branding patriots as terrorists simply for raising their voices.
Sections 44, 56, and 60 grant powers that, in wrong hands, could turn Zambia into a surveillance state, where fear replaces freedom.
Mr. President, you of all people know: good leaders come and go, but bad laws endure. No democracy dies overnight — it withers slowly, law by law, silence by silence, until the spirit of a free people is broken.
You are the child of Zambia’s struggle, a man who refused to bow even when the weight of the state fell on your shoulders. You did not survive that fire so that we could build new chains with our own hands.
We believed in you because you showed us what courage looks like. I beg you now to summon that same courage — not for yourself, but for the Zambia that will exist long after we are gone.
Amend these sections. Protect the freedoms you fought for. Do not allow future leaders, less noble than you, to inherit weapons that could destroy everything you have sacrificed for.
History will ask of you: “When you had the power to protect the people, what did you do?”
Let the answer be: “He chose freedom.”
Let the answer be: “He trusted the people more than he trusted power.”
The future watches us. The young girl in Mansa who dreams of becoming a journalist. The young man in Mongu who dreams of leading his people. The farmer in Chinsali who dreams of being heard. They all depend on the decisions you make now.
I am not asking for a favor. I am pleading for the future.
May God guide your heart.
May God bless Zambia.
And may history remember you as the President who, even at the height of his power, chose restraint over control, freedom over fear, and love for country over love for power.
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