Key takeaways
- Article 8 of Zambia’s Constitution places human dignity, equality, good governance and integrity among the country’s national values.
- Public services are obligations funded through public resources. They should be assessed by cost, quality and fairness, not treated as personal gifts from office holders.
- Patronage grows where jobs, contracts and opportunity appear to depend on political access rather than transparent rules.
- Everyday conduct matters: queue-jumping, underpaying workers and using connections to bypass procedure reproduce the same inequality citizens condemn in public institutions.
- A mature democracy allows people to recognise good performance while retaining the right to ask questions, demand evidence and criticise failure.
Zambia cannot build a strong economy on the habits of a weak citizenship. When access to jobs, contracts, services or simple respect appears to depend on proximity to power, people learn to behave like subjects seeking favour rather than citizens exercising equal rights.
That distinction reaches far beyond political manners. It affects who gets heard at a public office, whether a tender is won on merit, how confidently a small business can compete and whether a public official expects scrutiny. Dignity is therefore an economic institution as much as a moral principle.
Human dignity is already a constitutional principle
Article 8 of Zambia’s Constitution lists human dignity, equity, social justice, equality and non-discrimination among the national values and principles. It places them alongside democracy, constitutionalism, good governance and integrity. Article 9 says these values apply to the interpretation of the Constitution, the making and interpretation of law, and the development and implementation of state policy.
That language matters because it moves dignity out of the realm of good intentions. A citizen’s worth does not rise with a ministerial title, a large salary or a connection at State House. It does not fall because that person sells vegetables in Mtendere, drives a minibus on Great East Road, works as a security guard or is looking for a first job.
The test is practical. Can the same citizen enter a public institution and expect a fair process? Can a qualified entrepreneur bid for work without a political sponsor? Can a worker raise a concern without being humiliated? When the answer depends on status, equality exists on paper but not in daily life.
Public service is not a personal favour
Zambians are entitled to thank leaders when a road is repaired, a clinic opens or a school receives desks. Appreciation is part of public life. The problem begins when routine administration is presented as personal generosity and gratitude is expected to replace independent judgement.
Roads, clinics and schools are paid for through taxes, borrowing and other public resources. Officials are trustees of those resources. The citizen’s role is not to bow for a service that government is required to provide, but to ask whether the project was properly planned, openly procured, delivered to standard and worth what the public paid.
The economic cost of treating power as a gift
Once public authority is personalised, economic decisions become harder to evaluate. A contract can be defended because of who awarded it rather than whether it delivered value. A poorly designed programme can survive because criticism is treated as disloyalty. Competent firms may stop bidding when they conclude that access matters more than price or performance.
The result is more than a loss of public trust. It can mean higher procurement costs, weaker services and less competition. Small businesses are especially exposed because few can afford to spend time and money pursuing opportunities governed by unwritten political rules.
Why political praise becomes an economic strategy
It is easy to condemn the loud political praise singer and miss the incentives behind the behaviour. In an economy where formal jobs are scarce, incomes are uncertain and business opportunity may appear tied to networks, public loyalty can look like an investment.
A flattering post may produce access. Access may lead to an introduction, appointment or contract. Repeated often enough, this teaches a damaging lesson: advancement comes from staying close to the powerful, not from competence or fair competition.
Understanding that pressure does not excuse dishonesty. It does explain why lectures about morality will not solve the problem on their own. Zambia needs systems that make merit visible and patronage costly: published selection criteria, competitive procurement, independent audits, clear reasons for appointments and channels through which citizens can challenge unfair decisions.
Social media has widened the public square
Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp and X have given Zambians a direct way to expose local failures, question officials and organise around public concerns. A broken bridge, a delayed payment or an abusive encounter can reach a national audience within hours.
The same platforms reward speed, anger and allegiance. Policy disagreements are reduced to insults. Criticism is dismissed as jealousy or opposition politics. Supporters are pushed to defend every decision by their side, while opponents are encouraged to reject every achievement.
Responsible digital citizenship asks more of both camps. Verify information before sharing it. Separate an allegation from an established fact. Challenge an argument without attacking a person’s tribe, region, gender or economic position. Public figures, for their part, must accept that scrutiny comes with office.
The habits of institutions begin in everyday life
Citizens cannot demand fairness from government while using personal connections to jump a queue, underpaying a vulnerable worker or asking an official to bend a rule for them. These may look like small private acts, but each one reinforces the belief that rules are for people without influence.
A culture of equal citizenship is built through repeated choices:
- Treat service workers, domestic workers, traders and junior staff with the same respect offered to senior officials.
- Use merit and clear criteria when hiring, awarding work or selecting beneficiaries.
- Follow lawful procedures even when a shortcut would be personally useful.
- Judge policy by evidence and results rather than the identity of the politician associated with it.
- Protect respectful disagreement instead of demanding political conformity.
Decency is not passivity. It does not require silence in the face of poor performance, corruption or abuse. It sets a higher standard for how criticism is made and how authority responds.
What stronger citizenship would change
For public officials
Office holders would speak of service rather than benevolence. They would publish enough information for citizens to assess budgets, contracts and outcomes. They would treat criticism as information to test, not an insult to punish.
For citizens and businesses
People would be more willing to ask for reasons, records and equal treatment. Businesses would compete on capability rather than political display. Workers would be judged by performance instead of allegiance.
For the media
Journalists would resist personality worship and report the cost, delivery standard and distribution of public programmes. They would also distinguish evidence-based criticism from abuse and correct errors openly.
Zambia needs citizens, not subjects
A country’s progress is not fully captured by kilometres of road, annual growth or the number of new buildings. Those measures matter, but they say little about whether citizens experience the state as fair, predictable and answerable.
Zambia’s democratic maturity will be visible when people can praise a good result without surrendering their judgement, criticise a failure without hatred and tell those in power the truth without fearing that their economic future will be closed off.
Dignity is the starting point. Decency is the daily discipline that protects it. Together they make citizenship real.
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- Zambia’s Next Economic Phase Needs a Stronger Government Accountability Forum
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- About The Zambian Economist
- The Constitution of Zambia, National Assembly of Zambia
This analysis was developed from a submitted reflection by Eng. Willings Sichalwe on decency, dignity and citizenship.
About the author
Eng. Willings Sichalwe writes on citizenship, public ethics and the relationship between citizens and institutions in Zambia. This article draws on his reflection, Citizens, Not Subjects: Decency and Dignity as the Bedrock of Citizenship.
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