Thread by @Kauswe3

Prodding The Nest Of The Black Mambas the Zero Option Plan

LUSAKA, Apr 10 1996 (IPS) - Zambia’s government had put up a three million dollar reward for the capture of Black Mambas. These, however, were no ordinary brood of serpents.

Zambia’s Mambas wrote poison-pen letters and made venomous phone calls to local politicians and foreign diplomats and their families

These Mambas were wholly political in nature and appeared to be part of a campaign to get donors to pressure the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy’s (MMD) into sticking to the democratic course it embraced when elected in 1991.

What had jolted the relatively easy-going southern African nation though was the ruthlessness of the campaign which threatened the lives of cabinet ministers, the Speaker of Parliament, and foreign donors.

At the heart of the issue was the government’s attempts to amend the constitution which would outlaw President Frederick Chiluba’s main challenger, Kenneth Kaunda — the man he defeated in 1991 — from standing in the October’s general election.

Britain had already withheld 20 million dollars in development assistance until the government changed its stance on the draft constitution.

The government however was not averse to a bit of arm twisting itself over ‘non-cooperating’ development partners.

Then Defence Minister Ben Mwila blatantly told donors to mind their own business or failing that, to withdraw their aid, if the price was the government giving up on its draft constitution plans

So who, or what, was behind the poison pens of the Black Mambas? Suspicion seemed focused on the United National Independence Party (UNIP) led by Kaunda who was nicknamed the ‘Black Mamba’ during the independence struggle in the early sixties

And the campaign seemed to tie in with Kaunda’s objectives. The controversial clause in the draft constitution allowed only third generation Zambians to stand for the presidency, which neatly omitted Kaunda as a presidential contender as his parents were Malawian immigrants.

“Our stand in UNIP is that the party’s choice of president Kaunda is non-negotiable. If he is not allowed to stand there will be no election. UNIP Secretary-General, Sebastian Zulu, warned.

UNIP Vice-President, Chief Inyambo Yeta, was even more to the point: “We will incite civil disobedience and make this country ungovernable.”

Such incendiary statements prompted searches at the homes of UNIP stalwarts Maj. Macpherson Mbulo and Bonnie Tembo over the Easter holiday for anything to do with the hate campaign.

Mbulo and Tembo were also police targets during the now infamous “Zero-option” episode in 1993 in which several UNIP leaders were arrested for allegedly plotting a “civilian coup”, resulting in the declaration of a state of emergency.

In February 1993, the government-owned
'Times of Zambia' reported that a plot by the former ruling party, UNIP, to overthrow the MMD government by unconstitutional means, known as the Zero Option Plan, had been uncovered.

The Zero Option Plan was alleged to call for a destabilization of Zambia through industrial unrest, the promotion of violent crime, and the organization of a mass uprising against the government.

The governments of both Iran and Iraq were said to have been behind the plan, otherwise masterminded by some UNIP MPs

On March 4, 1993, President Chiluba declared a state of emergency stating that "the political climate is being systematically poisoned by a few of our citizens who are bent on plunging this nation into chaos."

But he offered neither further evidence that the Zero Option represented a threat to national security nor any other justification for the declaration.

Twenty-six people were eventually detained in connection with Zero Option, many of them senior members of UNIP including then party President Kebby Musokotwane.

On May 19, the Supreme Court found that, on the evidence it had been presented, the emergency regulations were not valid, but gave the government two days to present further evidence.

Further releases followed though the final seven detainees including Wezi Kaunda and Cuthbert Nguni were finally charged with various offenses against the security of the state.

On May 25 Chiluba lifted the state of emergency.

Source: ipsnews, Zambian Day(Facebook), Zambian Watchdog