GEARS Executive Director McDonald Chipenzi has questioned whether Europe has academically unqualified Members of Parliament in their parliaments after the European Union Election Observation Mission ( EU-EOM) recommended that Zambia scraps off the G12 academic qualification requirement for those seeking elective political positions.
Chipenzi said Zambia must instead advocate for upward adjustment of qualifications for position of Mayor/Chairpersons, MPs and Presidents from G12 academic to a degree qualifications for quality leadership and debate in parliament.
In an exclusive interview with Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Chipenzi has opposed the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM)’s recommendation to do away with the G12 academic qualification for one to aspire for elective political position.
He said in this millennial era, going back to those dark times when people went into these positions without defined qualifications, are long gone and now requires all to have some qualifications to their names.
Chipenzi explained that with the decentralisation process at its peak, having councilors, mayors/council chairpersons, MPs/Ministers and Presidents who can barely read and write or competently debate, dissect and analyse local, national and global issues will undermine the decentralisation process in Zambia and is tantamount to a democratic suicide.
The Governance, Elections, Advocacy, Research Services (GEARS) Initiative Executive Director said as of today, Zambia has enough secondary school and university graduates to provide leadership nurseries with qualifications to participate in politics and any field favourably.
“We have enough G12 graduates now than ever before to fill all layers of elective and nominative political positions in Zambia. Zambia now has more than one secondary school in each constituency and is not short of G12s”, he said.
He mentioned that further, the electoral demands that an MP can aspire for election in any constituency even where s/he is not registered from while to be a councilor and Mayor/chairperson, one has to be domiciled and registered in that district.
“For instance, in 2020 alone, 147, 055 pupils sat for school certificate examinations at G12 level. Out of the 147,055 candidates that sat for the examination, 94,010 (63.9%) obtained a full certificate, 49,032 (33.3%) obtained GCE certificate while only 4,013 (2.7%) actually failed”, he said.
“From the above, just for 2020 G12 graduates who obtained full G12 certificates and GCE are enough to fill all the elective positions at ward level (1852 seats), Districts (116 seats), Constituencies (156seats), vice president (1) and President (1) which is a total of 2,126 seats” Chipenzi said.
Chipenzi added, “Now, add the number of G12 graduates Zambia has since 1964 to 2021 and one thinks the country would fail to identify one for elective leadership? What is deficit is motivation among citizens to participate in partisan politics due to perceptions that politics is a dirty game and not qualifications”.
He has therefore opposed the scrapping off of the G12 academic qualification requirement as recommended by the EUOM adding that Zambia needs quality law and this can only be done with well-qualified elected leaders.
