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Green Party leader, Peter Sinkamba, has warned that President Hakainde Hichilema’s implementation of Bill 7, after it was declared unconstitutional, illegal, null and void by the Constitutional Court, amounted to an act of treason.
Sinkamba said Hichilema was privileged to have senior legal advisors, including the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, and Judicial Complaints Commission Chairman State Counsel Vincent Malambo — who defended him in 2017 when he faced treason charges — and other senior lawyers who should counsel him that implementing Bill 7 under the current circumstances constituted treason under Article 3 of the Constitution.
In a statement issued in Lusaka on Tuesday, Sinkamba said he had previously criticized the Patriotic Front government for arresting and detaining Hichilema in 2017 for treason, arguing that the key elements of the offence were not met.
“In my previous post, I explained in simple terms the implications of Article 3 of the Constitution Amendment 2016 vis-à-vis implementing Bill 7, after it was declared unconstitutional, illegal, null and void by the Constitutional Court. Let me be clearer. Implementing Bill 7 after it was declared unconstitutional, illegal, null and void is an act of treason,” he said.
Sinkamba noted that in Hichilema’s 2017 case there was no evidence of an overt act, a critical requirement to qualify an offence as treason.
The Green Party, he said, was among the key voices lobbying the late President Edgar Lungu to release Hichilema and others accused of treason.
He explained that, based on Zambian common law and precedent in cases such as Shamwana and Others, the essential elements of treason included allegiance to the state or sovereign authority being betrayed — typically requiring the person to be a citizen or resident alien within the country.
“In this case, President Hichilema and his officials involved in implementing Bill 7, which has been declared unconstitutional, illegal, null and void by the Constitutional Court, are citizens of Zambia, and have sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of Zambia,” he said.
Sinkamba added that treason required a concrete, overt act demonstrating intent to betray the state, usually defined as either levying war or organising people for a treasonable purpose, such as forcibly overthrowing the government or resisting execution of public law.
He claimed that organising the Technical Committee, civil society groups, and parliamentary factions to resist the Constitutional Court ruling constituted such an overt act.
“Since Bill 7 was declared illegal, the role of government should be to stop any person from implementing it, not to resist execution of the judgment of the Concourt. The judgment is public law. Resisting its implementation is treasonous,” he said.
Sinkamba also alleged that using the police to intimidate pro-judgment groups was another treasonous act.
He noted that while mere conspiracy is insufficient for treason, the moment the Technical Committee began implementing so-called public consultations on Bill 7, the overt act was initiated.
“The public handover of the Technical Committee report to President HH yesterday provides crucial elements of implementing an overt act,” he said.
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