Sampa says Tonse Alliance’s AU letter will only damage Zambia’s image

Former Matero MP and Patriotic Front faction president Miles Sampa, who worked with the African Union for five years, has dismissed a letter written by the Tonse Alliance to the AU asking the continental body to halt President-elect Hakainde Hichilema’s swearing-in, describing the move as a waste of time that will only damage Zambia’s international standing.

Sampa, who says he served as a senior member of the Pan African Parliament during his time with the AU, said the organisation only engages with member states and not political parties, alliances or individuals, making a response to the Tonse letter unlikely.

“Asking them by ba Tonse to halt HH’s swearing-in is a waste of the white paper the letter was put on,” he said.

He argued the AU has a track record of endorsing disputed elections elsewhere on the continent. He cited Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea, where he served as an accredited AU election observer, saying thousands died in those polls and opposition leaders were detained weeks before voting.

Sampa singled out AU Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti, the official the Tonse Alliance addressed its complaint to, accusing him of declaring Tanzania’s election free and fair before vote counting had even finished.

“We were in Dar and he was in Addis but before we could even compile our report, uyo,” he said, adding that he had publicly challenged the Djiboutian diplomat’s conduct at the time.

He recalled that the AU observer mission to Tanzania was led by former Botswana president Mokgweetsi Masisi, who also headed the SADC observer mission that monitored Zambia’s own election. Sampa said a fellow Zambian delegate on that Tanzania trip, opposition figure Patrick Mucheleka, experienced the same restrictions he did.

Both men were confined to their hotel rooms in Dar es Salaam from 9am on polling day, with internet and phone lines cut for five days until they left the country, he said.

Sampa argued that experience should give Masisi grounds to question opposition complaints about Zambia’s own vote, which he said fell far short of what he witnessed in Tanzania.

He described a similar pattern in Equatorial Guinea, where the AU also certified the election as free and fair. Sampa said one polling station there had been relocated to the backyard of a ruling party ward chairman’s home, while others closed two hours ahead of schedule.

He said he would not detail his experience observing elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but noted the AU had again rushed to call that vote free and fair.

Turning to Zambia’s own polls, Sampa said no opposition leader was detained ahead of the vote despite what he called arguable grounds to do so, no internet access was cut, no voters were intimidated, and no international journalists or observers were refused visas or accreditation.

He said these were core indicators tracked on AU and SADC election observation checklists, and called on SADC, the AU and the European Union to apply consistent standards across the continent.

Sampa also addressed the death of former Minister and MP Mutotwe Kafwaya, calling it devastating and saying he initially assumed reports of it were political spin until they were confirmed true. He said the matter had been linked to national security concerns and should now be left to law enforcement agencies.

He extended the same sentiment to Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea, saying the loss of life recorded during those elections should never occur during a democratic process.

Sampa questioned the Tonse Alliance’s timing, asking where its members stood in 2016 when the Constitutional Court failed to hear a petition filed by Hichilema and his then running mate, Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba.

He noted that when Michael Sata and Hichilema lost previous elections, neither approached the United Nations or the African Union to challenge the outcome internationally.

Sampa called the Tonse Alliance’s approach to the AU unprecedented and unpatriotic, arguing it risked damaging Zambia’s reputation abroad rather than advancing the alliance’s case at home. There was no immediate response from the alliance to his remarks.