Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

For the Zambian delegation, whose country is going through a national constitutional review process, the visit was a good opportunity to learn about the constitution making process in South Africa in the 1990s and the role which the South African political parties played. The delegations discussed the major “landmines” which characterised the South African case with a view of drawing lessons for the constitutional review process currently under way in Zambia.

In addition, the Zambian political parties gave great importance to issues of Party financing, floor crossing, commercialization of the campaign process, and the electoral system. Most of these issues have already generated debates in both countries.

During a field visit to the National Parliament Zambian political parties had an opportunity to learn first hand how the South African parliament runs its business. They met South African parliamentarians from various political parties and had the opportunity to forge bilateral ties with South African parties with whom they shared common values.

One of the upshots of the tour was a joint decision that South Africa’s constitution making process should be further explored by a greater audience from Zambian political parties. Accordingly, the South African parties offered to send a delegation of experienced persons who were behind the Constitutional review process in that country to share their experiences with their Zambian counterparts.


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This exchange visit is part of the NIMD supported exchange programme for political parties of different countries in Southern Africa. The Zambia-South Africa exchange follows the visit by South African Parties to Malawi in July 2007 and the Kenyan visit to Tanzania.

Such exchange programmes are meant to consolidate inter-party dialogue within the country and also further promote cooperation of political parties across countries by way of exchange of experiences. By sharing best practices and lessons learned on various themes of interest to political parties, or by addressing difficulties together, the political parties in East and Southern Africa learn from each other, and learn together.

The visit was organised by the Johannesburg-based policy think tank and NIMD partner, Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) and the Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue (ZCID) with the technical support of the Regional Programme Coordinator for NIMD’s East and Southern Africa Regional Programme (ESARP).

- article by Dr. Augustine Titani Magolowondo, NIMD Regional Programme Coordinator- ESARP: augustinemagolowondo@nimd.org -