Zambia Has Become a Country of “Screenshot Lawyers”
These days, some people do not read laws. They read one screenshot, add three angry emojis, listen to a dramatic voice note recorded near a boiling pot of beans, and immediately graduate with a PhD in Constitutional Panic. By lunchtime, they are already posting. This country is finished!Meanwhile, the actual law itself is sitting quietly somewhere, completely unread like a school textbook after exams. The Public Gathering Act is the latest victim of social media interpretation. Many people saw the section explaining exemptions for certain gatherings and immediately concluded that some leaders are now “above the law.” But Common Sense says calm down first. Read slowly. Breathe between paragraphs.The law is simply explaining that some gatherings connected to official government duties, funerals, weddings, church services, indoor meetings, traditional ceremonies, and certain civic functions are treated differently under specific conditions. It also clearly says some of those exemptions do not apply during election periods.
In other words, context matters. Law is not cooked like instant noodles where you pour hot water and understand everything in two minutes. Let us use a simple example. Imagine a hospital. Ordinary visitors enter through normal procedures. But if an ambulance arrives carrying a patient in critical condition, nobody expects the driver to stop at the reception desk and say, “Excuse me madam, may I kindly fill in Form 17B before saving this person?” The ambulance is treated differently because of the function it is performing. That does not mean ambulances are “above the law.” It means systems are designed differently depending on responsibility and public interest. The same logic applies in many legal systems around the world when dealing with state functions and public duties. Another thing people are skipping faster than advertisements on YouTube is the definition of a public place.
The law clearly says public places include roads, markets, streets, highways, bridges, and other places used by the public. Meaning once gatherings affect public movement, safety, or order, the law naturally becomes involved. That is normal governance, not witchcraft. Unfortunately, social media has trained people to believe that reading one cropped paragraph qualifies them to challenge an entire legal framework written by professionals who probably drank fifteen cups of coffee while drafting it. Common Sense therefore has one humble request. Before forwarding panic to seven WhatsApp groups and adding “This is serious fellow citizens,” please read the full document yourself first. Because half the confusion in this country is caused by people confidently explaining things they never fully read.
Common Sense is realizing that screenshots are not the same thing as understanding.
