The buried lede in this story is how the death penalty is anti-democracy.

President Hakainde Hichilema, whose party was in opposition for over two decades, had promised that he would scrap the laws if elected to the top job.

“President Hakainde Hichilema has assented to the penal code of 2022 abolishing the imposition of the death penalty and the offence of criminal defamation of the president, which has been on the Zambian statute books since (the) pre-independence era,” presidential spokesman Anthony Bwalya said in a statement on Friday.

Human rights activist Brebner Changala said the decision was a “huge milestone in the removal of colonial laws that do not fit in the democratic dispensation of the country”.

It puts Black African leaders in stark contrast to the white African CEO of Twitter, since he arbitrarily terminates digital personas especially anyone critical of him.

Who predicted a world where an African country demonstrates far more innovative, egalitarian and progressive leadership than a backwards and chaotic silicon valley media company run by a coin operated tinpot dictator?