Maravi

UPND is provoking govt, says Lungu

COMMENT - The MMD and UPND are playing the victim card, for the benefit of an international audience. They have nothing to offer the people of Zambia. They are typical politicians who want to get to power to enrich themselves, while the country is fleeced by international mining companies, under the watching eye of the IMF and World Bank.

UPND is provoking govt, says Lungu
By Roy Habaalu and Kombe Chimpinde
Wed 29 Aug. 2012, 10:30 CAT

UPND presidential adviser Douglas Siakalima said the PF government has turned the country into a police state by sending armed police officers to barricade the party secretariat in Lusaka.

But home affairs minister Edgar Lungu has warned UPND not to push its luck too far by provoking government. And veteran politician Daniel Munkombwe says Hakainde Hichilema has lost political credibility.

Addressing journalists after police concluded a search at the UPND secretariat, Siakalima said President Sata had turned the country into a police state.
Police officers searched the UPND offices for seditious materials, some of which was published on online blogs, sources disclosed.

Last week, Lungu directed law enforcement agencies to establish elements behind the circulation of seditious and malicious material which were aimed at fanning tribalism in the country by making claims that various appointees are related to President Michael Sata.

Lungu said security wings should probe some politicians working to incite rebellion or hatred against the government as such conduct amounted to sedition.

The material being circulated claims that positions at State House, in Cabinet, parastatal entities, Constitutional Offices and diplomats were all held by people from Northern Province and those directly related to President Sata.

Yesterday, police sealed off Lagos Road in Lusaka's Rhodes Park area before conducting a search at the secretariat.

The police, who arrived around 04:00 hours, waited for five hours before the gates could be opened for the search to start.

UPND vice president Richard Kapita arrived at 08:55 hours and held discussion with police officers in the company of party lawyers.
Shortly before the search, while waiting for lawyers, Siakalima screamed that police officers had been sent to cause havoc.

"People were arrested during zero option and President Sata was involved. Now that he's President, why do you think he can't do it. He has sent police to plant things here to implicate us. If you stop any of our people from entering I will call my battalion of youths and things will be different," said Siakalima in the company of cadres armed with catapults.

Shortly, Kapita and party secretary general Winstone Chibwe joined in taunting police that they were cadres recruited to brutalise citizens with divergent views.

After the search which ended at 11:30 hours, Siakalima said President Sata was sick and needed to be nursed.

"He (President Sata) won't shut us up! They want to use extra judicial killings to silence us but the God we worship won't let us down. GBM should not use his belly but his brains to think," said Siakalima.

But Lungu said the government would not play into the UPND's cheap politics of causing havoc and crying foul.

"They (UPND) have been provoking the government and the police by circulating seditious circulars as a way of looking for political mileage. We mean well but Siakalima should not push his luck too far.

If he wants police brutality, I am sorry we won't make him a hero out of this. They should not mistake the President's friendship with (Zimbabwean President) Robert Mugabe that we are learning something oppressive from them. There are a lot of good things to learn from Zimbabwe," said Lungu.

UPND lawyer Chad Muleza said the party cooperated and the police conducted themselves in a professional manner and found nothing.

And commenting on UK-based engineer Professor Clive Chirwa's observations that there was no future for UPND, with Hichilema at its helm, Munkombwe said it was shocking that a person who was aspiring to be President could approach politics in a hostile and sarcastic manner.

"Clive is right, his observations are right. HH is attractive but what comes of out his mouth appears to be dangerous," he said.

"You see, it's not a question of whether one is in the government or in the opposition, individuals (politicians) need political credibility."
Munkombwe said there was no logic in some of Hichilema's criticisms because they were based on hate and had absolutely no love of incorporation and tolerance.

"You are in opposition and you vow to fight somebody! You should be mindful that somebody may have sympathisers because all authority is derived from God. I also think it (the vow) is unreasonable," he said.

"What you (leaders) say must be attractive, what you say particularly for those who aspire to be in State House, must be inspiring. You must preach love. There is so much one can talk about without particularly fighting the President and his government."

Munkombwe cited the advice he used to pass on to MPs, while in the opposition, with a core lesson that courage and criticism must be applied honourably.
"When I was in parliament, I used to say to UPND or PF to say 'you people if you are sarcastic as you are to us (the ruling party), you will not inspire the people's confidence'," Munkombwe said.

"I was telling the same thing to the minster of youth Chishimba Kambwili. I said I love your courage but I don't support the way you approach issues.

Sometimes you approach issues in a manner that is not honourable. You should start behaving like a person who will become a minister someday, and now he is minister. Somehow he appreciated my advice."

He said for a person who wanted to go to State House to vow to fight a person who had been elected by the majority was a misguided move.

And defence minister Geoffrey Mwamba yesterday said the revelations by Professor Chirwa that Hichilema's attacks on President Sata were derived from bitterness and envy did not surprise them, but rather vindicated the PF.

"We have stated before, and state here again, that Mr Hichilema has no ounce of care for this country and all his criticisms and machinations to sabotage the work of the PF government are a result of anger, bitterness, hatred and shameless envy of PF's meteoric rise," he said.

"Professor Chirwa is speaking with the full insight and knowledge of someone who has worked closely with Mr Hichilema and his comments must be taken with the seriousness and respect they deserve because, having been inside the UPND, the Professor has watched with horror and shock, the levels Mr Hichilema can go to, in his self-interested and envious pursuit of power."

Labels: MMD, TREASON, UPND

posted by MrK @ 2:44 PM