UPND JUSTIFIES ATTACK ON PF CADRES
THE United Party for National Development (UPND) says the attack on PF members in Mufulira at the weekend should serve as a lesson to leaders in the ruling party.
UPND Copperbelt Province Secretary, Howard Kamwandi, told the Daily Nation in Kitwe that PF members should draw lessons from what transpired in Mufulira.
“The incident that happened in Mufurila on Friday and Saturday where residents mobilised and repelled an attack by PF members should serve as a lesson to the PF that the discontent against the ruling party is countrywide and not regional,” Mr Kamwandi said.
He Government leaders should not only listen to voices that praised them but should also listen to those that criticized them.
According to the opposition party, the Government had a systematic crackdown on dissenting voices.
Mr Kamwandi said that Zambia was a democratic country, stressing that it was important to let the citizens enjoy their freedoms of expression. He called on Government to protect the rights of Zambians and allow them to express themselves freely.
On Friday, UPND cadres descended on PF members in Mufulira in the Central Business District when opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema featured on Mafking Radio.
Several PF members were severely injured and rushed to the hospital where they were admitted.
But Mr Kamwandi instead advised Government pay attention to the high cost of living that the people were subjected to.
“Zambia is for everyone and no-one has the right to bar anyone else from any part of the country. Let us not divide our Christian nation in the name of strongholds,” Mr Kamwandi advised.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the people who were attacked by violent UPND cadres in Mufulira were not PF members but mere innocent residents who were going about their business in town.
A member of the PF mobiliaation media team Davies Mulenga said it is not possible that only three people from PF could have made an attempt to attack cadres who were camped outside the radio station where the UPND president Mr Hakainde Hichilema was being featured.
He said UPND was a group of propagandists who would always try by all means to create an impression that PF was violent.
Mr Mulenga said after analysing videos that have gone viral on social media, he noted that the people who were injured were just passersby and not PF sympathisers.
“Our PF youths and sympathisers don’t move in isolation, and when they are on a mission, they move together with regalia on them,” he said.
Mr Mulenga said that 90 percent of PF sympathisers and members have regalia and there was no way if really the youth UPND claims were from the ruling party could have gone there without putting on the PF uniform.
“If you look at the whole Mufulira saga, you will realise that UPND just want to change the story, so that it can look like PF was badly beaten and we’ve lost popularity.
“All the three people who were beaten and injured were not even putting on PF regalia meaning, those people were mistaken to be PF youths with the intention of causing tension and violence in Mufulira,” he said.
Mr Mulenga said PF youths on the Copperbelt are well organised and work in unison, adding that the story that PF youths were beaten was cooked up meant to deceive the public.