PATRIOTS for Economic Progress president Sean Tembo says Lusaka province minister Bowman Lusambo should be arrested for criminal kidnapping.
And Tembo says the PF and its government are ideologically orphaned.
On Saturday, Lusambo went to Shoprite stores where he harassed and arrested innocent citizens for allegedly buying more than one bag of mealie meal.
“As Patriots for Economic Progress, we have no doubt in our minds that the Lusaka Province minister’s actions to harass and cause the arrest of innocent Shoprite customers, lack any legal authority and are illegal and unlawful. Additionally, it is our view that Mr Bowman Lusambo’s actions to personally detain and threaten the innocent Shoprite customers and making them to sit down against their will while being interrogated, as evidenced by the videos that have widely circulated on social media, constitutes kidnapping and is a criminal offence. We therefore, call for the immediate arrest of Mr Bowman Lusambo on a charge of kidnapping. The Zambian people are already being adequately harassed by poverty, gassing and poor leadership. They do not deserve any additional harassment from Mr Bowman Lusambo,” Tembo said. “We are extremely saddened by the overzealous and illegal behaviour of the Lusaka Province minister Bowman Lusambo yesterday [Saturday] to go around Shoprite stores and start harassing and arresting innocent citizens for allegedly buying more than one bag of mealie meal. Firstly, there is no law in Zambia which criminalises the purchase of more than one bag of mealie meal or indeed more than one bag of potatoes or rice or any other commodity for that matter. It is on this basis that we challenge the Lusaka Province minister to cite the law under which authority he was acting to harass and cause the police detention of innocent Zambians in Chazanga compound at SOS Shoprite.”
He said Zambia has a free market liberalised economy.
“There is no law in Zambia which prevents or criminalises the purchase of a commodity at a lower price in one location and the subsequent sale of that commodity at a higher price in a different location, regardless of whether that commodity is mealie meal, potatoes, rice or indeed any commodity for that matter. In fact, as a free market liberalised economy, our commerce and trade model is anchored on being able to buy goods and services at a lower price and reselling such goods and services at a higher price so as to make a profit.
Since time immemorial, traders have always bought bread, mealie meal, potatoes etcetera from Shoprite and other stores and resold such commodities at their respective shops in order to make a profit. There is nothing criminal about doing so whatsoever. In this regard, we wish to challenge the Lusaka Province minister to cite the law on which he relied to harass and arrest innocent citizens.”
Tembo reminded Lusambo that there were different reasons why people buy mealie meal in large numbers.
“Others are buying for a funeral, others buy for a restaurant, others buy for their farm workers, others have a large family etc. Therefore, it is presumptuous for the Minister to assume that anyone buying more than one bag is buying for resale. It must be noted that the Zambians who were arrested by a combined team of Mr Lusambo and Zambia Police officers were not stealing that mealie meal from Shoprite. They went to Shoprite to buy the mealie meal using their hard-earned money. They did not deserve to be arrested,” he said.
Tembo said the actions of Lusambo, is a symptom of a bigger problem that exists in the entire PF government.
“The PF government in general and the Lusaka Province minister in particular must further be reminded that Shoprite is a private store whose objective among others is to maximise sales on any given day. It is for this reason that Shoprite sets its prices in a manner that makes its goods to be attractive among competitors, so that it can sale as much as possible on any given day,” said Tembo. “Therefore, the actions of the Lusaka Province minister to harass and arrest Shoprite customers simply because they are buying in large quantities, actually undermines the business model of Shoprite and its profitability. The Minister must note that Shoprite employs thousands of workers across the country, all of which demand high wages. So how will Shoprite be able to pay the demanded high wages to its employees if government is preventing and arresting its customers? …It is our firm belief that the actions of the Lusaka Province minister Mr Bowman Lusambo, is a symptom of a bigger problem that exists in the entire PF government: the lack of ideological standing. The PF and its government are ideologically orphaned. They are not sure whether they are capitalist, centrist, socialist or communist. This lack of ideological standing has caused the PF government to be haphazard in its policy formulation and implementation. On one hand they abolish subsidies, which is a capitalist measure, and on the other hand they seek to impose price ceilings, which is a communist measure. It is our considered view that for as long as this lack of ideological standing persists, the PF government shall always be a confused government.”