BALLY ADDING FUEL TO VIOLENCE BY CALLING ECL ‘UKUTUMPA’
….let him not pretend that the UPND is not violent – Mourinho
Lusaka, Wednesday, March 15, 2023 (Smart Eagles)
Patriotic Front Media Director Antonio Mourinho Mwanza has castigated the UPND government for downplaying the political violence that some parts of the country have been experiencing under the watch of the government of “angels.”
During this year’s Youth Day celebrations, UPND cadres mercilessly clobbered some PF cadres who had come out in numbers to celebrate the day.
This happened after the UPND saw that the PF outnumbered them and that they were more organized than them.
Despite losing an election in 2021, the mighty PF has continued growing big and it still remains, arguably, the biggest political party in Zambia.
And Mr Mwanza implored President Hakainde Hichilema to stop wanting to pretend that the UPND is a not a violent party.
He said when he featured on United Voice radio today that UPND’s political violence started as far as 2005 when the party coined Mapatizya formula which saw numerous citizens living in fear.
“President Hakainde Hichilema must stop pretending that he does not see what happens with his cadres. I don’t like it when the President wants to pretend that UPND is not a violent party. On May 5th, 2005, launched, officially what they call Mapatizya formular. The Mapatizya formula was formed by Ackson Sijani who is now the commissioner in government,” he said.
“We saw what happened in Mapatizya in 2005… government vehicles were destroyed. We have seen what happened in 2016 in Namwala were people’s houses were burned all because they belonged to Patriotic Front. This forced president Edgar Lungu to institute a commission of enquiry on the issue of violence.”
Mr Mwanza reminded the nation that veteran politician Vernon Mwaanga is amongst the victims of Mapatizya formula.
In as much as Mr Mwanza admitted that the country has had experienced some pockets of violence under PF, the difference is that PF condemned it while UPND fails to do so.
“We have seen the UPND violence. Farther Bwalya was beaten at a studio in Monze, Brian Hapunda was beaten at a funeral house in Monze. VJ was beaten at Mazoka’s funeral. We have seen this violence from 2005,” he said.
“We saw some pockets of violence in PF. The difference with the PF is that we condemned the violence. UPND cannot claim to be clean as far as violence is concerned. We saw some pockets of violence from the PF.”
Meanwhile, Mr Mwanza said President Hichilema made things worse after making “kutumpa” remarks against his predecessor.
“The difference with the PF is that we condemned that violence. At some point we even suspended some people. We should not justify the wrong because it happened in UNIP or it happened in the PF. A wrong is a wrong. What is wrong in PF should be wrong in UPND. What was wrong in UNIP should be wrong in PF, should be wrong in MMD, should be wrong in UPND,” he said.
“The issue of violence seems to be small now but once it escalates, there is no one who is going to stop it. The President is also adding fuel to this thing of violence because of the inflammatory remarks. All of us have videos of President Sammy Hichilema calling president Lungu ukutumpa.”