DID WE BELIEVE ENOUGH pt 1
By : Cheelo Katambo
Deputy Media Director
UPND
LUSAKA – I spent my whole evening of 24th August 2021 looking at these photos and asking myself some questions.Is it true that we are finally here after more than 15 years of believing.Despite losing Presidential elections (got actively involved in 2010) we still believed that one day,we shall achieve.It has not been an easy road.Plenty of Persecutions,intimidations,arrests while we became immune to police teargass.
Some comrades we were together as the small boys in the struggle such as Brian Hapunda,Royd Moonga,Greyford Moonde and others have fallen off along the way because I believe they stopped believing in the idea.Others were fortunate to get good jobs and got less involved such as Roy Habaalu but for some of us…the struggle continued.
Within the media fraternity,the sector I have served for more than 19 years since I was welcomed through the doors of SKY FM by comrades such as Hambaya Munang’andu ,Chanda Mfula,Veronica Simubali Mumba and others,we were called names especially after the 2011 elections. We were not journalists anymore but simply unfocused UPND cadres without a future. Attempts to apply for a job especially in State media institutions met outright NO because of two things. Political affiliation and unfortunately someone told me you are also Tonga so you support the UPND. I was gutted and Immediately abandoned any attempts at finding a formal job.
Some of my former comrades and family abandoned me and could never pick up my calls because to them,every call from me was accompanied by a begging bowl.Only one comrade Maambo Haamaundu still believed and never got tired of my calls(the journalist without Borders is very grateful Sir). I saw my life fading out in front of me but I held on because I realised that both giving up and continuing in the struggle had the same outcome,Rejection by Society and I felt the latter offered better option.
At that point,I was ready to die for a cause only if future generations will not be looked down upon simply for being a Mweetwa,Munsaka,Hamaaundu,Moonga etc.My resolve was made and not even poverty and hunger were strong enough to make me stop believing.Some family members and friends persistently told me to stop it,but my resolve at that point was too strong.
Fast forward to 2014 just after the death of Michael Sata MHSRIP, I was asked to join the recreated UPND MEDIA TEAM with Ruth Dante ,Moses Walubita and others. It was not a lucrative offer because we were purely volunteers without any penny but the belief was strong.We traveled the breadth of Zambia during the 2015 elections and I can say we (UPND) did put up a spirited fight.We lost,I was gutted,reflected and almost withdrew because I felt I had reached a dead end.The belief was strong and looked forward to 2016 because we all felt that the 2015 Presidential election had given us enough ground to aggressively mount a serious campaign in 2016.
2016 came and we again narrowly lost the election but did not lose the resolve and belief.I can confess the period between 2016 and 2021 was the worst and if I had the power,its one period I would love to erase because we as UPND collectively and I as an individual went through persecution and Prosecution under the PF. Courts of law across the country became our second homes because there was always a UPND member/s attending a court session on any given day somewhere in the country or someone was being dragged to some police station for unknown crimes.It was hell.My President Hakainde Hichilema was arrested and detained for 127 days,this incident almost broke the camel’s back. Most of our members including senior party leaders went into hiding,very few wanted to be associated with the UPND because just the initials had the potential to land you in some police cell somewhere.The inmates were usually good to us but some police officers were not because they had jobs to protect.While HH was being shuttled between Chimbokaila and Mukobeko prison and Lusaka Magistrate Court for a crime even the accusers themselves did not believe in,I was arrested on July 3rd,2017 on a very serious crime of espionage and accused of torching Lusaka’s biggest market..City Market. It was a cold morning and without anything warm,Assistant Superintendent Mbita and his team from C1 section of the police pounced on me and a colleague Kelvin Mwamutanda at Government Printers building and I had to spend 5 nights at Lusaka Central police station while Kelvin was shuttled between force HQ,Woodlands and finally Ridgeway police post. The police officers did not even know what specific offence to write in the OB book as none of them wanted to directly get involved because as they claimed,those political cases were embarrassing them in Court at the hands of Counsels such as Gilbert Phiri and Mweemba.I only spent one night in the cold Cell 1 where I heard all manner of stories and realised society needs to be revolutionarised. I spent the next 4 nights in the VIP cell after the ‘Captain’ realised there was a UPND MEDIA TEAM member that had been brought to his dungeon.This followed reports by the Zambian Watchdog that I had been abducted. Both the party secretariat and family went on a wild chase from one police station to the other until I was located having already spent two nights inside. The police officers such as Sergent Mwaanga and Inspector Tembo were good to me.On the fifth day of detention around 18:30hrs, I was released after being made to pay k54 as guilty fee.
On my birthday in 2018,I escaped a well planned police dragnet and hid in the UPND secretariat after being accused of running an online publication critical of the PF government and its thieving officials.It was a lie because I had nothing to do with it.My Journalism has been clean upto this day.I don’t believe in yellow or Malicious Journalism. Fast forward to August 2019,under instructions from then Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo and his young brother Andrew,we and some colleagues were bundled in a Police Nissan and driven at an astronomical speed on a bad road from Mpika to Chinsali Police Station on accusation of being in possession of offensive weapons during a ward by-election in Shiwangandu. The total number of people arrested on that day of course without evidence was 23 and included among others John Simfukwe ,Stephen Chikota,Nathan Ilunga,and other senior party officials from Northern province.Some of us were released three nights later as they could not find evidence to link us to the Nathan Ilunga group which had been charged with possession of offensive weapons,a case which the state never prosecuted despite taking it to court.
To be continued…….