HH SHOULD DO WHAT HE PREACHED WHILE IN OPPOSITION – FRANK BWALYA
Socialist Party Member of the National Council Management Committee, Frank Bwalya, has challenged President Hakainde Hichilema to stand by what he professed while in opposition.
The call comes after Bwalya paid a visit to opposition leader, Sean Tembo who is detained at Woodlands Police Station in Lusaka, with Police yet to charge him officially as of Sunday.
Tembo was detained last Thursday after he posted a message comparing monthly fuel price adjustments to a woman’s menstrual cycle.
But Bwalya has called out Hichilema for apparently abandoning what he stood for while in opposition, saying the President described such arrests as violation of the constitutional right to free expression.
Bwalya recalls that during one of his arrests on grounds of defaming the President in 2014 when he was leader of an opposition political party, Hichilema spoke to him on phone.
He says that in the short conversation they had, Hichilema made it clear that the arrest was a violation of the tight to expression and condemned the detention.
Bwalya has since condemned what he terms as the unlawful and senseless detention of Tembo, saying that it is a permanent mark of shame on Hichilema’s presidency.
He says the detention of Tembo and the many arrests of Zambians with divergent views distinguishes Hichilema as a tyrant determined to crash all opposing views in a futile attempt to create a society that sings his praises.
Bwalya remarks that in as much as Hichilema can claim not to instruct Police to arrest people, he made similar accusations while in opposition, adding that his paramount job is to protect the constitution of Zambia.