March 1, 2013
Government has threatened to deregister political parties whose members engage themselves in violent activities citing the incidence in Livingstone where a PF cadre was killed by suspected UPND cadres this week.
Home Affairs Minister Edgar Lungu told Parliament yesterday that he had ministerial powers through the Registrar of Societies to deregister political parties involving themselves in violent acts causing loss of innocent lives.
Mr Lungu sounded the warning in response to MMD Rufunsa Member of Parliament (MP) Kenneth Chpungu who wanted to know what measures Government was putting in place to protect citizens against violent acts following the killing of a Patriotic Front (PF) cadre by suspected UPND members in the tourist capital.
This was after the minister delivered a ministerial statement on the arrest of United Party for National Development (UPND) members following the killing incident.
“I have powers through the Registrar of Societies to deregister any political party which could continue to engage themselves in violent activites.We need to protect the lives of innocent citizens,” Mr Lungu said.
He said police officers were also capable and competent to deal with erring cadres regardless of their political parties and that Government would ensure everybody was protected against violent acts.
He said what transpired in Livingstone in which a PF cadre was killed by suspected UPND members was purely a criminal matter which the police in that area were dealing with.
“Sir, according to the police, in the evening of Monday, 25th February 2013 between 19:00 hours and 20:00 hours, UPND members attacked a truck carrying PF members. Since the assailant came from the UPND camp, the police apprehended all the occupants among them were two MPs,” he said.
He told the House that UPND Mazabuka MP Garry Nkombo and his Kalomo counterpart Request Muntanga had been absent from Parliament because they were among those apprehended.