UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema says no one in the opposition alliance should harbor fear of a detention in a filthy police station because others were detained, to liberate Zambia.
Meanwhile, Kelvin Fube Bwalya says Zambians must vote out lawlessness this year.
At Fallsway Events Centre in Lusaka yesterday, Kelvin Fube Bwalya, Felix Mutati, and Ernest Mwansa joined the UPND Alliance, ahead of the August 12 general elections.
Bwalya, popularly known as KBF, is the head of the Zambia Must Prosper Movement, Mutati is the president of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Mwansa is the president of the Zambians for Empowerment and Development (ZED).
The trio goes under the alliance title of the Zambia We Want (ZWW).
Other prominent people at the event were UPND vice-president Mutale Nalumango, Mutati’s deputies Leonard Hikaumba and Shelly Thole, Charles Milupi, Josephs Akafumba, MDC secretary general Lucky Mulusa, ex-cabinet ministers Fackson Shamenda, Peter Machungwa and Professor Patrick Kalifungwa, and ex-secretaries to cabinet Leslie Mbula and Sketchley Sacika.
Hichilema, in his remarks at the event, said it is truism that when Zambians work together, they do deliver.
“When we take the example of all these men and women that have ceded their ambitions for personal agendas, we shall emerge victorious on the 12th of August 2021,” Hichilema said.
“Nothing we’ll deter us from serving the people of Zambia. Not even money!”
He told his partners that the alliance ought to win an election this year.
“This year, going forward, we have no choice… We should harbor no fear of a detention in a filthy police station. Those before us were detained,” he said. “But when we unite, when we work together, for a common good, for a common purpose, to liberate this country, and we will only do it by winning an election – that is a peaceful one, that’s a legal one – rule of law, governance, that’s the only opportunity we have president [Felix] Mutati to reconstruct this country. To reconstruct our social fabric, we have to win an election.”
He continued, saying: “when we work together, when we take the example of all these men and women that have ceded their ambitions for personal agendas, we shall emerge victorious on the 12th of August 2021.”
“Unity of purpose is the truism. It has delivered for this country, even against brutal regimes. Malawi was able to effect change. Here, too, is the time for change,” Hichilema said. “I want to alert all of you that these men and women seated here from this moment as the media spreads this infectious message of unity of purpose, you’ll be approached.”
He further cautioned those who joined the UPND Alliance about how desperate the PF regime would get, to an extent of wanting to buy them off.
“Some of you will be offered kasaka ka ndalama (a sack of money). Reject it! I know you will reject it. Those who have received tu saka twandalama bana yenda kudala (sacks of money already left),” he said. “Baoneka nooneka (you can actually see them). Baoneka (they look) lost in a house they don’t believe in. Be strong! Please be strong, let’s be strong.”
Hichilema said some would be threatened like some of us that: “tikumanga (we’ll arrest you).”
“There is nothing to fear. We have been in there, even the worst jails, in Mukobeko, we were there. We didn’t get broken. What should break us now when there’s decision by the Zambians to unite? [Unity] is on the table, is in the air, is written in the walls…What should scare us? Just be strong. Some would approach you that mwibomba naba Lozi, babi sana aba Lozi (don’t work with Lozis, they are very bad people),” explained Hichilema.
“Mwibomba naba Namwanga, mwibomba naba shani shani…O bushe mwalibeshiba bwino aba Tonga (do you know well Tongas)? Babi sana (they are very bad). There was no Lozi, no Namwanga, no Bemba, no Tonga in 1964. There was none in 1991, there was none in 2001.”
On his part, Bwalya said they decided to put their differences aside and agreed to work together.
“Our country has been divided, confused, abused and polarised on tribal lines. Most political activities have been characterised by threats, intimidation, verbal abuse and actual violence,” Bwalya said. “We are now a country living in fear, a country whose hope is lost and a country whose future is bleak. Our nation is enduring disunity, frustration, poverty, mistrust and a sense of hopelessness.”
He also regretted that the motto of One Zambia, One Nation is but an illusion.
“In the absence of the rule of law, it is difficult to make headways in most of the country’s progressive aspirations,” noted Bwalya. “When the rule of law fails, a country becomes dysfunctional. Let’s vote out lawlessness!”
Mutati described the alliance as a project, a baby that would, straight away, start running.
“This baby (the alliance) is born and beginning to walk. These are miracles! This baby wants to redefine the Zambia We Want. This new baby will never die! It will grow into that child that will deliver output for the people of Zambia,” said Mutati.
For Mwansa, “we have a Zambia which is here – the current one. And there is also a Zambia that we aspire for – the Zambia We Want.”
“We must keep in mind this [that there is] the Zambia we have and the Zambia We Want. No political manipulation can divide us because we are One Zambia, One Nation. Coming from different tribes has never before divided us. We have lived together and we have inter-married. But that is not the Zambia we have. They have destroyed that Zambia,” Mwansa said. “In the Zambia that we have, it matters that you speak a particular language. In the Zambia we have, you can’t tell whether you are going forward or backwards. In the Zambia that we have, political violence by power-hungry leaders and those who blindly follow them is a reality. But we want to tell them that the more violent they become, the more resolved we become to get rid of them. Those who think they can divide us on tribal lines have lost war.”