Opposition Zambia Must Prosper has condemned the recent arrest of its interim party President Kelvin Fube Bwalya for alleged money laundering.
Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) on Wednesday arrested Mr. Bwalya, a lawyer and politician, for failing to report a suspicious transaction involving property worth over K6 million.
Mr. Fube has since been released on Police bond on account that he will never travel out of the country without notifying DEC.
In reaction, Zambia Must Prosper Secretary General Ruth Chikasa has accused the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) of suffocating the opposition because the Hakainde Hichilema – led government is failing to meet citizens’ expectations.
Ms. Chikasa said her party has bemoaned the prevailing political space in Zambia.
Ms. Chikasa said the UPND government is intimidating opposition leaders in order to steal people’s attention from it’s failures.
“It is sad to see what is happening in the political arena in as far as the way opposition party leaders are being treated. The UPND government is intimidating opposition leaders because it has failed meet it’s promises to the people,” she said during a live programme on Diamond TV on Wednesday night.
Mrs Chikasa observed that after believing that Zambia would have a level playing field, where both the ruling and opposition parties would play their roles in the governance of the country, the opposite is happening.
“To maintain democracy in any nation, there is need to have a ruling party and the opposition to ensure checks and balances, without which, there is a risk of jeopardizing democracy,” she noted.
She said months ago while in the UPND Alliance, there were no issues as regards investigations or prosecutions of opposition leaders but it is surprising that such matters have arisen since ZMP opted to leave the Alliance.
“Some of our members in the UPND are on record as saying we have a dossier on KBF and he should not be speaking. What do they mean? That everyone must tow the line? Where is democracy in the country? This is not the democracy that we fought for. This is not the democracy we want for our country. The ruling party has a role to play just as the opposition also has a role to play”.
She called on Zambians to stand up against oppressive manoeuvres by the UPND government, warning that Zambia risks falling into a one party State.
Ms. Chikasa urged the opposition to work together in providing checks and balances and never allow the ruling party to do as they wish.
Mr. Bwalya has been a critic of the New Dawn Government after leaving the UPND Alliance to form Zambia Must Prosper.
KBF has also in the recent past dared to arrest him saying he has never committed any offence related to corruption.
The former senior PF official last month said he left the UPND Alliance because the New Dawn government of President Hakainde Hichilema has not respected the agreement that made him work with the alliance.
Mr. Bwalya alleged that President Hichilema has failed to unite the nation, to respect rule of law and to completely end cadrelism in markets and bus stations.
“We agreed to work together for a particular cause mine to protect and defend the constitution. The UPND whatever motivation they had that was their business. So that was the answer. I would not be appointed unless I had joined UPND. I am a practical man. Anybody who is going to claim he is not working under UPND today but he is in UPND government is lying through his teeth and you (Presenter) and I know that. Which policies are you going to be promulgating? Your own? No. You have to follow the policies of the party in power. Anybody who says he is a President of a political party but he is going to be in a government of another government, what are you doing? So for me our agreement was very simple. We need to protect the constitution,” he told Radio Phoenix.
“This was always the plan (forming a political party), this was always the plan. I never ever joined UPND. Let’s get that clear. I think there has been a lot said about how, why. Let me give some background to this. I stood against the PF on principle and that principle was I was not going to allow a third term to go against the constitution of this country. That I believed from the bottom of my heart that Edgar Chagwa Lungu was running for a third term. I didn’t not mind the Constitutional Court ruling, they had their views but that was my inner most gut feeling. That was a third term; we were not going to allow that. On principle that was my motivation for going against the Patriotic Front, a party which I had basically helped to grow, helped to expand and helped to live with,” Mr. Bwalya added.