PEOPLE ARE PROTESTING BECAUSE THEY ARE HUNGRY – PF
Wednesday, 20 September 2023
LEADER of the Opposition in the National Assembly Brian Mundubile has attributed the recent protests at the University of Zambia and in Mumbwa to the high cost of living.
And Mundubile says he has received a tip that investigative wings had planned to search his residence on Monday night.
On Monday evening, University of Zambia students rioted over the cancelation of UNZASU elections. The students blocked Great East road with drums and stones, burnt tyres and started stoning motor vehicles. During the riot, five shops were broken into and assorted groceries whose value is yet to be established were looted within the University.
And last week in Mumbwa, a rioting mob burnt two people to death after information went round that another person had been killed and their private parts removed.
Commenting on these riots in an interview, Tuesday, Mundubile said UPND should urgently address the hunger situation because people were angry.
“To quote President Hakainde Hichilema’s words when he was in opposition, ‘hunger leads to anger’. So, most of the reactions that you are seeing are as a result of hunger. Basically, people are looking for every opportunity to express themselves in that way, so I think what the UPND must understand now is that there is an urgent need for them to address the hunger situation in the country. You can’t have a situation [where] any little thing that happens, people take to the streets. The UPND government must move to see to it that they address the hunger situation.
The address by the President to Parliament left much to be desired because one actually thought that we lived in a different country. With so much going on, the President did not even spend six minutes on the issue of high cost of living. So, that indeed is a source of worry,” he said.
“We actually thought that after his visits to the compounds, he was going to come in and give hope to the Zambian people after fully understanding what the people were going through. But clearly, I think it was not his priority, had it been his priority, he was going to spend a bit more time, he was going to be a bit more engaging, trying to find solutions to these challenges. But as you could see, he merely glossed over it. So for me, I think that was a red flag to us all that we have a man in State House whose priority does not include addressing the high cost of living”.
And Mundubile said he had received a tip that investigative wings had planned to search his residence on Monday night.
“It is sad to learn that people wanted to visit us in the night, we wondered why in the night? Why not come in the day? As things turned out, nobody came. We received a tip off that people had been assembled to come and conduct a search at my residence. Of course the people who tipped were saying we need to be very careful because the people will come for purposes maybe not searching but planting something to incriminate us. So that was what our worry was about, we really have nothing to hide, but the concern was that people were coming with the aim of coming to plant some incriminating materials,” Mundubile said.
“As you know, the way the UPND works, they have a combined team of cadres and other government institutions. So, they obviously have some police, but in those teams, I am sure you have heard of people being tortured, the people who torture them are actually known cadres. So, that is how they operate normally. For official purposes, obviously there were going to be one or two uniformed people with their IDs but within there, there would be their own operatives who are cadres who have special instructions to make sure that they execute according to their masters”.
He accused President Hakainde Hichilema of trying to persecute opposition leaders.
“The UPND are more desperate than ever now so we expect them to change tricks. The truth of the matter is that things are very difficult now for President Hakainde Hichilema and in order to stay in office, one of the things they intend to do is to try and victimise opposition party leaders with the hope of silencing them. So, we are going to see a lot of strange things happening using state institutions, so it is just the beginning. So, the harassment will come from the fact that I am an opposition member and they do not want to receive any form of criticism. President Hakainde’s democracy is where he should be the only one speaking, when we object, some of the things, he is not comfortable, he would want to get rid of all the opposition voices so that he can govern according to how he wishes,” said Mundubile.
“This is serious, these are all efforts aimed at persecuting opposition political leaders. President Hakainde Hichilema is no longer talking about the rule of law, if you hear the tone in the President now, he would like to resort to all other methods but not the rule of law. If you listen to the UPND cadres, it is all orchestrated”.
(Credit: News Diggers)