United Party For National Development (UPND) Presidential Campaign Team Member Beene Hachombwa says the amendment of the Public Order Act will allow every Zambian citizen including those in the Opposition to freely gather and mingle.
Mr Hachombwa stated that the amendment of the Public Order Act is one of the things that they have been campaigning for from the time they were in the opposition.
“The amendment of this Act is important because when we were in the opposition, we were not allowed to meet as a party because the law was only favouring those who where in the ruling party but today we want everyone to be free because we are all Zambian people,” he said
“President Hakainde Hichilema is very determined to ensure that this law is amended as soon as possible, and the Minister himself has made it clear that we are receiving submissions on what people want, because this law was the law for the Patriotic Front – PF, to us it is a law that was there to fix us, and today we are saying that let this law be amended to allow everyone to mingle because we want a free Zambia,” he added
Mr Hachombwa mentioned that their focus as a party is to deliver on what they promised to the people of Zambia, adding that Zambia is a democratic country where everybody is allowed to speak and their party does not expect everyone to have opinions that are in line with that of their party.
He said that President Hichilema wants people to exercise their fundamental right to speak ,hence, giving an assurance that this year the Public Order Act will be amended because this amendment has been long overdue.
“Even when the Public Order Act has not been amended yet, there is still freedom of assembly where people are gathering anywhere without the Police going to pounce on them,” he said
And when responding as to whether President Hichilema is a dictator, Mr Hachombwa noted that if at all President Hichilema was a dictator he would have amended laws such as the defamation of the president to fix people, further stating that the removal of this law does not mean people should now insult President Hichilema as he believes that every Zambian must exercise their rights.
“But to hear our colleagues say that the UPND are doing things like they dictators, I think with open eyes we are all looking at what has been happening in the past, where you would an opposition insulting the President and no one is following them, during their regime if you insult, I was a victim myself where the radio station was ambushed by the Police who picked us up, that’s how they operated but today there is nobody can be picked up for saying anything, that alone must tell you to say the President is promoting pure democracy,” he explained
“The difference between then and now is that when you spoke under the PF is just saying the truth you will be arrested but the difference with now is that for instance the National Democratic Congress – NDC leader Saboi Imboela goes on to insult and is called in at the Police for questioning because insulting is not allowed, that’s just normal, but people should not take advantage of the fact that the President Hichilema is saying no, let people talk, let us talk sense, and criticise the UPND and the President on what we promised the people of Zambia as their are so many things, and for us there are so many things that we need to concentrate on and not people who are busy insulting the President, because in 2023, we want to deliver to the people of Zambia and not give any excuses,” he further explained