By Kalani Muchima
Appointment of my primary school junior Fanwell Siandenge as Deputy Inspector General of Police for Special Duties at State house.
So during the the 2016 general elections and it was day five (5) in the election, I received a call to duty from Mr. Kambuku, one of President HH’S trusted body guards.
It was a brief call, he said Mwanta its time to roll and gave me the condinates which pointed at ECZ headoffice. I rushed there and found obvious Mwaliteta and Siandenge among others.
They had already cast the nets in readiness for ambush. In such operations you don’t spend time greeting people or hovering around. Instinct told me to go in my car and wait for a signal for the next coarse of action.
Note that we had received intel that two ZAF choppers carrying pre-marked presidential ballot papers had left Ndola for Lusaka.
After minutes of waiting, boom, two choppers following each other were seen landing at the ZAF longacres base.
As the two choppers were landing, I then saw two landcruisers coming from inside ECZ head office driving into the ZAF base.
For the sake of some Kaondes and Tonga’s who have never been to Lusaka, ZAF head office and ECZ head office are just next to each other just surrounded by the Auditor general’s office and the Ministry of Health.
Then the mood at the scene started becoming tense. I could feel it although I was alone in tha car just observing what was going on.
The entrance to ZAF was highly guarded by assault riffle officers.
In the waiting game, I saw the very two landcrusisers which came from ECZ making their way out of ZAF.
As the cruisers made their way out and few meters from ZAF, I saw a Toyota Macky2 rushing towards the cruisers and blocked them from proceeding.
Then hell broke lose at that point but the situation just became something else.
The boys who in a bus quickly moved in to grab the contraband and boom it was pre-marked presidential ballot papers.
That incident lasted for very few minutes and it was game over. THE operation however went wrong when Mr. Siandenge failed to reverse his car to escape and ended up leaving it behind and if am not mistaken jumped on the bus.
Those pre‐marked ballot papers were part of the 2016 presidential petition.
After the operation, I thought it was wise to call colleagues from the media but at that stage most institutions were siding with the PF so I called colleagues from the Post Newspapers Zambia namely Justinah Kapambwe Mukuka Chambwa Moonga, Melony chisanga and can’t remember others who came.
As the situation unfolded, madam Mumbi phiri who was and still PF Deputy Secretary General was seen emerging from the ECZ offices accompanied by Eddie Gowa and other guys I couldn’t recognise. At this point I had gathered some courage to film.
I walked to Mrs. Phiri to find out what she was doing at the ECZ offices when all stakeholders where at Mulungushi International Conference centre, her response was that she went to the ECZ offices to collect her Identity card which got lost.
As I was having an interview with Mrs Phiri i saw two hard body landcruisers driving at very high speed with lights on.
It was Kaizar Zulu I have even tagged him so that he can neither confirm nor deny.
When KZ arrived, he was tensed up, he was in no mood of joking and ready to do anything. By this time the whole entire area was now painted green with police uniforms.
The place was officially a crime scene.
Kaizer asked where Mwaliteta was and he was told he had fleed the scene.
He kaizer ordered that mwaliteta be found and killed. Those were his exact words.
As the situation grew more tense, I and colleagues opted to go and sit in their bus. Then I saw Eddie Gowa approaching our bus, luckily the bus was not branded and the guys hid their ID’S mind you this was the time when the relationship between the post and PF had reached dangerous levels.
So Eddie or Commando from Intercity then, came looked at us with his pistol visibly showing. I remember asking my colleagues not to say anything though I could see Justinah shivering.
When Eddie saw me he relaxed and just “ahh kanshi naimwe mwalitwalukila “so even you, you are nolonger with us” my response was that we are still together.
He then left and went to jump into one of the cruisers which came with KZ.
The following day I met Mwaliteta at HH’s House and the next thing I heard he was arrested for Aggravated robbery a case i covered from day one till he was released.
By this time, my junior Siandenge had sort refuge at some village in the south and was also caught but survived by a whisker.
He then exited Zambia and only returned when HH was declared winner.
Reddies and Jentrimen a round of applause for a man who risked his life to liberate Zambia Fanwell Siandenge.
Congratulations on your appointment as DIG for special duties at state house..