By Merlyn Mwanza
There was indiscipline in Monze and everybody supported that, says police service spokesperson Esther Mwaata Katongo.
And Katongo has condemned retaliatory threats from the PF against UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema, on the Copperbelt and other areas, following the incident in Monze
Featuring on One Love Radio on 104.1 FM this morning, Katongo repeatedly referred to the incident in Monze where President Edgar Lungu was recently booed, whenever callers asked her on the violence and unruliness from the PF cadres, saying the indiscipline was coming from both the ruling party and UPND.
“There was indiscipline in Monze and everybody supported…they were even commenting on social media,” Katongo said during a radio programme monitored by Daily Revelation.
She dismissed assertions that the recent statement from Inspector General of police Kakoma Kanganja, that it would not be business as usual, was aimed at the opposition, saying the people who protested at police stations and those who were recently arrested in Muchinga were from the PF.
One of the callers asked Katongo why the police allowed PF cadres at the courts during Health minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya’s appearance, and wondering whether PF cadres were being given permits to march as they wished, but Katongo kept on telling the caller to “talk about Monze also.”
“Talk about Monze also, talk about Monze also,” Katongo spoke over the caller.
In responding to his questions, Katongo said it was unusual to find police officers manning the gates at the courts, but that there will now be police officers there during high profile cases.
She wondered if the people who gathered in huge numbers in Monze obtained a police permit to do so, saying the news could have been everywhere had it been the PF doing that.
“I have asked you deliberately talk about that act there (Monze), was it in order…chiwamila galu kuluma mbuzi,” Katongo said, adding that they were trying to magnify the acts being done by the others but failing to condemn their own wrongs. “It’s not even everywhere in social media.”
In apparent reaction to Lusaka Province minister Bowman Lusambo, who is heard in one of the videos saying that the cadres who were beaten in Mufulira were not PF cadres and that the game had just started, Katongo condemned such utterances coming from a leader, saying followers would take such as an instruction to do as they pleased.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Katongo said, saying no one should be stopped from going to any area of the country.
Katongo said what happened in Monze could not have been spontaneous, as the President was also in Mazabuka and such a thing never happened.
“There could be people who organised it,” she said.
People have argued that attempts to arrest the people who booed the President were unconstitutional as they were simply expressing their views and there was no crime in booing someone, Katongo said the police charged people according to subsidiary laws as the conduct in Monze was likely to cause a breach of peace.
“We will charge you according to subsidiary laws,” Katongo said.
She said these acts of unruliness were just being heard from PF and UPND cadres.
“Have you ever heard that cadres from FDD or cadres from Tayali’s party?” asked Katongo.