WE HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN HIS REIGN, ECL WILL NEVER BE AN OPTION FOR THE PEOPLE OF CHILANGA – CHAMPION TEMBO
….We feel his comeback is only aimed at continuing where he stopped from in terms of violence and property grabbing
THE return to politics of the sixth Republican President, Mr. Edgar Lungu, a man Chilanga district roundly rejected in the district during the 2021 general elections, cannot pass without a comment.
To start with, we want to make it known that his return has invoked a lot of sad memories. We feel Chilanga experienced the worst political machinations and thuggery under his rule. If we look into the rear view mirror, we see ugly scenes that characterized the Chimanja ward by elections where a lady by the name of Linda from Kanyama constituency was badly injured by thugs from PF.
return reminds us of the the ugly scenes of the 2018 parliamentary and mayoral by-elections which they manipulated and left many of our supporters injured. And during the 2021 general elections, Mr. Lungu’s PF literally turned Chilanga into a battle ground were a good number of our people sustained injuries, and even a life was lost. We also vividly remember how PF brutally attacked our women and youths, and ourselves on the nominations day.
Our people in the name of Purity Chizondi, Namoonga Mulukwa, Maclinah Tembo, Timothy Ndalama, Evelyn Tembo, and many others were brutally injured by PF carders who were led by the PF constituency youth chairman known as Goliath. Dockets for the PF thugs were opened but they were never followed up, and to this day, Purity Chizondi still has fears to attend large gatherings due to the beatings she suffered at the hands of the PF thugs. Namoonga Mulukwa still experiences nightmares of being chased by the PF thugs due to the same incidence.
Ourselves when we went to file in our nominations, we were attacked by PF carders who were led by their constituency chairperson, Francis Malauni, at Parklands in the presence of police officers. We had to run away, and seek refuge at Chilanga Police Station, and go back under police escort. When our Republican President, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema, who was in the opposition then, came to campaign to Chilanga, he didn’t have the freedom to interact with the people of Chilanga.
He was blocked, and the security team had to whiskey him away, even when there was a program which didn’t only just mention that he was coming, but it was a day deserved for the UPND. In areas like Namalombwe, UPND was never given space to campign. The PF did all this thuggery with the financial help from RATSA – Mimosa which trained thugs and rewarded them for their criminal activities.
In terms of governance, our institutions of governance were completely destroyed as they could do things only at the whim of politicians. We had a situation during the voting day of the 2016 general elections in Chilanga were the ECZ set up polling stations at Ndozo Lodge which never existed. How people were going there to cast there ballots only the PF knows. The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources could not issue known UPND members with titles in areas like Namalombwe which PF regarded as a no go area for UPND.
So, in as much as it’s his democratic right, bringing back Mr. Lungu is like bringing back our colonial masters, and say no, after we chased the colonial masters, we are now a democracy, and that entails embracing everyone including the colonial masters. Memories of what they did to the people then can never be erased. So even us the people of Chilanga can never forget what we went through during the time when Mr. Lungu was a master.
Our feeling in Chilanga is that ECL’s comeback into politics is aimed at continuing where he stopped from. All he wants to come back for is to entrench the culture of carderism were PF thugs will again begin to undress our women for wearing the cloth they don’t approve. He also wants to come and entrench the culture of grabbing people’s properties among other evils.
In the line of developmental works, the PF regime did nothing in Chilanga. During the time some roads were being constructed in Lusaka under L400, I was a councillor for Chilongolo ward. When we went to lobby for roads at the ministry of works and supply, we were told that the roads were for urban Lusaka, and that Chilanga was rural. Up to now, it still pains us because all the roads that were constructed in Lusaka were actually built using some materials from Chilanga, and yet no roads were built for us.
With that said, we want to let the PF know that Chilanga has changed for the better under the New Dawn administration, and that ECL will never be an option for the people of Chilanga. We say so because our women and youths are now free to put on political clothes of their choice without being harassed, our farmers can now go to Soweto Market without being subjected to some illegal payments for them to trade, no one is grabbing properties from anybody, and CDF empowerment is being given to anyone regardless of political affiliations.
The trend of politics which has been brought by the New Dawn administration where political players are tolerant of each other is what the people of Chilanga aspired for, and they want this atmosphere to continue. The people of Chilanga feel that the New Dawn administration understands that politicians are simply managers of the status of the nation economically, politically and socially, and this includes fairly treating some Zambians who may not be interested in politics.
In conclusion, I want to call upon our law enforcement officers to activate investigations for the people who perpetrated violence during the PF rule. We’ve got known thugs like Goliath, Charles Mwango, and Oga among others whose dockets were opened at Mt. Makulu police post. What we want is that the police officers must resuscitate the investigations and apprehend these known thugs before they can again embark on their murderous path due to their master’s comeback.
I submit!
Champion Tembo
CHILANGA DISTRICT UPND VICE CHAIRPERSON – ADMIN
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The problem is that Upnd is so fearful that they don’t even understand what he said. Edgar Lungu said he has come out of retirement to save PF from being savagely mutilated by Upnd. He’s not interested in standing for presidency, but urged all opposition political parties to come together to fight the manipulations by Upnd. Opposition should agree to field one candidate , who can be Fred Mmembe, Harry Kalaba, Kelvin Fine etc, ! That’s what he said. But Upnd have a big problem with that because they think he’s the only who can . With poor performance of Upnd, economically, socially , politically, anybody and any party can defeat Upnd.
Upnd is winning in almost all by-elections, even in pf strong holds. Which party can beat upnd, all these parties are jokers. Pf is so finished that fuledi has to speak for them. They can’t even hold their party together, two years down the line they are in two pieces.