HE IS PANICKING
…Hichilema wants to create anarchy after sensing heavy defeat – Silumbe
By George Zulu
WE SHALL not allow any attempt by President Hakainde Hichilema to slide the country into a dictatorship ahead of the August elections, Leadership Movement (LM) presidential candidate Dr Richard Silumbe has warned.
Speaking in an interview with The Mast yesterday, Dr Silumbe said it was now clear that Hichilema’s government was panicking and under deep pressure.
Fear was forcing government to suffocate democracy by denying Zambians the freedom to assemble and freely elect their leaders.
“This is an election period, and instead of the United Party for National Development (UPND) government allowing people to assemble, it unleashed armed police officers to teargas everyone in Mazabuka to disperse, while in Kabwe and Chawama, victims were arrested and detained after being charged with serious crimes, which I believe were cooked-up charges,” he said.
Dr Silumbe said what happened in Mazabuka and Kabwe on Sunday was not just any other events but schemes to block the opposition from mobilising ahead of the August 13 general elections.
“We in the Leadership Movement are disturbed and deeply concerned by the events in Mazabuka, Chawama and Kabwe, where aspiring candidates were blocked from launching their political campaigns despite being granted permits by the police to do so. Sadly, they were blocked by heavily armed police officers, while some were brutally beaten, arrested and others ran away for their personal and family safety,” he said.
Dr Silumbe warned Hichilema and the UPND against turning Zambia into a battle zone ahead of the election.
He said Hichilema had sensed a heavy defeat in August and was doing everything possible to create anarchy in the nation so that he could blame it on the opposition.
“We know this scheme by the UPND. We are not strangers. We have seen how they have treated others in Kabwe, arresting victims who went to report violence of UPND cadres,” Dr Silumbe said.
“We shall be shocked if those in Mazabuka are not arrested, too. Some people are running away and hiding in the bush in Kabwe due to a tyrannical government. UPND cadres are beating people and yet Mr Hichilema is watching. It happened in Chawama just a few days ago and the victims were arrested and charged with aggravated robbery offences while allowing UPND cadres to continue ransacking and creating discontentment in the nation,” he said.
Dr Silumbe warned the time would come when the UPND leaders sponsoring well known cadres to spread anarchy in the nation would be made to account for their conduct.
And Dr Silumbe has challenged the UPND leadership to show Zambians what it has done to improve their lives in the last five years of being in government.
He said instead of beating people and blocking Zambians from mobilising ahead of the elections, those in government should show how they had reduced the high cost of living compared to what it was in 2021 when they took over government.
“This is what the people of Zambia have been waiting for. We have 63 days before elections, and Zambians are still waiting to see what the UPND has done in the last five years in power. Zambians can hear them announce what they have done, but nothing to see. Nothing to show. Zambians are worse off now than they were under the previous government. Things have become harder than they were in 2021,” Dr Silumbe said.
He said if Zambians did not want to suffer again, they should wake up and protect their vote from vote buying by the UPND.
Vote rigging started with denying people freedoms and constitutional rights such as freedom to assemble, freedom of speech and freedom of association as was the case in in Mazabuka, Chawama and Kabwe where police blocked former UPND MP Gary Nkombo from launching his campaign on Sunday.
“I am wondering whether this is what the UPND meant when it told people about ‘salt sana’, and this is why Zambians must wake up. This country is fast sliding into a dictatorship under Mr Hichilema. He has failed to convince Zambians about his claims that he has performed better than any other previous government,” Dr Silumbe said.
He urged Hichilema to start making peace with Zambians because in the next 63 days, he would be without the state power he was abusing now.
“I want to address my brother, Mr Hichilema. Start making peace with people. In the next 63 days you will be a former president and you will need these people to speak for you. Stop this tyrannical type of leadership. You are hurting Zambians,” he said.
