IT’S A SCHEME
…Abductions, arrests part of HH’s third term push, says Muhabi
By Thandizo Banda
THE continued abductions and arbitrary arrests of citizens by security wings are meant to make President Hakainde Hichilema and shield him from accountability, We Are One Zambia (WOZA) and Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance secretary general Muhabi Lungu has said.
Lungu said the United Party for National Development (UPND) government was laying the ground for Hichilema’s push for a third term in office.
Speaking in an interview with The Mast yesterday, he said the continued clampdown on opponents and critics was aimed at stoking fear and silencing dissent ahead of a possible third term push and to make the President untouchable.
“According to the wife, [former minister Dr Katele] Dr Kalumba was literally abducted. Heavily armed soldiers and police did not explain why and where they were taking him. When it was announced, ruling party supporters dismissed it as fake. That forced his wife to make a recording,” Lungu said.
He said government had repealed the defamation of the president offence from the Penal Code only to smuggle it back in a stronger and more punitive form through the sedition and cyber laws.
The arrest of Dr Kalumba after he was bundled into a military vehicle from Chiengi in Luapula Province and driven all the way to Kabwe in Central Province only to be charged with sedition was laughable.
Lungu said the UPND government and its security wings were transferring treason-accused opposition leaders Brian Mundubile and Makebi Zulu from Kabwe to Solwezi for fresh charge, another sign of abusing the law.
He said the pattern suggested a new punishment tactic of using jurisdiction as a weapon.
“Dr Kalumba was transferred all the way from Chiengi to Kabwe because a Kabwe resident allegedly complained. So, we can speculate that we will all be arrested and transported to a distant district for prosecution as punishment. Same with Mundubile and Makebi. From Kabwe, now Solwezi,” he said.
“Essentially, if you offer constructive criticism to the President, you are abducted and booked for sedition or cyber harassment,” Lungu said.
He warned the conduct of the government amounted to militarisation of politics, with Zambia projected as a constitutional democracy but policed like a military state.
“There is no remorse from [the] perpetrators of this crackdown. One has to ask: Are these arrests meant to create fear so that the President becomes unaccountable to anyone?” Lungu said.
In a statement seen by The Mast, police spokesperson Godfrey Chilabi said Dr Kalumba was not abducted but lawfully apprehended on September 23 in Chienge and formally charged on September 24 at Kabwe Central Police Station with harassment under Section 22 of the Cyber Crimes Act No. 4 of 2025 for allegedly publishing content on August 11 to humiliate President Hakainde Hichilema.
