POLICE in Southern Province is geared to counter the youth who intend to mount protests in the province over the re-alignment of Chirundu and Itezhi-tezhi districts. President Sata recently moved the two districts from Southern Province to Lusaka and Central provinces, respectively.
Southern Province police commissioner Brenda Muntemba said in an interview on Wednesday that the police is ever ready for anything that comes its way, effectively fulfilling its mandate to protect people’s lives and property.
“By virtue of being police officers, we must always be prepared,” Ms Muntemba said.
She said the youths have applied for a permit and the police are still looking at the application before making a decision on whether to grant them or not.
But United Party for National Development (UPND) Southern Province vice-chairman John Chidyaka has asked police to co-operate with the protesters, who now include UPND members in the province. Mr Chidyaka said if police do not co-operate, the protesters will go on with the protests and disregard the officers’ presence.
“If police don’t grant us the permit, we will go ahead without it. From all walks of life, we will demonstrate. We hope the police will co-operate with us,” he said. Mr Chidyaka said the UPND leadership in the province has sanctioned the protests.
He said the protesters are exercising their right to freedom of expression on the re-alignment of the districts. MMD Southern Province chairman Edgar Keembe said his provincial leadership has not taken any position on the matter.
But speaking as co-chairperson of the Choma stakeholders’ meeting on the re-alignment of Chirundu and Itezhi-Tezhi, Mr Keembe said the people of Southern Province are not happy with the decision.
Mr Keembe said the people were not consulted on the re-alignment, which is ‘a recipe for conflict’. He called on Government to initiate talks with the people of Southern Province on the matter.
The Post newspaper yesterday carried a story in which it said a youth group calling itself ‘Mazabuka Youth Entrepreneurs’ had distributed fliers in readiness for the protests which should have taken place yesterday in the district.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Mama Brebda Mtemba,dont be decieved by the Cobra..! its common knowledge tat yr appointment depneds on abiding by Cobra` wish..buy hey..give the people the permit to exercise their freedom coz after all you ll need them u ll be soon dropped from position.GO ON GUYS ,THE WHOLE SOUTHERN PROV IS BEHIND EVERY STEP TAKEN TO RESTORE OUR LOVELY PROVINCE.pride and integrity is the MOTTO.
RB vs barotse,SATA vs southern.tumoneko ni chaona mzako mawa chili pa iwe.
Imwe pls do we need this mess? These are the fruits of tribalism. What development is this going to bring. Democracy requires consultation: so far no one from PF has provided any tangible reason for this nonsense. The reasons provided don’t really hold any water.
Just vote wisely in 2016
Enough is enough. it is now getting out of hand.
Mr Chidyaka be careful when doing things you are asked to do. Those UPND Mps who ask youths to protest will not be there, the police will arrest you and your family will suffer, they will not even come to police cells to rescue you. My brother take a thought before doing something illegal. My fellow youths lets not do things out of frustrations. The HH and the group will not bail you out, they will just be saying we are sorry for you that you arrested. Your wives and children will suffer. THIS ADVISE IS FREE OF CHARGE THINK TWICE THINK OF YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS, YOUR WIFE, YOUR CHILDREN. TAKE THIS IF YOU DON’T YOU WILL REMEMBER THESE WORDS. THEY WILL NOT COME TO RESCUE YOU IN POLICE CELLS. WHY SHOULD YOU INVOLVE YOURSELVES IN ILLEGAL THINGS
coward!!! i bet your wife would even leave you home and go to protest. protesting is not illegal. you are ill informed.
Northern Province divided no protest. Some towns in Eastern Province realigned no protest, Now southern Protests. This shows tribalism at its best in Tongaland. Tell me which tribe is protesting?
One of the colours on our flag is red. It is not there for decorative reasons, no. It represents the blood that was shed by our forefathers who died in fighting against colonial rule in present day Zambia. We won, but at a great cost in terms of lives. We have since moved on as a Nation, and have forgiven our former colonial masters, but we have NOT forgotten. Now, for one of our own in the name of current President Michael Sata to demean all that sacrifice and take us back to the dark ages of colonial type of rule and glorify it, is an affront to the Zambian people. This is wrong.The result is conflicts. Sata is creating problems instead of creating jobs. He is clearly in over his head as Head of state.
Maybe we need war to develop because it seems most prosperous nations have gone through atrocities to be where they are today. Lets fight each other and carry on fighting till we reach the sea, curving some new territories along the way. Zambians have never experienced war and that’s way we get tempted because we don’t know what it’s like to live in a war zone. Those glorifying this monster president of ours will have blood on their hands when thinks get out of hand. It only takes a mad man to start it all off and soon people’s smiles will be wiped from their faces.
#8 are you saying we need war? your logic fails miserably. any way let the tonga’s fight im too far to be affected in eastern province.
Shame on you PF fagarts and chi sata. . F. U. C. K. You!
Democracy, let the youth protest, but if they put law into there hands, police should come in period!
If the people don’t want to be re-aligned, leave them where they are, and find an alternative way of bringing development to them.
As the common saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
why bringing development to them? The Tonga”s thinks Southern is a country on its own. I advise Mr. Sata not to re-aligned the two districts and lessen the development to Southern Tonga Country.
Northern province and eastern province were divided to make one province and there was no noise but whats wrong with southern province. some people are very primitive,you cant understand. this is morden zambia tongas dont be too petty you are ever behind in handling issues.
U tongas its true u ar shallow minded like given put it.Wheather u like it or not we ar getting chirundu and itezhitezi.I have told u our next target is livingstone wil leave u with namwala.We wil make sure that tongas wil never ever rule zambia our next presido is kambwili .
Tongas shallow-minded? Maybe they are the only ones who know their rights and who won’t be deceived by empty political rhetoric. Maybe it is those who fail to protest against dictatorial tendencies who are shallow-minded. In any case the land taken from Eastern province to Muchinga is of no economic significance, whereas Chirundu and ITT are economically significant; that is the difference. No one is against realignment; but the realignment must make sense and it can only make sense when there is dialogue and consultation. We are not a kingdom to be ruled by decree. We are a democracy. We are not a police state to be against protests; we are a democracy – or have we suddenly become a demon-cracy?
Let War begins.
We will fight to the Bitter end and eventually win.
flag you are a fool!
The youth have right to protest especially over the called realignment,its only a fool thinks that only a realignment can bring development to a particular area. I have never heard of any country in world that developed through divisions,so for any normal person this is a very sad moment. There is no hope for us poor people in this country,as much time will be spent by government quarreling with this one and that one. Only an insane person can be happy about this !!!!!.
In case some people do not know what politics is all about. Let me just say in brief that it comes from a greek word polis to mean society so it was adopted to mean a means to bring development to the society. The will of the people in the society should be taken into consideration whenever a decision affecting them is to be passed. To force somebody to agree on the thing which is not according to his will is a like raping somebody. For those blogger who are attacking Tongas as being primitive and tribalistic they are using unclear lenses to look at them but I believe Tongas are peaceful, intelligent and they feel they own the land where they are but does not mean they do not allow others to come. It is a human right to possess and to denounce the possession there are procedures to be foll
THIS IS A CLEAR INDICATION THAT IT IS ACTUALLY UPND WHO ORIGINATED THIS PROTEST AND ARE MORE INTERESTED IN DISTURBILISING PF PROGRESSIVE DECISIONS. HOWEVER, THIS IS NOT TO SAY PEOPLE CAN’T PROTEST IF THEY IT RIGHT TO. BUT PROTESTS SHOULDN’T BE POLITICALLY MOTIVATED.
For southern province to be the only developed Rural Province implies tat Tongas are focussed,development oriented.Therefore all those from impoverished provinces are themselves backward.
reading some comments on here shows you how Sata has divided the country in 4 months. im a tonga man born and grew up in ndola, my tonga and bemba relatives have been in the copperbelt even before 1964. this man should be more careful, where are the catholics to advise this man.
get geard 4 lozis too.we had mongu killings 4 rupiah now it wl be choma and mongu killins 4 sata coz lozi ar kamin wounded now wts gragez 4 bn chited en hvn lost zr blvd ones last year.watch out
Tongos u have incounted the four kicks on the dying hourse. The first one was when the lozis got the wealth, the tebele (debele)people under mzilikazi too,the ZESCO building of the world s lardest man made luke kaliba, I should not mention the natural course,the investors. :((:(( is it preasing to be in southern once know to be the food baskert of the country and high education in KK error . Should u hold your freunt(nyeele) and brow the whole nights or kuyabela.Damana dime wenu.
“”As Zambians, we have never had any problems in terms of tribes and things, and no civil war, I think we are different in that respect,” he said.” WELL SAID KALUSHA BWALYA
#6 & 12,
I am sorry I have to differ with your line of thinking, if Northern province and E province swallow anything forced down their throats it does not necessarily mean that every other province should just accept any nonsense imposed on them. It is called democracy and dictatorship should not be allowed to rear it’s ugly head. Make no mistake, people are ready to be shot, maimed and killed for their rights, ask the Lozis.
Ooh yes, we will go to “war” using a key board? Good luck bane as you destroy the repuration for Zambia. Remember, investors come in all sizes and shapes; but they all gauge the mood of the province and or the nation. Africa, Zambia; what have we done to you God that you could not increase our level of thinkage sure!!
Now I see it clearly, can’t be a coincidence. So the appointment of IG Stella was timely, use her to sort out her own.
If other tribes do not know their rights hence can accept whatever an individual decides, then that cannot be accepted in southern province where people have rights. These people at times do their best to contribute to their development as such no one can take what belongs to them. If development depends on realigning their districts, then let sata take it somewhere else where it is badly needed. As far as southerners are concerned, development can find you anywhere, forcing a sense of belong on people does not bring development. Tongas have the right to be suspicious about this move, because the leader in statehouse is a divide and rule man who enjoys seing people divided, but his this will not work on people who already have rights.
We know that power is sweet, but nga mwafilwa, just resign and call early elections. It is better to swallow your pride than destroying your own country. I hope that Ban ki Moon has told us that today otherwise it would be irresponsible to let trouble begin and then frantically start organising peacekeepers and relief food to a country that is fully capable of feeding itself and keeping its own peace. We cannot allow ourselves to degenerate into the Somalia’s of this world!
Sata should accept that he made a mistake, southerners are people who value consultation, nothing is imposed on them. These are people who have no central authority (no paramount chief), hence they are democratic and free to make decisions to develop their areas. What southerners would consider to be meaningful and real development is to construct a road from Choma the new provincial HQ to Itezhi-tezhi and Chirundu to reduce the distance, and not realigning these to districts to other provinces. They shoud not even accuse Hakainde on this one, it is purely Sata’s failure to consult because he knows the move has a hidden agenda. Southerners know their rights and no one can take that away from them.
Well, by the time Satan realises his stinking tribal realignments have been bursted, there will be no Zambia to talk about as One Nation. North Western, Western and Southern are all at boiling point. I would imagine the BRE council will come out blazing from all guns. We’re in trouble and only a fool can deny this.
Stella and Brenda, advise your bosses correctly. Your officers on the ground probably have a different opinion, they probably see self-inflicted trouble here.
Why force development on tongas in the disguise of taking away their land. Demonstrations are part of your rights…in mongu they allowed them to remember the dead. You can’t even be allowed to remember your departed districts
It is simple, allow them to demonstrate and keep an eye on them, if any of them breaks the law deal with them period.
muzaymba kufa one by one bakawalala imwe..mwapya!!leave Chirundu & ITT in SP..problem is bembas like stealing too much so we are scared of losing so much money!!
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