Confusion characterised the much awaited United Party for National Development (UPND) public rally in Lusaka’s Kabwata yesterday as police in riot gear apprehended more than 10 unruly suspected Patriotic Front (PF) cadres for attempting to disrupt the gathering.
The unruly youths assembled at the Kabwata Basic School grounds two hours before the rally started and were chasing away people wanting to attend the rally.
Residents in the vicinity of the grounds locked themselves in their houses as the unruly youths took control of affairs, beating up unsuspecting members of the public and forcing nearby shop owners to close their business prematurely.
The situation returned to safety when close to 100 armed police officers in riot gear arrived at the scene and apprehended several youths for causing disorder ahead of the public rally addressed by party leader Hakainde Hichilema.
The Police officers bundled the youths into waiting vans and transported them to Kabwata Police Station.
As calm returned, some pockets of the unruly youths confronted police while chanting PF slogans and charging at UPND supporters that had assembled in readiness for their meeting, but they were restrained and ordered to leave the premises.
Police officers in verbal confrontation with the youths warned the youths that they risked facing arrest over their continued unruly behaviour.
“We will not tolerate this behaviour and if you continue thinking that we are being entertained with your conduct, just leave this place. We will only give you a few minutes to leave,” said one uncompromising officer.
The situation deteriorated when UPND supporters charged at their opponents throwing stones, leading to police intervention and apprehending of more suspects.
Inspector General of Police, Stella Libongani briefly visited the scene and held talks with UPND’s Mazabuka Central Member of Parliament, Garry Nkombo.
Mr Nkombo complained of alleged incompetence by police to control the youths who were accused of belonging to the ruling party.
But Ms Libongani assured the opposition MP that reinforcements would be deployed to provide adequate safety.
Casualties were minimal during the fracas lest for a ZNBC news crew that was attacked by the uncompromising youths. The youths also threatened to manhandle a Times news team that was covering the incident at the time.
And Lusaka Province Police Commissioner Joyce Kasosa when contacted by press time said she was still awaiting a full report on the incident before issuing a comprehensive statement.
“I haven’t yet received a full report, I am still waiting, so I can’t give details right now of how many have been arrested,” Ms Kasosa said.
One wonders what PF supporters where doing there.
Isn’t this insecurity?
Let people assemble and sell themselves, and the people judge who to follow.
If you keep restraining people from expressing themselves then you are indicating that may be they have something to offer more than you are offering.
Let the people judge for themselves.
Cs,
I ask the same question, what were PF thugs doing there? Zambia belongs to all and people have the right to express themselves freely.
Now people can judge which party is violent in Zambia. Meanwhile HH that is the way to go, Zambia needs you as much as you need Zambia. Go HH, Go Upnd.
PF Goons are it again.
PF hooliganism at its best
How would one know if the are really PF youths or that they are UPND youths pretending to be PF youths just to paint a bad picture of the other party? Is there a different skin color or markings on foreheads for a particular party?
Why would they fight then if they were all UPND?
Why would they seek to interrupt their own rally?
You perception doesn’t match reality.
As usual i don not expect any reasonable thinking in PF. As a PF you have just exposed you poor thinking in your party. Anything stinking is PF.
Really! I mean really! Do you think UPND supporters would pretend to be PF and then attack themselves. Your logic does not make any sense.
@ Ricky Bobby…THANK YOU I had no idea what to say to Mwana Chipolopolo, ( like a soldier shooting himself in the foot just to show he can take the pain)
Baba you are a very unintelligent person, but I won’t fault that. I blame the people that were supposed to teach you the basics of sensibility (makolo yako).
Pf thinking shows their brains are sink
Kuma mako mshenzi wewe,umefilwa na baba wako, nyoko.wana chama wa UPND wataletaje vurugu kwenye mukutano wao?
It does not make sense for UPND carders to dress and sing PF songs just to attack their own people. Is that what the PF would have done if they were denied their right to assembly while in opposition?
It is possible especially when they are paid money by HH to disrupt the meeting and then he would cry foul that it is PF.
Very dull and empty comment.. Typical PF character…
@Mwana Chipolo#5
You are only entertaintaining us with your failed attempt in marrying honesty UNPD activities with unintelligent concoctions, and please, we need to be entertained and educated through the rich food of thought.
What is the rationale for the UNPD leadership in orchestrating violence and playing a victim of its actions? Your sort of thinking in this instance has no shred of sense but a pack of childish stupid imaginations which are a reflection of your desperations.
Those that build the titanic thought it could never be sunk, the reason for it sinking was unyielding and inconsiderate captain, he sailed that thing straight into an iceberg. Those of us soaring in the air can see your fate if you don’t change direction now. Rather than an iceberg there is a tsunami wave ahead of you.
To the contrary, the captain of the titanic said “not even God can sink it”. That is why the titanic met its fate. The same applies to HH who does not believe in God, but thinks money he stole from privatisation will give him votes to plot one, come 2016, his party will sink yet again. HEMCS has been put there by God and therefore his boat will not sink prematurely.
@ Kasabula My point is the president and his leadership think they have it all now and nothing can shake them, this vanity will bring about the downfall of PF and all that come with it.
All I ask is that they start listening to good advice so they can guide the nation towards sustainable development. That said, I don’t care about your religious affiliation. I care about my country, One Zambia , One Nation. For these words to hold true we need LEADERS not politicians, but a politician can be a leader. These guys are bosses who think their crap doesn’t stink.
Leave him he is amental disordered patient he cant analylise the situation like that
I thought there are many Tongas in Lusaka but only a few attended the rally.shame….I feel pity for HH. Can’t he just go back to the corporate world?
The violence by any Party is deploarable but the whole situation ahs to put in context for any student of Zambian politics to explain what exactly transpired. Kabwata constituency, which the UPND chose to have their rally is not a calm or politically stable constituency at the moment. Its member of paprliament, Hon. Given Lubinda, who is Minister of Foreign Affairs is facing charges of treacery in his Party PF, which has threatened to expel him. His charges include giving information to the opposition and social media, with UPND mentioned in the process. Therefore, a bye election there is quite likely, should the PF choose to expel their flamboyant and popular MP. Those who call for his expulsion claim he is not popular in the constituency and accuse him of campaigning to stand on UPND TBC
contined from above… So the rally was shadow boxing, demonstrating popularity in Kabwata by the UPND as a head start before possible bye-election or even a scare tactic to the PF to think twice before expelling their MP. For the PF, assuming the cadres who were ofund were PF and they were stopping the people from attending that rally, the mission was to show that the rally flopped, not too many people attend it so that the theory of PF and not just their charimatic MP Given Lubinda is popular in the area. Most importantly for the PF, demonstrating that the UPND has no political muscle in Kabwata was important. So both Parties had ulterior motives in the whole ecnario than what the public were seeing, the methods used may by objectionable, but at the end of the day it was all political e
stupid bloggers paid chibuku by pf are talking nonsense here.why cant you just be objective and use your brain
The same people you are insulting are the ones to do the Voting in 2016. You need votes from Kaponyas to win. Tongas are too few to make you win an election
Sata….nists were at it again! Unleashing their evil! God deliver us from these Sata….nists!
One thing we all need to bear in mind is that politics as you know it is very different at the grassroots.You have call boys belonging to all the parties and they think Zambia is one big battlefield .For them starting a fight is normal and all you people think is that the political leaders send them.To the contrary even if it was HH in state house thugs would come to the surface and Sing UPND while beating up people.The truth is we have hooligans in our country and no political party can control them for now.Just watch the turn of events and you will mark my words.When our literacy rates increase and we have more educated people maybe in the next 40 years .Then and maybe then can we see an end to this.It’s not HH or Sata’s fault but the fault of our failed education system.
I totally agree with your analysis. These boys whether PF or not just enjoy noise and battles. They will insult anyone irrespective of their age as long as they are under the influence of alcohol. Most of them are always drunk, it does not matter what time. Even before PF came into being, these boys could cause havoc. It is not that they are sent by anyone, they enjoy what they do best, drinking and harassing human beings especially those they they perceive to be superior to them. Remember the Kachingwe harassment, those were not MMD but call boys/drunkards.
TRUE
hat rally was so poorly attended. Only a handful of people turned up. I really feel pity for HH and his UPND. This party is not going anywhere. In my view the biggest bottleneck in HH himself. You can’t force yourself to be a politician. Cant this man see that he is not a politician, surely?
There must be so many vibrant Tonga speaking brothers who can help party win elections. HH has failed politically.
We certainly do not need your unqualified comments.
We are proud of HH whether he stammers or not when he speaks in front of two people/five million people. Still tied to the above, even though HH staggered when climbing steps on his way to the stage in front of his enemies, we would still support him until the bitterest end.
We are fully aware of the costs and benefits in the game of dirty politics and we do not need to be reminded of or taught about the pros and cons of HH ‘s participation in the opposition, therefore keep your views to yourself, thank you
The peaceful manner in which UPND conducted its public rally has given the Police Service proof that problems are always fermented by the PF cadres at the instigation of their PF Govt . Even civilised members of the PF party do also join us in our prayer asking God to restore sanity in Zambia. The US and UK Govt must regret for their folly to experiment on genetically cruel leaders in the same way the US Govt supported Bin Laden when the USSR was fighting the Afghanistans in Asia. Bin Laden later mutated into a Monster that has propagated the worst form of terrosism in this world.
@ kabanshi
Those chaps were sent and we all know who sent them. Lets not pretend these colonial tactic can only be from one source.
You will turn green with your envy of HEMCS, 5th President of the Republic of Zambia. Everything you do including bonking your wife you think of the president. Mwanya muzayonda. 2016 is not now dear, oh sorry, even that is a falacy.
The behaviour of those who went to the venue of the rally to cause confusion whether they are PF or UPND or whoever is uncalled for. This is the reason government will continue to insist on keeping the public order act. Please lets behave like civilised people and help move our country forward. We are only taking ourselves and country backwards for no reason. UPND, UNIP, FDD,NAREP are our brothers and sisters.
Asking Zambian, especially PF, youths to behave like civilised people is a tall order. Remember that most of these youths are not civilised therefore asking them to behave well is a waste of time. The only language that they understand is brute force. Thumps up to the police.
pf premature ejaculation..thats what happens..those missed sperms you sent ..soon you will pack..long live opposition..
imwe is it true that former police spokesperson Brenda Mutemba and former northern police commanding officer Antonel Mutentwa were fired because opposition upnd. If it is true them civil servants should distant themselves away from the politicians or else many will loose employment. It is sad for Hard working brenda to loose employment like that sure
does that guy at house no 2 Chuzu street have a liquor licence..Mwamba..?
mhmm then next time bwana mukubwa ku polisi deny pf a permit when they want to hold a rally..till they learn to behave!!
The three leading political parties in Zambia all have a violent streak. MMD under RB showed us Mufumbwe and Chongwe, and police could not even touch them. Not long ago UPND youth assaulted a police officer. PF seems to be at it. The police say PF cadres, so I go with that. The fact that all parties are violent does not justify the violence. PF was voted in on the grounds that we needed change. This is where we would like to hold them, to change the old order of politicking. Police locked up some PF (ruling party) cadres. That is a shift from Francis Kabonde’s police under MMD. However, it is not enough. Police, keep doing your work regardless of partisan interests. Youth, wake up… You gain nothing.
Kill each other bachimbwi no plan. Beat each other until you get tired imwe ba PF sakalanyongo.
PF we love it when you fight yourselves with stupid behaviour. We love it when PF are torturing each other, how nice these fools are injuring themselves because of the failed PF regime. Continue fighting yourselves PF, its good for you. Enjoy the beatings mean while PF bosses are sleeping.