President Edgar Lungu will tonight at 20:00hrs address the nation on both Radio and ZNBC Television.
Today, the President held a Special cabinet Meeting at State house in Lusaka that called to order following an inferno that gutted City Market to discuss the stringent measures Government will take to bring the culprits to book.
Yesterday, the head of State rushed to city market on his return from Ethiopia, where he had gone to attend the African Union summit.
He assured the traders he addressed at the market that Government would not sit idly by and watch criminals destroy their livelihoods.
“In light of this calamity, we will come up with serious and draconian measures and based on the report I will receive, some people might have to lose their rights,” he said on arrival at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport.
On his departure from Addis Ababa, the President directed investigative wings to conduct thorough investigations into the matter to establish the cause of the fire and ensure that the culprits face the law.
Mr Lungu called for calm in the country as investigations are being carried out.
“I hope whatever is happening back home regarding the gutting of city market is not one of their prophecies.
“Let us be calm and allow those who are charged with the responsibility to investigate to find out what is causing this upsurge of activities which are bordering on economic sabotage,” he said.
President Lungu said the country is busy putting up infrastructure and unknown people are burning it with the hope of being put in office or that probably Zambians will be sympathetic towards their cause.
No one can enter the Market and set it ablaze unless they have access. That’s what the country will be waiting to hear. Who opened for them?
Please address ba Mumbwe aba! How do you arson the heart of a city where so many get their livelihood! Jealous? Insanity? SMH.
Insurance for the market must compensate the marketeers.
He issue a statement that criminals will not get away with this before he is given the report, So he knows that its the work of criminals even before he is briefed by whoever, So the address to the nation is just window dressing because all was known and planned by EL and RB. For those who do not know what a state of emergency is, It means EL can now arrest anyone and lock them up without given a reason, In short no opposition to his actions, Reminds me of KK and for your own information KK roots are from Malawi and EL has the same roots, this is what happens when you put a foreigner in power, He takes away all your rights.
Whilst you are at it please tell us that building another state was just a joke and that no new parliament motel because all the money for these projects has gone to pay retirees most of whom have since died!
How many fires and how many arrest so far, What are the police and OP paid to do, If they can not arrest the people behind these fires now, What makes you think that with the SOE the same police force will be able to arrest these criminals if there are any, SOE is not a magic bullet that will give spacial powers to the police to magically sport criminals, but its just a tool EL wants to use the silence UPND, If you are intelligent enough you will know that all this smells of PF, They planned it because they did not win the election and they know that more people are for UPND than PF
We stand with victims of this unabated henious criminal acts. The kind of terrror unleashed on innocent citizens and vital national assets cannot be insulated from most punitive measures in the anti terrorism handbook of any national state. Anu form of Restraint would be betrayal of public trust and recope for more instability.. Time to revaluate physical security and invoke or revise some anti terror laws to purge any act and schemes of subversive acts against the public.
Any form of restraint that leaves out anti terror measures in confronting these subversive acts would amount to state failure. The response if not able to arrest and purge terrorists would amount to dangerous betrayal of the very public faith citizens have in the state to safeguard total security from saboteurs with terror schedules. Time to mop up all terrorists and dump them into makeshift lockers on our local Island away from humanity and any civil and constitutional life.
The speech will be the worst… Did you hear the preambles yesterday of threats and pointing to promised Armageddon by UPND?
This is why PF start burning their only places of work, markets, so they can blame people from Monze..
Patriotic citizen
We are still waiting for the arrests and convictions of the highly trained UPND commandos who kidnapped GRZ and PF people in bweengwa.
Their prophecies of Armageddon are coming to pass. Its the deeds of upnd and hh
I am eager to hear what he will say hope it will help many Zambians who are affected by this fire
Mr Lungu, if you are going to declare a state of emergency or any other measure that will take away the rights of people, please be sure to explain the very carefully the reasons for such a move, the bounds of the state and its operatives such as the police, the duration of the measures and the conditions for the termination. Also be clear that the international community will be listening very carefully, including the IMF and its Shareholders who are represented by the diplomatic corp.
Your measure must also lead to reconciliation, dialogue and inclusiveness. Good luck Zambia. It will be a bumpy ride.
Whatever the President may have to say, I think he needs to JACK UP his POLICE SERVICE, PUSH UP HIS MAYOR AND COUNCILORS TO START WORKING and NOT JUST COLLECTING MONEY WITHOUT CARING FOR WHERE IT IS COMING FROM. We are ALL HURT FOR THIS and other losses to fires BUT FOR STARTERS, WE NEED TO START HOLDING PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE! WHERE WERE THE POLICE WHEN THE FIRE STARTED,WHO HAD OPENED THE GATES and WHO THE PEOPLE THAT FIRST ENTERED and then the fire started? SOME WICKED PEOPLE may start the fire taking advantage of the existing animosity between UPND and the party in power knowing very well that it can lead to immediate suspicion of UPND and lead to fights as they stand and watch! WE NEED TO BE LEVEL HEADED AT THIS TRYING MOMENT!!
How can you hold other people to account when you yourself is a useless Bum…really laughable!!
@5.1 Jay Jay, HOW do you conclude that I am useless Bum when you don’t even known me? SO YOU DON’T WANT people to be accountable, you want fires to continue unabated??
bwafyaa
That’s in reference to Lazy Lungu …not you!!
Iwe ka lungu eff u. Weak chap. That is why someone else is bonking Esther
Really laughable…this Lazy Bum is predictable like the sun in morning. Have the police finished their investigation?
Docile Zambians lets put forward credible leadership in the future both in Ruling and Opposition…this is a Bum who was denying any tension in the country last week.
President Edgar C. Lungu will tonight UNDRESS the nation
A State of Emergency will affect the Economy adversely and there will be huge capital flight. These Illiterate decision makers do not do a Cost/Benefit Analysis b4 implementing policies. Lungu and Mutati can now forget about an IMF Loan, Western Financial Assistance in Loans and grants and investments. The Kwacha will now sharply devalue and prices of Goods and services will definitely sky rocket. The forex earned from maize exports will not offset the loss of IMF Loan Proceeds. Zambia will default on its external Debt and the Zambian Economy will continue the free fall. Under Dictator Lungu Zambia is doomed!!
Your administration should also be blamed for allowing trade in risky areas ,allowing blockage of quick mkt access routes,not regulating stock of flammable material and your incompetent firemen.
@Lombe (MA).
You are not Lombe,so please use your Dundumwedzian name as no real Lombe thinks like you!!!
The current burning of Zambia is being done by blind and tribal supporters of HH.all well meaning Zambians know this.but note that tears of those affected poor marketeers who lost everything in that inferno will be upon you and GOD SHALL SEVERELY PUNISH WHOEVER HAS A HAND IN THIS EVIL ACT!!
Zambia existed long before HH was born and it will exist long after he is gone,so why should our country be burnt all because of one desperate politician called HH?WE’RE SAYING NO TO THAT!!
If HH loved Zambia,he could have conceaded defeat in 2016 like Michael Sata used to do and ALL THESE EVIL DEEDS BY HIS SUPPORTERS COULD HAVE NOT BEEN AVOIDED!
PLEASE GOD PUNISH SEVERELY WHOEVER HAS A HAND…
Its a shame people with wisdom are pushed to the back of the political line yet dancers,perpetrators of hate speech and visionless people are perceived as those with presidential qualities.
Its time zambians realised how serious the position of leadership is and stopped entrusting pretenders with power ,ba tata ba Sata MHSRIP passed the button to a clueless person and he has left the running track and headed out of the arena leaving sensible people in awe and staunch followers resorting to subduing voices of reasoning.
When two people are in a verbal spat wizards listen carefull as to who threatens to eliminate the other and pounce as they know they would have covered their tracks,lungu must show leadership and not creat division by thinking zambians that belong to the upnd are second in importance to their pf colleagues in doing that he is creating flamable environment that only needs a match stick and “boom”!
Continue……
Any move taken by president Edgar Lungu and his cabinet today will be supported because when you are dealing with die hard tribalists found in upnd,democracy must be ignored a bit or else the whole Zambia could be burnt because FOR THEM HH IS BIGGER THAN ZAMBIA!!UPND SUPPORTERS LOVE HH MORE THAN MOTHER ZAMBIA!!
Keep blaming others and spare your self of any of it cause you feel you are more zambian than everyone else, in other countries others found joy in calling others cockroaches and we all no what happened your lungu must stop or even choose moments when to lift his fist as pamaka shows he only cares for pf zealots. if he showed more inclusiveness, even staunch followers like yourself would not be in such a confused state so as not to be colour blind as to the nakedness of the empire.
@@ Njimbu please shut your tribalism tongue and drink water.
He stole the Vote, still feels powerless and now wants state of emergency to make himself feel strong.
This is all staged, He wants to silence the opposition.
One thing he forgets is that he lives on borrowed time. 2018…..
Zambia is now a fragile state because of the untamed thuggery of the PF.
Capital flight is next.
They arrest HH on fake treason charges and hope for riots to declear a state of emergency, no riots.
They attack mourners at a UPND funeral and hope for riots, nothing. No riots.
They burn the market and now they can declear a state of emergency……
Time and again, 11 September is described as an “opportunity”. In last April’s New Yorker, the investigative reporter Nicholas Lemann wrote that Bush’s most senior adviser, Condoleezza Rice, told him she had called together senior members of the National Security Council and asked them “to think about ‘how do you capitalise on these opportunities’”,