During his mammoth rally in Choma the other week as he winded-up his end of year vacation at one of his ranches, President Hichilema reminded the people of Southern province how they used to be victims of physical and verbal abuse at the hands of PF thugs every time they arrived at the Intercity Bus Terminals in the nation’s capital.
It seems this message hasn’t settled down well with certain sections of our society. They’ve since weighed in with their own versions and interpretations of what the President really meant. After carefully dissecting and examining the same with the precision of a Surgeon’s knife, of course, we can safely conclude the head of state was quoted out of context.
For instance, seasoned broadcaster, Frank Mutubila, observes that the President’s remarks regarding Southern Province and claims of victimization were quite concerning.
“Southern Province is a rich mosaic of diverse ethnic groups, and the suggestion of a systematic and targeted approach to identifying and harming individuals based on provincial affiliation is both questionable and deeply divisive,” states Mutubila.
On the other hand, avid social media commentator, Laura Miti encourages Tongas to consider urging politicians to stop dragging them into their battles while a few others are accusing the President of making divisive remarks contrary to the spirit of our One Zambia, One Nation motto.
What do we make of this?
We are at pains to fathom the reasoning of some of our senior citizens such as Mitubila; perhaps his lofty position as Zambia’s Ambassador to Italy which the PF administration had rewarded him with totally blinded folded him from the reality on the ground. Belonging to the opposition during the days of PF was a risky undertaking – retired in national interest if you were a civil servant, hounded out of trading spaces and bus stations, hunted down for belonging to the opposition and denied development and government jobs!
To put it into the words of prolific writer Farai Ruvanyathi, “few honest observers can deny that Intercity Bus Station degenerated into a veritable war zone during the Patriotic Front era. That violence did not remain confined to Intercity; it metastasised into markets, other bus stations, churches, radio stations and, in some cases, even graveyards!”
For instance, our attention has just been drawn to an old video currently making the rounds on social media. A woman is seen being violently extracted from her office by masked PF thugs led by one Charles Kakula, a notorious criminal running away from justice by hibernating in Europe. She’s hauled before a befuddled senior government official in the then Ministry of Works and Supply, demanding that she’s fired immediately!
They label her a UPND cadre and accuse her of frustrating the work of government. She vehemently denies belonging to any political party in her Tonga accent but to no avail.
“Madam Shane is a UPND cadre hellbent on frustrating the work of government,” the PF thugs declare. “We shall ensure that we douse her in petrol and burn her to ashes should we find her anywhere near the government offices!”
This is a perfect example of what the President was referring to! What the opposition, and particularly the people of Southern province went through was quite traumatic and horrific; no one in their right frame of mind should dare deny the same!
To put it in a proper context, supporters of UPND…..or anyone seen cladding whatever red apparel (including Arsenal and Manchester United jerseys or Airtel brand T.shirts) were pursued vigorously, undressed and in most cases beaten to pulp! Worse still, if a person was heard speaking Tonga and even committed a grave mistake of putting on red attire – official colours of UPND, they were handed double punishment!
At Intercity for instance, an elderly woman arrived from Mongu in UPND regalia before the 2021 general elections…..she was ruthlessly stripped and left in her birthday suit save for some Good Samaritans who covered her up in sarongs! Such occurrences are in the public domain and we shall soon be documenting them for posterity’s sake.
As opposed to choosing to sticking our heads in the skies above and deliberately seeking to misinterpret or contort facts, we should be doing an introspection as a nation and ensuring that such evil practices don’t ever rear up their ugly heads again in this so-called Christian nation where double standards seem to be the norm!
Mulekutika?
Prince Bill M. Kaping’a
National Coordinator
HH Mpaka 2031!
Gosh!
That’s certainly not the crowds he is attracting today
Justifying what was clearly laid bare. Tulekwatako insoni.
Buffoons twist issues. The president made it clear that the PF cadres were harrassing people in stations, markets,ets Indeed we were being harassed. Whenever we took our own beans, kapenta, and chisense from mbala, mpulungu and Luapula to Lusaka respectively, the commanding PF buffoonic cadres forced us to surrender the selling process to them. Indeed we can’t make such a mistake to vote them bay
Propagandists are ever at alert to twist context of whatever President HH utters! The shallow mindedness of some of the most vocal loudmouths is mind boggling to say the least! Anyway I really do not get very surprised in a country where enlightenment is below average!
Frank Mutubile Ngoi is not even Zambian, he is a Congolese from Katanga! We all know how the PF targeted people from the Zambezi provinces for harassment, if Dishonest Mutubile Ngoi was not seeing what was happening, he should blame his Kasai tribal bigotry!
More garbage. How is this party of the discussion? Bushe ubupuba bamilowafye? You sound like your parents caught a dry one.
Kaping’a is trash. Whoever thinks he has substance and allows him to write these and you guys post them means you are all lower level thinking team at Lusaka Times.
This vuvuzela in Zambezi! I’m sure he wants Hamasaka’s job.
Its actually “Bally’s choma remarks taken into context- looking at the bigger-picture”
You are writing different comments under different names but as the same person. We can see through your disguises. Come out in the open!
And you why don’t you come out of your stoopid Bembas lie statement?