The Foundation for Democratic Process(FODEP) has described the conduct of Zambia Police as unprofessional and unethical following the The searching, summoning and the subsequent recording of a “warn and caution” statement from the Opposition UPND president Hakainde Hichilema.
In a statement released to the media today by Executive Director McDonald Chipenzi, FODEP said that the argument by the Zambia Police Force that it was investigating the matter even before the presidential order was given is purely a hiding behind a “transparent curtain”.
“Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) is alive to the fact that the police can never be impartial in the current structural set up where both the provincial and top police command is appointed by the President who seemingly to be the Inspector General of Police. ” read the statement
Below is the full statement
PRESS STATEMENT
For Immediate Release
4th March, 2015
The searching, summoning and the subsequent recording of a “warn and caution” statement from the Opposition UPND president Hakainde Hichilema by the Zambia Police Force after an order from President Edgar Lungu is a clear testimony of the Police’s unprofessional and unethical conduct.
The argument by the Zambia Police Force that it was investigating the matter even before the presidential order was given is purely a hiding behind a “transparent curtain”.
Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) is alive to the fact that the police can never be impartial in the current structural set up where both the provincial and top police command is appointed by the President who seemingly to be the Inspector General of Police.
In as much as FODEP is aware that the President is the Commander of the Armed Forces, police inclusive, but the current portfolio appointment in the police force has turned the police command to be ineffective institution unable to protect and respect citizens’ rights and freedom.
Therefore, unless the appointment mode is reviewed and give the police leeway to make independent decisions without the fear of being fired by politicians, Zambians will never see a professional run police force in the many years to come beneath Zambia’s sky except a partisan police acting on orders from politicians to fix opponents will continue exist.
The PF administration should be reminded that the current constitution in Article 20 allows citizens to exercise the following freedoms without interference; “freedom of expression…, freedom to receive ideas and information, freedom to impart and communicate ideas and information whether the communication be to the public generally or to any person or class of persons and freedom from interference with his/her correspondence.”
In this vein, FODEP would like to condemn in the strongest term possible the continued harassment of political opponents by successive PF administrations who are trying to curtail other citizens’ constitutional rights and freedoms.
FODEP’s appeal to President Edgar Lungu is to respect and uphold the provision of the Constitution as promised in his swearing-in statement and to always remember the huge responsibility citizens have placed on him never to use state power to step on citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms.
McDonald Chipenzi
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Foundation for Democratic Process-FODEP.
Please check with the Police Commanding Officer, Edgar Lungu.
“Most” Zambian police are useless indeed. They râpe women in custody and drink alcohol on duty!!
I am sure the police had intelligence that they would find some incriminating material at HH’s houses. Well, they have been embarrassed and the public has lost the little confidence they had in the police. This is what happens when professionals sacrifice their integrity at the alter of expedience. Shame
PA ZAMBIA EVERY JIM AND JACK BUCKS!!! INTERESTING
There is a difference between the commander in chief and a small nyau dancer.
Go away, ka Chipenzi. Eish, are you an expert on everything now?
Ka Chipenzi does not see anything wrong with what HH said but he is quick to call the police unprofessional. A Tonga chap who could easily be a UPND cadre hiding behind an NGO. He fails to impress in whatever he says as a neutral person. He is HH’s lap dog!
What do you expect from a fellow tribesman, this ka guy has stopped making sense these days! He has always supported this tribal grouping, though hiding behind a transparent curtain (to borrow his own words). Of all the freedoms he has quoted, I dont see anything refering to classified (OP) information. Sick chap!
HH kept taunting ECL. If ECL had done nothing you, sido mark, wanzelu, nostrafimofimo, would have come out saying that ECLis weak. ECL has shown your semi god hh, that ECL can order the police to go and look under his bed any time and there is nothing your hh can do about it.
2016 NI ECL NAFUTI
ALL HH’S DOGS HAD THEIR TAILS BETWEEN THEIR LEGS. NOW THE COST IS CLEAR THEY COME OUT AND BEGIN TO BARK AND WOOF!! TIYENI UKO!!!
@ MWINE MUNZI
What are you saying?
Are the People of Zambia to live in fear of the President?
You are forgetting one small constitutional fact.
President has been elected to SERVE People of Zambia and not to TERRORIZE very same People which are paying his dues.
Remember another historical fact, terror always ends by destroying itself. It may take some time, but self-destruction is in the DNA of terror.
What we are talking about here is the unprofessional way the police are carrying out their duties, They searched HH’s residence but what did they find? Nothing. What an embarrassment and waste of time. Whether they saw where HH sleeps or not, the fact is that the unprofessional police officers have shown that they don’t know how to carryout their duties. As Zambians we don’t even know what kind of training they undergo. Thus I wouldn’t let any of my children join the police force.
The police were searching for hard copies instead of searching for documents on his computers. This shows how antiquated and archaic our police force is.
hahahahahahahaha ,they are supposed to look for usbs, laptops ,his phone for whats up messages .
U have no idea, do u know OP, probably his entire house is now bugged, maybe his pants too. You think they dont know what they were doing?
UPND cadre talking. We know you Macdonald, you are on the payroll of Hakainde. Shame on yourself for you are a wolf hiding in sheep’s skin as a civil society. We know that all your statements get clearance from HH. Shame on you. We know you are trying to get adoption for Siavonga constituency in 2016 elections. You have even messed up other CSOs in the not so Grand Coalition. It’s sad that people like Chiti can’t read between the lines. Anyway ignorance has no defense
90% of UPND are Tonga – 99% of Tongas are UPND
This why NGO’s have become useless
They have become political organizations backing losers
Good thing is that come 2016, the job will be done again
beat always loser Hachili Halelusa (HH)
U say police are unprofessional why
Just because they are questioning a self confessed thief
HH dared police that come and arrest me for I steal classified docuemnts
@ JL
Please, do carry-on with what you perceive as educated contributions.
However, instead of “JL” as monocle, why not use “Born 5tupid”?
At least, other contributors should be warned that your comments originate from person with very “high” negative I.Q. ?
now you see how confused pf police and pf government is some ministers are implicated but all coming from one tribe who actually hate hh like nobody s business ,unbelievable, then its fake leaking meant to tarnish the name of hh and upnd . now its clear the big kaminamisa wants only his easterners under the supervision of rb next it will chishimba kamwili etc watch out the chakolwa will bring trouble in this country. hh you are innocent.
How professional is the behavior of HH in making baseless and reckless statements that he is in charge of the OP?
edited
************ PLEASE REFRAIN FROM INSULTING TRIBES OR ELSE YOUR COMMENTS WILL BE BANNED ********
To start with the chief himself, HH, what kind of Republican President would he make if he cannot respect the sanctity of the nation’s security? Look guys, you can politic anytime but surely if your aspiration is to lead this nation then you will need that same security to protect the nation otherwise HH will find no nation to lead at all in the unlikely event that you became President.
Next look at the bloggers, most likely *****, chorussing whatever HH starts, never mind that it is irresponsible and sometimes downright senseless rhetoric.
Next look at Chipenzi, is he not supposed to be Executive Director of Fodep? Granted, it is the same DNA that I am talking…
Next look at sensible nations, USA, UK, Israel, Germany – all politicians across the political divide appreciate the sanctity of their security systems, otherwise the terrorists would have free reign in these countries. Ask the American and British ambassadors, they are there in Lusaka near HH’s Kabulonga residence.
Security forces: OPP, Police, Army, Air Force, National Service you name them, will always be there whether the party in power is PF, MMD, FDD etc and whether the President will be Lungu, Nevers, Nawakwi etc.
I have deliberately left out UPND and their HH for they will never rule this country….ever…., for their behaviour shows that they know it and hence all they can do is make noise like empty tins.
Fellow Zambians there is much evidence in scripture that God sometimes decides who will be a leader of a nation. But he also allows people to pick national leaders whose values are not consistent with his teachings, even to the detriment of those nations to teach them lessons. Hosea 8:4 ” ISRAEL HAS REJECTED THE GOOD, THEY SET UP KINGS BUT NOT BY ME” . The lesson here is God provides leaders that behold his values and if a nation rejects those leaders it is to thier on detriment. In the last election we all knew who the God fearing candidate was and yet we let our own human intervention inerfer with the Good that God has tried to bestow.As hese events unfold we will see if God decides to bless Zambia or teach us a lesson. All I can say is nothing good has come from this government so far
Zambians lack discernment, because of poverty they tend to vote with their bellies. This is clearly a lesson and am afraid they are too blinded to see the obvious.
Viva Your Excellency the President of the Republic of Zambia Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu, you have shown that you are the Head of State and that those who joked about security matters such as has been demonstrated by the immature comments about the OOP attributed to the top leadership of the UPND, have been taught the difference the hard way. The Police were professional in following orders from their Commander in Chief. Now UPND supporters have no shame to cry wolf and to make nonsensical outbursts about dictatorship. In real dictatorships HH would have been shot by firing squad by now for the jokes he allegedly made. HH and others will never forget in future, there is a difference between the roles of Head of State and a mere unelected leader of an opposition political party.
waba maso. you dont know what you are talking about
Ted you are a full. Am very disappointed with who ever let you use the computer to spew the poison in your head. Your reasoning is way too uncivilized for modern day society.
@ Ted
Bravo.
Great contribution.
Can you now take medication to dampen pain in your anus caused by hard thinking?
HH tonga, Chipenzi tonga
What do you expect serious tribalism at play here. Sad
Chipenzi is a hopeless UPND cadre. He is worked up in view of possible HH self induced incarceration which might stop free fall of crumbs from HH’s table. FODEP was a very respectable NGO promoting democratic tenets in its initial stages. But now it has gone to the dogs. What is happening to HH is not persecution. It is self inflicted ordeal in order to attract public sympathy. This is a wrong way to conduct politics. Just from a glance one can easily tell that this HH wants to employ every strand of political strategy which endeared Late President Sata to the masses. But he is a poor student who has been clumsily trying to endear himself to the masses using Sata’s political strategies. He may try to copy techniques of Sata but he will never possess his unique personality.
Zambian police are in actual fact better than American police who are so addicted with shooting and killing innocent black people.
Must be really dumb to say Zp is better than US police. US police don’t take Sh!t from politicians. US police are very professional and independent, that is they have their own mind. Stop comparing light and darkness.
And Zambian Police is killing only white people?
FODEP once someone states the have information from the countries secret service, receiving it before the president then they need to be frisked. HH was putting our nations security to shame, only good coming out is that the leak shall believe after he is found out.
Viva President Nawakwi.
EL has brought shame on our democracy.Pls emulate late Mwanawasa.He was short tempered but uphold the law and democracy.Remember Sata was persecuted the way you are doing to HH and we are not happy though we voted for you.Pls spend your energy on improving econony and not sowing disunity in the nation.
They went to admire the mansion.
Zambia Police investigating for a mole in the Zambia Intelligence Services! Wish them luck. I thought ZIS was the highest intelligence service compared to Zambia Police.
its espionage CUP 106 of ZSIC laws of Zambia pa kabwe be thankful to ZP quiet professional and be humble though
@ Joan
CUP???
Please, do not pretend to be knowledgeable or “learned”.
Wake Up! Write proper English you *****. What do you mean I am a full you moron
Having read your contributions, most probably meant “full of crap”
Chipenzi from Mazabuka, please be level headed. So what do you expect the police to do when a crime is committed ?
@ Ndaje Kahks
Who decided that “crime is committed”? You? Ted? JL? Wow, what a powerful bunch of leading Zambian “intelligentsia” !!!!!
You didn’t complain when Mwanawasa imprisoned Michael Sata for 3months on trumped up charges just because he is not from your area.
i have a picture of a candate, in the just ended elections, literally begging the electorate to choose him as presido. When the electorate rejected him he has. Now resorted to lies and underhand methods. He can’t be trusted. He needs to be investigated in the open. You never know what he is up to. This man is desperate and could use underhand methods. Why does he need info only meant for the presidents ears?
EL is doing the right to do it in the open. This will help sedans to see what a kabova HH truly is.
All national leaders must desist from unethical conduct. They must uphold political ethics even in trying circumstances. Uttering a falsehood is unethical, alarming is unethical, denting the image of the OP in a criminal act. This explains why ZP moved in to caution HH. Please desist from taking sides. Under Zambian law, making false statement/s against any person/s or institution/s is an offense.
18.1 flag ?Aleshaday- Explain further your point then I will answer you properly. In case you are not in Zambia, HH was not quoted, we heard him on radio making that treasonable statement.
Can you PLEASE explain statutory meaning of “treasonable statement” or can you point out to a single legal precedent based on use of “treasonable statement” and I shall unconditionally apologize.
Please, I am waiting for your enlightenment.
On the other hand, can you be kind to specify any law which authorize the President to use State Security organs against opposition without due authority?
He has committed a felon and brought the name of the security council and hence the national security at stake and laughing stock
HH has to be charged as heard and recorded of him misfiring according to CAP 106 of the Zambia intelligence Services Act
CAP 106 bane no segregation He openly ridiculed Ka espionage and those officers misbehaving in places
If left loose he will cast mare on the whole entire system CAP 106 He should not pretend he was misquoted
Iwe Mc Donald Chipenzi, who started this game, was it not HH? What else did you expect the police to do? As a leader he should desist from issuing certain pronouncements that boarder on state security. It doesn’t matter how the police conducted the search. Did you expect the police to handle him gently?
Chipenzi, Am sure you are not level headed in your thinking and comment on the subject at hand! Do you support anything as long as it is aisha who has done or said it! HH started the race and should bear whatever it takes in the process. He (HH) is not being humiliated, the police were just doing what was expected of them and in fact they even delayed to act. Let HH exonerate himself and should ask for pardon for his careless talk. But if he insists that he controls the OP, then let him be dealt with accordingly.
Chipenzi and this ka Hikaumba are all Hungry Hyena’s sympathisers who does know. FODEP has becoem irrelevant nowadays! From the tone you can tell that the ka Chipenzi is injured inside atase!
SINCE HH IS AN INTELLIGENCY OFFICER WILL CHANGE THE CHARGE AND CHARGE HIM WITH CAP 109 COMMAND AND ADMINISTRATION OF SERVICE NO FIVE
CAP 106 REPLACED BY 109 AND ESPIONAGE REMAINS WE ARE TIRED OF HIS NONSE
He has committed a felon and brought the name of the security council and hence the national security at stake and laughing stock
HH has to be charged as heard and recorded of him misfiring according to CAP 106 of the Zambia intelligence Services Act
CAP 106 bane no segregation He openly ridiculed Ka espionage and those officers misbehaving in places
If left loose he will cast mare on the whole entire system CAP 106 He should not pretend he was misquoted
If you cannot write and express yourself in English, how on earth can you understand meaning of the provisions of either Cap. 106 or 109?
Ukulibonesha ta
HH has an AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY with a BARIUM MEAL always BLACK BOXED with a BRIEF and BRIEFER whose CASE OFFICER with full COMPARTMENTATION that is serious breach of National Security He has to be charged with ZIS ACT 109 espionage also included with that COERCED SOURCE
HE IS A FAKE PREISDENT at his kasama house HE can cause HAVORK BY COMMANDING what he has been been DEBRIEFING
CAP 109 109 NO 5
HH was misadvised by HALOBA and colleagues Its a tactic that has misfired terribly
HALOBA and colleagues are a useless batch of retired officers Thinking it to get the Director General position very Congolese
For HH CAP 109 NO 5
The Post put it perfectly:
“TODAY’S EDITORIAL COMMENT: ‘Let HH not dare me’”, from Post News:
In a democratic society, citizens have a right to gather peacefully and protest the actions or decisions of their government or the actions of other groups with demonstrations, marches, petitions, boycotts, strikes and other forms of direct citizen action.
And there is nothing wrong with UPND cadres and supporters protesting the death of their colleague Grayzer Matapa. The way the police and the government have handled the issue of Grayzer’s death is not satisfactory and calls for direct citizen action.
Direct citizen action must be open to anyone in a democracy and such protests will always be part of democratic society.
There is nothing wrong the protesting UPND cadres did. They…
…. There is nothing wrong the protesting UPND cadres did. They were peaceful. It was the police that turned violent on them. There was no good reason for the police to tear-gas them. Protesting is not a crime; it is a constitutional right of every citizen of this country. It is not a preserve of Patriotic Front cadres. If Patriotic Front cadres want to protest against someone, they are always allowed to do so while the police watch. Sometimes, even their violence is tolerated by the police.
It is therefore not right for Edgar Lungu to threaten Hakainde Hichilema over the protests of UPND cadres. “Let Hakainde Hichilema not dare me; he has incited his cadres in Lusaka to demonstrate over the death of a man in Mtendere. I have time and again stated that I will not support violence….
.. I have time and again stated that I will not support violence or protect anyone from criminal activities. But HH organised people to protest in Lusaka and they were fighting today in Lusaka,” said Edgar.
Grayzer died a week ago. His name has been in all the news media outlets, but a week later, Edgar is still referring to him as “a man in Mtendere”. This just goes to show Edgar’s lack of concern for this poor life that has been lost. If Grayzer was a Patriotic Front cadre, Edgar would be referring to him by his name. Is this the attitude that we should expect from a President of the Republic, one who is supposed to be a President of all Zambians?
Edgar says “…HH organised people to protest in Lusaka and they were fighting today in Lusaka”. This is not true. Who were they fighting?
The truth is Edgar knows that his party and his government have not handled the death of Grayzer properly. And it is this that is causing the protests. Protest is an old-fashioned method for drawing the attention of the government to what is wrong. It may be difficult for an elected person to admit it. But protests do produce results. Protest has historically played a much larger part in Zambian politics than we are ever allowed to know.
Protests are a testing ground for any democracy. The ideals of free expression and citizen participation are easy to defend when everyone remains polite and in agreement on what is going on. But protestors – and their targets – do not agree on what is going on, what has been done and such disagreements may be passionate and angry. The challenge then is…
….The challenge then is of balance: to defend the right to freedom of speech and assembly, while maintaining public order and countering attempts at intimidation of violence. To suppress peaceful protests in the name of order is to invite repression; to permit uncontrolled violent protests is to invite anarchy. There is no magic formula for achieving this balance. In the end, it depends on the commitment of the majority to maintaining the institutions of democracy and the precepts of individual rights. Democratic societies are capable of enduring the bitterest disagreement among its citizens – except for disagreement about the legitimacy of democracy itself.
There is no need for Edgar to threaten Hakainde over UPND cadres’ protest following the questionable death of Grayzer. And it…
And it seems Edgar is making it a habit to threaten people – ‘I will crush you like bricks’ and so on and so forth. These are signs not of strength but of a serious weakness, a serious fear and insecurity. Without realising it, what Edgar is telling us is that he is insecure; he is fragile. And to try to conceal his fragility, he is playing a Samson, a Mike Tyson or rather a Tike Myson, as Levy Mwanawasa once put it. There is no need for all these threats. They will just get him into more problems. There is nothing of value he is achieving with these threats.
These threats will lead Edgar to tyranny. And the consequences of ruling in a tyrannical manner are well known all over the world – no one gets away with it.
Edgar’s language is too violent…. Read full article in the Post
@Aleshaday
The fact is tawakwata amaso no bukala.
Utamba fye balekunyengela
musata nyoko
Silly little boy…….Mc DONALD DUCK
DEAR CHIPENZI,
I’M SORRY NO ONE MESS UP WITH SECURITY OF THE COUNTRY AND EXPECTS TO BE IGNORED LIKE THAT. IF YOU WANT YOU CAN INSULT THE PRESIDENT, CHIEF JUSTICE, SPEAKER ETC BUT DO NOT TALK PLAY POLITICS WITH SECURITY INTELLIGENCE. YOU CAN PLAY WITH POLICE, ARMY ETC BUT NOT COUNTRY SECURITY INTELLIGENCE THERE’S NO POLITICS THERE SERIOUS COUNTRY PROTECTION. SO BWANA CHIPENZI BE SERIOUS WITH COUNTRY SECURITY ISSUES NO POLITICS THERE BABA.
REMEMBER GEN. TEMBO’ S TREASON CASE STATE WITNESSES (FROM OP) WERE ON NICK NAMES LIKE SPOON, FOLK NO REAL NAMES IT SHOWS YOU THE SERIOUSNESS OF LIFE. BUT IF WAS A ANY POLICE OFFICER THEY WOULD NOT HAVE NICKNAMED THEM IN COURT. SO TELL HH HE CAN PLAY WITH ANYTHING IN ZAMBIA INCLUDING EDGAR BUT NOT INTELLIGENCE VERY WRONG MOVE.
Lungu has got it wrong this time around. We need to build a very vibrant opposition and intimidation will just kill our young democracy that is emerging as the best in Africa. Lungu should realise that Politics also involves propaganda and it is the propaganda aspects that the government should never try to stop for it is part of politics. I have always liked Lungu’s approach to the opposition. These people need space and it is the only way the ministers and all his suborninates will be put on their toes to work hard to deliver. My humble advise to LUNGU is NEVER BE TOO HEAVY HANDED ON THE OPPOSITION LEST YOU BECOME UNPOPULAR. WE CALLED FR MULTIPARTISM AND THIS IS WHAT IT CALLS FOR. UNLESS YOU WANT US TO GO ONE PARTY STATE. Hounding the opposition is actually trappling on human rights.