UPND President Hakainde Hichilema has labeled President Michael Sata and Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba as the axis of evil who are destroying the nation.

Mr Hichilema said President Sata and Mr Kabimba are evil men who are suppressing the rights and freedoms of citizens at will.

He said Zambians should unite and refuse to be intimidated by the axis of evil.
Mr Hichilema was speaking Tuesday when he featured on a live programme on Pan African Radio.

“These two, Kabimba and Mr Sata are the ones that are taking away our freedoms of assembly and association. These two are the axis of evil. This is the new title I have given them because each time they speak, they hurt the feelings and aspirations of citizens, they are the axis of evil,” Mr Hichilema said.

He added, “The axis of evil is now taking away our birth rights. No President in the world grants these rights, we are born with them, these are our inherent rights and Kabimba and his boss must know that.”

Mr Hichilema said the latest incident where he was harassed and intimidated by hundreds of armed police officers in Mambwe is another confirmation that Zambia is being governed by evil men.

[pullquote] “You have the I.G who even proudly goes to the media that she has hounded out Hakainde from Eastern Province, which is very silly of Libongani. The I.G gets excited that she is working against human rights? This is very sad.”[/pullquote]

“I got into Mambwe and we had successful meetings. At one meeting, we had over 3,000 people and this is the same area where President Sata a few weeks ago had less than 300 people and this upset him and he unleashed police on our innocent supporters and dispersed them. It is not my fault that his rallies are flopping,” he said.

He charged that most Zambians today are living in fear of the state.

“We had Bishops and Reverends battered at BIGOCA Church by known people, the attackers confessed on TV and they have not been arrested.”

He added, “You have the I.G who even proudly goes to the media that she has hounded out Hakainde from Eastern Province, which is very silly of Libongani. The I.G gets excited that she is working against human rights? This is very sad.”

Mr Hichilema charged that the PF government is a brutal regime that does not respect human rights.

“This is a brutal regime run by evil men and I always tell PF cadres that no matter how much you support brutality it will not bring cheaper Mealie meal. When Kabimba and Mr Sata use you to brutalise innocent citizens, you will still need to go and buy the same Mealie meal and the same prices like everyone else.”

Mr Hichilema recounted that President Sata has been in the fore front brutalizing the rights of innocent citizens.

“A few months ago President Sata was in Chongwe and UNZA students were peacefully demonstrating and Mr Sata issued an instruction that police should beat them up, arrest them and remove them from the University and these instructions were coming from the father of the nation, the one who is elected to protest them.”

He said, “When I was a student at UNZA, we used to demonstrate that was in a one party state but today students cannot even demonstrate and you say we are in a democracy, no this is a dictatorship.”

Mr Hichilema added, “Today, the constitution has gone to the dogs or the dogs are eating up the constitution, this Kabimba guy says there is no money for a referendum, this is a joke. What is 15 million? These are the same people causing by elections so that they can manipulate Parliament and today they can say there is no money for a referendum? I want to tell Kabimba that this not your money, this is public money.”

The PF’s true colours regarding the introduction of the new constitution are becoming more evident everyday. The latest delaying tactics are nothing short of comical. The statement by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice claiming that the 10 copies of the draft constitution that were submitted to the Ministry have been lost, require one to completely suspend belief. In any normal country such an admission would be immediately followed by a resignation from public office and an apology to the nation.

The fact that nobody has been reshuffled or fired for losing such an important document confirms that this sorry and sad state of affairs has the full backing of the President who normally needs no prompting to fire civil servants. So we ask the question, why has no one been fired for losing such an important document?

[pullquote]Ordinary Zambians are lacking these things mainly because our current constitution gives too much power to politicians whose selfish aim is to retain power at any price[/pullquote]

We ask: why has no one in the PF simply requested that new copies be printed? It should by now be clear to any sane individual that the PF will do everything within their power legitimately or illegitimately to prevent Zambians from ushering in a people-driven constitution before the 2016 general elections. In fact, the President’s comments yesterday, instructing his officials to ignore constitution-making debates, pretty much confirms what we have always suspected.

One of the PF’s favourite new excuses for denying the people of Zambia what is rightfully due to them is that we need to prioritise development before a new constitution. They argue that people need roads, hospitals, clean water, schools and jobs before a new constitution can be enacted. What they fail to admit is that ordinary Zambians are lacking these things mainly because our current constitution gives too much power to politicians whose selfish aim is to retain power at any price. When politicians focus on enriching themselves, development suffers and so do the people.

The new constitution is intended to give more power to the people through the establishments of provincial parliaments that will be more directly accountable to local communities in order to ensure that national development is not selective or based on the tribe of the President in power or the party that the Member of Parliament in an area belongs to. Developing our country should not be a lottery awarded only to those who happen to support the party in power. We are all Zambians and therefore we are all entitled to development. Only a new constitution can guarantee this, not the false promises of a heartless party.

We urge all Zambians to do everything in their power to demand a people driven constitution that will reverse the years of incompetence that have seen the kwacha deteriorate to its lowest value in our nation’s history and that has forced ordinary Zambians to have to experience the chaos of panga-wielding cadres and illegal land grabbing without a single word of condemnation from our head of state, not even on his Facebook page. Let us collectively demand a new constitution with the unified cry:‘‘No Constitution No PF’’!!

Elias Chipimo
President
National Restoration Party

A political activist has disputed claims by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) that it does not ask for permission from anyone when instituting investigations on senior government officials.

Dante Saunders said the ACC should stop cheating people that they don’t ask for permission when republican President Michael Sata publicly denounced them before instructing them to seek permission from him before they institute any investigations on senior government official.

Mr Saunders noted that though the ACC has the constitutional powers to investigate, it is finding it difficulty to do so under the current constitution which gives the president too much powers hence control over all the institutions of governance.

“My question is, why didn’t the president allow the ACC and DEC investigate Kabimba? When it came to Kabimba the President put his foot down and said no investigates my Ministers till I say so” observed Mr Saunders.

And when told that the ACC clarified that the president is only informed and not asked for permission Mr Saunders laughed off the clarification saying:” what am reading from the newspapers and issues coming from the radio stations it is clear to me what Mr Sata’s instructions were, we all know that no ACC, DEC, Judiciary or Police can act with out his instructions, in short he is the one who controls all these institutions.”

He further said these are some of the issues which should be addressed with the enactment of the new constitution hence the need for the government to release the draft document without any delay.

“That is not what we want, that is why we insist on the constitution were all institutions are given the right to do their work, were every is equal before the law,” he said.

ACC Public Relations Manager Timothy Moono told a press briefing today, that informing the president that one of his Ministers is being investigated should not be misconstrued as seeking permission because the institution does not need anyone’s permission to probe anyone.

Mr Saunders said this in an interview in Lusaka yesterday