Africa-Press – Zambia. Opposition Patriotic Front Acting President Hon Given Lubinda has said that attempts by the United Party for National Development (UPND) government to break detained Opposition Patriots For Economic Progress (PEP) Leader Mr Sean Tembo has failed because Mr Tembo wasn’t broken as he was looking forward to being charged so that he can vindicate himself.
“It is just sad that President Hakainde is proving to the whole world that neither himself nor his handlers are not capable of taking the role of leadershipnoting that being in leadership and one is bound to be criticized from time-time.
If Mr Hakainde and his handlers can’t withstand the heat let him leave the kitchen! if he can’t stand the pressure of being a politician let him resign and go join people on the pulpit because people in the pulpit are the ones that are saved from criticism and ridicule.”
Mr Lubinda further said Mr Hichilema was a hypocrite who does typically the opposite of what he says and he was ready to be arrested for calling him a hypocrite.
“If people express different views from ours, we must not abuse the law to arrest them .” he said.
Mr Lubinda was speaking to journalists yesterday afternoon at the woodlands police station and was accompanied by the leader of the opposition in the House Hon. Brian Mundubile, Chairman in charge of Information and Publicly Hon Racheal Nakacinda , MCC Kebby Mbewe and Former Secretary General Hon Davies Mwila.
And Mpolokoso Member of Parliament Hon Brian Mundubile noted with sadness how the non-governmental organizations and civil societies who look into human rights were so quiet compared to how vocal they were during the Patriotic Front Regime.
“Your silent is too loud, what is happening to Sean Tembo is a violation of his rights, it’s not very long ago that we heard the human rights commission advising the enforcement agencies not to violate people’s rights by detaining them longer than what is provided by the law,” said Mundubile.
Opposition Patriot for Economic Progress Leader Mr Sean Tembo has been detained since Thursday last week without charge on an alleged Defamation Case in Lusaka.
Meanwhile, State House has said that it is politically immature and incompetent for anyone to project the operations of Zambia’s legal system on President Hakainde Hichilema and attempt to water down the president’s works so far of re -establishing Zambia as a model of democracy and good governance.
Presidential Spokesperson Anthony Bwalya says president Hichilema has on numerous occasions and in no uncertain terms, expressed contempt for pieces of legislation which, more often than not, may be seen to interfere with citizens’ enjoyment of the democratic dividends which the new administration has worked so hard to restore, after years of deterioration under the previous regime.
Mr. Bwalya said that the head of state however does not direct how the law should be enforced, nor does he direct or effect the arrests of those who perceivably fall foul of the law in its current form.
Mr. Bwalya said that president Hichilema will, therefore, continue to expand Zambia’s democratic and good governance space, by championing progressive legal reforms which are aimed at furthering and consolidating Zambia’s growing stature as a model of democracy and good governance.
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