HH warned against politicizing ZAF officer’s death

Sat, 25 Mar 2017 13:03:31 +0000

THE politicisation of the death of Zambia Airforce sergeant Mark Choongwa by opposition leader, Hakainde Hichilema has been condemned as an insensitive and an inhuman political ploy.

After visiting late sergeant Choongwa’s funeral in Lusaka on Thursday, Mr. Hichilema alleged that the officers at Woodlands Police were Patriotic Front (PF) cadres in police uniforms brutalizing innocent citizens.

But the PF Lusaka Youth Chairman Mr Kamba PF observed that Mr. Hichilema was using the death of late sergeant Choongwa to gain political mileage.

In a statement issued to the Daily Nation yesterday, Mr Kamba said Mr. Hichilema should instead concentrate on mobilizing his political party instead of using a funeral to gain cheap political mileage because it would not help the UPND in any way.

“The Zambian people know that Mr Hichilema is a failure who has failed to coordinate and mobilize his own political party,” he said.

Mr. Kamba said the UPND leader had also failed to coordinate his Members of Parliament and his secretary general following conflicting statement for boycotting Parliament on Friday last week.

He has challenged Mr. Hichilema to go to Woodlands Police Stations and check for how long the police officers were employed for him to claim they were PF cadres.

“Let him not use the funeral and death of someone because doing so is seeking cheap political mileage. Zambian they know who Hakainde Hichilema is and how many times he has lost elections,” Mr Kamba said.

He said it was clear from the happenings in Parliament that the UPND lacked leadership.

Mr. Kamba said combining the leadership quality of Mr. Hichilema and that of leader of the opposition in Parliament Jack Mwiimbu and UPND whip Garry Nkombo was clear that their party was in a serious leadership crisis.

He said Mr. Hichilema should concentrate on finding solutions to their internal political differences and not to politicize the death late flight sergeant Choongwa.

“We are equally saddened by the death of Mr. Choongwa and we want the tribunal which has been set up by the ministry of defence and home affairs to make sure that they culprits who are behind the death of Choongwa are brought to book,” Mr. Kamba said.