Tue, 07 Feb 2017 13:45:06 +0000
By CHARLES MUSONDA
IT WAS barbaric for Hakainde Hichilema to turn the burial of Lusaka business executive Reeves Malambo into a UPND rally, Patriotic Front (PF) member of the central committee Paul Moonga has charged.
And Mr. Moonga said he and other PF members would have been killed had they not fled from their marauding assailants clad in UPND regalia.
In an interview yesterday, Mr. Moonga said all well-meaning Zambians should condemn Mr. Hichilema for politicizing the burial because funerals were unifying events as they brought people together regardless of differences in political affiliation.
“Reeves Malambo was a decent businessman not in Monze or Mazabuka and all his businesses were in Lusaka although he built a shopping mall in Choma. Reeves was a Lusaka resident and we went to mourn him not as a fellow Tonga but as a Lusaka resident and a colleague because he was a good person,
“But to see HH turn the burial into a UPND rally was very sad. If he was a wise man he could not have allowed his cadres to put on party regalia. My daughter Mutinta Moonga, who is a journalist, first worked for Reeves’ company Auto Force when she just graduated before she got her own job. As such he was my daughter’s employer.
He said that for HH to take that funeral as a UPND funeral because Reeves was Tonga was very sad.
“It was extremely barbaric and all right thinking Zambians should condemn that, unless otherwise. When President Sata died he (HH) attended the funeral and no one harassed or harmed him,” Mr. Moonga said.
He said he and his colleagues who fled the burial had to report the attack to Lusaka Central Police because they could not stop anywhere in Southern Province for fear of being killed.
Mr. Moonga said he injured himself on the right knee after falling when he was fleeing from his assailants.
“Brian Hapunda was beaten physically after they captured him; but Trymore Mwenda and I managed to run away and we left our wives behind,” he said.
Mr. Moonga said he had nothing against Mr Hichilema and the only difference between the two was opinion and way of doing things.
“I have been a councillor before, I have been a constituency chairman but HH just wants the republican presidency at all costs,” he said.
