Wed, 19 Apr 2017 11:57:18 +0000
ARSON can never be the answer to any problem. Certainly, not to be used as a political weapon.
If the spate of mystery fires that have gutted millions of Kwacha worth of property and goods stocked for sale in markets and shops in the last few days is as a result of the current political tension in the country, we wish to tell those behind this wave of criminality that they are shooting themselves in the foot.
Soft targets such as markets, courts and schools are the backbone of our lives where thousands make their daily living from, to which our children go for their schooling and where we go to seek justice if we feel
aggrieved or unfairly treated.
These Government infrastructure have been built at great cost to the State to make our lives better. The money used to build them was our money. They were built for us, to be used by us, for our own benefit.
Why should we destroy such valuable investments on the altar of political expediency? How does one profit from burning a market warehouse, such as the one in Choma, where his or her own relatives, neighbours and friends kept their merchandise for sale the following day?
Life has become so hard in Zambia today that for many of the people who lost their properties in the two infernos in Kamwala trading area on Sunday night and Choma on Monday night, that act alone was equal to a sword piercing through their hearts.
For someone politically disgruntled one way or the other to choose to burn down a market as revenge or protest is totally unforgivable. What has the owner of those goods got to do with what is going on? What have they done to that political idiot to deserve such a fate?
We have reason to believe that these acts of arson and vandalism are politically motivated. The same wave of fires occurred just after the 2016 elections were announced. Several markets in Lusaka were gutted. The people who lost their livelihoods in those outrages have not as yet recovered from their ordeals.
We appeal to the cowards masquerading as political activists trying to make a point that many Zambians have no sympathy for their cause. They are simply anarchists bent on setting this country ablaze. If found, they
deserve no mercy.
There are established channels of protest. It is better to risk arrest for something you believe in by breaking the law deliberately in broad day light than sneaking in the thick of the night to petrol-bomb a market and deprive hundreds of innocent families of their bread and butter.
If these outrageous acts are being perpetrated by the opposition UPND over the arrest of their leader, they are wrong, terribly wrong. How do you feel burning down trading places of your members – fire does not know PF or UPND – and leaving them destitute? How can you justify that?
The UPND leadership must take responsibility and stop this nonsense. If they are angry with anybody, burning Government property is not the answer. When the smouldering fires are over, the instigators of these excesses will discover they have nowhere to go for treatment; their children cannot go to school because it was torched and their wives cannot go the market because it went up in flames the other day.
While church leaders and men of substance are trying to find a way of bringing the political antagonists to a round table, we call on the politicians to think twice before doing something that they will surely regret
afterwards.
The arrest of Hakainde Hichilema is unfortunate, others would say he asked for it, but it is just one patch of a huge tapestry that makes the history of any nation. Many opposition leaders have been arrested, tried and sometimes jailed.
Many have bounced back to lead their nations at one time or another. If in their absence their supporters had burned the country, what would they lead when they came out?
