Fri, 05 May 2017 10:17:23 +0000
By SANDRA MACHIMA
UPND is a one-man entity that in the absence of its leader Hakainde Hichilema the centre cannot hold, PF head of media department Sunday Chanda has said.
Reacting to calls by the UPND’s national management committee for the unconditional release of the incarcerated opposition leader because his detention had no basis law, Mr Chanda said the sitting of the committee only confirmed a vacuum in the opposition party.
Mr Chanda said Zambians had feared that there was lack of leadership and good governance within the organization.
The opposition UPND national management committee demanded for the release of their leader Mr Hichilema and other ‘‘political prisoners’’ through its resolutions following the committee’s sittings that was chaired by the party national chairperson Mutale Nalumango recently.
Mr Chanda questioned why the party’s committee only functioned when the freedom of the party’s most senior member was under threat.
He said Mr Hichilema was an individual who had never been a threat to the Patriotic Front (PF) which was a party comprised of an array of competent leaders.
Mr Chanda has now asked the UPND’s committee to retract inflammatory orders they had given to their members in the recent past which had resulted in a spate of acts of arson targeting markets, educational facilities and courts of law.
Mr Chanda said the PF would not be reduced to competition with individuals who had lost over and over again.
“Mr Hichilema is just an individual but clearly members of society must question how the detention of one man can arrest an entire party machinery; this is sheer bankruptcy of leadership and governance within the opposition party.
‘‘We sympathize with the UPND as we understand fully well the confusion that follows the absence of a leader and commend them on their decision to pursue peaceful and lawful activism which we hope will remain exactly that,” he said.
He said the opposition UPND should desist from misleading the international community that what had happened in Mongu, where they blocked the Presidential motorcade, does not constitute treason.
