CORNELIUS Mweetwa, the UPND spokesperson must stop underestimating the intelligence of Zambians. Indeed, UPND will not benefit from diversionary asinine antics.
The Kalomo land issue is real. That the Hatembo siblings have disappeared is real. That a warn and caution statement was taken is real. That some people are appearing in courts for the disappearance of the Hatembo siblings is real.
Nothing is being fabricated.
The Police are looking for the Hatembo siblings – Pheluna and Milton – because they are witnesses to the Kalomo fraud case.
Mr Mweetwa would do well to help Police find the Hatembos to help resolve this matter long before the elections.
We have said before and would like to repeat that a victory by UPND president Hakainde Hichilema in the prevailing circumstances will be pyrrhic as extremely negative contention will result.
The UPND is better served having this matter cleared, preferably through the courts to allay any fears and concerns that Zambians will be elevating into high office an individual with a criminal record.
It is in the interest of the nation and ultimately the candidate himself that a definitive verdict is obtained in the courts of law to settle once and for all the serious allegation of corruption and fraud involved in the Kalomo matter, which has been further complicated by the abduction of the witnesses.
This is the first time that people have disappeared into thin air only to be seen in contrived video appearances.
This level of criminality has reached a level unknown to this country and will undoubtedly raise the fear of what the future holds.
As a newspaper, we have been touched by the human suffering that this matter has raised. For inexplicable reasons the Human Rights Commission that should be the final bastion in the defence of individual human rights has remained mute.
Civil society has remained mute and indeed the only mainline church leaders that has spoken out is Lusaka Catholic Archbishop Alick Banda.
It is understandable that most non-governmental organisations fear to antagonise a political formation that bears the possibility of assuming office. They would rather turn the cheek than confront injustice.
Our duty as a newspaper is to inform no matter the consequences. Issue of principle cannot be subjected to negotiations because history has the knack of repeating itself. Today it is the Hatembo siblings who are abducted, and the entire nation keeps quiet. Edmund Burke has stated that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Or put differently bad things happen when good men keep quiet.
Bad things happened to second republican President Frederick Chiluba because good men kept quiet.
Even those who knew something of natural justice kept quiet in the face of a rapacious and evil cabal that drove him to his early grave.
The Hatembos may be simple villagers and yet they are human and deserving of human compassion and sympathy for the suffering they are enduring through no fault of their own.
Their mistake was to try and get back what was theirs – at least that is what we know unless the contrary can be proved.
