PF warns UPND

Sun, 26 Mar 2017 09:31:51 +0000

…THAT THERE WILL BE ANARCHY IF POLICE ALLOW UPND WITH ITS PLANNED DEMO AND RALLY IN LUSAKA

By OSCAR MALIPENGA

THE Patriotic Front (PF) will not allow UPND to hold their highly provocative rally and demonstration against Government policy on university loans.

Patriotic Front (PF) Lusaka provincial chairman Kennedy Kamba said no previous Government had offered full loans and that the PF Government was planning to introduce the system next year.

“The UPND were in Parliament when the budget was passed and are aware of Government plans, therefore it is mischievous and a deliberate act of provocation to mount a populist march that is devoid of substance,” he said.

Besides, he said, the UPND had decided not to recognize President Edgar Lungu and could not, therefore, appeal to him through public manifestations to change public policy.

Mr. Kamba has charged that PF youths in Lusaka did not expect the Lusaka police command to give the UPND permits because the Inspector General of Police Kakoma Kanganja whom they have agreed to recognize was appointed by President Edgar Lungu who they have refused to accept as Head of State.

The UPND has applied to the Lusaka Province commissioner of police Nelson Phiri for a permit to hold rally on April 2 to be addressed by its president Hakainde Hichilema and his vice president for administration Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba (GBM) in Kanyama Township.

Reacting to the UPND permit application, Mr. Kamba cautioned the Lusaka Police command that there would be ‘anarchy’ should they permit the opposition party to hold a rally or demonstration in Lusaka after refusing to recognize the President of the Republic of Zambia.

Mr. Kamba also wondered why the same UPND leadership which had denied ever instructing their members of Parliament to boycott President Lungu’s special address to Parliament had written a disciplinary letter to their Chilanga constituency member of Parliament Keith Mukata for attending the Head of State’s address.

“The Inspector General was appointed by the same President who they have refused to recognize. They have also been calling the police officers as PF cadres in police uniforms in black and white.

“So what I am saying is we are expecting police officers not to give them a permit because they have not recognized the Head of State,” Mr. Kamba said.

Mr. Kamba said it would not go very well with PF youths in Lusaka should the Inspector General of Police allow the command to give UPND permits as that would be  recipe for anarchy.