UPND and violence!

…the brutalizing of Lubinda a dark day for democracy
ZAMBIA has reached a perilous moment when political violence is no longer a shocking aberration but a creeping norm.
The reported attack on PF acting president Given Lubinda in Kabwe – allegedly by UPND cadres in their party regalia – marks a terrifying escalation in the breakdown of political order.

According to accounts circulating from the scene, Mr. Lubinda was hauled out of a meeting with PF members, bundled into a vehicle by the attackers against his will and dumped at the police station.
That such an act could occur in broad daylight, carried out brazenly by individuals identifying themselves with the ruling party, is nothing short of a national disgrace.
And this incident did not emerge in isolation. It comes barely a week after the violent attack on the PF secretariat in Lusaka, an episode which UPND national youth chairman Gilbert Liswaniso himself admitted involved youths from his party.
His unusual candour – admitting that “they are my youths” – should have been followed instantly by arrests and decisive action.

Instead, what the nation witnessed was state silence. Police inertia in the face of such clear identification is not only baffling; it is deeply troubling.
When political hooligans can storm a party headquarters, destroy property, and then a few days later abduct a political leader, and yet no swift arrests follow, what message is being sent? It signals that impunity has taken root. It signals that violence is becoming an acceptable political tool. Worst of all, it signals that Zambia’s institutions may be ceding the ground on which our democracy stands.
As Harry Kalaba correctly warns, this barbarism must stop. If unchecked, Zambia risks sliding into a vortex of lawlessness reminiscent of the darkest chapters of regional political instability. Violence does not erupt spontaneously; cadres act on someone’s instruction. The vehicles used in the Kabwe attack did not materialise from thin air. Someone organised them. Someone sent them. Someone knew.

If the ruling party is sincere about distancing itself from these acts, then it must demonstrate that sincerity through visible, immediate disciplinary action, not through public relations statements.
The UPND cannot proclaim democratic values while its own cadres – by its own admissions – are central to the attacks destabilising the nation.
The fact that Mr. Lubinda, though traumatised, was able talk about the ordeal is a small measure of relief.
But his personal courage does not excuse the wider institutional failure that allowed this to happen in the first place.
Zambians must refuse to normalise this madness. Violence has no political colour, but accountability must.
The onus lies squarely on the ruling UPND to rein in its violent elements before the country’s social fabric is irreparably torn.
It is not enough for the minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security, Mr Jack Mwiimbu to order police to arrest the assailants. The system protects them.
Enough is enough.
Stop the violence. Stop the barbarism. Save the nation before it is too late.