HH Mpaka 2030 Coordinator Bill Kapinga says the new pro Hakainde Hichilema organisation should not be compared to the Christian for Lungu which was merely mobilised by former president Lungu to abuse the Church with the sole aim of achieving his political agenda.

Mr Kapinga says HH Mpaka 2030 is totally different from Christians for Lungu.

He explained that the HH Mpaka 2030 has been assembled by individuals and organisations from a cross section of society voluntarily who share a common go of ensuring that HH secure a second term in office because he has managed to restore order in the country in the last three years that he has been in office.

“During his last three years in power HH has restored order in this country, HH is escalating development in this nation,the issue of cadres is the thing of the past in this country,marketeers are now able to trade freely without cadres storming the markets to harass them,” Mr Kapinga noted.

He further stated that the UPND administration has also embarked on infrastructure and skills development among the youths across the country using the Constituency Development Funds (CDF).

He however said that despite embarking on such robust developmental projects President Hakainde Hichilema’s administration was being mercilessly and unfairly attacked by enemies of progress while those surrounding him were not doing enough to defend the President.

” Almost in every Constituency across this country, we are seen projects under CDF unless in those Constituencies whereby some Mps from PF don’t want to associate themselves with the CDF, we are seen feeder roads being worked on, we are seen schools,clinics ,health centres being built we have seen teachers houses being constructed, individuals our youths are being trained are receiving training under CDF as carpenters, drivers as welders as mechanics as electricians but unfortunately enough the U
PND as a party is not doing enough to highlight the achievements of his excellency President Hakainde Hichilema apart from that he is mercilessly and unfairly attacked left ,light and centre by detractors ,by enemies of progress while the party remains dwiii not always being steadfast to defend our President,so since we are happy with the performance of HH, we have come together to help articulate Government policies ,to help explain to the people the achievements HH is recording and also defend him from unnecessary attacks,” Mr Kapinga said.

He,additionally said that the HH Mpaka 2030 will be holding town hall meetings where Mps and Ministers will be given a platform to explain what government was doing to address various challenges the country is currently facing, such as power loadshedding, climate change, the high price of essential commodities such as mealie meal among others.

By Sishuwa Sishuwa

Jason Mwanza, a 28-year-old unemployed youth activist in Zambia, has been in police detention without charge for almost two weeks now. His offence? Conducting a peaceful lone protest against acute unemployment, continued high-level corruption in government, the cost-of-living crisis, rolling power blackouts formally lasting a minimum of 21 consecutive hours a day, and the perceived failure of President Hakainde Hichilema to honour his campaign promises on these issues. 

After completing secondary school in 2016, Mwanza, who grew up in an orphanage in the capital city after his dad died when he was 9 months old, went on to study hospitality management and graduated in the expectation that he would find a job. In the 2021 election, he voted for Hichilema, at the time Zambia’s main opposition leader, who had promised to create employment opportunities for young people like him. Three years later, he remains unemployed and has had to withdraw from further studies due to financial constraints. Deprived of a formal job and with his ability to make ends meet curtailed by crippling load shedding – officially, electricity is guaranteed to ordinary Zambians for only a maximum of up to 3 hours per day – Mwanza notified the police, as per the law, about his intention to hold a one-person peaceful protest against the status quo that threatens his very existence or life.

As if to convey an enlightening statement, he chose the Freedom Statue as the venue for his lone protest. The Freedom Statue – a 12-foot artwork designed by British sculptor James Butler and constructed after the achievement of independence from Britain in 1964 to represent Zambia’s triumph from the chains of over 70 years of colonial subjugation – was the same place where Hichilema, then in opposition, had conducted a lone protest before the 2021 election to draw attention to the same issues that Mwanza now sought to bring to President Hichilema’s attention. Unlike Hichilema, who was not arrested for his lone protest or for stating that corruption, load shedding, unemployment, and high cost of living are a result of poor leadership, Mwanza was arrested on accusations of unlawful assembly and seditious practices. 

Two other youths – Thomas Zulu and a 30-year-old unemployed female graduate of the University of Zambia named Chanda Chikwanka – who later expressed support for Mwanza’s right to protest, in the belief that they live in a liberal democracy that provides for free expression, were also arrested in the aftermath. They too remain in police detention without formal charges and have been denied police bond. 

These latest infringements on fundamental freedoms have been aided by a pliant Judiciary that effectively operates as an extension of the executive and primarily sees its role as that of pushing the presidency’s agenda. The latest infringements also come in the wake of recent damning reports from the United Nations Human Rights Council and Human Rights Watch on the worrying state of human rights in Zambia today. The reports show growing intolerance for political opposition and dissent, cases of arbitrary arrests and detention, and continued violations of the rights of expression, peaceful assembly, and protest. 

Embarrassed by the bad publicity generated by these reports, the Zambian government, instead of stopping to supply the material that feeds that bad publicity, tried to dismiss the UN report, claiming that it was misleading and false. Yet around the same time when the government spokesperson was extolling its supposed commitment to protecting human rights, the police were arresting Mwanza, Zulu, and Chikwanka for reminding President Hichilema to fulfil his campaign promises.

To its credit, the Hichilema administration has abolished the notorious law on defamation of the president, long used by successive incumbents to deter legitimate criticism through the threat of arrest and numerous convictions. However, the administration has since employed other repressive laws that remain on the statutes to suppress human rights. A key example is the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act that inhibits the right to free speech. In opposition, Hichilema condemned this “bad law” and vowed to repeal it, if elected: “Our first task once you elect us this August”, Hichilema wrote in August 2021, “will be to repeal this bad law!”

In power, his administration has deployed the same law he previously denounced as “bad” to arrest and imprison critics and political opponents on charges of hate speech, among others. The government has even announced plans to expand the restrictions of this law in order to curb what Hichilema recently called “the abuse of social media in the name of democracy.” As shown in greater detail elsewhere, the Hichilema administration has also regularly employed the Penal Code Act, a colonial-era relic that contains provisions that criminalise free speech, to arrest critics and political opponents on a variety of charges ranging from sedition and the use of insulting language to criminal libel.

The modus operandi of these arrests is generally the same: arrest the activists and opposition leaders, keep them in detention for a period longer than authorised by law, and either release them on police bond without ever taking them to court or drop the charges after court appearance. Even members of the clergy have not been spared from this continuing onslaught on human rights. For instance, in January this year, police on the industrial Copperbelt arrested and detained pastor Duncan Simuchimba of Kings Church for speaking out in defence of marketers.

Arrests and court cases have a demonstrative effect on even those who are not caught up in them: the costs of participating in political activities deemed inappropriate by the government. Strongly discouraging them from challenging the government, activists and the opposition are made aware that at any time they could have their lives upended and spend weeks or even months in detention and protracted legal cases.

For a long time now, several civic institutions and prominent individuals have repeatedly raised alarm about the increasing restrictions on human rights in Zambia. For instance, in March this year, the highly-regarded retired archbishop of Lusaka, Telesphore Mpundu, petitioned the United States to impose targeted sanctions on State actors seen as primarily responsible for this sustained assault on political and civil rights. 

Earlier, in November 2023, the influential Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a strongly-worded pastoral letter in which it reprimanded the government for exhibiting authoritarian tendencies and failure to guarantee fundamental freedoms. A month before, in October, a consortium of 12 civil society organisations expressed deep concern about the spiralling infringements on human rights.

Yet the government remains unrepentant, consequently leaving so many human rights on death row. Under international human rights obligations, the Zambian state has three responsibilities: (a) to ensure that all persons under its jurisdiction enjoy their rights (b) promote human rights and investigate violations; and (c) punish violators of human rights. President Hichilema is later this month scheduled to address the UN General Assembly at which he is expected to extol (!) his human rights record. This realisation might explain why his administration is desperate to discredit the fairly accurate UN report, even as the repressive actions of the Zambia Police Service continue to paint a more realistic picture.

Socialist Party (SP) President Dr Fred M’membe has expressed concern over continued and coordinated lies against the party, saying the UPND is desperate.
Dr. M’membe says the attack on him by State House sponsored online publication Koswe are meant to turnish his image.
He says it is not true that he took àlcóhol and other ill!cit drúgs to Mukobeko prison, saying he does not even take alcohol.
“The attacks are not coincidental but they are deliberate and they are coming from the UPND. Koswe is protected and the people who run Koswe are known. It’s part of Mr Hichilema’s media team. Their campaign against us is there for all to see. The desperation where it is coming from we don’t know. But when you see your opponents who are saying you are nothing, keep on talking about you and fabricating things, everyday you have to put some news and say this is fàke news, where is it originating from? From State House through Koswe. Then you know State House is under pressure. President Hakainde Hichilema is behind Koswe,” he alleged.
“Why would I take alcóhol and ill!cit things into prison, I don’t drink at all. Nobody in my household drinks, why should I take drinks to prisoners? And also things that you take to prison are checked at the gate. Did they verify with any prison warder that I took those things? It’s an offense to take alcóhol into príson. I would have been scàndalized to the max if I took those things.”
And Dr. M’membe said attempts by the UPND to claim that he has joined the ruling party are aimed at bringing confusion in his party.
“It’s all an attempt to create an impression that there is a crisis in Socialist Party. I have never been a member of the UPND and I will never be a member of UPND. The issues of claiming that Fred M’membe and the Socialist Party are joining UPND were aimed at making people resign from their party on the basis that it is finished,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Dr. M’membe has refuted claims that he met Archbishop of Lusaka Dr. Alick Banda over a possible alliance with PF President Edgar Lungu as a running mate to the former Head of State.
“I met Hon Given Lubinda at Chilenje Police Station who had been down the previous days, he was not well. Archbishop Dr. Alick Banda is not in the country, he is in Europe. Where did we meet? And the truth is that I have never met anyone over an alliance. And it is simple, we cannot discuss any alliance without the authority of the National Congress of the SP,” he indicated.

[SP Media]