By Bennie Mundando
SENIOR Chief Mukuni of the Leya people Kazungula, Livingstone, and Zimba Districts has laid bare, a plot by the ruling party to purposefully create kerfuffle in the Southern Province when President Edgar Lungu visit the area tomorrow and then implicate United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema by charging him for treason.
Senior chief Mukuni says there are reports that have been received of a planned choreographed disruption of President Lungu’s visit to Southern Province this week.
He says some elements within the Patriotic Front (PF) F establishment, intend transporting hordes of ruling party cadres from Lusaka, to interface with crowds that will welcome the President in Monze, and in the process carry out an altercation, which may result in a response from the President’s security detail.
“The purpose of such a disturbance that is also planned for Bweengwa, is to then blame it on the Republican President’s archrival and UPND President Hakainde Hichilema, and then charge him for treason. This is cheap but very dangerous for unity and national security.
“The people of Southern Province are very peaceful human beings who have lived peacefully alongside other ethnic groups for centuries, and such naked provocations will not alter their genetic status. I therefore wish to warn those that wish to carry out such a cowardly act that has the potential to cause injury and even loss of life, to desist from such a dangerous criminal offence,” senior chief Mukuni said.
He says there will always be limits on which to draw political interests and the shedding of innocent blood should not be one of them, especially in a country that is claimed as a Christian Nation with a staunch Christian Head of State.
“I speak in my office as a traditional leader of Southern Province and Zambia, concerned with our country’s widening divide on political and ethnic lines, in a Nation that was once acclaimed as Christian and democratic, and a beacon of hope and an example of good governance and public accountability,” he said.
