Opposition political parties must stay in their lane and allow the Patriotic Front to work instead of destroying public property, says PF Secretary General Davies Mwila.

In a statement today, Mwila, who is also party spokesperson, said those expressing anger through destroying public property should stop because political power is not attained through such acts.

“Opposition political parties must respect the will of the people and stay in their lane, they must take a leaf from us and begin to act responsibly. Political power comes from the people through the ballot and not from burning schools, courts and markets. We urge the opposition to get in touch with reality and wake up from their self-induced illusion. The Patriotic Front won the 2016 elections and Zambia only has one President – His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu, the one and only President of the Republic of Zambia,” Mwila stated.

“The past few weeks have been marred by helpless attempts by a few attention-seeking and misguided groupings in efforts to distract the Patriotic Front and the government from providing leadership to this great nation. We have witnessed systematic attempts to desperately paint the PF Government black in front of the international community for selfish reasons, attempts that have miserably failed.”

He stated that it was laughable for people to suggest that President Lungu could not intervene with operations of the Judiciary and police.

“In this country we have systems that ensure checks and balances through the constitutional separation of powers distributed by the various arms of government. It is therefore laughable to expect the Presidency to distract the operations of the police and Judiciary seeing as this would be tantamount to abuse of privileges as the President would be acting ultra vires his powers. This demand is especially preposterous owing to the President’s legal background; His Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu is bound by his sworn oath to protect and uphold the rule of law and this entails ensuring that the law takes its full course regardless of the perpetrators’ social or economic standing. Indeed, Zambia is bigger than an individual!” Mwila exclaimed.

“As the whole world can attest, His Excellency the President Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu is peace loving, understanding, principled, tolerant, listening and democratic leader mandated by the Zambian Constitution to ensure national security and the rule of law in this great Republic. Unlike others, the PF is a law abiding and peace loving party determined to improve the lives of people pursuant to its manifesto and agenda for Zambia. While others are sowing seeds of strife and discord, the party and government remain fully committed to fostering unity and development for every Zambian.”

Mwila urged the opposition leaders to focus on membership mobilization.

“We wish to enlighten our colleagues in the opposition that the Patriotic Front was once an opposition political party for ten years led by our founding president and visionary the late president Michael Chilufya Sata. In the spirit of true Patriotism, while in opposition, the PF remained committed to building itself through membership mobilization while serving its democratic purpose of providing checks and balances on productive issues. The PF understood that the focus should be on selling party ideals and manifesto as opposed challenging the will of the people. Overtime the people of Zambia developed their confidence in our leadership and as a result, they gave us their votes in an unquestionable victory!” stated Mwila.