In this audio, Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo says opposition leaders are free to feature on media platforms but they must desist from “reckless talking”.

And Kampyongo says people who will be found illegally Zesco pylons risk losing their lives.

Speaking when he featured on ZNBC’s Sunday Interview, Kampyongo warned that police would pounce on those who broke the law under the pretext of politics.

“No, it shouldn’t be a concern for a law abiding politician, even politics are practiced within the confines of the law. You can’t be a politician without the law, if you want to deliberately break the law in the guise of politics we will pounce on you. But if you are a politician law abiding, no need to worry. You have heard them on radio platforms they talk but now the only thing they shouldn’t do is reckless talking,” Kampyongo said.

And Kampyongo said those found near Zesco pylons risk losing their lives.

“Law abiding citizens must live without worrying about anything but we are going to restrict movements of certain individuals and we are going to make sure that certain places must only be accessed by people authorized to access them if you find yourself in a pylon and you don’t work for Zesco, you must know the consequences because we are going to be on the ground that will entail even losing life,” he said.

“Exactly but how do you justify being found with explosive devices and you don’t work in the mines, you don’t use explosives you must justify why you must keep those devises. I will share with you that that’s in Western Province our officers have been able to pick a few elements who were found with substances which are believed to be dangerous and they are on the ground right now.”

Kampyongo said police’s added powers of searching without warrants would enable them catch criminals more effectively.

“If we hear that a group of fellows are gunning up in Chibolya for example at point A, you know in normal circumstances you need to go with a search warrant which should be then done by the court. Now you don’t have to wait, you can strike real time no wasting time. You can get our crack squad and strike and pick characters in real time,” he said.

He however said police would not go beyond the provisions of the law in the execution of their duties.

“Like I said earlier on, there’s Cap 112 of the laws of Zambia under that there regulations and sub regulations which are general in nature and application so some of them are already in effect but those that will require specifications they could be a statutory instrument issued to effect them. So the powers that are being given are within the confinements of the law. It is not like giving a blank cheque to the police and law enforcement agencies to do anything outside the parameters of the law. They will be guided by the law even with what they have been given,” Kampyongo assured.

Kampyongo also revealed that government planned to enhance security in Lusaka by mounting cameras under a programme called “Safe City”.

“I want to assure you that government very soon will be embarking on a project called Safe City which will see the installation of some of these security gadgets in all our public places and that will also help in terms of monitoring because you can have a central place where people will be able to monitor the happenings around the place not just to use them to come and analyze them if something happens but also to make sure that you are able to monitor shopping malls. That should be a trend to have security installation like CCTV. That’s a modern trend in manning cities so this is project that we will be commencing called Safe City,” said Kampyongo.

Take a listen: