UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma says Lusaka residents must not reward PF violence with votes in the upcoming mayoral elections.

And Kakoma has insisted that it is the right of every citizen to defend themselves when attacked – hence his party’s stance on not allowing themselves to be attacked by the Patriotic Front.

Meanwhile, Kakoma says the only reason why PF brags about electoral victory even before people vote is because they survive by rigging.

In statement, Sunday, Kakoma appealed to Lusaka residents to deny the PF votes.

“We would like to restate that President Hichilema and his entire leadership abhor, detest violence. Not that he is weak but because he values human life and does not want to inflict pain on another human being like those who were politically born out of pangas at Mulungushi Rock of Authority in Kabwe. That we can reach such a level where people begin thinking of defending themselves is also a serious indictment on our Zambia Police Service. This is also a call to them to be above board this time and protect everyone And we urge Lusaka residents to critically look at the PF’s violence record and deny them a vote. Zambians have the power to change the manner of conducting elections. The PF violence should not be rewarded by voting for them. When we vote against them, it will be a lesson for them to stop attacking others.
We urge reasonable people within the PF leadership to advise their party members to explain themselves to the electorate and not to attack them, tell them what the ruling party will do for the people in view of the numerous problems Lusaka residents and elsewhere are facing. The PF has made life very difficult for all. Lusaka residents have not forgotten how the PF followed them wherever they were selling their vegetables and crashed their shelters,” Kakoma stated.

And Kakoma insisted that members of his party would continue defending themselves when attacked by PF cadres because it was their constitutional right to do so.

“There is nothing wrong for someone to defend himself from unlawful attackers. Every person in Zambia has the Constitutional right to defend himself his property from thugs. Patriotic Front media director Sunday Chanda has continued issuing statements in which he is framing the UPND, who are the victims of their violence, to be violent.
Chanda says a directive from Mr Hichilema to his members for self-defence ahead of the upcoming elections is unlawful and has the potential to trigger violence in communities especially in Lusaka and Chilanga Districts! Self-defence is legal and provided for under the law.
The Constitution under the Bill of Rights confers upon citizens the right to defend themselves.
Articles 11(a) and 12(3) (a) are instructive on the right to self-defence.
Further, the Penal Code under section 17 clearly gives power to citizens to defend themselves. For the avoidance of doubt, section 17 states as follows: ‘Subject to any other provisions in this Code, or any other written law for the time being in force, a person shall not be criminally responsible for the use of force in repelling an unlawful attack upon his person or property or the other person or property of any other person if the means he uses and the degree of force in doing so are no more than is necessary in the circumstances to repel the unlawful attack ‘,” he stated.

“If PF cadres attack UPND members, the UPND members have the right to defend themselves.
We are extremely worried about PF’s level of thinking which Chanda is propounding. If the whole PF cannot understand simple issues like self-defence, it will surely be too much to expect them to understand complex concepts. As we have stated before, the PF is a serious curse on the people of Zambia – they are bloodthirsty and extremely evil. Surely in the PF thinking, they should just attack Zambians and the victims should die in silence! See how evil these guys are! Zambians should not defend themselves when PF attacks them?”

He recounted attacks on members of his party by PF cadres.

“Anyway we are not surprised. The PF of Edgar Lungu is steeped and wired in violence. Mr Lungu himself was produced under a violent environment . We all remember how PF violently declared and installed Lungu as president of the PF. All election rules were suspended and PF cadres became the rules in themselves. What they decided was final. This is exactly the same attitude they brought into the governance of the nation. No one should speak, no one should challenge them, no one should defend themselves from their thuggish, barbaric behaviour.
As we have stated, the Republican Constitution and the Penal Code provide for self-defence when one is violently attacked…Lest Zambians have forgotten, the nation witnessed how PF thugs did the unthinkable and despicable – attacked UPND members and other mourners at Leopards Hill Cemetery during burial of our member Clance Zulu. Our President Mr Hakainde Hichilema was attacked during campaigns when PF thugs stoned his helicopter, aiming to kill him in 2015 in Shiwang’andu Constituency in Chinsali . Our party chairman Madam Mutale Nalumango and former first lady Maureen Mwanawasa were attacked by PF, again in Shiwangandu, in 2016. Recently, the PF attacked our vice-president Dr Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba during a ward by-election in April, again in Shiwangandu. The journalists and others who accompanied him had to hide in the bush from rampaging PF cadres,” Kakoma recounted.

“In Chilanga by-election last month, the PF attacked UPND members at the start of the campaign and they carried their terror throughout the period up to voting day when they brandished machetes and all sorts of weapons in full view of police. PF thugs nearly killed our vice-president Dr Mwamba. Grayser Matapa, a UPND official was brutally murdered by PF cadres in Mtendere in 2015. So what is Chanda talking about? He must keep quiet. Only crooks will deny all these statistics and want to frame those on the receiving end as the aggressors. The PF want to look like saints when they are violent to the core. We know their violence and we have reached a level where we say enough is enough. We have run away enough. We have been pushed to the wall and the only available option is to defend ourselves.”

Meanwhile, Kakoma wondered why PF media director Sunday Chanda was bragging that the UPND had already lost up-coming by-elections with wide margins.

“Chanda says the UPND leader is under intense pressure because he is losing the upcoming by-elections and with a very wide margin. Well, how do you know? Please Chanda tell the Zambians the very high margins. When we say PF cannot win a fair political contest, this is what we mean. We thank Chanda for exposing what we have always feared – rigging elections. This is how they survive. Anyway, their leader told Zambians not too long ago that they were voted out in 2015 but they did not go out and were voted out in 2016 but they still did not get out of power.
But there is a limit to everything. It will be one day when Zambians will truly have their say. And that time starts now with Lusaka. Let’s change now,” stated Kakoma.