Mufulira Deputy Mayor Beatrice Kapansa yesterday harassed a senior police officer for blocking her from going to beat up a National Democratic Congress member at a police station.

Copperbelt Police Commissioner Charity Katanga confirmed this to News Diggers! in an interview today adding that 10 PF cadres were arrested for trying to disrupt an NDC meeting.

“About the mayor and Mr Hilary Namuji, the mayor became offended because the officer who is in charge of the Mokambo border post in Mufulira stopped her from entering the Mufulira officer-in-charge’s office where Honourable Mwenya Musenge was filing in a case. The mayor wanted to go and beat up a female from the NDC and so she was being stopped but she became offended and she even said the officers sprayed her with pepper spray but officers were spraying the pepper spray because they wanted to stop the commotion that was going on,” said Katanga.

“We received a report yesterday of suspected PF cadres who went to attack members of the NDC who were convening a meeting at the Hindu Hall in Mufulira. 10 people have been arrested and one has been charged with malicious damage to property because he broke a window and then the rest have been charged with behaviour likely to cause breach of peace. We arrested them because the people they went to attack did not hold that meeting illegally, they got permission and were granted a permit.”

And NDC National Youth Chairman Charles Kabwita narrated that the fracas began around 15:00 hours when their political consultant Chishimba Kambwili was about to address a huge meeting at Hindu Hall.

“First and foremost, our meting begun at exactly 15:00 hours and the Hindu Hall in Mufulira was fully packed to its capacity. This of course did not send a good message to the PF because when we formed the NDC, (Copperbelt Minister) Bowman Lusambo said we were mosquitoes and that we cannot go anywhere with our party so the PF is panicking and cannot appreciate anything that NDC is doing because already this political party is operating on lies. So suffice to say that, we begun our meeting and when Dr Chishimba Kambwili our political consultant started addressing the masses. We experienced a very unfortunate situation where the PF started throwing stones at us and the NDC members could not resist or fight back but instead what we did was to lock ourselves inside the building and allowed the police to do their work,” Kabwita narrated.

“After our meeting, we felt it was prudent for our party Secretary General Mr Mwenya Musenge to go and officially lodge in a complaint to the police. We successfully reported the matter to the police but unfortunately when we went to there we found the Provincial Chairman for PF Mr Stephen Kainga and Mr Mark Manda who is the Provincial Secretary and the madam who sent her naked pictures, you are calling her the deputy mayor also at Mufulira Central Police. Honourable Chiteme member of parliament for Nkana Constituency also came, Honourable Emmanuel Mulenga also came and our question was ‘why have you followed us?’ they said ‘no we have been told that the police have arrested our cadres but we said honestly, are they law abiding citizens? Why can’t they allow the police to investigate the matter and then when the police deem it fit those cadres can be bonded or they can be bailed out.”

He said it was at this point that Kapansa arrived at the scene and roughed up an officer.

“If you have seen in the picture circulating, I was very close to the deputy mayor, she was telling the officer to say ‘you ba police officer namutumpa sana twalamichita (you have become very stupid, we shall) transfer you and some of you twalamicita report kuli ba home affairs minister (Stephen Kampyongo) so that you can be retired in national interest (you police officers have become very silly so we are going to transfer you and then we will report some of you to the home affairs minister so you can be retired in national interest)’, and that poor officer you saw being grabbed by the mayor in the neck asked a question ‘why?’ and the mayor said ‘you are not helping us as PF already we can see that you are supporting PF’. And she even started insulting but I can’t tell you the insults because we are on phone but she started insulting the officers who became upset and sprayed chili in her mouth and her face to stop her because she became unruly. I wish to take this opportunity also to appreciate the police for their quick response to come and save us from being hurt by the PF cadres,” said Kabwita.

Meanwhile, in a Facebook posting yesterday, Kambwili boasted that NDC was growing faster than the PF in its initial stages.

“As political consultant I can foresee this party growing leaps and bounds because the pressure that they have put on the Patriotic Front is immense. This party led by Mwenya Musenge is bigger than PF was in its first 5 years of formation, the patriotic front structures are in total confusion, complete disarray as the NDC swiftly comes in to provide credible leadership and a lasting solution to the poverty we face in Zambia. After a successful meeting with more than 3000 people the patriotic front members got agitated and sent irate thugs to through stones and break cars at the Hindu Hall in Mufulira. However alert NDC youths combined with professional police officers apprehended the thugs and they locked them up,” stated Kambwili.

“As illustrated in the picture, whilst at the police station the deputy mayor and Chiteme were seen verbally abusing the men and women in uniform saying that NDC should not be allowed to hold any meeting because this country belongs to President Lungu. Unfortunately the PF youths that where sent by Lusambo joined the NDC entourage that toured the mining town to a huge huge atmosphere. The Copperbelt is crumbling very fast, although not as fast as it is in some of these other provinces. Can these MPs and senior officials allow Musenge the political mosquito to mobilise for his party.”