Lusaka Province acting PF chairman Paul Moonga has denied any involvement in the attack against Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) president Sean Tembo and his supporters last week saying he is not a violent person.

Last week Thursday, Tembo and his supporters were attacked by some suspected PF cadres along Cairo Road while they were undertaking their 13th peaceful protest against the US $42 million fire trucks.

Tembo, who sustained deep cuts in his head, issued a statement in which he charged that Moonga was one of the three men who attacked him.

But in an interview, Moonga accused Tembo of hallucinating.

“In the first place, I don’t even know how that guy looks, whether he is young or old, I don’t know. I have never had any physical contact with him. Secondly, I am not a violent person, and surely the whole lot of me should be going to the city of Lusaka with a panga or a weapon to go and attack a human being? Then I am mad! I am insane! It is either the man is hallucinating or he felt so bad that since I have been beaten, the only person in Lusaka and Zambia [I can accuse] is Mr Paul Moonga. Surely with all the gadgets we have today, we are able to watch people in the Copperbelt shopping, surely there will be no recording of Mr Moonga holding a panga? You just wake and go to the police that ‘Mr Moonga has beaten me’ How?” Moonga wondered.

“That whole day I was chairing a meeting in Lusaka Province. We were with the Kanyama people; we were reconstituting Makeni constituency, we were doing Woodlands constituency and Lusaka Central, Kabwata and Chawama, we are reconstituting all the constituencies. I was leaving the office at 17:30 hours and I never saw [Tembo] that day. I only knew this issue of this young man being beaten the following day. People are calling me ‘what about this’. I was with my wife, we had lunch at Wimpy, from there I went to the office. In the first place, why should I even think of beating Sean Tembo? For what? For me he doesn’t even exist, who is he in society?”

He gave Tembo a five-day ultimatum to retract the statement.

“Surely, if you are demonstrating in the streets of Lusaka, the PF are sympathizers or maybe it is the UPND that might attack him. Let me give an example, I go to Monze Market I am demonstrating ‘abash HH’, you think people will leave me? Then I should say that who has beaten me is HH? People are feeling the pressure of the party’s organization in Lusaka, so they are trying to align my name, so maliciously. I am preparing documents by Monday. He will be given a letter by my lawyers giving him five days ultimatum to retract the statement! Because I am disturbed, the whole family is disturbed, my mother in law is calling me ‘sonny have you done this’? ‘Surely mommy, you know me how can I do such a thing?’. Have I ever been involved in violence anywhere in my life? Zero! I have no case of assault case in Zambia; I should start now at the age 51 because of what?” asked Moonga.

“So the young man, his record must be checked where he was abroad, why is he in Zambia? What happened there? So you reporters should also investigate this human being; his character in society, who is Sean Tembo? Where does he come from? Where was he working? Why was he flown out of the country? What happened where he was working? Then we can start to say ‘this guy his character is questionable’. You know, building a character is not easy and only to be destroyed by one Sean Tembo. I shall take him on! I am not even upset myself, my family is upset but I am not myself. But I am upset the way Hot FM Radio was trying interview me (Friday)! They were trying to push me in the corner. You call me so that I can talk to you but again you want to be the one talking instead of listening to me.”