ZAMBIANS are angry with President Edgar Lungu and PF for frustrating opposition mobilisation efforts, a situation which may lead to an unstoppable revolution, says Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary general Lucky Mulusa.

And Mulusa has disclosed that the Ministry of Health declined the MDC’s application to host the party’s inaugural conference this weekend, citing a rise in COVID-19 cases as a reason.

In an interview, Mulusa cautioned that a revolution was likely to erupt if PF failed to control Zambians’ mounting anger.

“We would like to urge State players that they must not have a myopic view on State governance and its far-reaching consequences on our good standing name as Zambia. We cannot afford to destroy the good reputation that we have as a beacon of democracy, of peace. When voters are as annoyed as they are at the moment with President Lungu, as a ruling party, they must actually do its best to pray for the right leadership to emerge in order to manage people’s anger. They have made life difficult and they must not frustrate the emergence of good leadership because when it’s not properly managed, when a revolution starts, you reap negative results and not positive results,” Mulusa cautioned.

“So, the PF, with the current despondency in the country, should pray for reasonable political leadership to stop people from starting a revolution, to manage people’s anger because without a proper leadership as it is, when people take matters into their own hands, the consequences are terrible! So, the PF needs to allow political players to play the correct role in order to manage people’s anger. People right now need a vent through which their anger, the pressure from their anger, is released, and not frustrate leadership because if left to the PF alone, there will be turmoil, which not even the atomic bomb can stop! So, they shouldn’t think that by buying riot control equipment, they can manage people’s anger, they can’t. So, PF must be very happy that sensible leadership is emerging to provide alternative spaces to the angry voters in this country.”

And Mulusa, who was President Lungu’s former special assistant for project implementation and monitoring, revealed that the Ministry of Health declined the MDC’s application to host the party’s inaugural conference this weekend, citing a rise in COVID-19 cases as a reason.

“The Movement for Democratic Change inaugural conference has been changed to next month, dates to be advised. And the reason is that the health authorities have failed to give us clearance to congregate and we are not going to force matters because we are a law-abiding party. And we would like to believe that the lives of our members are more important than our desire to achieve political mileage. So, we will respect that, hoping that we will be granted the permission to congregate in the numbers we would want to congregate. We would like to point out that the frustration is not coming out from the regulation point of view, but it’s also coming from the institution point of view in the sense that all institutions where we are supposed to hold our convention, they are turning us away, they are declining our requests,” said Mulusa.

“For instance, we have had challenges with Mulungushi International Conference Centre; we have also had challenges with Mulungushi University. But we want to point out that allowing political stakeholders to go about their businesses is more beneficial to the nation than frustrating them. Otherwise, the international community starts viewing you as an intolerant State and that has far-reaching consequences where even investor confidence starts getting affected when they start viewing you as a non-functional democracy. So, those that are making negative decisions against political stakeholders must realise that at the end of the day, they are not punishing us, but they are punishing people indirectly in that they are tarnishing the image of the nation. They are denting the image of the nation.”