UPND national youth chairperson Gilbert Liswaniso says he is going round the country to counsel party youths because they went through a lot of trauma during PF’s administration.

In an interview, Liswaniso said the youths needed counselling because without it, they risked deciding to get revenge.

“There is trauma that we need to heal, they need counseling. When you see President Hakainde appealing to the youths of UPND, it is not a joke because what they went through under PF is bad. You know that PF was beating people anyhow, are you seeing it today? Just at nominations, people were being injured, have you heard about it now? Let us appreciate what the youths are doing, it is not easy. Look at the five months and the 10 years that the PF ruled and compare, you will appreciate that the UPND youths are good people, they understand, they are healing. All we need is counseling and talking to them but when you leave them loose, one day mukakapeza ati ba ponokwa bantu (you will find that they have beaten people),” Liswaniso said.

He said he was advising the youths to have trust in the police service.

“PF made the police become their campaign manager by ensuring that whatever UPND was doing, the police would arrest them. We were protecting each other on our own, we did not have the police. When you go to the police instead of arresting a person, they arrest the one who has gone to complain. So I am telling the youths that ‘we are the ones in government, this police belongs to you, let us have that trust.’ And as a youth national chairman, I have demonstrated to everybody that let me reach out to my fellow youths. In five months, give us credit. The youths are behaving because we are talking to them, we are counseling them to heal. They can revenge but if they revenge, what will be the outcome? They are human beings, they can take revenge and what happens if they do that? It can bring anarchy to the country,” said Liswaniso.

“There are many issues. You should ask why I am going round the country? To address the issue to do with cooperatives, the issues of uniting one another, working together with everybody. No harassment of civil servants, the issues of mistrust between the youths and the police.”