THE Zambia Police Service has arrested and formally charged Socialist Party leader Fred M’membe with the offence of seditious practices.

The arrest relates to an article published on his Twitter and Facebook pages titled “Tshisekedi tells DRC Catholic Bishops about the USD20 million payout to buy Zambia’s silence”.

Dr M’membe has, however, described his repeated arrests as “high-grade foolishness, high-grade stupidity and high-grade desperation”.

Meanwhile, Socialist Party mobilisation committee member Paul Moonga broke down in tears after the arrest and detention of Dr M’membe.

In a statement, Thursday, Police Public Relations Officer Rae Hamoonga stated that on July 16, 2024, Dr M’membe published an article allegedly intended to incite disaffection against the government.

“The Zambia Police Service has arrested and formally charged Dr Fred M’membe, aged 65, for the offence of seditious practices, contrary to Section 57(I)(C) as read with Section 60(I)(B) of the Penal Code Act, Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia. It is alleged that on July 16, 2024, between 13:00 hours and 14:00 hours, Dr M’membe published an article on his Twitter and Facebook pages titled ‘Tshisekedi tells DRC Catholic Bishops about the USD 20 Million Payout to buy Zambia’s silence’. The content of this article is alleged to have been intended to bring into hatred or contempt or to incite disaffection against the government as established by law,” said Hamoonga.

“Dr M’membe has been detained in police custody and is expected to appear in court soon to answer to the charges laid against him. The Zambia Police Service wishes to remind the public that the law will be applied firmly and fairly to all individuals, and any actions aimed at inciting hatred or disaffection against the government as by law established will be met with the appropriate legal measures”.

Earlier, before his arrest at Ibex Police Station, Dr M’membe, who was accompanied by several Socialist Party officials, was asked about his summons. In response, he said, “I can only say high-grade foolishness, high-grade stupidity and high-grade desperation”.

On the other hand, Dr M’membe’s lawyer, Simon Mulenga, said his client was ready to be taken to court.

“We’re trying to get him [released] on police bond, but police are already playing their politics. So we’re trying to run around and have him released. We hope they don’t delay him any further. We also just wish to put it on record that Dr M’membe has been arrested several times and he’s never been taken to court. Actually, today I was looking at my Facebook, it was showing me last year, he was arrested for some offence of libel and spent a night at Woodlands police. Until now, we’ve not had our day in court. So our client is in high spirits and very ready for court. He didn’t even give any long statement. He’s ready to meet the whole system in court and we’re ready,” said Mulenga.

“We just hope they don’t delay and deny [bond] because it’s a bondable offence. So we don’t expect them to start giving excuses of Thursdays are sports day. If Zambia is to attain the rule of law, there’s need for them to be doing it and not intimidating us as legal practitioners. Heavy police presence, pushing us around. That’s a no for us. So that’s why we want him to appear before the courts of law as soon as possible. He is tried and proves his case. We don’t want him to be inconvenienced in 2026. Because 2026 will be a very busy year for him. He needs be campaigning, he needs to move around. If he’s going to be locked up in a police cell, it curtails the plan of him campaigning freely as a leader of the largest opposition, which is the Socialist Party”.

Meanwhile, Socialist Party General Secretary Cosmas Musumali said Dr M’membe was ready to prove to Zambians how corrupt the UPND government was.

“We have a situation where our president received a call out for today. From the political point of view, the issue is that Dr Fred M’membe now has been arrested. The president, when he was being arrested said that he is looking forward to getting to court so that these issues are laid out bare. The president has been charged and arrested several times, but the issues have stuck in court. They have never really been brought out for hearing in court. He expressed the desire that at least for once, this issue should go before the courts of law. He should be given the chance to bring evidence as to how corrupt this government is,” he said.

“He was praying and hoping that this case doesn’t end up like others where he is arrested, a lot of noise is made but at the end of the day, the government chickens out. Dr Fred M’membe won’t say things without evidence. Dr M’membe isn’t a malicious person. As a political party, we look forward to this case and we want to tell Zambians how corrupt their government is. So he’s not scared of being arrested. He invited them to arrest him. Our lawyers tried to apply for bond but there’s a reluctance on the arresting officer to grant bond. Ideally, this should be done immediately. But he’s being referred to central police force headquarters. That that’s where somebody who is going to grant bond is. He’s here but if we follow the practice of his arrest in the past, most likely he’s going to be fished out of here and put somewhere else, far away. We know that. But that’s not intimidating him or lowered his spirit”.

Dr Musumali said the UPND government wanted to arrest anyone who exposed their corrupt activities.

“If anything, he’s looking forward to this particular issue. In Zambia today, any criticism of government is going to be gagged up. Any criticism, especially that deals with corruption, becomes sort of very difficult for government to deal with. Their immediate reaction is let’s get somebody arrested. Many opposition political party leaders have been arrested. Dr M’membe has been arrested more than three, four times but these cases die down. It’s a question of we want to break you down and once we’ve done that, the whole case comes to an end. But we want to see this one in the open because Zambians will get to understand what’s wrong in this country. As the Socialist Party, we hope and feel that he is going to get the chance to explain to Zambians that he’s the only hope to redeem this country,” said Dr Musumali.