Mwaliteta reports PF’s Chanda to police for ‘inciting, threatening’ violence against HH

LUSAKA Province UPND chairman Obvious Mwaliteta yesterday reported PF media director Sunday Chanda to police for allegedly threatening violence on Hakainde Hichilema.

After emerging from Lusaka Central Police Station, around 15:30 hours, where a docket was opened against Chanda, Mwaliteta told journalists that Hichilema did not deserve to be threatened with death for doing his job as an opposition leader.

We came to report Sunday Chanda the Patriotic Front media [director] over the allegation of threatening violence to our president HH and also inciting the people of the Copperbelt to rise against our president, HH. We feel that from the instruction given by the Inspector General of Police that anyone who is going to promote hate speech must be arrested’ Mwaliteta said.

We have taken long to report this matter from the time the article came out on Zambian Watch. We thought maybe the police will act on their own because it was hate speech. But there was no movement of calling Mr Sunday Chanda.

Mwaliteta said Hichilema’s family was traumatised with the said statement, allegedly by Chanda, calling for the burning the opposition leader alive when he goes for questioning in Ndola tomorrow.

It is very serious; inciting people on the Copperbelt to rise against our president and to burn him alive. That’s threatening violence on his life! So, we felt that we should come and open a docket and see how the police are going to handle the matter. We have reported him today and we live it in the hands of the police, he said.

Asked if the UPND was intimidated with alleged threats on Hichilema, Mwaliteta stressed that: We are not intimidated but we are looking at Mr Hakainde himself in the family he is a family man.

If a father of a family is threatened to be burnt alive because of politics when he is just doing his job of providing checks and balances to the government’. He should not be threatened with death for doing his job as an opposition leader. We are not intimidated but we felt that it’s our responsibility to put things on record. We are very grateful that the police received us very well and recorded a statement from us, said Mwaliteta.