Opposition United Party for National Development leader Hakainde Hichilema says he will not be cowed by intimidation tactics directed at him and vows to die fighting for a politically and economically better Zambia.
Hichilema says he will not at any point surrender to intimidation tactics employed by the Patriotic Front government under President Michael Sata.
The opposition leader is facing several trumped up charges ranging from defamation of the President to issuing statements likely to cause alarm and promoting violence among others.
Hichilema held a press briefing yesterday and reiterated his resolve to redeem Zambians from the political malaise they find themselves in.
He said, “I am not giving in to intimidation. If I die, I should die fighting for this country politically and economically.”
Hichilema challenged the PF government to direct its energies to solving challenges facing the country instead of spending time stopping the opposition, its members and ordinary Zambians from exercising their fundamental rights of assembly and speech.
He said the University of Zambia, the country’s highest institution, was facing challenges with riots by students erupting last week while most parts of the country had no mealie meal and in some cases the price for the commodity had skyrocketted.
“The police have been brutalizing the students. There is a strike because the government has not paid the students their allowances,” Hichilema said.
“The students have been met bymaximum force. The police have thrown teargas in student rooms and the University Clinic.”
He wondered how the PF government claims not to have money when they are creating by-elections in a bid to increase numbers in parliament.
“I ask all of us to pray to God and ask God why we have such a Government. We demand that all the students that were arrested be released. We demand that the Government pays the students what is due to them,” he said.
Hichilema demanded that police presence should withdraw from the varsity to stop making a learning institution look like a war zone.
“This is not what the youths voted for. What else does PF want from the people? They won the elections. What else does Mr Sata want?” he asked.
Hichilema is upset that some 22 students at the University of Zambia missed their semester examinations because of detention.
“After 1991, we thought we will never see another dictator,” he said in apparent reference to a new dictator in President Sata as espoused in his dictatorial tendencies.
Hichilema has pledged that when elected president, no individual will be thrown into police cells without thorough investigations.
“Damage to the human rights is going on unabated. We were thrown in cells with fecal matter for a crime we did not commit. Those cells have no light, no water, no toilet.
Yet there are people who are thrown in those cells,” he said.
Hichilema said the darks days of queuing for mealie meal were back in Zambia.
“Did anyone believe that at some point we would start queuing up for mealie meal?” he asked, adding “We have nothing against Mr Sata, but we have something against the way he is running Government.
“The mealie meal in Zambezi is 120 kwacha rebased. The Government issued an instruction for traders to reduce prices, but what did the traders do? They have started repacking the mealie meal.
“In some instances like in Namwala, the traders have stopped trading in mealie meal. Is this the experience we talked about? “Chivote vote bambi bakavotela ne chinangwa [voting anyhow, others will even vote for a fool].”
Hichilema wondered why despite assuming power through deceit the PF has continued on the same path.
“Now we know what kind of Government we have, they have continued lying while in Government, they say we have 50,000 jobs, where are the jobs?” he said.
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