It is highly misleading and dangerous for the United Party for National Development (UPND) leadership to deliberately misinform their members and sympathisers to start celebrating winning the petition when the case is still in court.
However, we know that the celebrations by some residents in Mazabuka, Kalomo and parts of Choma yesterday after a false rumour went round saying that (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema has won the petition is politically orchestrated by the UPND itself.
Considering what is already happening in Southern Province, especially in Namwala, the action by UPND members and sympathisers is highly irresponsible since it has the potential to lead to breach of peace.
We thus agree with the Patriotic Front (PF) party which has called on the UPND to stop inciting its members and sympathisers into celebrating that its leader Hakainde Hichilema has become president.
Like the PF deputy spokesperson Frank Bwalya, we feel inciting members to celebrate before the ruling of the Constitutional Court could be made was a recipe for conflict and anarchy.
On the other hand, we feel the UPND has deliberately continued to incite its members in Southern Province to celebrate that they have won so that if the petition is thrown out, the same people will protest violently.
The UPND ploy is also intended to serve another purpose of attracting the international community by creating a false picture that there is conflict in the nation.
However, our reminder to the UPND leadership is that the international community the party is pampering to already knows who the perpetrators of political violence are.
We say this knowing that the international community has followed events keenly and knows who is squarely responsible for the violence going on in Southern Province.
We know people who don’t know the meaning of the phrase ‘ethnic cleansing’ are disputing our use of this term since they are ignorant that it simply means the systematic forced removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory by a more powerful ethnic group, with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous.
The forces applied may be various forms of forced migration (deportation, population transfer), intimidation, as well as mass murder and genocidal rape.
To the misinformed critics of our use of this term, they want mass murder or genocidal rape for ethnic cleansing to apply.
As a media that has chronicled events happening in Southern Province, we earlier covered hate speeches and intimidation of non-UPND members long before the election results.
The threats include ‘Amargeddon’ making Zambia ungovernable and disputing election results.
Since we have an obligation to inform (and of course warn), we are insisting that what is happening in Southern Province has a genesis in the hate speeches of UPND leaders.
It is now abundantly clear that the UPND has several plans to disrupt peace and order in this country just to bulldoze itself into power and pamper to the international community through inciting its member to riot and create a false impression of the country becoming ungovernable.
Since we wouldn’t allow this country to go to the dogs or dogs to come to Zambia, we are calling on law enforcers to take charge and punish the perpetrators of political violence which has already seen some people fleeing their homes for safety.
The people of Southern Province are good people and know that Zambia belongs to them all, but are being misled by selfish politicians.
Please, leave these innocent people alone and fight the battles on your own. Zambia has been known as the beacon of peace and so shall it be.
PEACE, PEACE, PEACE, IS OUR CRY.