M’membe condemns UPND violence

By NATION REPORTER

SOCIALIST Party president Dr Fred M’membe has condemned the recent violence experienced on Youth Day in Kitwe, where UPND supporters attacked PF youths.

Dr Mmembe said the violence of the UPND against their counterparts in Kitwe was barbarism that should not be tolerated by   all Zambians.

He said this was the behaviour that the UPND, as the governing party, should lead in condemning and punishing.

“Those behind that violence can easily be found. If the violence was perpetrated by PF against UPND arrests would  have been made by now. But this is what happens when you have a police that is led by officers who are selected predominantly from one region of our country and are supporters or sympathisers of the ruling party,” he said.

He said the UPND was a very violent political party and it would increasingly get more and more violent as its general political support diminished.

Dr M’membe said Zambians generally didn’t like violence and the UPND will ultimately, like the PF did, pay a very high political price for it.

“In a multiparty political dispensation we don’t all share the same views or support the same political parties. And this in itself calls for a lot of tolerance and respect for the views and rights of others to exist and be what they want to be within what the law permits,” he said.

He said in a multiparty political dispensation violence should never be deployed as a political strategy or tactic.