President of the Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) Sean Tembo has described President Hakainde Hichilema as a shallow-minded president after the president told voters on the Copperbelt that Government can only deliver development when they elect a United party for National Development candidate.
Speaking when he appeared on Radio Ichengelo three days ago, the President said that the only way his government can deliver development to the people of Kwacha and Kabushi is if they vote for UPND candidates.
Posting on his Facebook page, Mr Tembo said that the remarks by the president are not only an affront to democracy but exemplify the extent to which Mr Hichilema is a shallow-minded President.
Mr Tembo said that the President should be reminded that the money which his government uses to take development to the people is contributed by taxpayers of different political affiliations including those from PeP, UPND, PF, Socialist etcetera and added that the President has no right to segregate against constituencies that are held by opposition MPs.
“Mr. Hichilema should be further reminded that the Zambian people have a right to affiliate with a political party of their choice without fear of persecution or reprisals. President Hichilema must immediately withdraw his threats of reprisals which he issued against the people of Kwacha and Kabushi. Going forward, the President should desist from issuing shallow-minded statements,’ concluded the statement.
Recently Mr Tembo was slapped with the offence of Hate Speech contrary to Section 65 of the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act No. 2 of 2021 of the Laws of Zambia after spending five days in police cells.
However, Police Spokesperson Rae Haamonga said that the police should not be blamed for Mr Tembo’s prolonged detention because they wanted to charge him but he insisted that his lawyer needed to be present.
He said the police obliged but up to then his legal counsel had not appeared making it difficult because they did not want to abrogate the law.
“We wanted to charge Mr Tembo but he told us that he needed his lawyer to be present so we waited and up to now nothing has come up,” he said.
