M’membe speaks out ” I fired to disperse the people”

Dr Fred M’membe

Socialist Party president Fred M’membe has spoken out over the political violence that happened in Serenje yesterday.

Dr. M’membe says there is a scheme to frame him as a bad person which he says won’t work.

FRAMING ME AS A BAD PERSON WON’T WORK, NO ONE HAS BEEN ARRESTED, NO ONE HAS BEEN CHARGED

Let’s not allow ourselves to be deceived that political violence ended with the removal of the Patriotic Front from government. It didn’t.

Yesterday, we were attacked, and after being attacked we are now being framed as the attackers, as the violent ones.

This is what used to happen under the PF. UPND used to be framed as the attackers when they were the victims.

Today, I am being accused of assaulting a UPND cadre when I was nowhere near. I saved a situation that could have ended up with the death of a UPND or Socialist Party cadre when I was nowhere near.

I fired a few shots to disperse the people and, indeed, they managed to run away. And if I hadn’t have done that, we would have had deaths.

Nobody was aimed at, nobody was assaulted by myself. But today, there is an attempt to make me look like a violent person, which I am not. It won’t work.

Aba bemba batila Ubujwnjeshi Bwankoko Pungwa Tasakamana. Ubucenjeshi bumo chimo nokupusa.

A warn and caution statement has been recorded from me this morning. I was the first one to go to the police to complain about this violence. The UPND cadres who attacked us were nowhere near the police post or police station. They have not been arrested; they are not in anyway being questioned. We, the victims, are the ones who are being turned into the attackers. This is the situation we are in.

But it won’t work. It didn’t work when the UPND was in opposition. It will not work now with the UPND in power.

It didn’t work for the PF; it won’t work for the UPND. Framing someone is a difficult thing; it disintegrates when matters go to court.

I was myself assaulted in front of police officers. I was threatened in front of police officers at a police station.

No one has been arrested. No one has been charged.

This is the type of policing we are seeing today. When we complained about the structure of the police leadership – the composition of the police leadership – we were seen as being malicious, but this is what happens when you run the police this way. More things, worse things, are to come.

Fred M’membe
President of Socialist Party [Zambia]