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Socialist Party president, Fred M’membe, says violence should never be a political strategy, tactic in a multiparty political dispensation.
M’membe said the violence allegedly visited by members of the United National Independence Party (UPND) against the Patriotic Front (PF) youths on Youth Day in Kitwe on Sunday is barbarism that should not be tolerated by us all.
Read more: Violence erupts at youth day celebrations in Ndola, as PF alleges attack by UPND cadres
Some UPND cadres in Kitwe reportedly attacked the PF youths during the youth day celebrations on Sunday leaving several injured and M’membe said that this is 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 now have been made.
“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,” M’membe said.
He alleged that the UPND is a very violent political party and it will increasingly get more and more violent as its general political support diminishes.
M’membe said that Zambians however generally do not 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.
Contributed by Augustine Sichula
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