By Patson Chilemba
Lusaka lawyer Makebi Zulu has described Inspector General of Police Graphel Musamba as a political cadre inserting himself in political matters to the service of his masters.
Speaking with Daily Revelation on the arrest of Socialist Party (SP) leader Dr Fred M’membe, Zulu, who started his response by jokingly asking if he could first send a bill for offering his legal opinion to buy a meda of mealie given the very high cost of living as “things are hard in the new dawn”, told Musamba to sober up as he is now playing politics.
“I hope he sobers up and knows that his job is to serve and protect the citizens. And serving the citizens and protecting the citizens also means protecting the personal whims from our leaders. He can’t say you go and arrest that one and he gets up to go and arrest. He must be able to protect citizens,” Zulu said, adding that Musamba does not necessarily have to agree with citizens but it’s his job to protect them.
He said one may not agree with what Dr M’membe said, but he has the right to say what he said.
“He has a right to say it in whatever context he said it, he has a right to say whatever opinion and views he holds. So this offence of wanting to arrest someone for having a contrary view or a view that endangers your stay in power is unconstitutional to say the least. So he must be able to express himself freely, and he must be able to stomach the view whether you like it or not,” Zulu said. “So if he’s going to liken it to the issue in Niger or anything, that is not the basis of it all. The basis is saying that okay, the mealie meal prices have gone up. You said we were going to be buying at K50. All these things you have failed to govern. In the event that you have failed to govern, what should happen? Obviously, it’s clear to tell that it is in M’membe’s best interest that we have an election in 2026 and that he wins that election, not that there should be a coup. No, no, no, no but he is likening situations, says situations such as this that lead to that. That does not mean that there is a desire that it should be that way in Zambia because we are a constitutional democracy. So you don’t have to agree with what he says but you have to protect his right to say it. That’s my view on that issue.”
Zulu said Musamba was delving into the political realm by jumping to assert himself into the issue of socialism, the ideology which governs Dr M’membe’s party.
“He was giving his own opinion about socialism saying that socialism has not worked anywhere. Why did he go to that extent of wanting to discuss an ideology?” Zulu wondered.
He said Musamba’s behaviour was uncalled for, and it is now clear that he is serving a partisan interest, and serving an ideology of a party and trying to perpetuate his stay as IG “by serving his masters.”
He suggested that the next time the country decides to change the law, the nation should ensure that leaders of law enforcement agencies must be appointed through parliament, by having a parliamentary committee to engage them and through parliament ratified to their offices.
“Then we may have sober people because we don’t even know where he is coming from. He just shows up on the scene, brutalising everyone,” Zulu said, arguing that when it came to police brutality, Musamba claimed that the police are allowed to use minimum force, but wondered what the measure of that minimum force is when he has been told that the police were brutalising people to make them accept things they did not do. “Is that what he is calling minimum force? Should torture be called minimum force in this time and age? Certainly not. The next thing he’s calling his own officers junkies, (that) there is need for retraining (as) ‘these were appointed by PF.’ The moment you begin to mention political parties as it were you cease to be professional and you just become a cadre like any one else. So he’s less than professional in his approach.”
But asked on the fact that he served as a minister in the PF administration and the progressive things he was suggesting about appointments could have been implemented already by the PF administration, Zulu argued that the PF proposed amendments to the constitution, but the UPND opposed the ideas “because they did not want us to be the ones to usher in a new constitution.”
He said the PF had the roadmap for expanding the rights of the people through the referendum, but the UPND opposed that.
