By Mwansa Kaumba
NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile says the teargas canisters fired at the rally he was addressing was a smokescreen for snipers to take down some Tonse leaders.
During a press briefing after the rally was dispersed in Mongu today, Mundubile said the police brutality people saw today was under the charge of president Hichilema as minister of Home Affairs.
“What president Hichilema and his teddy bear government does not want us to do is deliver a message of hope to the people of Barotse,” Mundubile said.
He said they were not sponsoring teddy bears to be dancing around the stage when what people needed were solutions.
He said the use of live bullets was just a smokescreen as there were people who were carrying live armour
“The question is whom do they want to kill? Ask that question. It’s unprecedented. It has never happened before. If there was any wrongdoing on our part, one senior officer should have approached us,” he said.
He said in the middle of the rally police started firing teargass but that was just cover for snipers to take down some people.
He said they were ready to fight to the hilt to deliver this nation.
Mundubile said what they wanted was to expose him and his other leaders in his campaign team by arresting his security members.
He said it was a timely warning that Zambians were ready to stand and fight to protect the vote.
Mundubile said President Hichilema did not want them to tell the people that $10.5 billion had left this money through illicit activities and that the money being accessed by some leaders in government after the tax holidays was enough to work on the roads.
He said police should be personally liable to some of their actions.
He said a government was not a farm in the manner Hichilema was running it.
Mundubile said there has been a ban on livestock from Western Province to other provinces and thereby affecting business prospects from the province. He said there would be free vaccination and more veterinary investment to build the livestock population in the area.
“We no longer have democracy and Zambians must serve democracy on 13th August,” Mundubile said.
And Tonse/Pamodzi/WOZA alliance chairperson Sakwiba Sikota said the President was the defacto minister of Home Affairs, therefore everything done by police falls under his watch.
He said today they were having a rally and all of a sudden police started firing teargass and dispersing the whole rally
He said President had failed the nation as babies were now being teargased.
He said the President should stop lying that these were the most peaceful elections ever held and address the violence that was happening.
He said police have not told them about the status of the violence in Luampa.
“We as opposition we have to defend ourselves if not defended by the states,” said Sikota.
And running mate Makebi Zulu said they wondered what awaited them in Southern Province as the violence was increasing in intensity from North-Western into Western Province.
Zulu said it was idiotic to resort to violence if the UPND had performed and the three provinces were their strongholds.
He said they would not be deterred by the violence.
He said they would equitably share the resources to get Barotseland from poverty.
Zulu said it appeared as if President Hichilema had been threatened with the message they had taken to the province against what he had been telling them that they were being beaten when they went to Lusaka.
He said they were ready to govern unlike the ‘goons’ that went around with President Hichilema.
He said Zambians must say no to any plans to rig the elections, if possible people must carry their own pens when going to vote.
And speaking earlier when they paid a courtesy call on the BRE, Mundubile told the Ngambela of Barotseland that they listened to their counsel for the opposition to unite ahead of the August 13, 2026 general elections.
Mundubile said him and his running-mate Makebi Zulu went there previously as individual candidates, but they had now come together because of the counsel they got from the traditional leadership and other stakeholders.
“Having listened carefully to your counsel and that of many stakeholders calling for opposition unity we are here today as a formidable team comprising more than 13 political parties and civil society organisations,” he said.
He said the open door policy of BRE was not just traditional but fundamental and critical to the country’s development.
He said the Barotseland agreement of 1964 still remained a long standing historical question and would continue affecting national unity if it remained unresolved.
He said his administration would commit to genuine dialogue with BRE within a mutually agreed framework.
He said the matter would be addressed with dignity and in the one Zambia one nation format.
He said no citizen shall be arrested for discussing the Barotse question.
He mentioned some indunas who were treated as Indunas yet identified as as chiefs on the NRCs
He said his government would offer BRE formal recognition of indunas as chiefs within the BRE structure so that they may equally benefit from government benefits.
Mundubile said Barotseland had consistently recorded the highest levels of poverty and lowest levels of development in Zambia.
He said this was reflected in GRZ data and data from other development partners including USAID, Irish Aid, UK aid, World Bank and IMF, saying it was linked to colonial marginalisation and under development from government.
He said they would back their words with action by working with BRE and other stakeholders.
He promised increased budgetary allocation to the education sector and would invest in feeder roads and recruiting more eachers and attracting more teachers via the rural hardship allowance.
He said there was no progress on the Lewanika University started by PF despite repeated promises by the UPND administration to complete the same.
He said farming inputs would be delivered on time.
Mundubile said he wanted to bring other cattle diseases under control so that farmers could access better markets.
He said they would set up processing plants under IDC for mango resources in the province.
He said government spent a lot to conduct mineral the survey but todate they had not delivered the report, even when the same was important towards getting the participation of chiefs in the administration of the resource wealth found in their areas.
He said his government would publish the same so that the traditional leadership should become aware of the mineral resource in their areas.
And the Ngambela of the BRE Mukela Manyando said they were impressed with the programme Mundubile’s campaign had set up for their planned government.
He said they felt marginalised and justifiably so.
Manyando said education in Western Province had gone down from the top at independence to the bottom in 2026, and that something must be done in terms of development.
He said they were also impressed that the matter of Barotse could be put on the table to be discussed.
He said people did not understand what Barotse was about such that it attracted criminal charges when they raised the matter.
