Mwaliteta reacts to UPND violence

Patriotic Front(PF) campaign manager for the Mangango parliamentary by-election Obvious Mwaliteta says he will remain steadfast and won’t be intimidated by acts of violence by the opposition United Party for National Development (UNPD) members.

Mr Mwaliteta was reacting to the seizure of his vehicle’s immobiliser and the alleged theft of  money by suspected UPND cadres who pounced on him in Kaoma on suspicion that he was changing the registration plate of a Mitsubishi Pajero from a government  number to a private one.

The Kafue constituency lawmaker who is also Central province Minister claimed that the UPND does not want him in Mangango because it feels that he is the one who caused them to lose the Livingstone parliamentary by-election.

Mr Mwaliteta noted that it was typical of the opposition party to engage in violence when they are anticipating an electoral downfall.

He said the UPND has no message for the people of Mangango and it was becoming very difficult for them to market their candidate based on unattainable promises.

He said he was not a dull person to start changing his own vehicle’s registration plate from private to any other, adding that the vehicle in question is not government property.

Mr Mwaliteta said the PF, unlike the UPND, has not imported any youths to cause violence in Mangango as it realises that no one is a winner when there is violence especially that the political contest is among Zambians.

But UPND deputy campaign manager Carlos Antonio said the vehicle Mr Mwaliteta is claiming to be private is actually a government property whose registration number is GRZ 269 CT which has been changed to ABD 5657.

Mr Antonio, who is also Kaoma Central Member of Parliament, claimed that the UPND cadres found PF members changing the vehicle registration plates from GRZ to private at Pumulo Park in Kaoma, adding that the immobiliser, which is in their custody, bears a government registration number.

He said another vehicle registration number GRZ 281 has been changed to ABD 2160, a registration number he claimed is appropriated to a vehicle belonging to Diblo Kapito Kasweka, a driver for the Nkeyema district commissioner Yuvwenu Kashandola.

He said the UPND has filed a complaint with the police and the party is writing letters to the Electoral Commission Zambia so that the PF desists from using government property during the campaigns.

Mr Antonio said only the President and his vice are supposed to use government vehicles during campaigns, adding that the UPND will continue to remain vigilant to protect government property as the PF will not be in power forever.

A UPND cadre, Kingford Nasilele, who is also former Kaoma district commissioner in the MMD government, has been arrested over the incidence.