@Space2013M Protesting is a constitutional right! If a protest turns violent, the crime is the violence not the protest. So how do you declare a protest “unlawful” before it’s even happened, when you don’t yet know whether it’ll be peaceful? You’re criminalising an intention not an act
Former Minister of Transport Mutotwe Kafwaya, at no point did you plan harm on anybody. You were just a happy soul who rose to serve a country you loved.
You died with bullets because of politics, you died with bullets because of an election. May your soul rest well Minister.
#Zambia's election exposed institutional failures: inflated tallies, degraded tabulation, courts closed. This isn't just about who won. Accountability is needed now, plus stronger safeguards to protect future elections—for Zambia and the region.
https://t.co/pQNLzKIiVS @NixiiB
@Space2013M Every government that ever abused its powers called any outside scrutiny propaganda. It’s the oldest line in the book & it’s always spoken by the side that doesn’t want witnesses. Trying to hide the abuse from other people is not patriotic
When a state arrests an opposition leader inside a UN compound, democracy isn't backsliding… it's buried.
Zambia just buried it. And the region's silence is complicity.
My full op-ed, inspired by @daddyhope's unflinching observation. No euphemisms. Just truth.
https://t.co/XuMMNbJ0kw
#Zambia #Elections #SouthernAfrica #Democracy #SADC #UN
@Smith_JeffreyT “Wait for due process.” From which judiciary? The one that got wrapped in police tape over vague “security reasons”? The one where Cabinet Office contradicted the Chief Justice? You’re really demanding a fair process from courts that open and shut on command?
This is the moment Zambia’s opposition leader, Brian Mundubile, who has accused Zambian strongman Hakainde Hichilema of rigging the 13 August presidential election, was arrested by police alongside fellow opposition figure Makebi Zulu.
On Monday, Hichilema shut down the courts, preventing Mundubile from physically filing a petition challenging the disputed election result. His regime also killed a former Cabinet minister last week, just hours after the opposition protested the suspension of vote counting and the announcement of results.
Mundubile subsequently sought refuge at the United Nations compound in Lusaka, where he remained until his arrest today.
Hichilema told his rival to take his grievances to court, then shut down the courts, deployed soldiers to block access and arrested him. This is not democracy, it is authoritarianism.
This leaves South Africa, Botswana Lesotho, Malawi and Namibia as the only remaining democracies in mainland Southern Africa where elections are conducted freely and fairly and the will of the people is respected, and those aggrieved have access to courts.
We have been detained in Police Custody in Lusaka and held on Treason charges after exercising our democratic rights to contest for the Zambian Presidency in the 2026 General Elections held 14 days ago.
Deploying security forces outside all High Courts across Zambia just to prevent the opposition from petitioning an election is dictatorship.
Having a former minister die of bullets inside the home of your main opposition rival & arresting voices that speak out is dictatorship.