Booing Is Not A Crime – Mwiimbu

UPND MP Jack Mwiimbu has stated that booing is not a crime according to the constitution. He has advised government that if they consider it to be so then it should be legalised.

His comments follow reports of President Lungu being greeted with booing during a visit to Monze last weekend. 

Commenting on the incident Mwiimbu, who is the local area MP, said that booing was not unusual and President Lungu was not the first to receive such a reception. In fact, Mwiimbu admitted that he too had been on the receiving end of such treatment in the past.

Mwiimbu suggested the PF have blown the matter out of proportion. He added that prior to the incident the UPND had been advising people to stay at home given the current pandemic, rather that turning out in numbers to welcome the President, as Southern Province Minister Edify Hamukale had done.

UPND deputy spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa has also addressed the incident, explaining the booing as a response to the defacement of opposition billboards by police officers and PF cadres.

“What happened in Monze is that President Lungu’s visit and people behaving like that was a result of irresponsibility on the part of police. Zambia Police, together with the PF cadres, a day before President Lungu’s arrival went on rampage removing all UPND billboards. They defaced portraits that were hanging around in Monze for Hakainde Hichilema. That incensed the people who decided that if they removed the Chitenges and portraits, they were going to show him that they were not happy with him.”

Mweetwa went on to say, “They were sending a message to the Commander-in Chief to put the police in check because the police are not part of a political arena, they are neutral. People had an obligation to highlight police insensitivity by what they did.”