State Agents Search Makebi Zulu’s Home As Church Denies Political Deal Claim

Security agents have searched the Lusaka residence of opposition running mate Makebi Zulu, a search his lawyer Sakwiba Sikota says was carried out without his legal team being notified beforehand, raising fresh questions about how the operation was conducted. The search comes…

Security agents have searched the Lusaka residence of opposition running mate Makebi Zulu, a search his lawyer Sakwiba Sikota says was carried out without his legal team being notified beforehand, raising fresh questions about how the operation was conducted.

The search comes as an eight-member church mediation team dismissed suggestions that it had brokered, or attempted to broker, a political settlement between government and the opposition. In a statement, the churches said their mandate was never to negotiate a political deal between the two sides, but rather to facilitate a peaceful and dignified transition through the United Nations premises to legal representatives.

The clarification followed reports that Brian Mundubile and Zulu had been handed over as part of a negotiated arrangement, a narrative the churches were keen to correct given the sensitivity of the treason case against the pair.

Sikota’s objection centres on the absence of prior notice to counsel, a procedural point that lawyers say matters regardless of the seriousness of the allegations under investigation, since it goes to whether the rights of an accused person are being observed at every stage of an operation, not only once a matter reaches court.

The search of Zulu’s home follows a similar operation at Mundubile’s Kabulonga residence on August 14, during which former minister Mutotwe Kafwaya was killed and various weapons recovered. Eleven people associated with Mundubile were arrested during that operation.

The Law Association of Zambia has continued to follow the handling of the case, with its leadership convening briefings to update the public on developments affecting the accused, including procedural questions of the kind Sikota has now raised over his client’s search.

With both principal opposition figures now facing treason charges and their properties searched, how each search was conducted, and not only what was found, is likely to feature prominently once the matter reaches open court.