Zambia : Mundubile Says Southern Province Was "weaponised" Ahead Of Election

NRPUP accuses security forces of weaponising Southern Province as Tonse-PF condemns raid on Mundubile media team

NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile has accused security forces of weaponising Southern Province ahead of Thursday’s election, claiming his party avoided campaigning there to prevent loss of life, as the Tonse-PF Pamodzi Alliance separately condemned a police raid on its Lusaka media centre that saw more than twenty members of his campaign team detained without charge.

Speaking during a virtual rally on Monday, Mundubile said his decision to stay away from Southern Province was driven by intelligence suggesting the area had been flooded with police officers and snipers ahead of a planned visit.

“We stayed away from Southern Province because we did not want to lose innocent lives. We may have been safe, protected by our security, but we could have simply lost innocent lives by getting into a province which was weaponised, which had so many police officers, so many snipers,” Mundubile said.

He framed the decision as a matter of principle rather than fear, invoking his late father’s history as a freedom fighter. “The freedom that he fought for did not include me failing to sleep at home because some snipers will appear at some point on instruction of a leader. That’s not the freedom that my father fought for,” he said.

Running mate Makebi Zulu went further, alleging that some UPND members had planned to incite violence during the alliance’s proposed Southern Province tour, with the intention of creating grounds to declare a state of emergency and cancel the election entirely.

“We were advised that the so-called invitations were merely smoke screens for mayhem that was to erupt in Southern Province. That the intention was to get violent or indeed disarm our people and cause violence that would possibly result in death,” Zulu said, adding that the alliance had been forced to cancel its road shows after what he described as unexplained police intervention.

Neither the Zambia Police Service nor the Electoral Commission of Zambia had responded publicly to the allegations by the time of publication.

The claims followed a separate, corroborating episode in Lusaka, where Tonse-PF Pamodzi Alliance spokesperson Lawrence Mwelwa said police raided the alliance’s media centre in Longacres on Saturday and detained several members of Mundubile’s campaign team, describing the operation as political persecution rather than legitimate law enforcement.

Among those detained were former Zambian ambassador to Switzerland Martha Lungu Mwitumwa, who has been part of the alliance’s campaign administration, and Hannah Israel Katontoka, who manages Mundubile’s online platforms. Two other digital team members were separately detained in Mongu without charge.

Mwelwa said musicians and members of Mundubile’s personal security detail, including artists known as Chester, Felix Ndangeni Inshila and IDC Light Comedy, had also been taken into custody, with no charges laid against any of them.

“The operation at the Tonse-PF Pamodzi Alliance media centre in Longacres in Lusaka was not about law enforcement but a clear attempt to silence the alliance and instil fear in our supporters. The people of Zambia deserve free and fair elections, not a climate of fear and arbitrary arrests,” Mwelwa said.

He said police had also positioned officers in Livingstone in anticipation of arresting the remainder of Mundubile’s campaign team, prompting the candidate to cancel his planned trip to the province at the last minute over safety concerns.

“Mundubile cancelled the trip at the last minute, citing intelligence about threats to the team’s safety and fears of organised violence,” Mwelwa said, adding that UPND cadres had been publicly announcing intentions to confront Mundubile and Zulu should they visit Southern Province.

The Zambia Police Service had not issued a formal statement on the arrests by the time of publication, nor had it commented on the public threats attributed to UPND supporters.

Human Rights Commission chairperson Dr Pamela Towela Sambo separately raised concern over related incidents in Livingstone and Western Province, where opposition entourages were reportedly blocked from witnessing ballot paper verification and, in one case, forced to disembark and continue campaign routes on foot after police cordoned off their vehicles.

The Commission condemned what it described as “harassment and physical attacks” against independent parliamentary candidates during the nomination period, warning that failure by law enforcement to act swiftly and impartially risked fostering a culture of impunity in the run-up to polling day.

With campaigning due to close on Wednesday, the competing accounts from NRPUP’s campaign and Zambian security agencies remain unresolved, adding to a broader pattern of contested claims over security conduct in the campaign’s final days.

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