Some statements condemn violence, and some only use the language of condemnation to cover something else. The statement issued by the UPND Media Team after former Patriotic Front (PF) secretary-general and former Cabinet minister Mr Davies Mwila was beaten at the Supreme Court belongs to the second kind. Mr Mark Simuuwe, you missed the mark.
Here are the facts. On 13 October 2026, Mr Mwila attended the Lima Constituency election petition hearing at the Supreme Court in Lusaka. After the hearing was adjourned, a group followed him into the building, and he ended up on the floor of the reception area. One man tried to keep beating him while he struggled to get up. It took court officials, security personnel and police to pull him away.
Chief Justice Mumba Malila did not hesitate. He called the incident flagrant lawlessness and an assault on the administration of justice, and he said those responsible would face the full force of the law. That is what a clean condemnation sounds like: short, direct and without a political agenda.
The ruling party’s statement started in the same place. It called the attack unfortunate and unacceptable, and it asked the police to investigate without political interference. Then it changed direction.
Most of the statement goes after PF-Pamodzi Alliance youth leader Mr Given Gift Chibale for linking the attack to United Party for National Development (UPND) cadres. It lectures the public about “dragging political institutions into disrepute” and reminds everyone that legal remedies are available against damaging claims. It even turns the beating of an opposition figure into a sermon about “the opposition’s political discipline”, followed by a reminder that Zambians were right to renew the UPND’s mandate.
Read it twice and ask yourself who the statement is really protecting.
The man who says he led the group that followed Mr Mwila into the building is not a stranger to the UPND. Mr Clement Tembo, a former PF Kabwata aspirant who joined the ruling party this year, said openly that he confronted Mr Mwila because Mr Mwila had insulted UPND members. By Mr Tembo’s own account, he and his supporters went after the former minister inside the court building.
So when the party’s media team tells Mr Chibale to separate “evidence from political speculation”, the evidence is not hard to find. Some of it is coming from the party’s own people.
Let me be fair. Mr Mwila is alleged to have provoked the group by mocking the “salt sana” slogan and boasting that his wealth would outlive their poverty. If he said those things, they were careless words from a senior citizen who should know better. But the UPND statement itself says no political disagreement, personal grievance or ideological difference can justify physical attacks or humiliation. On that point the statement is right, and it should have stopped there and acted on it.
What would a genuine response have looked like? It would have named the problem without hedging. It would have said the party has seen the footage, knows some of those involved claim to be its members, and is handing every name to the police. It would have suspended anyone found to have taken part. And it would have apologised to Mr Mwila, an elderly former Cabinet minister who was knocked to the floor of the highest court in the land.
That is what the rule of law means when it is your own people in the frame. The rule of law is easy to defend when it is applied to opponents. The real test is applying it to your own side.
Instead, the public got a statement that condemned violence in one paragraph and spent the rest defending the party’s image and attacking the victim’s camp. The tone is divisive at a time when the country needs calm. It speaks of peace while pointing fingers, and it is the kind of message that tells young cadres the party will cover for them if they go too far.
The courts are supposed to be the last line of defence for justice. They are where the powerful are held to account and the ordinary citizen is protected. When a court building becomes another battlefield in the political war, every Zambian should be worried, whatever their party.
Today it is an opposition figure on the floor. Tomorrow it could be anyone. When justice becomes selective, nobody is safe.
Mark, here is a reminder offered in good faith. Politics was here before all of us and will be here when we are gone. Governments change, and parties that rule today will sit in opposition tomorrow. What follows the loss of power is often the bill for what was covered up while power was held.
You still have time to get this right. Withdraw the lecture, name the problem and apologise to Mr Mwila. Let the police do their work without a party statement standing in front of them.
The Almighty sees everything. The question for those who think they can do whatever they like, whenever they like, and get away with it is a simple one: for how long?
By Choolwe Haatembo
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