SWIFT POLICE SAVES FAZ PRESIDENT MWEEMBA FROM JAWS OF UNRULY UPND CADRES AT LEVY MWANAWASA STADIUM
In what appeared like a routine incident of known ruling party cadres crashing in for a half-time snack at Levy Mwanawasa on Tuesday evening turned ugly as they attempted to use their found rare proximity to confront FAZ president Keith Mapenzi Mweemba.
According to multiple sources, the stalwarts and Zambia Police struggled to deal with the situation when friendly forces suddenly turned hostile as they wanted to ‘have a word’ with Mweemba.
This was during the Olympic Qualifier match between Copper Queens and Uganda’s Crested Cranes in Ndola in which the Zambia national women’s team comfortably won 4– 1.
According to security sources close to the VVIP area, about 17 UPND cadres conspicuously clad in their regalia approached the VVIP section during the half-time break so they could benefit from the snacks reserved for VVIPs.
“There was nothing to suspect because when you have a high profile match like this one, it is normal to see cadres come ub to grab some snacks and drinks, and as usual, they retreat to their position after collecting the meals,” the source said anonymously.
The source explained that when some of the cadres saw Mweemba they approached him to have a ‘word’ with him over the state of Zambian football and why he was allowing President Hichilema to be ‘insulted’ through the ‘Pe Lampi’ mantra which has become common behaviour among soccer fans in most stadiums on the Copperbelt.
The source explained that while the conversation initially looked cordial, the situation turned ugly when some of the cadres wanted to start pushing and manhandling Mweemba.
“There was a security breach to an extent in the VVIP section. Mr Keith Mweemba was only with one personal security guard at the time who also looked unprepared for the situation; the other person closer to him was sports PS Kangwa Chileshe who was shoved away when he attempted to intervene. And also the PS is a VVIP remember. It was not very clear why the cadres were annoyed but when we got closer, what they were saying was that Mr Mweemba was allowing the opposition to use football matches to undermine the UPND and President Hichilema despite the party having supported his candidature in the FAZ election,” the security source explained
The source said according to Police investigations, the cadres were acting on the directive by Copperbelt provincial chairman Elisha Matambo that party members should start attending football matches in numbers in order to defend the party by identifying those championing opposition slogans and capturing and reporting them to police.
Another source said the FAZ chief remained unscathed despite the threats of attack as the few Zambia Police officers in the VVIP section managed to evacuate him to safety.
“I was there and I can confirm that he [Mweemba] was not physically attacked or harmed. They accosted him yes when they stormed the VVIP area at halftime during snacks but there was no physical assault on him because the few officers around were alert and they managed to secure him, and that’s why you saw him walk to celebrate with the players after the game; he was well secured by the [Zambia Police] officers,” another security source said separately.- The Vital