Zambia’s government has backtracked on its earlier ban of popular rallies by controversial opposition leader Michael Sata on security grounds, Home Affairs Minister Ronnie Shikapwashya said on Saturday.
The minister said Sata and any other opposition leaders are free to hold public rallies, contrary to what his deputy minister had announced at a press briefing on Friday.
”The minister of home affairs wishes to correct the impression made to the public with regards to holding of meetings, processions or demonstrations. Public meetings will continue to be carried out in the country,” a statement said.
Shikapwashya’s statement came after a cross-section of Zambians condemned the government for imposing a ban on Sata, whose rallies have drawn tens of thousands of supporters in recent weeks.
Deputy Home Affairs Minister Chrispin Musosha told reporters that ”there is a serious erosion of security” being perpetuated by Sata through his popular rallies, only weeks after he lost the presidential election.
”We have realised that there is a need to protect this country. We are putting the country on high security alert,” Musosha said.
Shikapwashya said his government had not issued any instructions to the police to stop the opposition rallies, adding that to do would be going against the law.
Sata has said he will not stop holding rallies because he has already started his campaign for presidential elections due in 2011.
President Levy Mwanawasa had banned Sata’s rallies but the Lusaka High Court gave the opposition leader the go-ahead to continue with the gatherings after the country’s solicitor general agreed that forbidding such rallies would be unconstitutional.
Sata has insisted that he won the September election and that the result was rigged by Mwanawasa. However, international monitors gave the ballot a generally clean bill of health and Sata failed to challenge the result through the courts.
The Zambian authorities have consistently accused Sata of inciting people to rise against a democratically elected government. — Sapa-AFP