ZAMBIA has over the last two years witnessed a trend where some opposition political leaders have been making careless statements which, under the Patriotic Front (PF) administration, would have led to their arrest.
No doubt, they are enjoying the freedom of expression brought about by the ascendancy of the United Party for National Development (UPND) to power in August 2021.
However, some of them have gone overboard as they are taking their freedom too far, to the extent of even working in league with foreigners to soil their own country.
It is shocking that these desperate politicians even tout themselves as potential future presidents of the country whose image they are working overtime to destroy.
Theirs is a strange form of patriotism.
They are nothing but mercenaries or traitors.
They are now inciting the Government to arrest them for offences they are deliberately committing and to gain public sympathy for alleged political persecution.
How do they think Zambians can sympathise with them when they are putting the security of the country in jeopardy by working with foreign agents to tarnish the country’s name?
It is, therefore, not surprising that the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security has warned that it will not allow people to continue committing crimes as if they were above the law.
Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister Jack Mwiimbu has put it plainly that people who will dare break Zambian laws should be ready to pay for their transgressions.
When one commits a crime, they must face the law and not bring in issues of persecution.
Zambia has just come from a past where leaders stole public resources wantonly while those above them watched without taking any action.
Now that there is a responsible Government in place and it is investigating the crimes that were committed against the Zambian people and the cases being taken to court, some irresponsible opposition leaders want to create a narrative that they are being victimised.
They should all be ready for prosecution and prove their innocence, if any, in court instead of playing politics.
Indeed, as Mr Mwiimbu has said, no one is above the law and they should be ready to account because the Zambians deserve justice.
Mr Mwiimbu said his ministry was concerned by some utterances suggesting that that the Government was applying the law selectively.
If indeed, there is selective application of the law, the individuals claiming so should be ready to prove what they are talking about.
If, indeed, that were the case, why is it that some Government officials were recently arrested and are now appearing in court?
This was unheard of during the PF regime in which Government leaders who broke the law were defended and highly protected by the people who should have disciplined them.
Those who want to willingly break the law should know that the country is now in a dispensation where rule of law is cardinal and they should not cry victim when the wheels of justice catch up with them.