Democratic Forum

03/11/2025

Tension Boils Over: Sakanya Border Shuts Down After Death of Zambian Truck Driver in DRC Custody

The Sakanya Border Post between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was thrown into turmoil on Sunday, November 2, 2025, when violent clashes erupted following the death of a Zambian truck driver allegedly while in the custody of DRC border officials. The escalating tensions forced authorities to temporarily close the border, halting all movement of goods and people across the busy crossing point.

According to eyewitness accounts, the driver had been arrested by Congolese officers on what many Zambian witnesses described as frivolous and unjustified charges. His subsequent death while detained by DRC border authorities sparked outrage among Zambian truckers, who on Sunday staged a protest demanding answers and justice. The situation quickly descended into violence, prompting security forces to intervene and border authorities to shut down operations at Sakanya.

The closure, which began late on Sunday, has effectively locked down all trade and transit activities, leaving hundreds of trucks stranded on both sides. Cross-border businesses — from customs clearing agents to small-scale traders — have come to a standstill as the normally busy border post now lies silent.

The Sakanya crossing, a vital commercial artery linking Zambia’s Copperbelt Province to the DRC’s resource-rich Katanga region, has long been plagued by disputes between truck drivers and border officials. Allegations of harassment, extortion, and unequal treatment have persisted for years, but the latest incident appears to have reignited deep-seated frustrations.

Authorities from both Lusaka and Kinshasa are reportedly engaging in urgent discussions to de-escalate the situation, restore calm, and pave the way for the reopening of the border. Meanwhile, business owners and transporters on both sides continue to count heavy losses as the standoff enters its second day.

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Would you like me to format this as a news release ready for media circulation (with dateline, source, and contact info) or as a journalistic article for publication (with byline and outlet style)?

11/07/2024

Quick Sale for a 50 Kva / 11 KV Transformer. Inbox for more details.

25/01/2023

https://s.surveyplanet.com/mlbz1hoy

Good Day , This questionnaire aims to gather the views of road transport users (drivers and passengers alike) on several issues considered to be of particular relevance to them in connection with road safety in Zambia.

08/07/2022

THE RISE OF PANAFRICANISM IN AFRICA/ZAMBIA, THE RISE OF Dr. FRED M’MEMBE AND THE SOCIALIST PARTY.

By: Lazarous C. Bwalya

In 2021 the Zambian people voted against lawlessness and corruption because the two vices had grown to unfathomable highs during the PF regime. The Zambian people simply got fade up with the arrogance of the PF leadership as they paid a blind eye towards rampant corruption and lawlessness within their ranks. And because of that the Zambian people (mostly youths) armed themselves with their voters cards and litterary hounded the Patriotic Front party out of power.
It will however be very naive for the ruling UPND government to think that simply sorting the two vices that lead to the demise of the once mighty PF, guarantees them victory in 2026.
Especially if the emerging and growing political trend in Africa continues then Africa and Zambia in particular is about to witness a Panafrican revolution in the coming elections.
Africa is currently witnessing a sharp rise in in bold and courageous young thinkers who are starting to question Africa's political and economic relations with the rest of world and why these relations have perpetually benefited the rest of the world and never Africa.
This new generation of youthful thinkers is waking up to the reality that Africa needs to formulate a new political, social and economic direction in order for Africa to have a bargaining sit at the high table.
This growing number of youths is aware that we need a new political and economic agenda in Africa, an agenda lead by well meaning panafrican leaders and not an agenda lead by the IMF, the EU, the US or China but one lead by Africans for Africa.
This new generation of youths is equally alive to the fact that to formulate this agenda Africa is going to need unity of purpose both politically and economically. It is therefore with this unity of purpose that youths across Zambia are joining a global confederacy of Africans and persons of African decent in the panafrican movement to politically, socially and economically emancipate Africa and it's people.

IS ZAMBIA ON BOARD THE PANAFRICAN AGENDA

The fall of colonialism gave birth to a class of post colonialism politicians that took power with a promise to hand it over back to the indigenous population, only to turn around and use that same power to plunder our land's natural resources for their own benefit and to a larger extent to the benefit of our former colonial masters instead of the African masses.
This class of politicians has ruled Africa for over five decades but their rule is slowly coming to an end and Africans with Zambians in particular slowly getting tired of neo colonialism capitalist governments that have previously taken a tendency of fooling voters with the promise of economic liberation only to end up falling into the hands of neo colonialist entities such as the IMF and multinational conglomerates such as Vedanta.
The question therefore is not whether Zambian youths are on board the panafrican agenda, that ship already sailed, the real question is why..... why are Zambians and in this case mostly Zambian youths shunning the capitalist way and joining the socialist panafrican movement.
There're a lot of reasons why Africa and Zambia in particular is steadily leaning towards a socialist/pan Africanist type of political leadership but chief among them is the fact that capitalism has so far only placed Africa/Zambia at the bottom of the economic food chain begging for donor aid when we actually produce a big chunk of the resources that drive the world economy.
Zambians are tired of seeing their natural resources exploited by the very hands that colonised and stole from their land while they suffer at the hands of a stressed economy that is heavily reliant on donor aid. We are tired of not having a say at the high table on the ever increasing cost of food and fuel, and we are tired of leaders who continue to look to the west for solutions when Zambian/African solutions are right here at home with our resources (both human and natural). All we need is the right political leadership, political boldness and will and the right pro Zambian social and economic policies.
Fellow countrymen and women it is at this point that comrade Fred M'membe and the Socialist Party come in with very bold pro poor panafrican social and economic policies that finally look like the solution to our nation's decades long social and economic conundrum.
Dr Fred M'membe the tactical politician that he is has been slowly but tactically building a team of smart vibrant panafrican youths lead by the Socialist Party’s national youth chairman comrade Kelvin Kaunda who has been training and building an influential socialist party youth structure that might just usher in a revolutionary first pro poor/working-class Socialist Zambian government. A government that promises to bring wealth creation and the running of state affairs under the democratic control and ownership of the Zambian working-class masses.
Zambians are beginning to realise that Zambia's economic challenges are not born of the Zambian people's ignorance or lack of education, they are a product of unholy marriages that always take place between our politicians and neo-colonialist organisations such as the IMF that impose debt trap policies on our leaders.
So while the Zambian people voted for the rule of law in 2021, in 2026 the narrative is bound to be very different as the Zambian people demand economic emancipation from western entities, as the Zambian people demand for their natural resources and economy to be returned back into their hands.
In 2026 Zambia might just look to Fred M'membe and the Socialist Party for a better Zambia.

08/07/2021

RIP Father of the nation KK. God bless Zambia

24/12/2020

A QUESTION OF "WHY DID THEY USE LIVE AMMUNITION" AND "WHY DID HE NOT SIMPLY GO WITHOUT HIS SUPPORTERS"

THE ANSWER = KBF 2021

It is very saddening and regrettable that the nation has yet again lost two innocent lives at the hands of a very cheap and archaic political rivalry between President Lungu and HH.

Members of respective camps are calling the killings of our two brothers according to what suits the narrative of their respective camps, one camp is calling it police brutality while the other camp is calling it an assassination (of course in this case what they saying is that HH and his team planned everything... Wow) but if we were to be even in the slightest objective we would find that our two brothers (MTSRIEP) are simply victims of a clash between two over bloated egos in President ECL and HH.

My fellow country men and women, yesterday's unfortunate events were not the makings of the political rivalry between the ruling Patriotic Front party and the UPND... no, what happened yesterday was as a result of the intolerance and potential hatred that President Lungu and HH harbour against each other. This was not about the PF or the UPND, it was about ECL and Hakainde Hichilema that's why you did not see PF supporters on sight and the UPND supporters that were there were hoodwinked by HH to go and show solidarity to him without fully knowing what was really at play.

Yesterday's events ladies and gentlemen were as predictable as fifth grade mathematics and could have been easily avoided if only both President Lungu and HH had the heart and empathy to put the plight and lives of the Zambian people ahead of their egos and personal ambitions.

The Zambian people need to understand that on one hand we have President Lungu who through his surrogates Kapyongo and Tayali is hell bent on getting rid of HH from the ballot come 2021 and the other hand we have HH who is willing to do anything to get into power come 2021, so it will not suprise anyone that one of the following two scenarios could have avoided yesterday's tragic events from happening.

One, President Lungu as a politician as and a President should have been fully aware that HH was planning to use to use yesterday's Summon by the Zambia police as a PR circus for himself and his political ambitions.
President Lungu by now should know that this is how HH functions, this is how he gets gets his popularity, by gaining political favour and sympathy through such circuses and their was no way on earth he was going to let this one pass him by so close to the 2021 general elections.
The President and his advisors should have known this and not played straight into his HH's hands. In this case, a simple *public* instruction from the President to the Zambia Police through Hon. Kampyongo instructing the Zambia Police to limit their presence and allow Mr. Hichilema's supporters to enjoy controlled freedom of assembly, and to only use minimum force if and when provoked, this simple instruction from the President would have saved the lives of our two brothers.
But our President decided to go on holiday while this fateful event that might have easily ended any chances of him regaining the confidence of the Zambian people was unfolding.
It seems to me that the President and his team still fail to understand HH and his antics, it seems they lack the neccessary political and electoral experience to beat him on the ballot and maybe that's why they would rather just see to it that he is not there, if this is the case then my humble appeal to President Lungu is to quickly pave the way for a seasoned political strategist who equally has a vision for the nation in KBF and his team so that they can take care of HH free and fair on the ballot.

Getting back to yesterday's unfortunate events, we have on the second scenario UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema who not only feels entitled to the leadership of this nation but is equally willing to do anything to acquire said leadership, even if the price to be paid are the lives of his innocent supporters.
Mr Hichilema yesterday could have easily told his supporters to stay at home and follow the events through various available media platforms, so as to avoid playing into the hands of his so called brutal PF Police. This simple gesture would have saved the lives of yesterday's victims, but HH knew very well that their was political sympathy and expediency to be gained from whatever would happen if the Zambia police and his supporters clashed, so he called them out to unnecessarily rally behind him in "solidarity" and the result is that he now looks the hero in the eyes of the gullible multitudes, alas he has done this at the price of two innocent Zambian lives.

This my fellow country men and women is not patriotism or heroism, neither is it leadership. Leadership is about putting the ambitions of the nation above yours, leadership is about setting aside your ego for the sake of the nation's peace and tranquility.

What President Lungu and HH exhibited yesterday was the complete opposite of what we as a nation aspire for and that is why we are saying that enough is enough, in 2021 *the game and some players need to change*. The Zambian people deserve a new face, new voice and new vision in the form of *KBF.*

Comrades KBF is no stranger to police intimidation and he is no stranger to political persecution as most of us would attest but when faced with these challenges he has always chosen to protect the integrity and peace of the nation ahead of his personal ambitions even if at times it has left him looking politically weaker than his opponents, President KBF has got multitudes of followers that have on several occassions asked him to simply give a go ahead so that they could go deal with his persecutors but in such times we see choose to fight these battles alone at the cost of looking weak and isolated because the lives of his followers matter and he unlike President Lungu and HH understands that leader with a clear vision has no time for detractors and he surely has no time to prove that he is stronger than his opponents because his duty is to the nation and not himself.

This is the type of selfless leadership this nation deserves and as 2020 ends, we need to seriously reflect on the type of leadership that is available and the type of leadership we deserve.

My fellow comrades we have an opportunity in 2021 to *vote KBF.*

Merry Xmas and a happy new year.

Napita

Team KBF
*Lazarous C. Bwalya*

31/08/2020

THE MAIN SEVEN (7) WAYS ZAMBIA IS LOSING REVENUES.

BY _Mauden Shula_

The Zambian economy is currently structured in such a way that ultimately, a big part of our revenues are finding their way outside our country! We are spending more money outside the
country than the money coming in. The overall effect is that cash-flow has become scarce in our economy. An average Zambian is complaining of the fact that there is no money on the streets. It is becoming a regular expression among Zambians.

*The Main ways Zambia is losing Revenues* :

*1* . Revenue from our copper and other mineral exports do not come back to Zambia but are kept in Switzerland and other countries. Only an insignificant portion to take care of local
operational issues finds its way back to Zambia. Zambia’s Exports are about $7.5 billion of which 75% or $6 billion is from copper sales alone.
Currently, the government of
Zambia only earns a mere 5% or $300 million of this value
in mineral royalties.

2. 80% of major construction contracts are awarded to foreign
owned firms who remit most of these funds to their countries of origin. Most of the money for these contracts
doesn’t even touch Zambia but is paid out into foreign accounts. You are looking at billions of dollars’ worth
annually.

3. When Zambians get their salaries every month, a significant number of them go to do their shopping from
foreign owned shops found at our favourite shopping malls around the country. Most products found in these shops are imported from other countries.
4. We don’t have a textiles industry and thereby import 95%
of our clothing and textiles needs as a country.

5. We are importing fuel worth $1 billion annually.

6. We are importing fertiliser worth over $500 million annually.

7. Importation of goods that can be produced from within Zambia. Fish, construction materials and other basic food stuffs top the list.

There is no doubt that these funds are supporting hundreds of
thousands of jobs in other countries. These jobs are supposed to
be for Zambians.
In 2017, Zambia imported goods worth $8.1 billion58 and the
biggest contributors to these imports where fuel, machinery and
foodstuff. If we arranged our economy in such a way that a significant portion of our revenues from mineral sales came back and circulated in our economy and also ensure we begin to
produce most of the food stuffs and other items that we unnecessarily import, we will have more funds circulating in our
economy. More funds circulating in our economy simply means
more cash-flow to support enterprise and jobs for our citizens.
At a leadership level, we have not provided direction and political

Zambia will prosper. Which proper vision, with right leadership and sound ideas. We have what it takes to prosper.

We provide solutions wait for the solution to the problems.

Stay safe mask up and sanitize your hands regularly.

God bless you all.

25/08/2020

"To step aside is human too".

When it's time, it's time ba President.

10/07/2020

President Edgar Lungu's running battles with Tongas

By David Zulu

President Edgar Lungu is the only incumbent since 1964 to have a visible protracted frosty relation with Southerners. His running battles with the region has only brought about the ugly side of Zambian politics. Southerners have generally been an accommodating people to Presidents they politically oppose, and nothing has come out of this 'cat and mouse' game we are currently witnessing between the President and the region.

As a matter of fact, Southern Province was an MMD stronghold the entire two terms of a Bemba speaking Head of State, Fredrick Chiluba. The Tongas twice gave Chiluba a 100% resounding victory which his own native Luapula, Copperbelt and Eastern Provinces did not attain, due to stubborn pockets of UNIP presence, that still hung thick in the areas in question. No other Province had voted for a candidate outside their region than the Tongas during the Chiluba tenure.

Readers will appreciate that UPND President Hakainde Hichilema who appears to be a bone of contention in the relationship between President Lungu and the Southerners has sat through three incumbents namely, Presidents Levy Mwanawasa, Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata and the fourth being Dr Edgar Lungu himself. Nothing of the political skirmishes and altercations ever took place in the first three, until Mr Lungu came on the scene. Many attribute this to President Lungu's deliberate failure to distinguish between the Tonga tribe as a separate entity from the UPND, a political party led by a Tonga.

This is a bizarre theory of a Tonga 'Bantustan' image that was successfully sold by now-defunct Post Newspaper' which painted Tongas and UPND as a unitary enterprise conjoined at the hip like a set of siamese twins. To President Edgar Lungu, Tongas and UPND are clearly one and must be (mis)treated in one fashion or another.

Symbolic oppression

There may be several reasons why it is happening that Tongas are marginalised but one of them is President Lungu's policy of symbolic oppression, a sanctioned ideology used to justify relationships of domination and subordination through labeling and the stereotype of targeted groups.The President has persistently compartmentalised the collective character of Southerners, to demonstrate certain personal feelings on what he perceives as lack of political support from Southern Province. This negates the principles of democratic choice of a given people.

During his latest visit to the Province, the President cajoled and mocked Mr Hichilema as a 'Tonga Bull', who fails to use his personal wealth to construct Chiefs’ palaces in the Pronvice. The President attempted to draw parallels between the Presidency that uses public resources for public projects, and a private citizen who pays tax to the state. Mr Lungu's habit of maligning the entire Tonga tribe each time he perceives a grievance against his main political rival has been a great source of conflict between the Tonga people and his Presidency.

During the campaign for a parliamentary candidate in Lusaka's Chawama constituency in the last election, the President used negative stereotype in describing Hichilema in an unsavoury tag of 'Kachema wa N'gombe', a loosely translated- a 'cow minder'. This moniker is miles away from the respectful and prestigious business of a cattle rancher, that indeed the opposition leader is. Instead Dr Edgar Lungu refers to him using the veiled insult of a ragged, poverty-stricken shepherd.

President Lungu has often used coded language that in some ways is explicitly and other ways implicitly used as a substitute for personally targeted tribalism. Many viewed the above term (Kachema) as a subtle and symbolic interpretation of the Southerners as animals, and Hichilema as their leading bull. Their suspicions were confirmed when a few days later, Lungu's senior Party official Mumbi Phiri referred to Tongas as cows, a slur that she was not reprimanded for.

Overt discrimination

While on a visit to Livingstone in late 2019, the President made a staggering statement declaring that as long as he lived, there would be no Tonga President, a narrative quickly adopted and parroted by senior government and party officials who held meetings in the Northern regions of the country, which Mr Lungu's political party views as their stronghold. Chanda Nyela, Bizwell Mutale, Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba and Cabinet Ministers Nkandu Luo and Chris Yaluma traversed the Republic addressing rallies and conducting a blitz of radio interviews casting Tongas as dangerous, segregative and vengeful people.

The stage had indeed been set for a full blown institutional demonization, that however received deafening silence from a President who appeared to have been gleefully enjoying the moment. Not a finger was lifted by Mr Lungu to condemn his leaders in what were clearly highly charged, divisive and inflammatory language that had potential to trigger a genocide against Tongas who live in the Northern regions of Zambia.

Covert discrimination.

President Edgar Lungu has superintendented over an administration that has used tribal profiling of Tongas as a method to discriminate against them in government employment and public related contracts. Hundreds of young Southerners, Westerners, North Westerners and their sympathizers have been retired in 'national interest' albeit in the prime of their careers. This has been evidenced in government departments such as Defence and Security, quasi government organisations and the civil service.

An online publication 'Koswe' last year published what they called 'yellow pages' that comprised of a credible and verifiable list of Heads of Defence, Security, Paraststal, Diplomatic Service, Civil Service at Director and Permanent Secretary level where approximately 98% were occupied by individuals from the Northern and Eastern regions of Zambia.

PF's open abuse of Hichilema

While participating in a live Radio interview in Kitwe in 2015, a horde of PF thugs armed with machetes and semi automatic weapons raided a studio demanding to see Hichilema. His security detail opened the roof of the Radio station through whose tiny hole he escaped to safety as the militia discharged live fire. On two occasions in the Northern Province PF supporters stoned Hichilema's helicopter as the pilot was executing landing procedures. The pilot aborted landing.

Recently and in more than one occasion in Northern Province, HH's radio interviews have been disrupted by PF thugs who have raided studios demanding that the stations cease broadcasting. Ofcourse the biggest incident is when police special forces conducted a midnight raid on Hichilema's private residence, knocking down glass doors and windows and pumping tonnes of teargas as the opposition leader sheltered in a bunker with his family.

Conclusion

It is clear for all to see that regionalism is rife under Edgar Lungu. Turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to this evil spewed by his party and government officials seems to be PF government policy. If today citizens resort to booing and heckling, it’s because the chickens of your hatred and marginalisation have come home to roost. As father of ALL Zambians you have a moral and patriotic duty to unite your children. Give people their due respect and rise above the pettiness and incendiary language that is unbecoming of a Republican President, sir.

The writer is an independent journalist, author and consultant at 'Apex Grazing Hills Consultancy Ltd'.

06/07/2020

UNDERSTANDING KBF'S POLITICAL STANCE AND THE NEED TO WAIT FOR HIS SIGNAL

Good evening esteemed country men and women. Firstly I would like to point out that I write this only as a KBF supporter who has had the privilege to work with and understand the way our vision carrier KBF operates.

My fellow country men and women, I understand with grave concern the frustrations that our nation Zambia is going through because of the saddening current state of affairs. I also understand that with that comes a lot of discontent from different sections of both KBF supporters and non KBF supporters alike, regarding his political stance/direction as we head closer to the 2021 general elections.

I understand the feeling of loss of direction from my fellow KBF supporters, this feeling is not because we have lost hope in our vision, this is so because now more than ever Team KBF supporters and the Zambian people at larg want change, change not only in the political direction of the nation but mostly change in the developmental, social and economical direction of this blessed nation.

Country men and women, our vision carrier hears our cry, but we need to understand that we can only attain the change that this nation so richly deserves once our politicians treat politics with the dignity and respect that politics deserve. Politicians need to stop treating politics as a simple too of enrichment for themselves and their families, politicians must stop treating governance as a tool to gain and abuse power. Comrades, a political calling is a noble calling with the sole mandate of saving the people and the nation.

It is for this reason that I would like to encourage and assure my fellow KBF supporters and the nation at large that we have not lost track nor have we lost direction of our vision in our pursuit to transform the social, developmental and economical out look of mother Zambia. At the same time I would like us as team KBF to do things differently, to do things without the hastiness that usually characterises most frustrated politicians in Zambian politics. Now I know that some will argue that we don't have time on our side with 2021 in sight, but I dare say that time is always on the side of a carefully and properly executed plan.

Country men and women this team, our team has an opportunity to do things the right way, an opportunity to show the nation that not all politicians are the same. We have no option but to lead exemplary, we have to be the flag bearers in upholding and promoting politics based on values and morals.

My dear country men and women, May I remind you that our vision carrier (KBF) has on several occasions refuse to be involved in politics if the core beneficiaries of his agenda are not the marginalized Zambian people living in poverty. He has stated before that an individual should never aspire for a political position with only absolute power in mind.

As his supporters we need to trust KBF as a principled politician but also a very strategic politician who has set his political path with the plight of the Zambian people at heart.

My personal experience with Mr Kelvin Fube Bwalya has opened my eyes to the fact that good politicians do not make decisions for themselves but for their supported as well. If for example our president KBF was to form an alliance with HH for the mare fact that he wants to be in the corridors power next year, what then would happen to some of us his supporters who are not in line with HH and his policies or vision.
With this in mind I would to urge my fellow KBF supporters trust in our leader and trust that he will not at any point drift towards a political direction that disenfranchises his supporters and the plight of the Zambian people.

At this point I would like to call upon all members of team KBF and remind you that we have come a long way on this journey, together we have lost some very loyal and hard working soldiers and friends; and at the same time we have gained some more hard working and loyal soldiers and friends.
Let us remind ourselves that we have not come all this way and fought all this fight for nothing, comrades the dream of a high income, high employment, lowly taxed, infrastructural developed, corrupt free, low to no poverty, politically, socially and economically emancipated Zambia does not belong to KBF or team KBF alone, it belongs to the people of Zambia, it is therefore imperative that we do not fail them and their trust in us.

Country men and women, KBF is running for President of the Republic of Zambia in 2021. Let us simply wait for the signal.

May God bless you and may bless our beloved nation Zambia.