The Editor Zambia
The latest video by Emmanuel Jay Jay Banda has reopened an important question surrounding the death of former Cabinet minister Mutotwe Kafwaya: was the fatal shooting the result of a deliberate killing, as some opposition voices have alleged, or did Kafwaya die during an armed confrontation between security officers and people at the Kabulonga property?
The distinction is critical because the narrative that Kafwaya was simply shot in cold blood has increasingly become part of the political debate surrounding Zambia’s August 13 elections. 
Yet the official account has consistently been that security personnel came under fire and that an exchange of fire followed.
The Central Joint Operations Committee confirmed on August 19 that the man fatally wounded during the August 14 operation was Kafwaya.
According to the account given by Inspector General of Police Graphel Musamba, the joint security team encountered resistance and came under gunfire when it arrived at the premises.
An exchange of fire followed, during which one man was fatally wounded. Eleven people were subsequently arrested, while firearms and other equipment were recovered.
It is against this background that the reported comments by Jay Jay Banda, who belongs to the Tonse Pamodzi Alliance’s inner circle, deserve serious attention rather than being dismissed or ignored.
In a video now circulating widely, Banda acknowledges that there was an exchange of fire between law enforcement officers and the group at the property.
He further claims that those involved were prepared to attack the security officers and that the officers acted swiftly.
This is significant because it introduces an account from within opposition circles that is not entirely consistent with the simplified version of events presented by some political actors who have portrayed Kafwaya’s death as an unprovoked execution by the State security forces.
This is precisely why the European Parliament’s call for an independent and transparent investigation should be dismissed because it is based on the falsehood that Kafwaya was shot in cold blood.
On September 17, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for an independent and transparent investigation into the August 14 security operation that resulted in Kafwaya’s death.
Amnesty International itself said in August that the circumstances surrounding the shooting remained unclear and called for an independent investigation.
That is a fundamentally different proposition from declaring before an investigation is completed, that Kafwaya was killed in cold blood.
The Jay Jay Banda video, therefore, deserves to be placed squarely before anyone investigating the matter, including European officials and international observers.
If an opposition figure is publicly acknowledging that there was an exchange of fire, that testimony cannot simply be swept aside because it strongly challenges an established wrong political narrative.
Zambia’s democracy deserves better than conclusions reached through social media, partisan statements, or assumptions.
The August 13 election was followed by President Hakainde Hichilema securing a second term, while the European Parliament itself formally took note of the election results in its resolution.
The most responsible course for the EU, opposition politicians, and every other interested actor is therefore simple: interrogate Jay Jay Banda’s revelation of an exchange of fire, before reaching conclusions about how Mutotwe Kafwaya died.
Anything less risks allowing politics to obscure the truth.
