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Shikapwasha accuses Post of paying people to tell lies on Sky FM Radio

Shikapwasha accuses Post of paying people to tell lies on Sky FM Radio
Written by Agness Changala
Monday, October 12, 2009 7:50:40 AM

CHIEF government spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha has accused The Post of sponsoring some individuals who participate on live phone-in programmes on Sky FM Radio. Lt Gen Shikapwasha said the government was working and those criticising it were telling lies.

“This government has performed well and all what the opposition has been telling you are lies including those that are paid by The Post to come and speak on your radio station. They have all been telling lies,” Lt Gen Shikapwasha said in an interview with Sky FM shortly after finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane presented the 2010 national budget.

Lt Gen Shikapwasha wondered why the opposition political parties and other callers had continued castigating President Rupiah Banda and insulting him on Sky FM.

He said despite Mr Imbuwa, one of the regular contributors to the station, and others’ insults, President Banda had kept the country going forward.

“The economy has been growing at 4.5 per cent, the economies in southern Africa have gone down to one per cent only but it’s only this country where the economy has been growing better, even than the world economy,” he said.

Lt Gen Shikapwasha said when the mines threatened to close, President Banda kept them open and miners now had jobs.

He said the agriculture sector had produced more food this year than in the last 15 years.

“We have more food now and our people in Southern, Central, Western and North-Western provinces have food now,” he said. “We produced more than we produced the other years and that is under President Banda.”

Lt Gen Shikapwasha said he loved Sky FM but asked them not to let it be destroyed by people who wanted to own it.

“Every Zambian must be able to speak on Sky FM and be able to contribute not just those being paid to insult the President, no! Sky FM should operate as a mature radio station to disseminate information to everyone in Zambia,” he said.

Lt Gen Shikapwasha said Sky FM had performed very well under difficult conditions.

“I know you had an attack recently and I feel for the young lady who was there and I hope she has recovered well enough. You have done very well under the difficult conditions and I was talking to the executive owner of Sky FM and I encourage you to continue working hard,” he said. “The only thing that you are doing wrong is to tell people on your station to incite and insult others because I want to tell you that when you insult somebody, there two things you are doing. You are planting a bad seed in the community and they will react also and when they react, there’s chaos in the country.”

He said Sky FM should guard against what happened in Rwanda, where he said the radio stations started the genocide.

Lt Gen Shikapwasha said the board of Sky FM should be able to stop such kind of insults from callers to the radio station because they had the potential to destroy the country.

“And you Mr Imbuwa and your people, to tell you the truth, you can’t continue like this. Of course they are being paid to do that, they are being given all the talk time to go and speak like that,” he said.

Lt Gen Shikapwasha said the country faced a very difficult time when President Levy Mwanawasa died and people should not forget.

He also dismissed opposition parliamentarians’ concerns on the national budget.

“This is a very good budget that has opened doors of Zambia for people to understand not only what is going on in Zambia but also certain things that have been happening,” he said.

Asked to comment on the changed budget cycle, Lt Gen Shikapwasha said the new budget would address many issues as opposed to the old cycle where the plans had to be executed in seven months or less.

He said the new budget cycle would help the government to spend money from January 1 all the way to 12 months.

On calls by the Non-Governmental Organisations Coordinating Council (NGOCC) for the government to allocate 40 per cent of the resources to women through the Fertiliser Input Programme, Lt Gen Shikapwasha said the womenfolk were talking without knowing what was on the ground.

Lt Gen Shikapwasha said community development minister Michael Kaingu said there was K10 billion meant for the vulnerable people including women.

Labels: RADIO SKY FM, RONNIE SHIKAPWASHA, THE POST

posted by MrK @ 6:50 AM