Rupiah will be held responsible should anything happen to me, says Nawakwi

Rupiah will be held responsible should anything happen to me, says Nawakwi
By Patson Chilemba
Tue 19 Jan. 2010, 04:01 CAT

FDD president Edith Nawakwi yesterday said President Rupiah Banda will be held squarely responsible should anything happen to her over threats by MMD cadres to gang-rape her.

And MMD Lusaka Province youth chairman Chris Chalwe, who is also facing a criminal offence for beating a Post newspaper and Times of Zambia jounalist, has warned that he and other MMD youths will gang-rape Nawakwi. Reacting to Chalwe's threat on Muvi TV's Sunday evening main news, Nawakwi charged that the youths had the backing of President Banda and the MMD government.

She said Chalwe, Kadobi and the other youths were not speaking from without, saying they had the backing of the party leadership.

"As far as I am concerned, I am consulting my lawyers. This is a direct threat by the government and the MMD. If anything happens to me, Rupiah Banda is squarely responsible," Nawakwi said.

"We have heard from works and supply minister and also acting MMD spokesperson Mike Mulongoti, we also heard from the minister himself saying that MMD cadres will react accordingly, so they are authorised."

Nawakwi said it was sad that the ruling MMD and the government, which claimed to be fighting violence against women, was the same government spearheading violence.

She said she would be interested to hear comments from President Banda and the most Reverend information minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha over the threats by MMD youths.

"Now I know that if anything happens to me, who is responsible? It is President Rupiah Banda. He wants me dead, that is all. I mean, he doesn't want any opposition voice, so the best for him is to eliminate those who are talking. But look, this Republic you kill one, then another one is born.

And so, obviously these party officials can't be this insolent if they are not paid. The likes of Kadobi, you meet him, he will tell you 'we have been given ngwees'. You know Kadobi, he's paid to do this," Nawakwi said. "If anything happens, it will squarely be on the shoulders of the President, unless he can dissociate himself from this. But the way I know him, he is actually smiling, and saying well done."

Nawakwi said President Banda and the MMD would not be able to address their incompetence by threatening violence against other citizens.

"The issues are very clear, the fuel price hike is real. The fact that they have subcontracted the collection of revenue to a company of questionable reputation is real and we need answers. You can't expect a Zambian, for example, to go to Europe and say 'I want to collect revenue on your behalf' nor can you expect a Zambian company to go to America and be contracted to be in the revenue board. How can you hand over the treasury of this Republic to an individual, not only to an individual but a foreign company?

Let's not hide in violence," Nawakwi said. "They will only shut us up when we are in the grave." Nawakwi charged that President Banda was offering contracts to his friends in order to steal and channel money towards the MMD convention and campaigns for 2011.

But Chalwe said on Muvi TV's Sunday main evening news that MMD youths had a remedy for Nawakwi. "We are going to give her a very good remedy for her madness. We are going to rape Nawakwi, gang raping Nawakwi in day light as she brings her cabbages to Soweto, as she brings her tomatoes to Soweto," said Chalwe as MMD youths who flanked him cheered on.

"If she eludes us, we will wait for her at Arcades Shopping Centre or Manda Hill. We shall catch up with her because that is the best remedy for Nawakwi. She needs strong men because she is a very powerful woman. So we will do just that to her.”

On government's opposition to the 50 per cent plus one, Nawakwi said Zambians had always followed the 50 per cent plus one until it was mysteriously changed. She said this should not even be an issue.

Nawakwi reminded President Banda that the people he was trying to silence removed Dr Kenneth Kaunda from office, and fought the ill-conceived third term bid by former president Frederick Chiluba.

"Does he want to be stopped unceremoniously? Maybe Rupiah has forgotten that this woman has slept in the bush for hours on end. I have walked long distances alone at night in the bush to fight the third term in the face of a vicious regime. Under a vicious regime we still carried the day with the help of the people. Does he want us to go back to the streets and mobilise again?" Nawakwi asked. "We are going to mass mobilise...this is nothing.

I mean Rupiah is the weakest Head of State we have had, so it is not difficult to get him out." Nawakwi said the 50 per cent plus one was one of key aspects in the constitution-making process, saying President Banda should stop the constitution deliberations at the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) if he was not interested in 50 plus one.

"I would like to think that he is thinking positively, and not thinking like Kadobi," said Nawakwi.