Govt won’t succeed in shutting me up - Gen Masheke

Govt won’t succeed in shutting me up - Gen Masheke
By Ernest Chanda
Mon 19 Apr. 2010, 03:10 CAT

GENERAL Malimba Masheke has dared the government to arrest him over his comments on President Rupiah Banda’s retirement of all defence chiefs over a week ago.

Reacting to chief government spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha’s threat that the government was investigating Gen Masheke to see if he had broken his oath of secrecy by commenting on President Banda’s decision to retire all defence chiefs and replace them with new ones, Gen Masheke described the threat as pure harassment.

He said as far as he was concerned he did not break any oath of secrecy as claimed by Lt Gen Shikapwasha.

“What is his problem? That is a pure case of harassment and they government will not succeed in shutting me up. They can go ahead and investigate, I’m not afraid of anyone. This is my country and I’m a free citizen, free to comment on any matters of policy that affect me and many other Zambians. As far as I’m concerned I have not broken any oath of secrecy because I commented on matters of policy, not material,” said Gen Masheke.

“I challenge them to arrest me now. They will not succeed in shutting everyone up who has a contradicting view on national matters. Again I say, no amount of intimidation from government will shut me up. I’m not afraid of being arrested because I’m a free citizen. Let them go ahead and arrest me.”

Lt Gen Shikapwasha was quoted in yesterday’s Sunday Times of Zambia as having said that the government had launched enquiries to establish whether Gen Masheke was in violation of his oath of secrecy by commenting on President Banda’s decision to retire and replace all defence chiefs.

He said the ministries of defence and home affairs had been instructed to investigate Gen Masheke and possibly cite him for violation of the oath of secrecy.

“For someone who was a commander, it is a sad statement for him to make, President Banda’s decision is not subject to debate. It is against this that the Ministry of Defence under Dr Kalombo Mwansa and his home affairs counterpart Lameck Mangani have been instructed to look into the matter and see if General Masheke has broken his oath of secrecy.

There is a statutory situation that will follow if Gen Masheke is found to have committed an offence in this matter,” threatened Lt Gen Shikapwasha.

On April 8 this year, Gen Malimba Masheke observed in The Post that President Banda's drastic decision to retire and replace all defence force commanders and their deputies at once had a connotation that there was a crisis.

Gen Masheke, who served as Zambia Army commander between 1980 and 1985 during Dr Kenneth Kaunda's reign, was commenting on President Banda's retiring and replacement of Zambia Army commander Gen Isaac Chisuzi and his deputy Major General Eliad Mutwale, Zambia Air Force (ZAF) commander Lieutenant General Samuel Mapala and his deputy Major General Evans Chengeta and Zambia National Service (ZNS) commandant Major General Raphael Chisheta and his deputy Brig Gen Joseph Miti during a press briefing at State House on April 6, this year.

Asked about the implication of President Banda's decision to retire the top brass at the same time, Gen Masheke said that would create an impression in the minds of the new office bearers that the whole office was rotten.

“You see, the problem with that is that of continuity. When you remove, normally those who are outside the command when such things happen they may think that the whole office was rotten and they want to come and sweep the house clean and you have a situation where they new office bearers even bring new friends to replace everything when there is no need to replace what is there,” said Gen Masheke.

“When you remove everybody from office at the same time, it means there is a crisis. It's like there is a crisis, sweeping the place clean. That is the disadvantage or the connotation it would have. But the Commander-In-Chief is entitled depending on the information he has. It's the first time now. We don't know what information compelled him to do such a drastic thing. It's a drastic change.”