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Rupiah should apologise to Mututwa - Nawakwi

Rupiah should apologise to Mututwa - Nawakwi
By Patson Chilemba
Fri 28 Jan. 2011, 04:01 CAT

RUPIAH Banda should apologise to 92-year-old Maxwell Mututwa and drop all treason charges against him and the other 22 Lozis, says Edith Nawakwi. And Nawakwi said the election of William Banda as Lusaka Province MMD chairperson will attract resentment towards President Banda.

Commenting on the nolle prosequi entered by the state in respect of Mututwa in a case where he was jointly charged with 22 others for allegedly preparing to procure Barotse State by force, Nawakwi, who is opposition FDD president, said those in government should realise that the blood of Mututwa would be on their feet.

She said any normal person would not have even attempted to arrest Mututwa and put him in police cells.

"It will help all of us if the President can invite him to State House and just tell him 'look, these boys overreacted and calm him down'. In other countries, Mr Mututwa would have been in a different place. We don't value our elders," Nawakwi said.

She said when the problem arose; the government should have invited Mututwa to listen to his counsel, and not threatening people with violence. Nawakwi said Zambians could only be threatened up to a certain point because some people were prepared to die for their principles.

"When you threaten them, you make the situation worse," she said.

Nawakwi said Mututwa and others were not asking for secession, but development. She said Mututwa had lived in colonial governments where issues like education were provided for at local level.

Nawakwi said the people of Western Province wanted decentralisation of economic and political power. And Nawakwi said the election of William Banda represented the re-incarnation of UNIP's vigilante group.

He said this was against the establishment of the MMD which was formed to democratise the country from the shackles of UNIP.

"Little did we think or even imagine that we will turn the cloak to the 1950s or 60s and get UNIP re-incarnated. Not the good part of UNIP which gave us education, but UNIP the vigilante group which could kill and maim," Nawakwi said.

"Zambians don't like violence and if you think you can win votes through violence, he is just going to cost Rupiah Banda the votes which he so desperately needs."

Asked how far the case had gone where MMD youths, led by Lusaka Province youth chairperson Chris Chalwe threatened to gang-rape her, Nawakwi said the Director of Public Prosecutions Chalwe Mchenga was sitting on her case because he recalled the file from the police.

On the plan by the government to introduce an education bill which would empower the Minister of Education to lease public schools which were not performing well, Nawakwi said this was symptomatic of a government that had run out of ideas.

She said the action showed that government was spending huge sums of taxpayers’ money to build schools so that they could sell them.

Nawakwi said President Banda should shelve the plan before he signs his way out of power.

Labels: EDITH NAWAKWI, MMD, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 6:12 PM