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Shikapwasha must be ashamed for denouncing Panji - Fr Salangeta

Shikapwasha must be ashamed for denouncing Panji - Fr Salangeta
By Darious Kapembwa in Kitwe
Sun 09 Jan. 2011, 04:01 CAT

A KITWE clergyman says Ronnie Shikapwasha must be ashamed for denouncing Colonel Panji Kaunda’s statement on violence because that is the thinking of many Zambians.

Fr Anthony Salangeta, the assistant parish priest at Kitwe’s Sacred Heart Catholic Church, said information minister Lieutenant General Shikapwasha was displaying double standards.

“… For me there was a condition to that statement which is, ‘if government does not put in place measures, which will make elections free and fair’. When did we see Shikapwasha come on TV to condemn or denounce MMD member Chiko Chibale who openly threatened that he will travel to Mongu with his thugs to sort out Bishop Paul Duffy?” Fr Salangeta said.

“What about William Banda’s recent talk that he will do anything in his power including violence to ensure that MMD remain in power because power is not lost on a silver platter?”

He said it was against that background that most Zambians felt that the coming tripartite elections would be the bloodiest like Col Panji put it.

Fr Salangeta said Lt Gen Shikapwasha and the MMD would never come out clean on violence until they explain to Zambians why the police failed to arrest even a single MMD cadre over the Mufumbwe violence.

He said what happened in Mufumbwe where even the Inspector General of Police did nothing to curb violence spoke volumes about the country’s electoral code.

“Even the shooting of a PF cadre by the former health deputy minister Dr Solomon Musonda is a clear indication that more needed to be done to secure people’s lives before elections,” said Fr Salangeta.

Lt Gen Shikapwasha, his home affairs counterpart Mkhondo Lungu and some hired non-governmental individuals condemned Col Panji’s caution and asked him to retract his statement.

However, Col Panji reiterated that the government needed to stop violence or else the country would experience a bloodiest election this year.

Col Panji said he was more than qualified to talk about violence and he was in no way agitating for it.

Labels: MDC VIOLENCE, PANJI KAUNDA, RONNIE SHIKAPWASHA

posted by MrK @ 8:37 PM