By Staff Reporter
Chishimba Kambwili must report Ackson Sejani, Buumba Malambo, Larry Mweetwa and Mulonde Muzungu if he has evidence of their alleged tribal remarks, and the police must act, says Colonel Panji Kaunda.
Responding to Kambwili’s statement to Daily Revelation accusing police Inspector General Lemmy Kajoba of being a UPND cadre, who wanted to use his position to arrest him over tribal remarks assertions, while ignoring people like Sejani who once said that only a Tonga could lead the UPND, including asserting that Kafue mayor Malambo called for people to vote for Tonga candidates and that Mweetwa said the big tribes had been embarrassed by the small tribes in the August 2021 general elections, Col Panji said if indeed Kambwili had evidence of what he was saying, he should report the matter to the police, saying any tribal sentiment must be condemned, including those of Kambwili himself.
“Tribal sentiments must be condemned. It doesn’t matter whether you are Luvale, Tumbuka or any other tribe. Tribalism is long gone… (therefore) if he (Kambwili) has evidence he should report the matter to the police…if police don’t act then they are wrong,” Col Panji said, saying Kambwili should not just be talking in the papers but must report in the same manner he has been reported to police himself. “When there was that sentiment (from Sejani) that ‘only a Tonga should rule’, some of us condemned that. What we should not do is each time somebody is appointed then we start talking about tribe.”
Kambwili accused President Hichilema of scheming to arrest him through Kajoba, in that the matter was political as the complainant only reported it after the IG issued a statement that he would arrest Kambwili. He claimed the complainant unmasked all pretense in the matter being political, when apart from reporting it to police alone, they also copied the complaint to ministers of Home Affairs and Justice, Jack Mwiimbu and Malambo Haimbe respectively.
Kambwili said while they were doing this against him, nothing had been done about the other UPND members, including Malambo who he accused of telling electorates in Kafue to vote for a Tonga president, Tonga MPs and Tonga councillors, and further accusing the President himself of having told people that they should focus on electing a Tonga president.
But Col Panji said the PF ran on a policy platform of tribe in the 2021 elections.
On the President’s statement that tribalists, hegemonists, and a clique of thieves who have lived off state resources from independence were the ones behind the “mischief” of saying that he was appointing people on tribal lines, Col Panji said corruption has always been a problem and that was the more reason why his late father, Dr Kenneth Kaunda introduced institutions to fight the vice.
On assertions that President Hichilema was making the same mistakes he condemned in his predecessors, most recently Edgar Lungu, by appointing people regionally to hold key ministries, plus in the security and State House positions, Col Panji said there was nothing wrong in appointing people one felt he was close to, and were qualified.
“How many Bembas and Easterners were in top positions in the PF? There is no government that is 100 percent equal,” Col Panji said, further commenting on the initial cabinet of his own father, saying he too appointed people he had worked with for a long time.
On Kambwili’s statement that Zambians should be urged to vote regionally in the same manner as Southern Province, Col Panji said the people of Northern and Eastern Province rejected the same tribal campaigns, even giving President Hichilema 49 percent of the votes in Eastern, as well as wins in Kaputa, Mpulungu, Mbala, Senga-Hill (in Northern Province), and winning Chienge in Luapula Province.
“How did UPND convince Easterners to vote for UPND? If they want Southern Province to vote let them go and sell their message,” Col Panji said, in response to Kambwili’s statement that other provinces gave the UPND reasonable votes, yet Southern Province did not do the same, including at lower levels of MPs and councillor positions in the whole province.
Col Panji said those who continued talking about tribe risked the standing of this country.
