…´leaders must chastise the violent elements among them not stay quite´, Sikota
Dear Editor,
The posting and picture below which I made more than six years ago on 31st January 2015 is still very valid today.
Perhaps it is even more valid today than when I posted it.
During this election campaign we have witnessed an upsurge in violence like at no other election that they make even the UNIP/ANC electoral fights in the 1960s look like Sunday morning picnics.
We have had nasty scenes and torrents of blood all over the country this year. Look at what has happened in places like Ikelengi, Mumbwa, Sioma, Kafue, Mandevu and many others.
In Nakonde, even the police were subjected to horrible violence from cadres. It appears that some people want to change this peaceful land of ours into something the likes of Ghengis Khan would feel right at home in.
It is a pity that even on commemorating Youth Day that those who claim to be national leaders made their youthful cadres even attack officers from the Zambia Police Service (ZPS).
A little over a week ago, political parties met to sign “The Political Parties of Zambia Peace and Non-Violence Pledge”. Soon after the pledge we see a rise in number of people having to be arrested for breaching the very pledge which was signed.
The leaders of these violent cadres are not heard chastising or advising their followers. All they seem anxious to do is to impress international and religious bodies that they are the good guys and their opponents are the bad guys.
NGOs, Churches, international bodies and others should take stock of each and every incidence of political violence. They should catalogue each and every report to the police on electoral violence. After doing this the offending parties must be talked to and publicly shamed. Do the research on all incidences in places like Ikelengi, Mumbwa, Sioma, Kafue, Mandevu and many others and give us reports on who was behind these. Let us not have a situation like the International Criminal Court which is supported by the USA when it wants to prosecute someone like Bashir but will not allow the ICC to investigate the USA acts in Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world. Let us not just investigate some and leave other incidents. This is the wrong route to go down.
I hope the guilty will not be afraid with this posting.
We should change the route that our politics seem to be going down. Property and lives are being damaged because some people look at politics as a life or death end game.
31st January 2015
Why can’t we all just love one another and mix and associate randomly?
Someone bring us some healing.
Sakwiba Sikota, SC
