DEFENCE Minister Kalombo Mwansa has said former Zambia Army commander Malimba Masheke is wrong to claim there is a crisis in the security and defence wings of the country.
Speaking in an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Dr Mwansa said General Masheke should not claim there was a crisis simply because the defence chiefs were retired at the same time.
He said President Rupiah Banda, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, was at liberty to retire the senior officers in the security and defence forces.
President Banda recently retired senior officers in the defence and security wings, saying he wanted to improve the morale among junior officers that were complaining that they were not easily promoted.
“There is no crisis in the defence and security personnel. The president has the right to retire army staff and Gen Maskeke is wrong to insist that there is a crisis or vacuum,” Dr Mwansa said.
[pullquote]“There is no crisis in the defence and security personnel. The president has the right to retire army staff and Gen Maskeke is wrong to insist that there is a crisis or vacuum,” Dr Mwansa said.[/pullquote]
He said citizens should not even panic about the security of the country, and that the safety of the populace was guaranteed.
The minister said there was a smooth handover of office between the new appointees and the officers that were retired.
“People who were appointed are working well, they have been able to carry on from where the others left and so there is no vacuum or crisis that Gen Masheke is talking about,” Dr Mwansa said.
But in reaction to a statement by chief Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha last weekend that the ministers of Defence and Home Affairs had been instructed to investigate and establish whether or not he had violated the terms of his oath of secrecy, Gen Masheke said it was not the function of politicians to carry out such a function.
“In the first instance it is surprising that such a serious allegation should be investigated by the political wing of Government.
“In our established system of Government any breach of the law is investigated and decided by the security services without political influence,” he said.
Gen Masheke said he had not committed any offence and would not allow the State or any other person to infringe on his rights.
I would rather listen to the general than bootlickers 😕
“If the President acted to forestall a crisis that is what he ought to do and he should be commended for acting promptly if indeed there was a crisis. But this act of retiring six top generals is out of the ordinary. The President read out his speech verbatim; the speech was short, hence easy to analyse. It is the speech that reveals the reasons that he did not directly ascribe to the purported retirement of the generals.”
Brig Gen Miyanda stated that the speech confirms that there was something that triggered off his action.
That statement Shikapwasha made about investigating Gen Masheke for making such a statement means the government are guilty indeed. It seems to me that the Gen has then told us the truth they are hiding – which is that the country is in a crisis. If theres no crisis they shouldnt worry about wht Gen Masheke cause it is ‘not the real situation’ on the ground
“Prominent indicators from the President’s speech before announcing the retirements included these words and phrases ‘there are our nationals who have campaigned relentlessly for chaos and have continued even as I speak; there are internal enemies whose aim is to destabilize our country’,” Brig Gen Miyanda said. “He then made clear what he was about to do. The reasons for removing the Generals were to forestall destabilisation of the country, to create room for juniors to rise and to motivate them to work harder!
There are contradictions in the President’s speech that may set a bad precedent and that could make administration in the services more difficult. Anyway he announced, ‘I have retired the Generals’,” Brig Gen Miyanda stated. “I dare say that under our laws, the President has no powers to retire serving officers. Retirement is a condition of service in which the President does not play any part but which occurs once the terms and conditions of service are satisfied.
The potent power available to the President is that of granting a prospective officer a Commission; this is a condition precedent to one being allowed to serve in the regular Army and Air Force as an officer. By being granted a commission an officer serves at the President’s pleasure who may cancel the Commission…
Kabonde must follow suit
Deja vu, why do you want Kabonde to go. Are you eyeing the job
“President Banda recently retired senior officers in the defence and security wings, saying he wanted to improve the morale among junior officers that were complaining that they were not easily promoted.”
But then the president went on to recall a retired officer and made him Air Commander. How does that improve the morale of junior officers who wish to be promoted?
#7 Positivist pa – Yes just give me the applicatication forms. This the the time to make a financial killing so to say
If there is no crisis why do you retire six generals at the same time and replace one of them with a retired one? General Masheke is right, the president is created an impression in the minds of right thinking Zambians that there is a problem. This minister is just parroting the GRZ line.
He said President Rupiah Banda, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, was at liberty to retire the senior officers in the security and defence forces.
The people of Zambia will also be at liberty to retire you next year because you can not draw their attention only to retire officers and yet there are so many issues to talk about.
The crisis was caused by Chisuzi who totally refused to allow generals on contracts to retire (finally again ). This brought about frustration in the defence wings and it was based on this that the President decided to act. For your own info. each of the 41 officers on contracts was being paid approx K95m annually at the expense of paying general claims etc to serving personel. Believe it or not, the defence personell have been relieved of a great burden caused by Chisuzi and the remnants of the Levy Legacy. Viva RB !
No one is wrong, even Masheke is not wrong he was just expressing his views
President Banda recently retired senior officers in the defence and security wings, saying he wanted to improve the morale among junior officers that were complaining that they were not easily promoted.
this banda of yours he is going to promote junior officers by recalling a retired officer to take up office . my God what a presindent
Well, even Brig Gen Miyanda echoed Gen Masheke’s statement resulting from the President’s speech.
Reading between the lines, one would conclude that “there are our nationals who have campaigned relentlessly for chaos and have continued even as I speak; there are internal enemies whose aim is to destabilize our country’”.
Surely, this would indicate a crisis as stated by the two veteran General mentioned above. So, is Brig Gen Miyanda to be investigated as well?
#15 mule:
This reminds me of the last days of UNIP when everything was blamed on “the enemy.” Every time an issue arose in the nation, Gray Zulu (and it was always Gray Zulu) would appear on ZNBC TV and proclaim: “This is the work of the enemy…”
By just looking at the face of our Defence Minister Kalombo, it would take a Zambian endowed with a collosal amount of foolishness to believe anything uttered from such a froggy face. Just like Obama’s dismissal of Sara Palin’s accusations last week, I would say “I really have no response to Kalombo’s assertions. Last I checked, Kalombo Mwansa’s not much of an expert on defence issues.” I would rather lend an eye to what Gen. Mashele or Brig. Gen. Miyanda have to say that a quack defence analyst just because he is defence minister.
By just looking at the face of our Defence Minister Kalombo, it would take a Zambian endowed with a collosal amount of foolishness to believe anything uttered from such a froggy face. Just like Obama’s dismissal of Sara Palin’s accusations last week, I would say “I really have no response to Kalombo’s assertions. Last I checked, Kalombo Mwansa’s not much of an expert on defence issues.” I would rather lend an ear to what Gen. Mashele or Brig. Gen. Miyanda have to say than a quack defence analyst just because he is defence minister, alah.