ARMY WAS DIVIDED….SAYS ARMY COMMANDER
WHILE the political polarisation of the country in the past few years has been well documented, there was a stark admission yesterday by the Zambia Army commander that this also extended to the military.
Zambia Army Commander Dennis Alibuzwi says with the recent past where the men and women in uniform were deeply divided politically, the top brass wants to realign the thinking of the troops to the new environment.
We are speaking to our troops both in town and in the outskirts in order to change their mind-sets having placed the new dawn government to take care of national affairs,” Lieutenant General Alibuzwi said when he paid a courtesy call on North-Western Province Acting Permanent Secretary Beatrice Muyambango at his office in Solwezi yesterday.“
This is important because we want to bring about the new direction in which the military should conduct itself in line with the pronouncements of the President [Hakainde Hichilema].
“We cannot afford to have officers divided on political lines and that is why we are here to give correct direction to our troops so that they can have an understanding that ours is a noble career.”
Gen Alibuzwi, who took over as Army Commander when President Hichilema announced appointments for top military and police positions as part of the re-organisation process since taking office after winning the general election, said the military has to always be loyal to the government of the day.
“The military serves the government of the day whether there is a change of government or whether someone has got special affiliations to one or two political parties,” he said.“We put preservation of the sovereignty of this nation as a prime task that requires no negotiations and, therefore, we want to heal the past divisions that have been noticed in the army where we almost got divided on political lines.”
Gen Alibuzwi said Zambia Army has a clear mandate to protect the President, constitution and citizens and it is one duty it will execute diligently.While Gen Alibuzwi has offered a stark admission, there was previously a hint of the political divisions in the military from his predecessor.
In his last interview as Army Commander, Lieutenant General William Sikazwe said he was going out a sad man because of the deep political inclinations among military personnel.“It’s just the issue of political inclination I’m worried about,” he said.
“I tried to talk to my officers and soldiers that we remain non-partisan but just support the government of the day. I tried but I have seen that we still have people with political inclinations and this is what makes me sad.“This is the trend I have seen and it’s a bad trend.
It is a bad seed that has been sown. I go out as a sad person, especially this election, it has taught me a lot of things. We need to change.”And Gen Alibuzwi said Government has embarked on the construction of permanent structures in all its operation areas to ensure that the troops deployed there live comfortably while executing their duties.
He said it is disheartening that since Independence, soldiers deployed to various operation areas have been conducting their operations while living in tents.
“With the recent past commander, we looked at the aspect of building permanent structures in the operation areas because wherever we are operating from, there is no single chief who is ready to release us because everyone feels safe with our presence and, therefore, we have to find means of making the stay of our troops comfortable,” he said.
Gen Alibuzwi is on a five-day tour of North-Western Province to check on the troops.
He is also expected to commission permanent structures built for the army in Mwinilunga and Zambezi.
Ms Muyambango praised Zambia Army for being professional and helping to preserve the country’s peace.
“We applaud your patriotism and we speak with a lot of pride of your commitment to duty,” she said.
Daily mail