PF Should Not Be Apologetic For The Threatened State of Emergence, Says Canisius…As Masala Market is gutted

Ndola’s Masala Market has been gutted, with Canisius Banda saying the Patriotic Front(PF) should not be apologetic for declaring a Threatened State of Emergency.

It is reported that fire swept through the market and destroyed goods worth thousands  of Kwacha.

The cause of the inferno is not yet established.

In an interview after attending a Requiem Mass for  Former Health Minister late  Joseph Kasonde, Dr Banda said the Threatened State of Emergency  is inevitable in an event that the country is in danger.

The  former United Party for National Development(UPND) vice president said the country has in the recent past witnessed gutting of public property and sabotaging of the economy.

He said The Threatened State of Emergency is provided for in the National Constitution to protect citizens and property.

“The PF should not be apologetic about the Threatened State of Emergency that is in place. It is a form of Emergency enshrined in the Republican Constitution. So if   people start cutting Zesco pylons to sabotage these things. They burn markets, they burn public offices and sabotage a power station. So there is need to go back to the law and say how  are we going to bring this to an end?  then you invoke these regulations to protect lives and property. There is no need to be apologetic. Criminals must be brought to book. That is what people want. This is why they came up with the Constitution,”

Dr Banda said the talk that Zambia is a dictatorship is neither here nor there.

” There is no dictatorship. Zambia was a Constitutional dictatorship from 1972 to 1990 under Dr Kenneth Kaunda and there are people who come and say Dr Kaunda was a legend or yes,  yet he presided over a dictatorship. No other  political party was allowed. We are told that it was  one party  participatory democracy but citizens’ participation in governance issues  were restricted. He(Kaunda) delivered, maybe we should go back to  one party state but we cannot. We are in a constitutional democracy, a Third Republic,” Dr Banda said.

He said the situation in Zambia is not as bad as portrayed by some section of society.

Dr Banda said the country is not under siege like the situation was in apartheid South Africa.

The Public Heath Specialist added that  no single Zambian is dying from hunger as the situation is in Yemen.