Sata has given politics a dirty name - Mwanawasa
Sata has given politics a dirty name - MwanawasaBy Post Reporters
Tuesday May 29, 2007 [04:00] P
PRESIDENT Levy Mwanawasa has accused Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata of giving politics a dirty name. But Sata charged that President Mwanawasa was a liar. Drumming up support for MMD Kapoche parliamentary candidate Professor Fashion Phiri at Mwanjabanthu headquarters on Sunday, President Mwanawasa said a politician - in apparent reference to Sata - should not cheat in order to get votes.
"A distinguished political leader who hopes to be president of this country came here and told you that I am the one who had told the judge to disqualify Nicholas Banda, now you may have thought this is a joke but I didn't.
How can you have a president who cheats for breakfast, he cheats for lunch and he cheats for supper and the whole night for that matter?" President Mwanawasa asked. "It is such people who are giving politics a bad name. Politics is supposed to be clean. If you play clean politics, you don't have to call it dirty. Don't cheat just to get some votes, you tell the truth."
He urged people not to believe lies being told by some people.
"If such a person tells you that he is going to perform better than Mwanawasa, he is going to tar every road, including the path to the bathroom, can you believe him?" President Mwanawasa asked. "If he says he is going to provide you with employment, he is going to ensure that each constituency has a constituency hospital, can you believe him? Because if the man cannot be truthful over small things what about when it comes to big things?"
And President Mwanawasa said the amount of support from easterners should not be taken for granted. "It simply means that we must work harder because they patted us on the back and we want to be always patted on the back. We must make sure we get glued to these seats and the only way we can get glued is to do those things that please you," President Mwanawasa said.
President Mwanawasa also assured the easterners that the Chipata-Muchinga railway line would be completed before the end of his second term of office.
President Mwanawasa said Mumbi Basic School would be upgraded to a high school and would be the zonal centre in the constituency.
He directed provincial minister, Lameck Mangani, to get abundant malaria drugs for the province. President Mwanawasa told people in Kapoche that they would not get relief food if they elected opposition parliamentarians because they were not in government. President Mwanawasa said Prof Phiri should be a servant of the people once elected.
"The same way you have knelt for their vote, you must continue to kneel for their support. Don't make the people your servants and start using English that 'who are you? I'm professor.' No," President Mwanawasa advised Prof Phiri.
And Kasenengwa member of parliament Vera Chiluba Tembo caused laughter when she said, "I'm very grateful to the President for appointing me as deputy minister for tourism and environmental." Tembo urged women to open their eyes and vote for Prof Phiri.
And reacting to President Mwanawasa's statement, Sata wondered whether he lied when he claimed that President Mwanawasa organised to disqualify the past Kapoche member of parliament Nicholas Banda from re-contesting the by-election in preference for Professor Fashion Phiri.
"When the judge ruled in the petition to nullify the elections in Kapoche, he could have said that Nicholas Banda should not re-contest the elections. Now where did the second judgment come from," Sata asked. "Was Nicholas Banda adopted? Now who is lying between me and Mwanawasa?
Sata also questioned President Mwanawasa's decision to go for campaigns in Kapoche using a helicopter instead of using the road for him to understand the extent of damage to the road network in the area.
He further queried President Mwanawasa's directive to agriculture minister Ben Kapita to Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to start buying farm produce in the next one week. "Why is he making these directives now when he knows there is a by-election?" he asked.
"Even if he makes these directives it will not be possible to sell these produce because the roads are impassable and the cost of selling maize will be very expensive. MMD has been lying on everything they promised people. President Mwanawasa should have gone there to explain the development programmes he promised people of Kapoche. He has been lying about development, he has been lying about the constitution and on almost everything."
On President Mwanawasa's statement that the opposition was useless, Sata conceded that part of the opposition was useless because they had failed to unite and fight President Mwanawasa's corrupt practices.
Sata said some opposition members had joined MMD to defend President Mwanawasa's incompetence.
"Unless we can get annoyed with President Mwanawasa saying we are useless, we cannot get anywhere," he said. "Most opposition cannot unite because the 2006 elections gave them a yellow card."
He said some opposition members that had huge representation in the previous Parliament had significant reduction in their representation after the 2006 elections while other parties that had few members of parliament grabbed more seats.
"That is why when Mwanawasa is in Petauke, he is only talking about PF because he is feeling the impact," he said. "Mwanawasa is feeling the heat of PF. When he wakes up in the morning he smells PF, he smokes PF and eats PF.
Labels: FASHION PHIRI, MAUREEN MWANAWASA, PF, SATA
posted by MrK @ 5:07 AM
2 Comments:
If indeed President Mwanawasa was correctly quoted as indicated in this topic then we have a serious mental problem at plot one. Mwanawasa shouldn't campaign to the likes of Sata. The phraseology leaves nothing to be desired/envied.
To start with the president's place at the moment is plot one. After singing songs on corruption and using all his might to discredit the once holier-than-thou, who actually by-passed his once fervent servants and bootlickers and helped him ascend to the highest seat, Mwanawasa should now seriously start formulating policies that will drag Zambia out of her poverty quagmire instead of kissing dust in the rural villages of Eastern Province. Zambia is in dire need of a strong remedy to cure her economic marasmus and this is where the President's muscles are much needed and not in some by-election in the bushes, wrestling with Sata.
The sentences coming from his mouth do not not befit that of a Statesman. Rather than attacking the personality of Sata, Mwanawasa must tell those villagers how his government is going to build new houses for the civil servants, upgrade existing schools and hospitals and replenish them with proper drugs and not with placebo.
Mwanawasa must also explain the agricultural policies his government has at hand that will benefit the rural dwellors and incite loafers from the crowded cities to return home to till the land, otherwise he should just get out of there and go back to plot one and think of another episode on corruption.
His government shouldn't mind losing just one seat, or should they? Is that seat so important that it requires the might of the Republican President? Is the presence of Sata so strong that it is sending shivers to the entire MMD that they have to rely on the President. Either the MMD candidate is a wrong choice altogether OR MMD lacks strategists hence the call on the power that be.
This by-election should not be about Sata or Mwanawasa, it should be about choosing the right candidate who will represent the poor masses at the Parly and debate issues professionally without fear of vindictiveness if seen not to be towing the party line, be it MMD, PF or UNIP.
From the look of things this seat is nothing more than a passport to some air-con 4X4, nice house in Kabulonga and champagne at State functions.
what a crying shame!
slm
Hi SLM,
Great to see you posting again.
From the look of things this seat is nothing more than a passport to some air-con 4X4, nice house in Kabulonga and champagne at State functions.
This is why I am so in favour of dedicating half of the national revenues (being $1.1 billion in 2004) to local government.
This will hugely increase accountability, transparancy and will actually really benefit the people.
Building Zambia, one step at a time.
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