Miyanda is very malicious, charges Mpombo

Miyanda is very malicious, charges Mpombo
By Speedwell Mupuchi
Monday October 15, 2007 [04:00]

DEFENCE minister George Mpombo yesterday charged that Heritage Party president Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda is very malicious and would not stop at anything in order to attack President Mwanawasa. And Mpombo said the Patriotic Front is engaged in a very cheap process of playing to the gallery over the constitution-making process.

Reacting to Brig Gen Miyanda's statement that Zambians have not misunderstood President Levy Mwanawasa's threats and asking him to apologise for his outburst instead of using his officials to clarify his statement, Mpombo said the opposition leader was willfully distorting the President's statement.

Mpombo said President Mwanawasa was a strong believer in a consultative political process. He charged that Brig Gen Miyanda and his colleagues were trying to reduce the political process in Zambia to a theatre of political absurdity.

"General Miyanda is very malicious and he will stop at nothing in order to assault the President. The problem is that General Miyanda likes massaging his political ego all the time," Mpombo said. "He thinks the sun shines in Zambia through him, he is labouring in a very serious self-deception process - that he is the embodiment of Zambians' feeling."

Reacting to information minister Mike Mulongoti and Attorney General Mumba Malila's statements that President Mwanawasa's statement at the airport was exaggerated and misunderstood, Brig Gen Miyanda asked President Mwanawasa to apologise for his outburst instead of using his officials to clarify his statement.

"Zambians are not so dull that President Mwanawasa's minister and Attorney General can be imagining that they did not hear or see President Mwanawasa speak at the airport," he said. "At this stage, it is wrong for anyone to clarify President Mwanawasa's statement rather than Mr Mwanawasa himself."

Brig Gen Miyanda said the two government officials were merely covering up a serious blunder by the President.

"This outburst, however, has confirmed why some of us are worried about the way some provisions in the NCC Act are framed. For example, he boasted that he has powers to dissolve the NCC. Why haven't his ministers clarified this very threatening statement which confirms that he is ready to use his emotions as the basis for dissolving the NCC?" he asked.

Brig Gen Miyanda said President Mwanawasa's threats were a deliberate government strategy to intimidate the people so that they should not speak freely at the NCC.

Malila on Friday said President Mwanawasa in his statement referred to people who wanted to cause violence during the constitution-making process and all those wanting to make it difficult for government to govern and those who wanted to resort to unconstitutional means to change the government.
Addressing scores of MMD cadres and government officials at Lusaka International Airport soon after his arrival from London, President Mwanawasa said all those fighting government over the NCC would be arrested and charged with treason.
President Mwanawasa warned that anyone daring government over the NCC was committing treason and risked being charged with treason.
"NCC is now law. This law is now embodied, for those who did not know, in the NCC Act. I want those who are daring government to know... those who are still doubting that this is not the law and those who want to fight government and make governance impossible, that they are committing treason," President Mwanawasa warned.

"I have come back a changed person. Let me hear no more nonsense bordering on malice, they are going to be arrested and charged with treason and bail is not available to treason."

But Mpombo said if Brig Gen Miyanda was Zambia's spokesperson he would not have been trounced in the last general elections.

"He is speaking on behalf of his inner voice, not Zambians. One area you can know this person has an axe to grind with the President is, he was in government, how can he say the President should not speak through a spokesperson?" he said.
He challenged Brig Gen Miyanda to look into his 'rear view mirror' to check his contribution on the Public Order Act when he was Republican vice-president instead of thinking he was an angel.

Asked why he was not addressing Brig Gen Miyanda's concerns, Mpombo said he (Brig Gen Miyanda) could raise the same issues at the NCC instead of preoccupying himself with attacking President Mwanawasa.

"What I am saying is that we must engage in fruitful political dialogue not based on narrow interests or character assassinations. General Miyanda has been totally unfair to the President. When will the President do something right for General Miyanda to appreciate?" Mpombo wondered.

"Why is it that it's only General Miyanda who finds a bone to chew with the President?"

And Mpombo said Patriotic Front vice-president Dr Guy Scott and his colleagues supported the NCC in the National Assembly.
He said there was no dissention in Parliament when the NCC bill was being passed and that no one stood to object.

"They (PF members of parliament) were serious players and it's politically immoral for them to u-turn now. Why didn't they say what they are saying now on the floor of the House?" asked Mpombo. "It's this type of politics of people flip flopping all the time that gives Zambian politics a bad name."