Maravi

Chiluba prays for Sata

Chiluba prays for Sata
By Chibaula Silwamba and Mutuna Chanda
Thursday May 01, 2008 [04:00]

Former president Frederick Chiluba has said he is praying for Patriotic Front president Michael Sata’s quick recovery because he is ‘badly’ needed in Zambia. Speaking when he visited the funeral house of Sata’s late son Chilufya on Tuesday evening in Lusaka’s Kabulonga area, Chiluba said nothing could ever be worse than it was at the moment in the Sata family considering Chilufya’s death and Sata’s illness following a heart attack last Friday.

“I thank God Sata is coming up very well. We continue to pray, we need him.

“All of us as a family need him badly. As a country we need him badly as well,” Chiluba said in an interview. “He plays a very, very important role, extremely important and we wouldn’t like him to be in hospital for too long. He has to come out as quickly as we need him and we need him now.”

Chiluba also said Chilufya’s death was saddening because he died while in the prime of his life.

“I think you saw my son Castro seated there when you came. Chilufya was as close to Castro as I am to bashi Chilufya Mr Sata. Sata is a brother, so this is our funeral, we are all affected,” Chiluba said.

“We have lost a son at a very tender age. Nothing can be ever worse than that but you know these things we give glory to God. Nobody knows when and where we will all give up our lives and it is too saddening certainly.

He was still a young fellow, very jovial and playful young man. He was in the prime of his life.”
Chiluba, in the company of his wife Regina, arrived at the late Chilufya’s house before 18:00 hours and left about 18:10 hours.

And asked to comment on Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s statement that it is only God who could punish him for whatever wrongs he committed, Chiluba said he was praying to God to bless Dr Kaunda.

“I have no word to say. It will be against the spirit of the embrace we had the other day. I would only pray to God to bless the old man,” Chiluba said.

And addressing mourners at Bible Gospel Church in Africa (BIGOCA) in Lusaka’s Matero compound during a church service for three church members who died in a road accident in Kabwe on Sunday, Chiluba yesterday said God did not make man to die but to live eternally.

“Our children who are lying here were redeemed from the hand of the enemy and now they are in the hands of God Almighty,” said Chiluba amid tears. “Those who died in Christ are not dead, they are alive.”

Later in an interview, Chiluba urged minibus and taxi drivers to be more careful, knowing that they were carrying people and not cargo.

He said there was no single answer to the problem of road accidents but everyone should contribute to ensuring safety on the roads.

“We all have contributions to make to reduce the number of accidents in the country,” said Chiluba.

Several people thronged Chiluba’s vehicle to shake hands with him.
Sarah Kalunga Kwanga, Serah Soko and Adamson Banda died in a road accident in Kabwe on their way from Kitwe where they had gone to attend a Sunday School teachers’ course.

Two other passengers and the bus driver died on the spot after the bus driver tried to overtake another bus but hit into a pavement and later a truck. They were buried yesterday in Lusaka.

Five other members of BIGOCA sustained injuries and are admitted to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka.

Meanwhile, PF vice-president Dr Guy Scott said their party could not prosper without Sata.

Reacting to acting information minister George Mpombo’s statement that he did not want Sata to be flown to South Africa for medical treatment so that if anything happened to him he would take over the PF presidency, Dr Scott said Mpombo had witchcraft mentality and a strange sense of humour.

Mpombo’s statement followed Dr Scott’s statement that Sata had indicated to him before being evacuated to South Africa that he would reimburse all the money that the government would spend on his specialist treatment.

“To suggest that I am wishing harm to Mr Sata so that I can benefit from taking over the PF presidency is completely ridiculous,” Dr Scott said.

“Does he think that I think that without Mr Sata PF would prosper and carry me to great places? All of us members of parliament are MPs because we were standing on Mr Sata’s ticket, under his wing.”

Labels: CHILUBA, SATA

posted by MrK @ 5:55 AM