Sata accuses Amusaa of being partisan over expelled PF MPs

Sata accuses Amusaa of being partisan over expelled PF MPs
By Brighton Phiri
Monday June 09, 2008 [04:00]

Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata yesterday asked Speaker of the National Assembly Amusaa Mwanamwambwa to stop being partisan over his request for him to declare vacant seats of the 26 expelled PF members of parliament. And Sata said he would seek audience with President Levy Mwanawasa immediately he arrives from London this week to discuss the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) in its current form.

In an interview, Sata wondered why the Speaker was dragging his feet to declare vacant the seats of the 26 members attending the NCC without the blessings of his party.

“The Speaker must stop being partisan. Why illegally keep those 26 members of parliament who have been expelled?” asked Sata. “The Speaker doesn’t produce MPs, but political organisations do. And when these political organisations decide to withdraw the mandate from the MPs, the Speaker must act accordingly.”

Sata said Speaker Mwanamwambwa risked leaving behind a very bad legacy of partisanship if he continued to keep the 26 PF members of parliament in the House.

On his planned meeting with President Mwanawasa, Sata said the conditions, which forced President Mwanawasa to speed up the sitting of NCC no longer prevailed.

Sata said the NCC had been hijacked by UNIP and UPND cadres who were calling for the introduction of freedom fighters’ benefits in the Constitution because President Mwanawasa rushed the NCC without proper planning.

“This NCC has been hijacked by UNIP and other minority groups. Now UNIP is talking about the freedom fighters’ benefits. UNIP is not on the ground. FDD is not on the ground and UPND is losing ground,” Sata said. “At the rate we are going with this sham NCC, they will only produce a document bigger than a Bible…it is going to be another Abel Muzorewa and Ian Smith affair where a minority group was brought into the liberation struggle negotiation for the sake of causing confusion.”

Sata disclosed that he had received complaints from among other NCC accredited members, some ministers, whom he said were complaining against the lavish allowances paid to NCC members.

He wondered why Vice-President Rupiah Banda wants the people of Katete to write him a letter for his office to release relief food when money was freely given to NCC members.

“I am going to ask for a meeting with President Mwanawasa over this sham NCC because it has lost its direction,” said Sata.