Some church leaders are upset by my reconciliation with Levy - Sata

Some church leaders are upset by my reconciliation with Levy - Sata
By Mutuna Chanda
Sunday June 08, 2008 [04:00]

PATRIOTIC Front leader Michael Sata has said he could have incited Zambians into attacking foreigners in a South African style had he not reconciled with President Mwanawasa. And Sata has accused some church leaders of being upset at his reconciliation with President Mwanawasa because he took away their opportunity to broker reconciliation talks between him and the President.

Speaking when Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church leaders visited him at his residence on Friday, Sata said he was very upset with UPND president Hakainde Hichilema’s comments on his reconciliation with President Mwanawasa.

“From what I have seen, it was just going take the voice of one mad person in the name of Michael Sata to incite people into violence like what is happening in South Africa. How can you stop what is going on in South Africa with so many unemployed people? It would just take one emotional person to incite people on the streets,” Sata said. “I don’t want to take over a country which is in trouble. I feel sorry for comrade Jacob Zuma because if that’s the country he wants to take over, then where are you going to start from?”

Sata said his reconciliation with President Mwanawasa was to prevent Zambia from taking the route of South Africa and Zimbabwe.

“It’s the failure to humble ourselves that has caused the impasse in Zimbabwe,” Sata said. “If I am to look after the Chinese in Zambia, Levy has to tell me what the benefit is. We have given them land, so what is the benefit for Zambia? When these young boys come to power, to divert attention from the problems, the first thing they will do is to arrest Levy like he did by arresting Frederick Chiluba, but how much money have we wasted when some many of our people are suffering…I am very upset by what Hakainde Hichilema has been saying.”

Sata wondered what some church leaders meant when they said that his reconciliation with President Mwanawasa had taken away the voice of the voiceless.
He cited the huge government expense at the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) among other things that he had brought to the attention of President Mwanawasa as some of the issues that had strengthened the voice of the voiceless.

“I have heard from some church leaders and politicians say that Sata’s reconciliation has removed the voice for the voiceless and it has also removed the checks and balances. But speaking in wilderness is a waste of voice. God did not give us voice to waste,” said Sata.

SDA Zambia Union Conference president Pastor Simui Akombwa said the great dawn of dialogue between Sata and President Mwanawasa should be embraced with happiness.
The four SDA leaders prayed with Sata and later presented him with two Bibles, among other gospel literature.