Maravi

Sata walks out of PF, UPND pact talks

Sata walks out of PF, UPND pact talks
By Chibaula Silwamba and Amos Malupenga
Friday September 26, 2008 [04:00]

DR Kenneth Kaunda's initiated electoral pact negotiations between opposition Patriotic Front (PF) presidential candidate Michael Sata and UPND's Hakainde Hichilema yesterday collapsed after the PF leader walked out of the talks. But Hichilema said he could not withdraw his presidential nomination papers to pave way for Sata because he was incapable of running Zambia's affairs.

Sata and Hichilema met at Dr Kaunda's Kabulonga residence for about one and half hours to discuss the possibility of forming an electoral pact, among other issues. After meeting for about an hour, Sata, who was visibly upset with the course of the discussion, walked out in protest.

Hichilema arrived at Dr Kaunda's residence at 09:07 hours while Sata arrived at 09:17 hours in a white Toyota Corolla, and in the company of his vice-president Dr Guy Scott.

Soon after the negotiations started, Dr Kaunda left his residence at 10:01 hours, leaving his first-born son Colonel Panji Kaunda to mediate between Sata and Hichilema.

After exactly one hour, Sata - in the company of Dr Scott - was seen walking out of Dr. Kaunda's yard. The two walked a distance of about 40 metres from Dr Kaunda's gate in protest before the car arrived from inside the yard to pick them.

Asked to comment on the negotiations, a visibly upset Sata confirmed that he had walked out.

"I have left them, they are still talking," said Sata as Dr Scott nodded his head in agreement. "What they have said is that they want us to work together. I said, now, how do we work together because he Hakainde has filed nomination and I have filed nomination? The only way we can work together is one of us to step down and I am not stepping down. Full stop!"

Sata revealed that on Wednesday, Dr Kaunda invited him to his home to find a way on how he and Hichilema could work together.

"Dr Kaunda is the one who called for the meeting. We had a meeting yesterday Wednesday. Me, personally I had a meeting with Dr Kaunda and I said I can't answer anything unless Hakainde Hichilema was here," Sata said. "It is Dr Kaunda who arranged the meeting for this morning yesterday and when we reached his house, I told them, I told Mr Hichilema that I don't know how we can work together when the two of us are presidential candidates.

I said unless that issue is resolved, working together becomes difficult because if the two of us stand on one platform and tell people that don't vote for MMD presidential candidate Rupiah Banda, then people will ask, 'then whom do we vote for when there are two presidential candidates?'"

Hichilema and his entourage left Dr Kaunda's residence at 11:10 hours and went straight to Dr Kaunda's office, where the former president had gone. Hichilema had a lengthy private discussion with Dr Kaunda at his office.

When contacted, Col Panji said he was the one mediating between Sata and Hichilema and not Dr Kaunda.

Asked further if it was Dr Kaunda who initiated the talks between Sata and Hichilema, Col Panji responded: "No! It was me."

Col Panji said he started last week to try and bring the two opposition leaders together.

"No, Dr Kaunda was not part of that process," Col Panji argued. "As you know, I support HH and the UPND; I saw a danger that if each opposition political party goes each way, they will split the votes."
He said Hichilema and the UPND were very keen to work together with the PF.

"If Mr Sata can't work with us, we can't force him. You can take a horse to the water but you can't force it to drink the water," Col Panji said.

Asked if there were suggestions that either Sata or Hichilema withdraws from the presidential race to pave way for one of them to contest, Col Panji said: "We had not yet discussed that, we were busy discussing other preliminary issues."

Col Panji said they were surprised that Sata walked out.
"Tango dabwa ati a Sata anyamuka achokapo, ayenda. We were just surprised that Mr Sata stood up and left," said Col Panji.

But Hichilema said it was wrong for Sata to think that he could withdraw his candidature to pave way for him because he (Sata) did not have what it takes to run a country.

"We are running. Sata should not mislead people that we are withdrawing," Hichilema said. "What we had was a consultative meeting on a wide range of issues. It's unprofessional for Mr Sata to start issuing press statements concerning a noble meeting, which was called in that way without informing the other party.

For lack of a better term, I can actually say that Mr Sata is being naughty. He is being dishonest, as usual. He is taking advantage of a noble meeting to twist facts for his own benefit. That's typical of Mr Sata. And if he is mature, why walk out of a non-provocative meeting? Is this the way he is going to run the country?"

Hichilema complained that Sata was very unfair with him in the manner he portrayed the spirit of their meeting. He said as usual, Sata was doing everything to deliberately disadvantage him by telling half-truths. Hichilema said if Sata was a good and capable leader, the proposed pact could have easily materialised.

"But I want to say that this country is beyond cheap management skills. That's my view," said Hichilema. "So we cannot withdraw for Sata, unless there was another person of quality. Sata is just a dictator. We don't want those dictatorial tendencies. He is busy distorting issues for his own benefit. Look at what he is doing; it's just comical behaviour. We don't want to go into shouting games."

Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, KENNETH KAUNDA, PANJI KAUNDA, PF, SATA, UPND

posted by MrK @ 5:16 PM