Chiluba and Rupiah have teamed up - Sata

Chiluba and Rupiah have teamed up - Sata
By Patson Chilemba in Nakonde
Wednesday October 01, 2008 [04:00]

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata has charged that former president Frederick Chiluba has teamed up with Vice-President Rupiah Banda because they both believe in shortcuts. And Sata said October was a significant month in Zambia and that after the presidential election, God would remove the MMD government from power.

In an interview after addressing a mammoth rally at Katozi village in Nakonde, Sata said Chiluba was supporting Vice-President Banda and alleging that Sata had reconciled with former first lady Maureen Mwanawasa.

"Chiluba is saying that he is supporting Rupiah Banda because I have reconciled with Maureen Mwanawasa, which is a lie. But I have nothing against Maureen," Sata said. "If she calls, if she wants to talk to me, I will talk to her. And I don't want her to suffer more than she has already suffered."

Sata said he understood Maureen's anger when she accused him of politicizing the late president Levy Mwanawasa's funeral in Chipata last month.

"The wrong impression she had was that Rupiah Banda and company meant well when they were taking her husband's body around provincial centres. That's why when she saw me there, she thought that I was politicizing. But little did she know that it was RB and his bandits who were politicising the funeral by using her husband's body to campaign for RB," he said.

Sata said it was unfortunate that Chiluba was trying to use Maureen's name to justify his support for Vice-President Banda.

"I have nothing against Maureen, but Chiluba should not use that. If he wants to support Rupiah because they both belong to the shortcut crowd, he should just go ahead. Let us not use the Mwanawasa family," Sata said.

He said Chiluba should be honest enough on his support for Vice-President Banda. Sata said Chiluba anointed late president Mwanawasa in a shortcut fashion and wanted to do the same with Vice-President Banda so that he could push him like a wheelbarrow.
Sata said he resigned from MMD after realising that party members wanted to serve their pockets and not the people.

Asked why it had taken long for him to identify the ills in Chiluba's administration, Sata responded: "I worked in that government, I resigned from that government. Now, it doesn't matter how long it took because every function he gave me, I produced results. And I paid dividends because when I was about to do something very effective in local government, he shunted me. He took me to Ministry of Labour. When I changed the Ministry of Labour, he thought I would not upset anything. He took me to health, and he took me to health deliberately, knowing that this man is not a medical doctor; he is going to fail, because he was looking for a scapegoat to fire me. And then when he found that at health I was becoming more popular than the entire government, he took me as minister without portfolio."

Sata said he had always rallied behind Chiluba, even when he was condemned from all corners.

"And I would be very pleased if one day, Dr Chiluba can tell me how much I owe him, because that's how he treated me in 2001. In 2001, I was one of the most loyal people to Frederick, people even accused me that I was the master minder of the third term when I was not. But at the last minute, he came to behave the way he behaved to me," Sata said. "And in 2001, I went into campaigning. I didn't say anything against him. In 2006, I went in the campaigns, my association and campaign for what I thought was right cost me the election."

Asked if Chiluba had communicated to him directly over his support for Vice-President Banda, Sata said he had been informed by the same people Chiluba talked to.

"Dr Chiluba talked to Saviour Chishimba when Chishimba was going to put up an injunction. Dr Chiluba talked to Peter Machungwa about the same information and many other people whom he had spoken to. His involvement in Mwansabombwe parliamentary by-elections where he has picked his own candidate the same way he picked Elizabeth Mulobeka for Kawambwa, contrary to the NEC," Sata said. "He is on it again by bringing this woman Kamanga in Mwansabombwe. All he wants in Mwansabombwe is to defeat Michael Sata and even when there was this temporary difference with my members of parliament, they were always meeting at his Chiluba house."

And addressing the rally earlier, Sata also told a huge and excited crowd that in 2001, he told Chiluba that he had resigned from MMD because he did not believe in shortcuts.
"The government of shortcuts that Chiluba took over, ask how many people have been arrested. They have even included innocent people who were just following rules," he said.

Sata further said the MMD would be removed from office this October. He said apart from the country attaining independence in October 1964, Dr Kenneth Kaunda was also removed from power in October.

Sata said it was sad that an important trading town like Nakonde had remained underdeveloped 44 years after independence. He further said that under the PF government, chiefs would be in charge of fertiliser distribution because they were the ones who knew where people in dire need were.

He urged Nakonde residents to deliver themselves from suffering by voting for PF. He also promised pensioners that they would be paid their benefits immediately PF was elected into office.

"My father was a servant. I know what suffering is," Sata said.
On Monday, business almost came to a standstill in Nakonde as most traders rushed to go and listen to Sata.

Notables in Sata's entourage included PF spokesperson Given Lubinda, Chimwemwe member of parliament Willie Nsanda and Lusaka businessman Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba, popularly known as GBM.
Sata urged Nakonde residents not to vote for Vice-President Banda, saying he had no interest in serving the people, because even his MMD candidature was given to him on a silver plate.

And in an interview later, Sata said PF would teach tribalists a lesson they will never forget. He also thanked MMD and UPND members in Choma for joining PF.
"We need peace and progress during this most trying moment of our nation," Sata said. "We are winning this election."

Sata further congratulated the Muslim community for fasting successfully.
"The whole country has been fasting with them Muslims. Even here in Nakonde, people have observed the Ramadan festival because they have been fasting on behalf of the entire Zambia," said Sata.