Maravi

Chiluba is not a plunderer - Teta

Chiluba is not a plunderer - Teta
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Thursday October 02, 2008 [04:01]

Former president Frederick Chiluba is neither a thief nor plunderer until he is convicted by the courts of law, Vice-President Rupiah Banda's campaign agent Benny Tetamashimba said yesterday. And Tetamashimba said a political party like UPND in its tribal form led by Hakainde Hichilema will never govern Zambia.

Meanwhile, Tetamashimba said Patriotic Front president Michael Sata and The Post, under a fake reconciliation, had taken it upon themselves to attack Vice-President Banda after The Post's choice failed to win a presidential election during the MMD national executive committee (NEC) elections.

During a press briefing in Lusaka, Tetamashimba said Chiluba was being demonised by Sata for supporting Vice-President Banda because he (Chiluba) believed that Sata could never make a good president.

Tetamashimba said Chiluba could not be demonised as a thief or plunderer in the absence of a court conviction.

"Dr F.T.J Chiluba is in court facing allegations and not truths. Until he is found guilty, he is a free man. We have heard Mr. Michael Sata more than once accusing RB (Rupiah Banda) and his campaigners that RB is being supported by former president Dr FTJ Chiluba," Tetamashimba said.

He said he was aware that Sata and Hichilema had vowed to destroy Chiluba if by mistake either one of them won the October 30 presidential election. Tetamashimba said Vice-President Banda and his team had not met Chiluba yet but would not have any problems meeting him at any time.

"In fact, I will meet him as soon as possible to find out why Mr Sata and HH (Hakainde Hichilema) are demonising him and RB in this election.

RB is for forgiveness and reconciliation of the country. If there is anything RB will do to reconcile or unite Zambia, we will support him," Tetamashimba said.

He said Sata should know Vice-President Banda's campaign team had nothing to hate Chiluba for and no one, including Sata, would tell them to demonise him. He alleged that the votes Sata got on the Copperbelt, Luapula and Northern provinces were as a result of Chiluba.

Tetamashimba said he was surprised that Sata was now demonising the person who gave him votes in 2006. He said Vice-President Banda's camp would not insult Chiluba to please Sata or Hichilema.

Tetamashimba said Sata insulted the people of North-Western Province that they were backward like human buttocks who should never rule Zambia and that when he wins as president, the province would be cut off and given to Angola.

"These two issues are waiting for Mr Sata in Solwezi," he said.
Tetamashimba said it was a fact that Vice-President Banda had been maliciously attacked by political leaders, especially those from PF and UPND. He said Sata and Hichilema also had plans, using Dr Kenneth Kaunda, to scheme how they could remove the MMD and Vice-President Banda from power to be replaced by Sata or Hichilema.

"Their plan for an alliance has lamentably failed due to their greed. The PF leader and The Post, under a fake reconciliation, have taken it upon themselves after the MMD Post Newspaper choice failed to win the NEC elections on September, 5, 2008, to attack the MMD candidate and the paper without RB in its headings can now not attract buyers," Tetamashimba said.

And Tetamashimba said Hichilema was a 'private UPND cadre' who did not want to come out in 1998 because he wanted to double cross the MMD with UPND for monetary gain of selling companies, which included Intercontinental Hotel in Livingstone. He claimed that this hotel was sold cheaply for Hichilema to acquire shares in return.

"Time will come when he will be asked about the legality of the transactions. People will soon know why he changed names of his security firm," Tetamashimba said.

He said people were already asking how Hichilema could make for himself K15 billion between 2006 and 2008.

"Can he tell us how much tax he paid just from the K15 billion he had made in only two years? These are issues to talk about to show integrity of candidates. We all know that Hichilema even threatens to divorce his wife if a brother-in-law did not support his political party, UPND," Tetamashimba claimed.

He said when he took the late Anderson Mazoka on a political scene in Solwezi, nobody knew that Hichilema would ever rise from a common 'private' UPND member to party president, using his tribe. He said when he formed UPND with the late Mazoka, Hichilema was hiding from the viciousness of Sata and the MMD.

Tetamashimba said Solwezi council, where he came from, was controlled by UPND after the 1998 national local government elections and the first mayor for UPND in Zambia was from Solwezi and not Monze where Hichilema and Mazoka hailed from.

"Monze only had one councillor. Where was the popularity of HH? Can such a political failure be the one to claim that I am misleading my candidate for the North-Western vote when all Zambians and clever politicians know that I do contribute to the political landscape in North-Western Province?" Tetamashimba said.

He said in the 2001 general elections, UPND was totally led by him while other people like current ULP president Sakwiba Sikota legally led the party.

Tetamashimba said North-Western Province in the 2001 general elections was UPND and when Hichilema misadvised the late Mazoka with other selfish UPND leaders to expel him, he told the world that there would be no UPND by the 2006 elections in North-Western Province.

"Isn't this the scenario today? UPND, which had nine seats in 2001, now has only two seats in the province. Can't HH know why such a shift happened? Is he a political under-five not to know the reason for failure by UPND to hold on to North-Western Province?" he asked.

Tetamashimba said if he helped the late Mazoka to win North-Western Province, why should Vice-President Banda fail to win when it was the people of that province and chiefs who directed that they support Vice-President Banda for president?

Tetamashimba said he would follow the decision of the people of the province and campaign for Vice President Banda like he campaigned for the late Mazoka and late president Mwanawasa.

He said people that economically benefited from Mazoka should not now be insulting those that made Mazoka the internationally known leader.

"A party like UPND in its tribal form, led by HH, will never govern Zambia. While the people of North-Western Province and their chiefs have endorsed RB for October 30, 2008 presidential polls, the wise people of Southern Province through their chiefs have refused to endorse HH and have endorsed RB for the forthcoming elections," he said.

Tetamashimba said The Post and Hichilema's lies about what transpired in Zambezi at Likumbi Lya Mize clearly showed The Post to be a newspaper with an agenda to destroy the MMD and himself.

"Why has The Post not retracted their Zambezi story after senior chief Ndungu refuted their story? I expected HH to apologise to senior chief Ndungu but because he has no respect for him, he would not apologise on his lies," Tetamashimba said.

He wondered why The Post had not published the story of Southern Province chiefs not supporting Hichilema in preference for Vice-President Banda.

Tetamashimba said Hichilema had no political constituency as at now following his rejection by the wise chiefs of Southern Province. He said Hichilema had no crowd in Lukulu and Mongu districts where his rallies failed to attract anybody.

"How can a rejectee who has no support in his backyard talk of support from North-Western Province where the people and their chiefs have nothing to do with him but want RB to lead Zambia?" Tetamashimba asked.

"Let HH know that I was the first one to support RB to take over as president and my commitment to him is total and without question by any MMD member or RB himself. If HH thinks he can create mistrust between RB and myself, let him go for a check up at Chainama."

Tetamashimba said he had found a good commodity in Vice-President Banda to sale and would do his best to make him win not only in North-Western Province where he had already won.

"I will contribute to RB's success on October 30, 2008 and if the people of North-Western Province and their chiefs who have directed us that we vote for RB don't vote for him, I will resign from Parliament as a sign of my commitment for RB and having been disappointed by my North-Western Province masters voting against a person they directed me to support and vote for.

I ask HH to state to the nation that he will also resign from politics if he lost North-Western province presidential vote to RB on October 30, 2008 so that we know whether he has any political integrity to talk about," he said.

On the alleged malicious and insulting articles by The Post on Vice-President Banda and also PF members suing the Vice-President to cease as acting President, he would leave it to the courts to determine since the cases were in court and the MMD operated on the rule of law.

Tetamashimba also alleged that Post editor Fred M'membe had grabbed a married woman (late Mazoka's daughter) from a man dying from cancer and challenged him to tell the MMD and Zambians if this was true or not.

Tetamashimba wondered where the personal private integrity of M'membe was. He said he had stood for M'membe even when his ministerial job as at stake.

Tetamashimba said he knew The Post had nothing to hide and expected M'membe to come out clean on the issue before entering other people's bedrooms. He said The Post’s agenda in this election was about their survival in view of their neck debts.

Tetamashimba said Vice-President Banda had no interest in punishing The Post but The Post must know that revenue for the government must be paid so that the poor could have free education and access to health facilities.

"The RB government will not spend taxpayers' money to support extravagant private firms who pay the owners salaries and allowances their businesses can't support.

The RB government will have no sacred cows and when you owe, you pay. In USA, the Congress have refused to bail out private companies with US$700 billion government money and MMD after the October 30 elections will not bail out private firms using tax payers money," Tetamashimba said.

He said if debt-ridden companies for M'membe, including The Post, were to be supported because jobs needed to be kept, the Rupiah Banda government would ask Parliament and if Parliament agreed, he would do it.

Tetamashimba said the issues of information minister Mike Mulongoti were not Vice-President Banda's issues but Mulongoti's feelings were due to The Post's biased reporting.

"We know that The Post has been keen to see PF and UPND form an alliance to defeat the MMD. We want to assure The Post that if that happened, it will be very easy for MMD to defeat the two weak parties on October 30, 2008 if they joined hands in an alliance," Tetamashimba said.

He said Sata knew very well that an alliance of the two would destroy the PF like UPND died when Hichilema thought he could be in State House using other parties.

Tetamashimba said Vice-President Banda would not respond to cheap politics and where he felt his rights were infringed upon, he would go to court.

"He will go to the courts of law which The Post has no respect for, as theirs was to create anarchy in the nation so that their indebtedness can be swallowed by the governance crisis in the nation," Tetamashimba said.

He said Zambians had seen for themselves that Vice-President Banda was more mature than any presidential candidate in the forthcoming elections. Tetamashimba said Zambia's economy was stable as confirmed by the International Monetary Fund and other partners.

"What nonsense is this that an outsider can claim to do better than the people who were doing the job with president Mwanawasa?

HH and Sata don't understand that Fifth National Development Plan, the Vision 2030. RB was the Vice-President to the late president and the two were planning everything together and agreed in their Cabinet," Tetamashimba said.

He said even when The Post knew that Vice-President Banda was appointed by the late president to act as president when he left the country, they portrayed through their paper that the Vice-President was not the anointed one.
"Fortunately, no anointed one ever came up with an anointment letter, except RB who had one of acting president in the absence of president Mwanawasa," he said.

Tetamashimba appealed to Zambians to support Vice-President Banda and not The Post's preferred candidates.

He said The Post could write anything on them to sale their newspaper but they would, with the people's support, win the October 30, 2008 elections by a higher percentage than in 2006.

Tetamashimba reminded Zambian women that they had always complained that political parties did not give women chances in the political arena. He said MMD was the only party that fielded women candidates for Mwansabombwe, Ndola Central and Kanchibiya by-elections.

Tetamashimba said the last laugh would be for MMD and Vice-President Banda and not those The Post was supporting for their hatred for the Vice-President and self-survival.

And Tetamashimba said he was not using government transport in his campaigns but was using personal vehicles. He said he drove the most expensive GX in the country and could manage to buy any vehicle on earth.

Tetamashimba said the car PF secretary general Edward Mumbi saw him in was his personal GX and he would use it to support Vice-President Banda as he had nothing to hide.

Labels: BENNY TETAMASHIMBA, CHILUBA, UPND

posted by MrK @ 4:46 AM