Maravi

Rupiah, a habitual briber

Rupiah, a habitual briber
By Editor
Thursday October 02, 2008 [04:00]

The Bembas say “uwakalema takaleka. The Lozis say, or rather the Luyanas say, “wasaye kasiyenene”. And the Tongas say “ulakakwe takaleki”. The Nyanja speaking people say “wakake sakaleka”. In English, it can be said as meaning that “old habits die hard”. This is very true of Rupiah Banda. This old man’s dishonesty comes a long way. He just can’t break clean from it.

It seems Rupiah has serious problems doing politics in an honest way. Crooked politics seems to be his way. He seems to be permanently wedded to bribery as a way of campaigning for public office, as a way of winning support, votes and elections.

And in saying this, we are not being malicious in any way. We are also not motivated by any form of malice whatsoever.

And if we are guilty of malice, personal vendetta against Rupiah or if by saying all this we are libeling him, then we should not be the only ones who should be convicted for this crime, for this wrongdoing.

We say all this because on Wednesday October 23, 1991 the state-owned and government controlled Times of Zambia – under the UNIP government of which Rupiah was a member – carried a story titled “‘Defector’ changes mind” accompanied by a strip “Poll ploy backfires” and “‘Aspirant bribed me’”. And on top of this, there was a head and shoulder picture captioned “Mr Banda”. The accompanying story ran as follows:

“A campaign ploy by UNIP’s parliamentary candidate for Munali Mr Rupiah Banda ended scandalously when the man he was to parade to the press as a defector from MMD suddenly claimed he had been bribed by Mr Banda with K20,000.

“MMD chairman for Mtendere Mr Claudius Sakala jolted the unsuspecting Mr Banda when he made a turn-about at a press conference called by the aspirant to announce his resignation from MMD to join UNIP.

“The supposed defector changed his mind at the last minute and confessed to journalists Mr Banda had given him K20,000 cash as they drove to Hotel Intercontinental where the press conference took place.

“Police confirmed the money had been surrendered to them and investigations had been launched.

“Mr Banda had brought 15 other MMD members whom he apparently expected to cross-over to UNIP. They all reversed their decisions.

“Mr Banda handed back the MMD party cards to Mr Sakala and his wife.
“Mr Banda began his press conference by alleging that his rival Mr Ronald Penza’s camp was in disarray ‘as the defection of Mr Sakala would show’.

“He called Mr Sakala to address the press conference to justify his decision to join UNIP.
“In the middle of what sounded like a pro-UNIP stance, Mr Sakala attacked police for failing to control UNIP vigilantes whom he later said were the perpetrators of violence in Mtendere last weekend.

“Earlier, Mr Sakala had said he was joining UNIP because he was upset with the violence that characterised the Mtendere rally.

“I am a sacrificial lamb who has been vetoed three times by UNIP and Mr Banda fired the last shot in my vetoes. The violence was started by UNIP vigilantes. So I have refused to rejoin UNIP.

“He further said the ‘token’ given to him would not benefit him and 15 other MMD members who had gone with him to the conference.”

This is the track record of Rupiah. He seems to be a habitual briber. This was 17 years ago, and today Rupiah is being accused of almost doing the same things.

Last week, we had the story of James Lukuku of the New Revolution Party accusing Rupiah of having bribed them with K15 million. Of course, Rupiah denied this claim but his campaign manager Mike Mulongoti admitted having given Lukuku and his friends K15 million
.
Exposing all this, to Rupiah it is a personal vendetta on our part. And for this, we are claiming to be holier than thou. And the editor of The Post is being challenged to talk about his marriage. There is nothing of relevance about The Post editor’s marriage, to the current presidential election campaigns.

First, the editor of The Post is not a candidate in these elections who should be brought under scrutiny. Second, there is nothing secretive about his marriage. And if any aspect of his marriage will help Rupiah’s campaign, let him use it.

And as long as it is being used in an honest way, without any defamation, Rupiah should feel free to use it to bolster his electoral chances. If he uses it in a manner that is defamatory, libelous, he should be prepared to face the temerity of his decision at the end of the day.

But what is surprising is that Rupiah’s campaign that started on the basis of sticking to issues and not attacking personalities seems to be changing course. Now they are turning not only against the personalities of candidates but also of journalists.

As for us, we have no problem with them exposing our wrongdoings, our iniquities as long as they are truthful in doing so. We have nothing to hide.

It is shocking that Rupiah and his agents can sink so low as to mock The Post over its investment in Zambian Airways. It is not a secret that globally, the aviation industry is going through a very difficult time. Some airlines have even closed.

Our efforts to keep Zambian Airways flying deserve praise and not scorn. We will do everything possible to assist the airline that employs over 260 people and services our tourism industry to remain flying.

And we are not ashamed of this noble gesture on our part. We are actually proud of it because it contributes to the development of our country’s economy. It is a difficult industry and we have no shame in saying this. But to Rupiah and his agents, our noble gesture seems to be a crime.

This shows what type of leaders they are; leaders who can take pride in the collapse of companies and industries that are of such great importance to their people and the country’s economy.

All this goes to show how desperate, how unprincipled, how dishonest and how childish these characters can be.

There is no doubt Rupiah’s campaign is in shambles, is facing serious problems. The situation is not what they expected. They thought after the adoption of Rupiah by the MMD, all was going to be plain sailing. Out of ignorance and arrogance, they underrated their opponents.

Today we are being accused, by these characters, of having a deal with the Patriotic Front and Michael Sata. This is not new to us. Who hasn’t accused us of supporting this one or that one? Three weeks or so ago, Sata accused us of supporting the MMD and stopped talking to our reporters.

A few weeks before that, Hakainde Hichilema accused us of supporting Sata and the Patriotic Front. Today, Rupiah and the MMD are accusing us of having a deal with Sata and the Patriotic Front. Does this all need explanation on our part? We don’t think so. We leave it to time – time alone will tell.

We have made it very clear that we are not for hire and we will never hire ourselves to anybody. We make our decisions, we are not told what to do by anybody.

If there are journalists who hire themselves out to become public relations officers of some politicians, it will never be us.

We don’t need a deal with Sata to expose Rupiah’s corruption or dishonesty. Equally, we don’t need a deal with anybody to criticise Sata or Hakainde. If criticism is due, we simply make it.

And Rupiah’s record of dishonesty cannot be ignored. Even the state-owned and government controlled Times of Zambia failed to ignore Rupiah’s corruption in 1991 when his party, UNIP, was in power.

His corruption was reported to the police, but because his party was in power, the matter was ignored and left to die. But in Bemba, they say umulandu taubola. This issue, of Rupiah’s bribery in 1991, is back today to hound him.

We ain’t seen nothing yet. As the campaign becomes difficult, we are going to see more desperate things being done by Rupiah and his sponsors.

This is because one thing they are not ready to take is electoral defeat. This is because it will throw most of them into unemployment, destitution. And this makes them very dangerous elements because desperate people do desperate things.

Our advice to Rupiah and his agents is that if they want to win this election, they should concentrate on increasing their chances and reducing those of their opponents. And The Post is not a political party and has no candidate who has filed in nomination papers to participate in this election.

So their concentration on The Post is of no value to this election. It is a waste of time for which they may pay highly. We are not saying this to stop them from attacking us. We have taken on the MMD at its strongest point. We are not afraid to take them on now when they so fragile, disorganised and disoriented.

They can hold as many press conferences as they want and will achieve little, if not nothing, by avoiding to deal squarely with the issues that are being raised about Rupiah’s corruption, bribery, lies and so on and so forth. Instead of addressing these issues, they are busy attacking people who are not candidates. Trying to discredit The Post is an exercise in futility by Rupiah and his agents. It won’t work, it won’t do.

What will work is trying to clear, in an honest way, the allegations of corruption, of dishonesty, of lies that are being brought against Rupiah. But it seems no one has proper answers to these allegations, to these charges.

For instance, how is Rupiah going to respond to this story, the story of bribery carried by the Times of Zambia 17 years ago? Is he going to dismiss it as lies? Is he going to accuse the Times of Zambia of malice and a personal vendetta against him?

And today, Rupiah happens to be in the same political party with Sakala who in 1991 accused him of bribery. Are they going to ask Sakala to reverse his story of 1991 and say it was a lie?

Is Rupiah going to ask Sakala to say he was bribed by the MMD to accuse him of bribery?
These are the questions Rupiah and his election agents should start to address.

The Post editor’s marriage will not help them much. But if in any way it can help them, again we say let them use it – but in an honest way and with facts, or else they will find themselves in serious legal problems at the end of these elections.

It is also surprising that Rupiah and his agents today can tell the nation that Frederick Chiluba is an innocent man who is just facing allegations of corruption.

They are forgetting that it is their government that took Chiluba to the London High Court where the court found him to be a thief, to have stolen and abused public funds. And today they can have the courage or audacity to tell the nation that Chiluba is innocent of corruption!

Why? Is it not this same party that removed Chiluba’s immunity because they believed he was a corrupt man? What has changed? Has Levy Mwanawasa’s death changed things?

It is clear where Levy’s legacy of fighting corruption stands with Rupiah and his agents, sponsors. Only people who are not corrupt can fight corruption. Rupiah is corrupt and cannot be expected to fight corruption and that’s why corrupt elements like Chiluba are surporting him, have teamed up with him.

And this is what corruption can do - it can blind even honest people to truth. Ben Tetamashimba, one of the very few in MMD who stood with Levy in fighting corruption, is today a leading defender of the corrupt elements he had been fighting and denouncing over the last seven years or so!

Again, what a web we weave for ourselves when we try to practice bribery, corruption, dishonesty, deceit! Rupiah seems to be caught in his own web of lies. There is little we can do to help him. We can only say help him Lord of Lords!

Labels: RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 4:51 AM