Maravi

Rupiah is a vicious mercenary - Sata

Rupiah is a vicious mercenary - Sata
By Patson Chilemba in Mpika and Jack Zimba in Lusaka
Sunday October 12, 2008 [04:00]

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata yesterday charged that Vice-President Rupiah Banda is a vicious political mercenary who is encouraging regionalism because he has nothing to offer to the country.

And Sata has said the kwacha has depreciated against the United States dollar because Vice-President Rupiah Banda has marginalised his finance minister Ng'andu Magande by looting money from the treasury and channeling it towards his campaigns.

Meanwhile, UPND president Hakainde Hichilema yesterday blamed the current depreciation of the kwacha and increase in the lending rates on the lack of investor confidence in Vice-President Banda's leadership.

Reacting to National Democratic Focus (NDF) president Ben Mwila who questioned his originality, Sata said it was sad that the ugly head of regionalism had shown itself again in the MMD campaigns.

Sata said recently, Vice-President Banda on his campaign trail in Eastern Province, said those who did not hail from that area should be chased back to where they came from. He said this was followed by Dr Ludwig Sondashi's threats in Solwezi to beat up those who mentioned his name in public.

“Rupiah Banda has not asked Sondashi to retract the statement and neither has he apologised. When he was in Luapula, he was with B.Y Ben Mwila. B.Y caused the collapse of Meridian Bank, caused the collapse of Minestone. He received money to repair the gutted Zambia National Building Society building. Up to now, he has not repaired it,” Sata said.

He said Vice-President Banda was too pre-occupied with regionalism because he had no idea of continuing on late president Levy Mwanawasa's programmes.

Sata said Vice-President Banda himself was born in Zimbabwe but he had not made that a campaign issue.

“This country accepted Dr Kenneth Kaunda and there is no doubt that Dr Kaunda's parents came from Malawi. Zambia cannot dwell on trivial regional issues. He's so dull that he didn't know that B.Y Mwila was talking about Rupiah Banda himself because he was born in Gwanda in Zimbabwe,” Sata said.

“Rupiah Banda has not shown what his government has done for the last seven years. That's why he has allowed people with corrupt minds to surround him. He is not projecting what Levy did and said.”

Sata warned that Mwila faced contempt charges if he continued to doubt his origins because there was a High Court judgment which ruled that he was Zambian and not Tanzanian.

“The other Supreme Court ruling was when BY's relative Frederick Chiluba was petitioned by Anderson Mazoka about his origins in 2001, and one of the lawyers was Sakwiba Sikota that Chiluba hailed from Congo. The Supreme Court ruled that anybody who was here by 1964 was Zambian. But that's not an issue because here Mpika where I'm speaking from is my village,” Sata said.

Sata said it was sad that opposition leaders like Mwila, Sikota, Newton Ng'uni, Ken Ngondo and others, had rebelled from their political parties to appease Vice-President Banda so that he could appoint them into government positions.

He urged these opposition leaders to dissolve their parties and join MMD.

“I know of 15 people Rupiah Banda has promised to be Vice-President,” Sata said. “Among those are Ben Mwila, Akashambatwa-Lewanika, Catherine Namugala, Ben Tetamashimba, Kabinga Pande, Sakwiba, Bwalya Chiti and others. Bwalya Chiti is even going round telling Bembas that they should vote for Rupiah Banda because he shall be appointed vice-president,” Sata said.

And Sata, who praised Magande as being a good finance minister Zambia has had, said it was sad that Vice-President Banda was marginalising him, hence the problems in the economy.

He said the depreciation of the Kwacha was evidence enough that Vice-President Banda could not manage the economy.

“It is one month since Levy died, the kwacha was appreciating and within this one month, the kwacha has depreciated badly. Today the Kwacha has hit K4,000 to a dollar.

The reason is one, Rupiah Banda has marginalised Ng'andu Magande, the Minister of Finance,” Sata said. “He's diverting money from the ministry and from the government for his campaign.

For example, he is running three helicopters and one fixed plane and all the government vehicles, because he's spending. This is having a toll on the treasury and the problem you have, Rupiah Banda wants to become president at all costs. He doesn't care about this country.”

And Hakainde Hichilema said the anxiety in the markets was caused by the investors' lack of confidence in Vice-President Banda's capability to firmly hold the macroeconomic variables and fight corruption, and not entirely on the current slow-down in the western economies.

“I think first and foremost, you can say that it is because of the global trend. But primarily the exchange rate and interest rate are affected by the credibility of the leadership,” Hichilema said.

“I think partially that is the challenge or lack of confidence in Rupiah Banda's leadership that can hold firmly the macro variables as well as the anti-corruption fight.” Hichilema said as the nation drew closer to October 30, there would be more pressure on the kwacha, resulting in the rise in inflation and interest rates.

"You will see more of that, because Rupiah Banda has no credibility to manage the economy,” he said. Hichilema warned that the economy would suffer adversely under the leadership of Vice-President Banda, adding that the electorate must take the coming election very seriously in the wake of the global economy slowdown affecting the Western countries, and now some African and Asian countries.

And asked what measures his government would put in place to reduce the impact of the global economic crisis, Hichilema said there was need to critically analyse and clarify the relationship the country had with the international financial institutions to make sure that the impact of the global crisis was minimised.

Labels: RUPIAH BANDA, SATA

posted by MrK @ 4:41 AM