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There's no way i can lose to Rupiah - Sata

There's no way i can lose to Rupiah - Sata
By Chibaula Silwamba
Saturday October 11, 2008 [04:00]

PATRIOTIC Front president Michael Sata has said there is no way he can lose to MMD candidate Rupiah Banda. And Sata said he would not accept defeat. Featuring on Lusaka's Radio QFM on Thursday night, Sata said he would not concede defeat in a fraudulent presidential election Sata said there would be no way he could lose to Vice-President Banda, UPND's Hakainde Hichilema or Heritage Party's Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda. Below are some callers' questions and Sata's responses:

Interviewer (Mumbi Kalimba): What will happen should you lose this election? Would you accept the loss?
Sata: No! I will not accept it.
Mumbi: Why?

Sata: …because it would have been rigged heavily. There is corruption. There is no way Rupiah Banda can win this election. There is no way Hakainde Hichilema can win this election and there is no way Brig Gen Miyanda can win this election because they don't have any organisation behind them.

You win an election with an organisation behind you.
Lusaka caller (Isaac): I think you didn't answer that question properly. Having a probability that you lose this election, what is going to be your position? Without rigging, without anything, let us just assume that you lost the elections, a clear loss. What is going to be your position?

Sata: When you are talking of losing. All things being equal, MMD should come out to tell us what have they done for this country because they don't even need to bribe people. They don't need to give them chitenje and they don't need to give them K500, 000. All they have to do is to say we did this and this. Look at this, we did this and people will vote for them.

But when you have today Dan Kalale has already reduced 400,000 people from the voters' register, then you start wondering. Is this going to be free and fair elections? If you are leaning to MMD and say I must concede now, I cannot concede to corruption. Fraudulent elections, I cannot concede. I never conceded elections to Levy Mwanawasa.

Mumbi: I believe the caller wants you to say what you mean in detail by saying you will not accept a loss?

Sata: I have answered the caller. If it is free and fair…if this caller is among them who think… Rupiah Banda himself said we have already won; it was on QFM, where he said we have already won this election. Rupiah Banda repeated in Western Province, 'we are wining this election'. What gives him the confidence?

And I remember in Mwansabombwe when we had a by-election when Glaidus Molobeka stood on behalf of PF and Maybin Mubanga on MMD ticket, Levy Mwanawasa came there and declared: 'we have won this election.' This is when now I have realised.

Caller (Chanda): MMD spokesperson Benny Tetamashimba has always said North Western Province is no-go area for you because you insulted the people there. Exactly, what did you tell the people of North Western Province?

Sata: North Western Province, Mr Tetamashimba is a liar. He manufactured that lie in Kasempa when I went in for a by-election because if I would have called people of North Western Province what Tetamashimba is saying…and at that time The Post, even now, I don't think they would have missed my remarks.

When Dr Mwanawasa on the Copperbelt said aba Bemba balanunka, bafiko (Bemba people stink, they are dirty), even government newspapers quoted him. And if I would have insulted the people of North Western or some sections of Central Province they would have quoted me.

But Tetamashimba… that is what he tells people of North Western Province because I haven't told them that. I do sympathise with him. He even went further to tell a lie, to say 'when Sata comes he will send you to Angola.'

That is madness. To Angola to do what? He is in MMD from UPND, he has no issues to convince people of his province apart from lying against me and I will go to North Western to prove to Tetamashimba that what he is saying is not true.

Tetamashimba has repeatedly said Sata insulted people of North Western that they were backward like human buttocks.

Mumbi: What is your comment on Dr Kenneth Kaunda's statement that you work well as a minister but you cannot do the work of a Republican president?

Sata: Dr Kaunda, nobody has ever told us that he is professor in the school of presidential college. So I will forgive him because when Dr Kaunda came to power, he had never been a councillor, he had never been an MP member of parliament, he was lucky he had an efficient British civil service.

You have to bear in mind that Rupiah Banda is the brother of Dr Kaunda's wife, so if he Dr Kaunda is doing his brother-in-law sunka mulamu (support your brother-in-law), if he can help him, he can do that but that is how Dr Kaunda is. I know him very well. There is nobody else in Zambia who knows Dr Kaunda well more than me.

Speaking before callers started phoning in, Sata warned that if anybody would steal his results to claim that another candidate had won, then the new government would not take off.
“The biggest problem we have is dishonesty in this country, where our colleague Electoral Commission of Zambia director Mr Dan Kalale he sends people to South Africa saying, 'come and witness the printing of ballot papers.'

They go there, they showed him already printed ballot papers,” Sata observed. “The registered voters in Zambia is 3, 912, 000, they print 4.5 million. But Dan Kalale has printed more ballot papers. And then according to their own records, out of 3, 912, 000 they have knocked out 400,000. How have they knocked out that 400,000? We want to know.”
Sata demanded that Kalale should explain why the ECZ had printed extra ballot papers when there were fewer voters.

“Secondly, can Dan Kalale explain, how did he arrive reducing the number of voters by 400,000 voters? We know that some voters might have died but even if we die like cockroaches in Zambia, can he show us that 400, 000 have died and can he show us constituency by constituency those who have died?” Sata demanded. “That is the record that is there and Dan Kalale cannot dispute that.”

He complained that his representative, PF secretary general Edward Mumbi, who had travelled with the ECZ commissioners, other political parties' representatives, civil society members and some journalists, to Durban to witness the printing of the ballot papers was surprised to discover that the ballot papers had been printed in their absence.

“Our witness who is an engineer who understands the trade very well, he was waiting to see when they punch the machine to start printing the ballot papers but they came to show them to say, 'yes we have printed these ballot papers'” Sata said. “They gave lots of money to everybody who went there to go for shopping but our secretary general was fed up, he left.”

Sata said Mumbi was even told that he could not travel back to Zambia because flights were full.

“They cheated him that, 'sorry you can't go all the planes are fully booked.' They didn't know that the man has over travelled before them,” Sata said. “Dan Kalale could not even answer the questions from his chairperson.

There was no printing of ballot papers, ballot papers had already been printed and they cheated that Vernon Mwaanga had gone to Johannesburg. Vernon Mwaanga did not go to Johannesburg, he has gone to Durban.”

Sata said that Kalale had marginalised ECZ chairperson justice Florence Mumba in the electoral process.

“Dan Kalale has taken over completely,” Sata observed. “Unless there is democracy, unless people can choose, unless people can speak, if people can speak the government is going to wake up but if you are going to steal the votes and claim somebody has won, government will not take off.”

Sata urged voters to vote out the MMD if they feel the ruling party had not delivered on its developmental promises.

“…if they haven't done very well, show them red card, not yellow card. Red card!” Sata said. “Once you do that, if you elect PF, the ministers who are going to work for PF they are going to be careful to say that, 'if I don't perform, they will give me a red card.' That is what happens everywhere where there is democracy.”

Sata told Zambians that this was their only chance since independence to give themselves dignity by voting for a right candidate. He said other presidential candidates were stinking with corruption.

“There is no corruption attached to me. I don't even smell corruption but some of those candidates with an exception of Gen Miyanda, they stink corruption and if you bring them in government they are going to privatise Zambia,” Sata said.

He also said the people in rural areas such as those in Northern and Luapula provinces where he recently went for campaigns, were suffering because of high prices of fuel, fertiliser and other essential goods.

“We met hundreds if not thousands of pensioners who have not received their pensions. We met retrenches who complained that what have we done to God Almighty that out of the whole Zambia only two pensioners, Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Frederick Chiluba, are being looked after by the government?” Sata said.

“In certain areas, you have double taxation like in fuel: you have ERB tax, VAT, exercise duty, customs duty and all these taxes passed to the people. And then you find that people in rural areas are much hit and you. The longer you go from Lusaka, the more expensive fuel is.”

Sata said it was his intention to improve Indeni Oil Refinery to ensure steady flow of fuel in the country, unlike the current situation where the refinery was constantly breaking down.

“Zambia has a very small population but with vast wealth; wealth in terms of man power, wealth in terms of natural resources, fertiliser, land, perennial water and I think that if the government was not greedy, if the government was not corrupt, this country would be much richer than any other African country.

It would have been very close to some European countries,” Sata said. “Zambia is very lucky; in each and every district there is agriculture potential.”

He said the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission had not benefited Zambians, hence there was a need to transfer it to commercial banks so that people from all parts of the country could access the funds.

Sata further said he had received overwhelming support where he had gone for campaigns in Northern and Luapula provinces.

He boasted that a lot of people attended his rallies in Mpika, Nakonde, Miyombe, Kasama and Kawambwa.

“We have broken enough ground. Of all the four political parties participating in the elections, we PF have been very consistent since 2001. We have toured the whole country,” he said.

Sata accused PF member of parliament for Kawambwa Central Elizabeth Chitika-Mulobeka of de-campaigning him in the area.

He further accused Chitika-Mulobeka and Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) national secretary Newton Ng'uni of using National Constitutional Conference (NCC) money and resources to campaign for Vice-President Banda.

Responding to a caller who complained about the high school fees at the newly-opened Mulungushi University in Kabwe, Sata said education should be subsidised to enable many Zambian attain tertiary education for them to contribute to national development.
“Education is a social responsibility of the government. If there is anything that has to be subsidised is education and health,” said Sata.

The presidential elections will be held on October 30, 2008 following the death of president Levy Mwanawasa on August 19 at Percy Military Hospital in France. President Mwanawasa suffered a stroke on June 29 in Egypt where he had gone to attend the African Union (AU) heads of state summit.

Labels: PF, RUPIAH BANDA, SATA

posted by MrK @ 3:52 AM