Justify your voting for pay rise, Sata challenges PF MPs

Justify your voting for pay rise, Sata challenges PF MPs
Written by Chibaula Silwamba
Monday, November 24, 2008 10:11:18 AM

OPPOSITION Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata yesterday challenged his members of parliament who voted for their salary increments to justify to the nation if they are worth higher perks.

And UPND president Hakainde Hichilema has charged that President Rupiah Banda has no courage to veto Bills seeking to increase salaries and allowances for constitutional office holders.

Meanwhile, Hichilema said the fluctuation of the kwacha against major currencies and the increase in interest rates are indications of lack of confidence in the leadership of President Banda.

Reacting to chief government spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha's challenge to him that he should not condemn the salary and allowance increment because even PF members of parliament voted "Yes" in support of the bills in Parliament, Sata challenged his members of Shikapwasha's challenge to him that he should not condemn the salary and allowance increment because even PF members of parliament voted in favour of the bills in Parliament, Sata challenged his members of parliament to show what they had done in their constituencies to deserve a salary increment.

"Whether my members of parliament or not, whether they voted or did not vote, that bill had already gone through as you know that bill is not debated in the House. If you look at our members of parliament, if you count names that are there...why hasn't Shikapwasha produced the full list? Why is he only producing PF members?" Sata asked.

"And even PF members who voted for the bill, they must justify to the nation; are they worth salary increments? What have they done in their constituencies to deserve salary increments? What sacrifice have they done to deserve salary increments? That is what I am saying, regardless of whoever voted for and you cannot only talk about PF MPs. The whole point is that PF did not take that bill back to the House, PF did not lie to the people that they have withdrawn the bill. It was [President] Rupiah Banda and Shikapwasha."

He maintained that he was opposed to the salary increment.

"Even if he [Lt Gen Shikapwasha] named PF members of parliament, if you look at that Parliament as it is today, MMD has 84 members of parliament, when you add UPND 22, that comes to 106, when you add 18 of our 'rebels', they come to 124 and that vote you had there was only 119," Sata said.

He said Zambians were the ones who should have decided that members of parliament and other constitutional office holders deserved an upward adjustment of their salaries and not the parliamentarians, who are employees, to decide for themselves.

"Are we going to pay them for killing the kwacha? Are we going to pay them for bringing expensive mealie-meal? Are we going to pay them for bringing expensive fuel? Are we going to pay them for a stagnant economy where we don't know where we are going? Is that what they are saying they deserve salary increment? And I am talking about all our representatives in the House, regardless [of their political parties]," Sata said.

"You remember that those bills were a subject of the elections. We condemned them during the elections and when we condemned Rupiah Banda who cheated the people of Zambia that 'I am withdrawing the bills, I am not going to sign them.'"

Sata also advised Lt Gen Shikapwasha, who is also information and broadcasting services minister, not to demean teachers and other civil servants who get lower salaries.

"Shikapwasha is reported in your newspaper challenging the teacher that a teacher is not a president, a teacher is not a minister. Without a teacher, how would [Community development minister] Michael Kaingu, Shikapwasha and [MMD spokesperson Benny] Tetamashimba be?" Sata asked.

"They should not compare themselves with a teacher. There is nothing Shikapwasha can say that a minister cannot be compared to a teacher. I know useless ministers. Shikapwasha has been minister of home affairs, what has he done at Ministry of Home Affairs? We have had some very good teacher-politicians; John Mwanakatwe, Kenneth Kaunda, Kebby Musokotwane who cannot be compared to Shikapwasha and Kaingu. The list is endless of teachers who made good politicians."

He challenged Lt Gen Shikapwasha to resign if he felt that his salary was low.

"If Shikapwasha thinks he is underpaid, why doesn't he resign and go and get a job, after all he is a pilot. He can go and get a job in Dubai and get more money than what we are paying him in government," he said.

Sata claimed that the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) delegates also wanted to increase their allowances.

Commenting on government plans to import 100,000 metric tonnes of maize to cushion the shortage of the staple food in the country, Sata recalled that when he complained about the exportation of maize earlier this year before the country took stock of the local requirements, he was condemned but now he has been vindicated.

"You remember that time one minister said I was politicking when I told you that they have not taken stock of the maize we require for the whole year. I said it is silly for them to export maize now, you remember? But the same people justified, saying we have plenty of maize. Now nobody is telling us how much we are going to spend on importation of maize," said Sata.

"Now our kwacha has depreciated badly but somebody says he has authorised the importation of 100,000 metric tonnes. So you are using a cheaper kwacha to buy expensive maize, and when the maize lands here plus transportation and other costs, how much is the bag of mealie-meal going to be? Are we sure they are not importing maize from their friends just like the people who are buying fertiliser?"

And Hichilema said President Banda, as the chair of Cabinet meeting, allowed the increment of salaries and allowances, therefore, he would not refuse to sign the bills when they are presented to him for assent.

"Those are government Bills. They don't go to Parliament before Cabinet approves them. Who is the chairman of Cabinet? It's Rupiah Banda. Now people are calling for him not to sign the bills but it's him who allowed the bills to go to Parliament because those bills start with a Cabinet memo and Rupiah Banda is a chairman of Cabinet," Hichilema said. "Rupiah Banda has no capacity, courage and decisiveness to do what late Levy Mwanawasa could have done not to sign the bills.

Hichilema said the increment of salaries and allowances and escalating mealie meal prices were just a tip of the iceberg of the sufferings Zambians would undergo during President Banda's rule.

"I am not surprised that this has happened because we told the people of Zambia that the referral of those Bills to Parliament was to hoodwink the people of Zambia to vote for him, to make them think that he is a compassionate man when he is not, when the MMD government is not," Hichilema said. "Now that he has been elected, he has ignored the pressure and that is not the only thing you are going to see. During the campaigns he said fertiliser had been reduced to K50,000 per kg but that was political cheating. He said 'mealie-meal prices are going to reduce.' But what are the prices of mealie-meal now? Sometimes K75,000 per 25 kg bag of mealie-meal."

He said Zambians were now seeing with their naked eyes what he and UPND had warned them about.

"Zambians don't have a government that cares for them. The MMD government and the President himself has no interest of the suffering Zambian," he said. "What you have seen is just a tip of the iceberg. These salary increments, even if they claim they have revised downwards, if you compare them to what other public servants get - relevant comparison - look at teachers' salaries, it's about K800,000 to about K1 million, look at the nurses' salaries. An agriculture extension officer's salary, there is no comparison."

He said politics must not be treated as a source of income but meant to serve the people.

"So why should we get those who are supposed to be providing service to want to equal their pay to that of the governor of the central bank. Are you telling me that these MMD ministers have qualifications to operate as governor of the central bank? They don't have, they are actually confusing the comparative analysis," Hichilema said. "Yes they need to be remunerated adequately, there is no question about that but why would a nominated member of parliament still get a constituency allowance? Which constituency?"

He said it was nonsense for nominated parliamentarians to receive constituency allowances.

"Constituency allowance is to pay a member of parliament who has a constituency to be able to assist them in serving their constituency and a nominated member of parliament gets a constituency allowance," he said. "I think that is nonsense. Nonsense because it doesn't make sense because the definition for which the allowance is given does not apply. So it is nonsense. That money is supposed to go to nurses, teachers, police officer, military personnel and others who are paid lowly. We must reallocate that money to needy areas."

He urged Zambians to connect their unacceptable living conditions to the process of electing their leaders.

"I hear many people now saying, 'tinapanga mistake. (We made a mistake). But the question is how many times will the people of Zambia make a mistake?" asked Hichilema. "Now that the people of Zambia have made a mistake to elect him, though in a contested way, he has a passport to make them suffer, they have not seen enough, they have just seen the tip of the iceberg; you will see how much more suffering the people of Zambia will experience."

However, Hichilema defended UPND parliamentarians who voted in favour of the bills to increase their salaries and allowance.

"That is not an issue. A member of parliament is not supposed to debate their own bills, that is a parliamentary procedure and Shikapwasha wants to hoodwink the people of Zambia and throw blame on opposition parliamentarians," Hichilema argued.

Meanwhile, Hichilema said the frequent fluctuation of the kwacha was a sign of lack of confidence in the leadership of President Banda and his new Cabinet.

The kwacha is trading at about K 4,600 against US$1.