Rupiah’s leadership is failing – muteteka

Rupiah’s leadership is failing – muteteka
Written by Katwishi Bwalya and Lambwe Kachali
Monday, December 15, 2008 5:16:37 AM

President Rupiah Banda’s admission that Zambia is facing problems is a sign of failure of his leadership, Chisamba MMD member of parliament Moses Muteteka observed yesterday. And MMD 2011 presidential aspirant Professor Clive Chirwa said Zambians are losing faith in the government over the high mealie-meal prices.

In an interview, Muteteka said leaders were there to create hope, confidence and trust to citizens.

Commenting on President Banda’s statement on Saturday that no president in Zambia has faced problems like him and that the country was facing a lot of problems, Muteteka said President Banda should not start crying before the people do that.

“They should give us hope and should not be the ones crying before the people start crying. What will happening if the people start crying?” Muteteka asked.

“There will be disaster. So they should not indicate elements of failure, they must be seen fighting for that cause which put them there. I want to speak independently; leaders are there to create hope, confidence and trust to the minds of citizens. Zambians are looking up to the leaders for solutions. What solutions is government putting in place? I want to state that the government must be above any activity going on now in the country, they must be advanced and plan ahead and find solutions”

Muteteka said Zambians were waiting for solutions from the government to the country’s problems.

“Everyone was a leader in his own capacity because he told the people that he was going to create hope, and that he was going to provide solutions. So we are looking forward to that,” Muteteka said.

Muteteka challenged President Banda and his Cabinet to prove themselves instead of crying that they were facing difficulties.

“When Mwanawasa got into power, Anglo-American pulled out of the country. There was an issue of HIPC completion point, hunger, GMO but he [Mwanawasa] worked so hard to bring life out of that kind of disaster,” Muteteka said. “These mines they are talking about were closed. Ramcoz, you can name them. But he re-opened them and created more mines. He did not cry but he worked hard. So if someone says we have so many problems, which problems are they talking about compared to the problems that Mwanawasa found?” Muteteka asked.

“There was plunder and people have forgotten. So I am appealing to those who are privileged to advise the President; let them be sincere and let them research and let them tell the President the correct thing at the correct time. Otherwise, we risk going into a disaster as a country.”

Muteteka said President Banda should be the last person to cry about Zambia’s problems because he was expected to provide solutions.

“I have been in government and I saw HIPC being tackled in my presence. There was no food, Anglo-American pulled out in my presence, so he [President Banda] must realise that he was the vice-president and he should know these things and not think like he has been dropped from somewhere and formed his Cabinet. He must realise that he had been the vice-president for the last two years,” Muteteka said.

Muteteka also said President Banda had misplaced people in his Cabinet.

“I want to urge him to minimise the issue misplacing people in his Cabinet. People have been misplaced and people are panicking. He should not be paying attention to reshuffles but critical issues affecting the country. Do you think Chituwo belongs to agriculture or belongs to health? This is just one example. Do you think Simbao belongs there? He was doing very well at the Ministry of Works and Supply. So let’s be sober and moderate because people are expecting a lot from us,” said Muteteka.

He said he had the right to talk because he had worked with the late president Levy Mwanawasa.

And Prof Chirwa said Zambians were losing faith in the government over the high prices of mealie-meal.

In an interview in Lusaka on Saturday, Prof Chirwa urged President Banda to quickly resolve the issue of high mealie- meal prices if he was to restore the confidence citizens had in government. He said during election campaigns, Zambians were promised that the prices of mealie-meal and fertiliser would remain stable or reduce but that they now felt cheated because the prices had doubled.

“People are right in saying they have been cheated. If you have made a promise, you actually keep that promise. Now the promises which the government made prior to the election, I believe it is paramount that the promises are kept, and immediately after the election you start putting into action,” Prof Chirwa said.

“The solution for the government is to come on board and see what exactly we have in our coffers. They should take the prices from K65, 000 or more [per 25 kg bag of mealie-meal] to the price two months ago which was about K42, 000 to K45, 000. Doing that will actually put faith back in the eyes of Zambians. At the moment, Zambians are losing faith in the government. And government should have been putting strategies to actually maintain the prices at a constant level, whereby ordinary people could be able to plan into the family budget. If you look at the overall picture, I cannot understand why mealie-meal is going up because we produce maize in Zambia.”

Prof Chirwa said although Zambia would be affected due to the global financial crisis, the government should have taken mitigating measures early this year.

“As we enter the new year, I personally believe that people working on the budget must put in place a realistic budget. I have heard a number of people who have been prophesying that the economic crisis happening in the world will never touch us; that’s nonsense, because what will happen is that anything which is happening overseas we will be affected and we must be truthful and tell the Zambian people,” Prof Chirwa said. “This is the only way we prepare them for this particular crisis. If we don’t tell them the truth, when it comes, we will be thrown out of office.”

And Prof Chirwa said although there were speculations that some MMD National Executive Committee members (NEC) were planning to sideline potential presidential contenders, such a move would be a disservice to the party. He said he was on top of the agenda and more than prepared to be the next MMD and Republican president.

He said as far as he was concerned, he was the only charismatic person ready for the MMD presidency. Prof Chirwa warned that should MMD choose someone else, it would lose power to the opposition in 2011.

“I am extremely prepared. I am on top of the game; I am on top of each and everyone in MMD. I can tell you, if they don’t choose me [as presidential candidate for 2011], then they will lose the elections. It is as simple as that,” Prof Chirwa warned. “Speaking to a number of people in NEC, I am on top of the agenda. So those who are trying to sideline me in MMD, they are terribly mistaken.”

Prof Chirwa said currently MMD was not ticking. He promised to restructure it once elected as party president at the forthcoming convention.

“I want to restructure the whole MMD party to make sure that the party is there for the people and not a few individuals who want to instigate to run the country without knowledge,” he said. “They are just sitting there and prophesying ideas without even understanding how the government should be run in terms of development so that everybody moves away from poverty and have a decent life.”

Prof Chirwa said it was sad that members at grassroots level were being forgotten by the top leadership immediately after an election, a situation he described as unacceptable. He said he would propose to NEC that the vice-president be elected alongside with the president at the convention.

“In its current form, the party is not working. You have seen how many people have been moving from party to party. They are just coming because they want to get a position, favours and fulfil other hidden political agendas in government. That is completely immature. We must bring maturity to this party. All NEC positions must be scrutinised to the point and see to it that they are functioning accordingly. And at the moment there is no sinergy, that sinergy is missing. I have spoken to a lot of people on the ground and they say they are forgotten; they are only remembered when somebody want ssomething from them, and that is the vote. That is unacceptable,” Prof Chirwa said. “I will make sure that all the people are respected from the bottom through the top. At the moment, people at the top have got a lot of powers and you go down, they have nothing. The other thing I will make sure is that the convention elects the vice-president of the party rather than having a president who comes in and then chooses the vice-president; perhaps who comes from nowhere without even understanding the issues of Zambians and takes over as president. That is unacceptable in modern society.”

Asked what he would do if President Banda resolved to contest the presidency, Prof Chirwa said the year 2011 would be a different ball game.

“2011 is a completely different ball game which I actually started planning for about six to seven years ago,” he said. “The last elections which we had because of the bereavement [for late president Mwanawasa], we just chose a candidate to be there for only three years, not more than that. So in 2011, we need people who are action makers. People who can bring real change, and perhaps in MMD I can see that I am the only one who can do that. I am the only one who can do it, not only talking, but I know exactly how this country can develop. I know exactly how I will move this country forward and indeed the party,” he said..

Prof Chirwa observed that no one in MMD had the charisma, passion, vigour and political acumen to drive the country’s economy.

“But if there is somebody who is good, who is going to drive this country as much as with the charisma which I have, with the passion which I have in terms of making a good country for everybody to live in, then I will see that that person must be taken forward. But this has to be democratically done,” said Prof Chirwa.