Maravi

Don’t allow Rupiah to get away with corruption, urges Sata

Don’t allow Rupiah to get away with corruption, urges Sata
Written by Patson Chilemba and Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Thursday, February 12, 2009 5:20:33 PM

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata yesterday asked Zambians not to allow President Rupiah Banda get away with corruption over the partial privatisation of ZAMTEL.

Commenting on President Banda's description as nonsense the argument that communications minister Dora Siliya was handling the privatisation of ZAMTEL illegally, Sata urged Zambians to vigilantly protect their national asset which selfish individuals wanted to take away from them.

“Rupiah must not be allowed, he doesn't own ZAMTEL. He doesn't own Zambia. Rupiah is our President but should not dictate to us. He is our President we have no doubt, the corrupt electoral system declared him so,” Sata said.

“We are even lucky people have discovered the anomalies in ZAMTEL much earlier. We know [former finance minister Ng'andu] Magande is our friend but he made a mistake. Somebody else might have influenced him but he made a mistake which he is regretting. One day he will say who made him make that blunder. People did not speak much about ZANACO [privatisation].”

Sata said people should speak out and not allow the country to be ruined like was the case when former president Frederick Chiluba misgoverned it.

“If he [President Banda] is sensitive he would not have reacted on the Dora Siliya issues. So people should continue talking. Kaunda was taught a lesson that when he thought he was immortal, he wasn't immortal,” he said.

Sata said President Banda had reacted harshly over the corruption surrounding the sale of ZAMTEL because he did not like to hear the truth. He said President Banda viewed those who spoke against corruption as being dull.

“Yes in his opinion it's nonsense, that's why I totally agree with him. That's why I told you the President is a great man. The President is very great, anybody who talks about corruption is talking nonsense, you understand. If you don't want to talk nonsense, endorse corruption,” Sata said.

He urged Siliya not to allow herself to be used in corruption. Sata said even those who thought they were protected by Chiluba were either languishing in prison or flocking to the courts of law over corruption charges.

Sata mockingly said he was grateful that President Banda had confirmed that he was behind the corruption involving ZAMTEL.

“I also want him to be honest by telling the nation why he left his wife in Nairobi and with bodyguards,” Sata said.

He said President Banda and those connected to him had been involved in many irregularities since he took office three months ago.

Sata further charged that President Banda was practising tribalism because he had not dismissed any minister from Eastern Province. He said the President had in fact increased the number of Easterners in government.

Meanwhile, Sata said there was need for the government to clear the air over contradictions between FRA and Grain Traders Association of Zambia over the 90,000 metric tonnes which the latter claims the government ignored and went ahead to import the commodity at a huge expense to the taxpayer.

“There is now a contradiction. The grain traders say they have the maize, FRA say they have no maize. Grain association represents the farmer who has maize. Now because comrade Rupiah Banda wanted to beat me to the game and first he wanted to turn the peasant farmers to vote for him, he unilaterally increased the floor price of maize from K45,000 to K55,000,” Sata said.

“The farmers through the grain association started marshalling all the maize and when the President went to Mfuwe, it was business as usual, maize dropped from heaven and the President said he was subsidizing the maize and people saw some cheap mealie-meal on the flow. That is the problem. The problem today is those people who have the 90,000 metric tonnes of maize which are on the market in Zambia want K55,000 per as promised by President during the October elections and if the government want to subsidise, that is their business.”

Sata also strongly opposed the government's intentions to change the country's policy on consumption of genetically modified maize.

“If they want to do the tricks, let them do so but don't bring us GMO food,” said Sata.

Labels: MAIZE, PRIVATISATION, RUPIAH BANDA, SATA, ZAMTEL

posted by MrK @ 5:20 PM