Maravi

Banda must apologise for distorting FSP – Sata

Banda must apologise for distorting FSP – Sata
Written by Chibaula Silwamba
Saturday, March 28, 2009 5:44:56 AM

OPPOSITION Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata yesterday demanded that President Rupiah Banda must apologise for having distorted the Fertiliser Support Programme (FSP) as a campaign tactic last year, which led to misapplication and abuse of farming inputs. And Sata challenged President Banda to produce Deputy Chief Justice Irene Mambilima's ruling which he claimed indicates that he [Sata] lied to the Supreme Court in his electoral petition.

Reacting to President Banda's statement that his government was unhappy with the management of the FSP because of poor supervision that led to misapplication of farming inputs, Sata said President Banda should be honest enough and apologise that he caused the disturbance in the FSP programme when he announced at a campaign rally that the price of fertiliser had been reduced to K50,000 per bag and allowed civil servants to buy subsidised fertiliser under the FSP.

"You remember during the campaigns or prior to the campaigns when he changed the rules himself to say that 'now fertiliser will be

K50,000.' And he said civil servants, whether they have farms or no farms, they are entitled to fertiliser. He made those directives; the people he is blaming were supposed to adjust," Sata said.

He said since the FSP started, it had been going on very well but President Banda had messed up the programme because of his selfishness to win the presidential election last year.

"We had not heard any complaints. Why is it that people are complaining now? It's Rupiah Banda with his corruption ..." Sata said. "He used that same fertiliser, when he went kwa Gawa Undi's Kulamba, he donated 2,000 bags of fertiliser. We don't know how many more he donated to other chiefs in Eastern Province. That was why chiefs were writing letters ordering their village headmen that go and vote for Rupiah."

He said President Banda had no moral right to blame junior officers who were supervising the FSP.

"So how can he today have the morality of blaming the people who were supervising when he the acting President and in-coming President, instead of supporting the people who were supervising that programme, he is the one who came to disturb them. He should be part of the people to be blamed," Sata said. "He should be honest enough to admit that, 'sorry, I disturbed the programme because of my selfishness.'"

He said President Banda could not dispute his observations because the announcements of the head of state were well-documented.

"Rupiah says I lie but I don't lie, this issue was documented by ZNBC, Times of Zambia, Daily Mail, The Post, Radio Breeze, Radio Chikaya, Radio Maria and others. They reported the orders of President Banda that fertiliser will be K50,000 and civil servants, whether they have farms or no farms, should access that fetiliser," Sata said. "As leaders, we should be serious to say words which we will not retract tomorrow and as leaders, we should make decisions to support the junior officers who are working under very difficult conditions. We cannot push the blame and make supervisors unpopular."

He also challenged President Banda to explain the K15 billion alleged to have been paid to a businessman to supply fertiliser.

"A businessman was given K15 billion to bring fertiliser, can Rupiah Banda confirm that the fertilizer came?" Sata said.

On Wednesday, during his meeting with farmers in Mkushi, President Banda admitted that fertiliser under FSP had been misapplied and distributed late.

During a campaign rally in Nyimba, in Eastern Province before the October 30, 2008 presidential election, President Banda said: "You will buy fertiliser at K50,000 from the K200,000 which it would have cost you if we did not subsidise."

President Banda further said he had received a report that defence force personnel and other civil servants were excluded from buying subsidised fertiliser because they were salaried employees.

"...Because I am head of state of this country, hear me! From today onwards, all soldiers, all policemen, all civil servants, people who have salaries are entitled to this [subsidised fertiliser] if they can prove that they are bona fide farmers."

And Sata said President Banda should stop lying that he [Sata] lost his petition because he lied to the Supreme Court.

"Rupiah wants to lie to the nation that Sata is lying. I want him to produce the ruling from Mambilima which said I lied; lied on what? They did not count the votes, so what did I lie on? They would have only caught my lies if they would have counted but they refused to count," Sata said.

And Sata wondered why President Banda had not informed the nation whether the investor, he had instructed finance and national planning minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane to meet in London over Luanshya Copper Mine (LCM), had come to take over the operations of the closed mine.

"When Rupiah got intelligence report on the problems of Luanshya Copper Mines, he rushed there and when he came back from there, he instructed his finance minister to go to London to bring Rupiah's friend but up today, Rupiah Banda has not come back to tell us that his friend has come," Sata said. "When [the late president Levy] Mwanawasa brought the citizens empowerment, he amended the minerals and mines Act. Today because Rupiah Banda has friends in Nigeria, he has brought the same thing that is part of his legacy and continuity, he is amending that Act to say that land must go to everybody; land must go to foreigners instead of Zambians."

He said Zambians should not allow President Banda to be giving land to foreigners when Zambians did not have land.

"While people in Zimbabwe have been suffering to protect their land, here we have a Jonnie Walker President who has now come to surrender land to foreigners," said Sata. "By the end of his term of office, there will be nothing left for Zambians, and we have to be very careful because he might have even auction State House and the state helicopter."

Labels: FSP, SATA

posted by MrK @ 5:45 AM