Maravi

Rupiah is a liar - Fr Mwewa

Rupiah is a liar - Fr Mwewa
Written by Abigail Chaponda in Ndola
Sunday, April 05, 2009 7:57:05 PM

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda is a liar and has totally failed to manage the affairs of this country because of his lies, Catholic Diocese of Ndola treasurer general Fr Augustine Mwewa has charged.

And Fr Mwewa has said President Banda is the worst President Zambia has ever had because he lacks vision on how to rule the country.

In an interview yesterday, Fr Mwewa said he was not afraid to tell President Banda that he was a lair and taking Zambians for a ride.

He said he was ready to go to court for telling the truth about President Banda's failures.

"President Banda is a liar. I am not speaking from without. Look at the lies that he has levelled against Zambian Airways and The Post Newspapers editor Fred M'membe. We can clearly see that President Banda and his government has a grudge against M'membe and The Post because they criticise him and are not afraid of them," Fr Mwewa said. "We are not going to tolerate President Banda and his government intimidating us. I am not going to keep quiet about the current MMD government and their failures; they are taking us for a ride."

Fr Mwewa said all the lies that President Banda had told about The Post and Zambian Airways were slowly manifesting and that he [President Banda] would soon be ashamed.

"When campaigning President Banda said he was going to rule Zambia for three years only so that he can continue with the legacy of the late president [Levy] Mwanawasa but from the look of things, he wants to stand in 2011. This shows that he lied to the Zambian people," he said. "I think there is no point of voting in 2011 because President Banda and his government are going to use state machinery to rig the elections."

He wondered why Zambians had allowed President Banda to feed them with lies when it was evident that he had failed to run the country.

"I am wondering why we have continued to be governed by a lair. I am ready to go to court for telling the President the truth. I am non-partisan and he is not going to fire or suspend me from MMD for telling him the truth," he said.

Fr Mwewa said President Banda had a duty to rule the country as opposed to fighting and attacking institutions like The Post and individuals such as M'membe who were criticising him positively.

"We refuse the one party state that President Banda is trying to bring back. Wisdom is not the monopoly of the MMD government. This is not UNIP, UNIP politics are gone, we should cultivate and nurture democracy," he said.

And Fr Mwewa revealed that people from the Office of the President (OP) were trailing him and were questioning members of his parish on his activities.

"The MMD government is panicking, that's why they are sending people from OP to spy on me. They are also scared of [Radio Icengelo station manager] Fr Frank Bwalya because he is a threat to them, they can't allow him to have a press conference," he said. "People of Zambia, should anything happen to me, the government has sent people from OP on me. They have been asking people about me, what I am doing and if I am selling Fr Bwalya's t-shirts. But this is a sign of a panicking, scared and failing government."

Fr Mwewa challenged President Banda to change the way he was ruling the country because he was headed for a disastrous end.

Labels: AUGUSTINE MWEWA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 6:57 PM