Sata calls for Rupiah’s resignation

Sata calls for Rupiah’s resignation
Written by Mwala Kalaluka
Monday, May 25, 2009 3:48:27 PM

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) leader Michael Sata has called for President Rupiah Banda’s immediate resignation following the withdrawal of financial support by some donors over corruption in the government. And Sata vowed that he will not give up his fight for the Republican presidency.

Meanwhile, a Zambian clergyman from Orlando, Florida, Bishop Edward Chomba has said Zambians are tired and sick of policies that imprison them. Addressing a rally at Muchinga Grounds in Lusaka’s Matero Constituency, Sata said President Banda could not go for another three years at the rate he was going.

“Rupiah Banda must resign. Rupiah Banda can’t go on for another three years, because the way we have started, that is the way Zimbabwe started,” Sata said amidst applause.

“Yesterday Sweden said they will not support Zambia. Today the Dutch say they are not supporting Zambia. Who is not going to support Zambia tomorrow? If the donor countries say they are not going to support us, we are doomed.”

Sata said President Banda’s leadership mettle could not be compared to that of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who had survived several years of Western-orchestrated sanctions.

“Here Rupiah cannot even survive one hour,” he said. “Rupiah thinks immediately, they do not think for tomorrow.”

Sata challenged President Banda to explain the variations in the pricing of the hearses procured by the government from China’s Beijing Auto Works (BAW).

“I want Rupiah Banda to tell us in whose pocket US$20,000 has gone, because the cost of those manda mandas is US$9,000 but Rupiah tells us that it is US$29,000,” Sata said.

On the violence being fanned by MMD cadres with the support of people like chief government spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha, Sata urged his supporters not to fight back because the police were operating in very difficult conditions.

“I would like to warn Rupiah, he does not own Zambia,” he said. “If MMD is going to beat any more Post reporter the way they beat my Kampengele, Rupiah should think twice.”

And Sata said the people that were trying to divert and discourage the Zambian people were PF ‘rebel’ parliamentarians who had been going round asserting that he could not stand for the presidency because he did not have a degree.

“I have come here to say thank you very much for the support that you have given us,” he said. “I am not going to stop. I am not going to be tired. If I have not given up why should you give up?”

Sata said the MMD talk of degrees was meant to divert the attention of the people from their course of action.

“Iya buluma tailya umuntu [a barking dog rarely bites]. If they were sensible they should have kept the degree secret,” he said.

Sata said he would in the next two weeks unveil a restructured PF leadership, which he said was being undertaken within the party’s re-organisation framework.

Sata, who pledged to root-out the indiscipline at Lusaka City Council, also told the people of Matero that he would give them Chimwemwe member of parliament Willie Nsanda, to be their surrogate representative in Parliament.

Sata said people of Matero could not be abandoned despite their current member of parliament, his niece, Faustina Sinyangwe’s failure to resist allowances at the National Constitutional Conference (NCC).

Meanwhile, Oasis Ministries International Christ Church Cathedral Bishop Chomba said time had come for Zambians to say enough was enough over what was transpiring in the current administration.

“We declare the MMD government redundant in the name of Jesus,” Bishop Chomba prayed. “Lord we have come here to complain…please God we ask of you to hear us today. We are tired, we are sick of these policies and politics that imprison us.”

Bishop Chomba prayed that there should be no peace to any leader whose actions imprisoned the masses.

“Enough is enough and today I also declare like the way Moses declared and I speak to the MMD government, let my people go,” he prayed.

Bishop Chomba said President Banda had nothing to show even for the period he served in the foreign service.

He also wondered why people like Chief Whip Vernon Mwaanga had continued to be in Parliament when their contemporaries like former US president George Bush Sr had long retired.

Former MMD Lusaka Province chairman Geoffrey Chuumbwe said the MMD should not think that they were senseless children.

Chuumbwe said he was disappointed that there were a lot of wrong things happening within the MMD government.

Chuumbwe said he and others who left the MMD prior to last year’s presidential election had warned the electorate of what type of people President Banda and his cohorts were.

“MMD has declared war on you Zambians and you keep quiet. Why are you quiet?” Chuumbwe asked. “MMD if they want a candidate who has a degree let them go by their constitution.”

Former FDD Kapoche member of parliament Charles Banda accused some opposition leaders, who supported President Banda during the last election of being selfish individuals.

Former Lusaka district MMD chairperson Paul Moonga asked President Banda to explain why he was always in the company of former transport and communications minister Dora Siliya.

During the rally, PF cadres roughed-up a young man who was spotted carrying a banner written: “We want a convention.”

PF security personnel saved the man from further harassment and some cadres said he was sent by some ‘rebel’ PF parliamentarians to disrupt the rally.