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Only PF-UPND pact would offer Zambians relief, says Lubinda

Only PF-UPND pact would offer Zambians relief, says Lubinda
Written by Staff Reporter
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 6:43:56 PM

KABWATA PF member of parliament Given Lubinda has charged that Zambia has a government under President Rupiah Banda that does not know how to govern.
And Mapatizya UPND member of parliament Ackson Sejani has said Zambians cannot continue to be ruled by a corrupt government.

Featuring at the newsmakers forum organised by the Press Freedom Committee of The Post to discuss the sustainability of the PF and UPND pact at Misuku Lodge, in Kabwe last Saturday Lubinda said the MMD government under President Banda had lost direction and only the pact would offer Zambians relief.

"Time is now for the MMD to leave and they are ready to do so because of the many scandals that they have committed under the helm of President Banda. The PF-UPND pact is the only hope for Zambia; Zambians asked for it and we have yielded to their pleas and as such I shall not fall like prophets of doom under [local government minister Benny] Tetamashimba are praying," Lubinda said.

He said the PF and UPND pact was not all about Michael Sata and Hakainde Hichilema but that the two leaders were answering to the clarion call the Zambian people had been making over the years for the two powerful opposition parties to merge to offer a formidable force against the MMD which had lost vision and ideas to govern the country.

He said the pact would remain sustainable because it was not driven by any individual or a small group of people but the Zambian people.

"What God has put together no man puts asunder; the pact is a God calling one because the Zambian people have suffered enough under the hands of the uncaring MMD government. Teta would like to dream and wish the pact ill but such shall not yield anything," Lubinda said.

He said the pact was not centred on merely removing the corrupt regime of President Banda but that it wanted to create a better Zambia where citizens lived better and had all social amenities.

"We have started the pact long way before the 2011 elections because we want to provide checks and balances to Rupiah, our desire is not to just grab power but ensure that the living standards of the Zambian people are better; we shall offer this oversight role now and better when we form the government in 2011," Lubinda said to the applause of Kabwe residents that jammed the venue where the forum took place from.

He said the pact had an agenda to deliver Zambians to glory. Lubinda said it was wrong to state that pacts had failed in the past as history was clear about the UNIP-ANC pact which brought about Zambia's independence and many other alliances too.

"In 1991, we saw the alliance of trade unions, the Law Association of Zambia, the church and many other organizations coming together to form the MMD which brought about multipatism, in 1972 we had the Chona declaration which was another successful pact and so was the UDA in 2006 whose objective was achieved," Lubinda said.

He said even in the 2008 elections there was a pact involving FDD president Edith Nawakwi and her counterpart for ULP Sakwiba Sikota who ganged up with President Banda.

"In 2008 Sakwiba reduced himself to being a servant to serving President Banda and even abated crime for jumping on choppers he did deserve to jump on to be serving Rupiah water, Nawakwi, Ben Mwila, Tilyenji Kaunda and Ken Ngondo also joined the pact and it never failed, so who are these prophets of doom saying our alliance shall fall," he asked.

Lubinda said the pact was aimed at providing a superior government, especially that it had experienced politicians at the helm.

He said it was nonsense to suggest that the two political parties stood on different ideologies as both leaders spoke with one voice on the many issues that continued to beset the nation and the people.

"The pact shall work because we have no alternative left; we wont break but we shall succeed because of the quality of leaders that we have from the two parties. The pact brings together diversity of skills and talent. Sata has got vast government and political experience while HH has a fresh breath and wide experience in the world of business as an economic manager," Lubinda said.

Lubinda said the many failures of the MMD government under President Banda provided a fertile ground for the pact to succeed in redeeming the Zambian people from the yoke of poverty, unemployment, despair and squalor. And co-speaker at the forum Sejani said the MMD had delivered vultures through its more than ten years of misrule.

"The movement which started prominently is today lying with no vision, no ideas, no skills to run Zambia; only the PF-UPND pact offers hope for the Zambian people. All we are seeing today in the MMD is competition and scramble to see who gets so much from the national treasury. The short eight months that Rupiah has been in government, eight stinking corrupt deals have been unearthed which is a scandal," Sejani said.

He said the deals among them were the letter MMD deputy national secretary Jeff Kande wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs asking for payments for MMD suppliers who never even delivered any goods as well as the importation of genetically modified maize.

"We saw the scandal of Selex single sourcing to repair a radar at the Lusaka International airport, the RP deal involving Dora Siliya, the K24 billion unretired imprest of ministers and their deputies as well as the hearse deals, mobile hospital one and the K27 billion scam at the Ministry of Health, all these are valid reasons to impeach Rupiah Banda," Sejani said.

He said the pact had two years to perfect and blend itself into a formidable force that should be ready to run the affairs of Zambia in a diligent manner.

"The PF and UPND have been in opposition for so many years and as such they have garnered the required experience to run a superior government whose progress shall be centred on the Zambian citizens; you asked for this pact and we have given it to you the Zambian people and as such you have to make it work no matter what," Sejani said.

He said there was no reason for the Zambian people to continue to be ruled by a corrupt government that even failed to provide for their needs adequately.

Sejani said the MMD were dead scared of the pact and had now resorted to sponsoring small political parties and threatening tactics to dismantle the alliance but that such efforts would not yield any positive results.

Siavonga UPND member of parliament Douglas Siyakalima and his Lubansenshi PF counterpart Lazarus Chota said the pact was formed in affirmation to the clarion calls of the Zambian people.

Syakalima said: "The pact has become a self propelled grenade and has come about because of the clarion call from the Zambian people who in the last 20 years have continued to suffer at the hands of the MMD."

Syakalima said there was need to change the governance system of Zambia.

He said the government destroyed the education, agriculture and many other economic sectors and time for it to leave was now.

Syakalima said the PF and UPND had realised the need to remove the government through the pact so that it could replace what he termed as the rotten governance system of the MMD with a superior one.

Chota said: "No one whether Nyama Soya or Teta will stop the pact which is here to stay. MMD kuya bebele, even in Parliament they are scared and now they want to resort to fighting us because we are a think tank in the House."

Chota said the MMD would clock 20 years in 2011 and yet it had nothing to show in as far as development was concerned.

Other parliamentarians who attended the forum - Nkana PF parliamentarian Mwenya Musenge, Chingola PF parliamentarian Dr Joseph Katema and Kanchibiya PF Davies Mwango also attended the forum and appealed to the people to sustain the pact as it was their creation.

Labels: ACKSON SEJANI, GIVEN LUBINDA, PF-UPND, PFC

posted by MrK @ 5:44 PM