Maravi

Rupiah has invested heavily in corruption, charges Nyambe

Rupiah has invested heavily in corruption, charges Nyambe
Written by Fynold Mufwaafwi in Mongu
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 6:25:25 PM

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has invested heavily in corruption, United Party for National Development (UPND) chairperson for livestock and fisheries Captain Lawrence Nyambe has charged.

And Patriotic Front (PF) secretary general Wynter Kabimba said he is a proud leftist and admires leaders such leaders as former Cuban president Fidel Castro, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales, whose resolve is to listen to the people and address the interests of the common person.

Discussing the sustainability of the PF-UPND electoral pact during the newsmakers forum organised by the Press Freedom Committee of The Post at the Catholic hall in Mongu last Saturday, Capt Nyambe said President Banda had opted to use his farming and economic skills to cultivate corruption instead of growing the country’s economy.

“Just a few days ago, they introduced a motion in Parliament where they are saying the minister of finance will be given power to decide the salary structures of the Vice-President, Cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, members of parliament, judges and other constitutional office bearers just by issuing a statutory instrument. This is bribery at its best; it’s Rupiah Banda who pulls the strings,” Capt Nyambe said.

He said leaders of the ruling MMD were falling on each other over the adoption of President Banda as the party’s sole candidate for the 2011 general elections as a strategic move to continue raping government ministries for the purpose of financing their campaigns and securing their own pockets before they leave government.

“They are not fighting for Rupiah Banda because he is quality, because he will fight corruption, because he will bring development, but… to continue his corruption, to continue raping this country, to continue growing corruption. This is what they are up to,” he said.

He said the PF and UPND pact would not be stopped by the MMD, which he accused of sponsoring smaller opposition parties to contest the 2011 presidential elections to divide votes and spoil chances for the pact forming government.

“These are the same people who were carrying mineral water for Rupiah Banda on the plane in the 2008 elections. This time they are going to stand just to confuse you,” he said.

He paid tribute to The Post for its resolve and consistency in exposing corruption amid political victimisation of its staff.

We need to salute our gallant men and women at Post newspapers for what they are doing for this country. Without The Post, I don’t know where we would have been. This government would have a field day, stealing day and night… that is why the MMD leaders are having this diarrhoea,” Capt Nyambe said.

And Kabimba said President Banda had shown complete lack of interest in the suffering or feelings of the common Zambian.

He said it was sad that while President Banda was making appointments with impunity and without regard to the people’s feelings, a few selfish individuals were surprisingly congratulating him.

“If Rupiah knew that by re-appointing [education minister Dora] Siliya you people will be on the street, he wouldn’t have done it. But he is doing things with impunity,” Kabimba said. “He can’t be appointing … and say he has the right to appoint.”

Kabimba further said the pact was unstoppable not only as evidenced by the concern and misery it had generated among the leadership of the MMD, but also because it was a people-driven phenomenon.

“No doubt the pact is sustainable. If it were a shaky arrangement, MMD would not be spending sleepless nights commenting about it. This is the first time that everybody, including Mr Rupiah Banda, is saying ‘this pact is called Hakasata’. Everybody is worried about this pact because they it will work and because they know that this time around we are also wiser than we have been in the past,” Kabimba said.

He wondered why it should be MMD’s business whether or not the pact would work.

“If the pact is not going to work, why should that be a problem for MMD? Shouldn’t they be happy that it is not going to work? Why is it that it is the people who don’t belong to the pact that are worried about the pact and not us the owners of the pact?” Kabimba asked, attracting laughter and applause.

He said the leaders of the pact were aware and happy that the state had become increasingly miserable as they listened, through the intelligence system, to the regular telephone communication between UPND president Hakainde Hichilema and PF leader Michael Sata.

Kabimba said the strength of the pact lay in the realisation that the country had become polarised and fragmented and its bringing together the human capital needed to move the country forward.

He added that the pact was intended to bring unity to the country, emphasising that it was about neither of its two leaders.

Kabimba urged the people of Western Province to be on the lookout for “members” sponsored by the state to spread unfounded and unverified rumours about the pact.

“If they bring you money so that you sow seeds of destruction in the pact, take it because it is money stolen from you! So what is wrong if a thief brings back money stolen from you?” Kabimba wondered.

And responding to Ndulubila Kambumu from Radio Liseli, who sought to know the pact’s position over the PF rebel parliamentarians, Kabimba said the pact was stronger without them because “they are political prostitutes” who would not be genuine even if they joined the party in government.

He added that as far as the pact was concerned, it was working as a unity, and there was no such thing as in-between membership, warning that the PF and UPND would only accept prodigal members into the pact after confirmation that such members had made amends with their respective parties.

“If you insulted UPND and want to come into the pact through PF, forget. Kuti ‘abakanihana mwa PF or mwa UPND, nikakena fela mwa pact’ [that ‘if I am rejected by PF or UPND, I will simply join the pact]; there is nothing like that,” Kabimba said.

Meanwhile, UPND presidential campaign coordinator Sikwindi Situla charged that thieves in today’s government were being worshipped.

Situla told the gathering that the pact was committed to reversing the status quo created by President Banda’s government where thieves were being worshipped, further exciting the enthusiastic crowd by singing ‘Azayanka Sata, Azayanka Hakainde’, and inviting them to sing along.

Situla also said he was among the many members who were proud that the pact had been ‘named’ ‘Hakasata,’ observing that this only showed that the enemy had noticed the unity of purpose between the pact’s two leaders and among the members.

“The reason we formed the pact is the number one reason why it shall not fail, and we commend our leaders for listening to the people to work together,” he said.

Situla said the differences the MMD and its sympathisers were citing in the character of the UPND and PF were the bedrock of the sustainability of the pact.

“If your wife is talkative, and you too are talkative, will your marriage last?” Situla asked.

UPND member Likando Mufalali bemoaned the lack of protection and victimisation, by what he termed the cowards in MMD, of journalists trying to expose the suffering of poor Zambians.

“Because of the same cowards, bills like Freedom of Information (FOI) and Independent Broadcasting Act (IBA) will never come as long as MMD remain in power,” he said, adding: “That is why people trying to bring to the fore issues affecting our own people are being arrested and charged every day.”

Reacting to information minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha that the leaders of the UPND and PF pact were desperate, Mufalali further said Sata and Hichilema were justified to be desperate because of the suffering that the people of Zambia in general, and journalists in particular, had been subjected to.

Mufalali also asked the people of Zambia generally to work their way up and not aspire to political authority and representation on the platform of tribe.

Labels: LAWRENCE NYAMBE, PF-UPND, RUPIAH BANDA, UPND

posted by MrK @ 5:26 PM