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GBM is ‘a big sack of mealie-meal’ – Rupiah

GBM is ‘a big sack of mealie-meal’ – Rupiah
Written by Chibaula Silwamba in Kasama
Monday, October 12, 2009 7:49:43 AM

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has likened Kasama Central PF parliamentary candidate Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba to “a big sack of mealie-meal”, in reference to the candidate’s body. And President Banda said the Kasama Central electorate must reject Mwamba because he is a tribalist.

Meanwhile, President Banda said he has not arrested, threatened or killed anybody and Kasama residents must not believe the propaganda that he was arresting people in Lusaka.

Addressing a campaign rally on Saturday at the defunct Kateshi Coffee Company to drum up support for MMD candidate, Burton Mugala, in Thursday’s by-elections, President Banda said Mwamba was a reject in Lusaka and people in Kasama must reject his tribalism.

“Does it make sense to you or us or anybody that somebody who is living in Lusaka can come here and tell you that ‘oh Burton Mugala is not from here, he is from Nakonde’ but himself is not based here. Chiwilekela ku nkhala ku Kasama nichinji? Why didn’t you live in Kasama like him [Mugala]? So you must reject that kind of thinking. I am the President of this country; every Zambian is free to live, to marry, to associate with any other person in any place in Zambia,” President Banda said. “So we cannot have leaders in this day and age coming to stand in front of us Zambians whose parents fought for the independence of this country, who shed their blood in order to get rid of colonialism which was a cause of divisions of the people of this country. We cannot accept a leadership that condones tribalism.”

President Banda was referring to Mwamba’s remarks against Mugala, saying the latter must not be elected as member of parliament in Kasama which is Bembaland because he was Namwanga and not from here.

“In 2006, Mr Mwamba – the same person that claims that he is a Bemba, that he is entitled to stand here and not Burton Mugala – he stood in Lusaka. Is Lusaka Bembaland?” President Banda asked. “Only after they dropped him and you know he is a big man, he is like a big sack of mealie-meal which is his business by the way. When they dropped him down, kuchikhubvula pansi, ati khubvu! [Dropped ‘it’ on the ground], that is when he remembered that he was from Kasama. That is not Zambian politics.”

He said Mwamba had no ideas of how to improve the welfare of people.

“They found him unsuitable even in Lusaka, he couldn’t say what he really believed in, he couldn’t say what he would do for the people of Lusaka. He just told them that he was a big man, he was rich, he can do this [and] he can do that for you. Are we here to vote for rich and big people only? The main reason why you must reject him is that he is a tribalist and we Zambians detest tribalism, you must reject him. We are very proud to say, ‘One Zambia! One Nation!’ We are very proud of that. We believe in it,” President Banda said. “He is very lucky that he is standing on the PF-UPND ticket because that is the name of the ticket; they have already decided how they are going to impose themselves on you. If he was a member of the MMD and he said what he said, I would have condemned him and I would have suspended him from being a leader of that party.”

He said Mwamba relocated his milling business from Kasama to Lusaka because he did not care for the locals here.

“So how can he come back here and say ‘make me your MP’ since his business is to do business in Lusaka?” President Banda asked. “So please I ask you to give support to this son of the soil, son of Kasama Burton Mugala. One reason why you must vote for Mr Mugala is that Mr Mugala lives here, he is one of you, you know him. His children go to the same schools with your children, the money that he has he has invested here, he does business with you, not the other man. So we think you should vote for Mr Mugala. When we vote we don’t vote because someone is from here or from there. We vote because that someone can fulfill some of the promises.”

He said he would work with Mugala to improve the welfare of the people.

“On my part I promise you I will keep my office and my phones open to the new MP for Kasama so that when he brings your problems, I am able to work with him in order to solve some of the problems of the people of Kasama,” he said. “The truth is that the MMD is the ruling party. We will continue with the development programmes that we have. We can do more developmental projects. I haven’t even touched the other projects, I just talked about the roads projects here and if someone comes here and tells you that this government is doing nothing. Nimwe chisilu ngati eve? [Are you mad like him who is telling you to believe that]?”

He advised MMD members against questioning the candidature of Mugala.

“I want to speak to the members of the MMD. This is the candidate that the MMD have decided upon to stand here in Kasama Central and we expect you without questions to support him. There is always a time for others to come, as of now this time is for Burton Mugala. We think he is the best candidate for us in Kasama Central,” he said.

President Banda denounced Kasama mayor Fidelis Chishoma over his statement that he [President] would receive a hostile reception in Kasama.

“You heard in the newspaper yesterday [Friday] in The Post that the mayor of Kasama said that I am not welcome to come to Kasama. Who is he? Never mind the fact that I am the President of Zambia and I have a right like any other Zambian to go anywhere, but I am a Ngoni, this is my home. The mayor cannot tell me that I would not be welcome. Here I am, I am welcome here,” President Banda said.

And President Banda said PF’s former member of parliament for Kasama Central Saviour Chishimba, whom he repeatedly referred to as Xavier Chungu – the name of former director general of the Zambia State Intelligence Services (ZSIS) - was an honest person for resigning from his position because he could not deliver development to the people of Kasama.

“You tried to send Mr Xavier Chungu [meaning Saviour Chishimba] to me to ask for development. He was afraid even to enter the house because he would have been arrested as a thief. So the most expectable thing for him to do was to resign because he knew that he cannot manage the task,” President Banda said. “Xavier Chungu, [but translator Kapungwe corrected him], oh Saviour Chishimba was your member of parliament, you voted for him, I am not saying it was wrong to vote for him, you voted for him that he was going into government. He, himself, has come to conclusion that he is unable to provide for you. Can we expect that another PF MP will work for you? He can’t work. That is why he left. You know to be MP is not a bad thing, they have the title of honourable, get a vehicle and they are given a salary. For Mr Chishimba to decide to abandon all these praises of being a representative of Kasama people you must know that there is a deep reason why he resigned.”

President Banda said the people of Northern Province voted for Sata and his parliamentary candidates in 2006 because he made them believe that he would form government.

“Michael Sata lost in 2006 and you know when you lose an election you are powerless. He is finished; he can’t even stand here and say to you that: ‘minister so and so come here and fix the clinic, the road’. He doesn’t have the power to allocate the resources to do so,” President Banda said. “Even on a small river he can’t build a bridge. He is a powerless man. He can’t even give you fertiliser, he doesn’t even know where it comes from, he doesn’t have.”

He said he wanted the campaigns to be peaceful and conducted within democratic principles.

“I am in Kasama today, Mr Sata is holding a meeting in Kasama, I am happy and I have sent people to go and see the crowd, see how many they are so that we can organise and surpass them,” said President Banda. “Don’t let anybody tell you lies. You don’t live in Lusaka, you are told all kinds of lies, for instance about me, I think you know that it is not true because I am standing in front of you. The record is there, I have arrested nobody, I have killed nobody and I have threatened nobody. My business is to all the time bring Zambians together.”

However, President Banda forgot to explain what his government would do to revamp the closed Kateshi Coffee Company.

Mugala promised to revamp the operations at the coffee company.

“Kateshi Coffee Company is closed but, when you elect me, I want us to quickly find a partner to buy this company and resume operations,” said Mugala. “In Kasama we have Chishimba Falls hydro power station which only produces six megawatts but since I was working for Zesco I know a lot and the minister of energy is here, I have told him that we want to upgrade Chishimba Falls to generate 30 megawatts.”

President Banda received mixed reactions when he drove around Kasama as some people flashed PF-UPND symbols while others flashed MMD symbols. However, the same people would instantly change when they see another political party motorcade.

Labels: GBM, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 6:49 AM