Maravi

My year in office has been tough – Rupiah

My year in office has been tough – Rupiah
By Chibaula Silwamba and Christopher Miti in Lundazi
Thu 12 Nov. 2009, 04:01 CAT

MY one year in office has been very tough, President Rupiah Banda has admitted. And President Banda said Sata's behaviour is evil. Meanwhile, President Banda revealed that there were vested interests in fuel procurement but did not give further details.

Featuring on a live programme on Lundazi's Radio Chikaya on Tuesday, President Banda said following president Levy Mwanawasa's death, he faced difficulties to get where he is.

“I want to answer your question now, namely how do I feel after being one year in office. Of course it has been a very tough period considering that I became President as a result of the passing on of our late president, may his soul rest in peace, and I had to undergo all kinds of problems to reach where I am today,” President Banda said. “First of all to become the candidate for the party, we had to go through an election where I had something like 14 other candidates challenging me, and thereafter we had to go for the general elections, by-elections for president and thereafter I had to go through the NEC elections for the president of the party. It has been a toughening experience, I must say.”

He said with regard to the running of the country, he had learnt a lot within the one year.

“…In the sense that I took over in the middle of the MMD victory which was won by my predecessor, had spent nearly two years. I took over with a lot of colleagues that I had found in place. Unfortunately, some of them were not willing to work with me and therefore I had to do some house cleaning issues and change certain ministers in order that I have reason in my work as President and chairman of the Cabinet,” President Banda said. “I had also many other problems, we have to have a new budget in the face of the world global economic crisis. So we had to look for emphasis where to put the little money that we had as you know most of the money that Zambia makes the budget comes from the mining taxation. The copper prices and other metal prices collapsed, it meant that we had very little money from the Ministry of Finance from taxation from various companies.”

He said Zambia's economy was very much dependant on mining and therefore once the mining industry was facing problems, it meant that many other industries related to mining were facing problems.

“So we had a lot of people losing their jobs and we had a lot of frustrations in the country. It has been quite an experience for me to be able to adjust the running of this country, to adjust the economy of this country in such a way that we are still able to survive. This has been my experience and I want to thank all the Zambians for the support that you have given me,” he said. “You know I have been a target of incessant attacks from all quarters but one thing that pleases me about these attacks is that it is not only me. They have not started with me.

They started with Dr Kenneth Kaunda himself, they attacked him incessantly and then when president Frederick Chiluba came they did the same, when the late president Levy Mwanawasa they did the same, they only praise you when you have passed on. They have done this to every president who has come but I believed that the Zambian people stood by me in the face of calls for industrial action, street demonstration against me to try and make the Zambian people change the government.”

Asked about 'malicious' media attacks against him, President Banda singled out The Post newspaper and private media as being in the forefront of denouncing his administration.

“Of course as a human being I don't like it. I think that they are being unfair. We have been on a trip here now and The Post representative, I don't know who he is, I treat all the young people equally, I never asked them to travel with me. They will never hear me quarrel with them but of all the things that I said they just go and pick up my remarks when I said Sata nimwana wa satana. Sata is son of Satan,” President Banda said. “I have always told people that Sata is my cousin, he calls me names everyday, I call him names as well.

The other day he went to try and hang Mr Grey Zulu and that upset me very much and tell him that Rupiah has done nothing for you. Even if it were true that I have done nothing for Mr Grey Zulu during his very unfortunate bereavement of his son is it right for a leader who wants to be a President of this country to go to somebody who is bereaved, who is crying to say 'what has Rupiah done for you'? Is that not politics? That is the satanism that I am talking about. I am not saying his mother and father were satan. No! They were my relatives as well because I am Zambian he is my cousin so they are my shikulu.

“I am saying his behaviour is evil and Satan is testified by evil and it's a poetic thing, his name is Sata so to add N at the end of it is poetry. I am not meaning to insult his parents. I will be the last to do that. He is a Zambian like me. He is a human being like me. My parents I respected them so are his Sata's but he must stop playing the politics, hiding a microphone behind an old man.”

On media-government relationship, President Banda agreed with the presenter's position that he was sometimes unfairly attacked.

“I am glad you said sometimes unfairly; actually most of the times unfairly. I have chosen not to answer many of these things especially from The Post. I have chosen not to answer because I am a leader I have to be criticised, I have to be attacked, I have to be questioned,” President Banda said.

“I have enough powers to shut down, I can remove their licence tomorrow if I wanted but I believe in democracy. I believe in freedom of the press, I believe that Zambians must ask questions for their leaders. That is my attitude and I believe that in the end I shall be proved right and that I did the good thing. It is up to the people to decide whether they believed these things or not.”

President Banda said the Zambian people should remember that in history it was the same private newspaper The Post that had attacked every president.

“They called my late president a cabbage, they called president Kaunda fonko fonko, they called president Chiluba names and all sorts of names and this continues. It is their habit,” President Banda said.

“So for me I leave it to the Zambian people to make their judgment. I will always come and visit, the Zambian people will see me, all the lies they tell about me, the people will be able to tell that 'no! no! The man is looking okay, the man is talking okay'.”

On fuel crisis, President Banda said there was a lapse in the preparation for the shut down of Indeni Oil Refinery ahead of its repair and delay in clearing fuel tankers at Beira port in Mozambique.

“There was a lapse over that but also I want to take opportunity, there are a lot of vested interests in the procurement of fuel. Of course there are vested interests and they get upset that we may be interfering with what they have been doing all along. There was a slight element of that as well,” said President Banda.

“In Mozambique, Beira, hundreds of trucks carrying fuel for Zambia were stuck there during the elections there for five days or so when there was no work at the port of Beira and Maputo so we were stuck there. That is one of the reasons why there was a delay but now things are flowing.”

Labels: GREAT DEPRESSION II, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 8:23 AM