Rupiah doesn’t want to develop C/belt, charges Musenge

Rupiah doesn’t want to develop C/belt, charges Musenge
By Mwila Chansa
Mon 15 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) Copperbelt provincial chairman Mwenya Musenge has charged that President Rupiah Banda does not want to develop the province. And former Zambia’s deputy high commissioner to Kenya Dorothy Chilongo has said the MMD is a finished party that has run out of ideas.

Speaking during a PF provincial meeting at Buchi community Hall in Kitwe on Saturday, Musenge demanded that the government immediately starts giving the Copperbelt 40 per cent of mineral royalty tax for road repairs.

Musenge wondered how President Banda could accuse PF-run councils of not doing anything when his government had deliberately been blocking the Copperbelt from accessing its share of the mineral royalty tax.

“Some of the mineral royalty tax is supposed to remain in mining communities. But Rupiah Banda and his government do not give us this money as Copperbelt. Whenever we ask the Minister of Mines about it, he says it is in a separate account,” he said.

“We want to know how much is in that separate account and they should give us our 40 per cent so that we start repairing our roads because Rupiah Banda as President does not want to develop this place.”

Musenge also expressed disappointment with President Banda’s ignorance on the collection of land rates.

“When Rupiah Banda went to Ndola, we saw him accusing us of misusing money through land rates. It is sad that Rupiah does not know how land rates are collected,” Musenge said.

He said President Banda should bear in mind that councils had been stripped of most of their sources of revenue and that the money they collected quarterly through land rates was the one they used for providing services and paying salaries.

Meanwhile, Musenge urged PF members to embrace integrity and refuse to be bought.

He said PF members should learn to condemn bad deeds at all costs and that it was only when the country reached a level where people could not compromise on their principles that true and visible development would occur.

On elections, Musenge urged the district leadership to avail to the members, guidelines on how elections would be conducted.
Musenge said all positions in the party were open for challenge.

He said since most Copperbelt towns had conducted elections up to ward level, he had asked PF Secretary General Wynter Kabimba to exempt them but that Kabimba had said he wanted registers to ascertain that elections had been truly conducted.

Musenge urged all districts to quickly submit the said registers.
And Chilongo who defected to the PF from MMD said she could no longer stay in the MMD because the party was finished.

Chilongo said the MMD had lost the original ideals on which it was founded and that the party had been taken over by corrupt and selfish leaders.

Chilongo said the MMD government had not only overstayed in power but they had become too comfortable.

She likened the behaviour of some MMD leaders to a rat when it overstays in a home.
Chilongo pledged to work with the grassroots in strengthening PF.

Meanwhile, PF member of the central committee Timothy Walamba said the people of Luapula Province were not ready to be demoted by President Banda’s promise to chiefs that he would select a vice-president from Luapula if they delivered the province to MMD.

Walamba said the people of Luapula already had someone from their midst as republican president before and that they did not want a vice-president.

He said president Banda should have promised the people of Luapula that he would revive some of the long-pending projects such as the Mununshi Banana Scheme, Luena Sugar Plantation and Mansa Batteries among others.

“These are the developments that the people of Luapula want and not a vice-president.”

And another member of the central committee Sylvia Chalikosa urged PF members to elect loyal people in leadership positions to avoid a repeat of the ‘rebel’ parliamentarians who turned against the party immediately after going to parliament.

She also urged PF members to beware of infiltration as the country drew closer to 2011, noting that some people will not genuinely join the party but will only do so in a quest to be adopted.