Banda dismisses Nawakwi’s observations on clinics as madness

Banda dismisses Nawakwi’s observations on clinics as madness
By Chibaula Silwamba and Zumani Katasefa in Kitwe
Mon 29 Mar. 2010, 04:01 CAT

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has described as madness Forum for Development and Democracy (FDD) leader Edith Nawakwi’s revelations that most clinics in Lusaka did not have medicines and the situation was deplorable.

And Vice-President George Kunda has questioned Nawakwi’s courage to allegedly insult President Banda, and has since threatened to expose people allegedly sponsoring her to insult the President.

Speaking in Mazabuka on Friday, President Banda said his government was trying hard to build hospitals and provision of medicines.

“You don’t go to one clinic and you don’t find medicine there, then you say, ‘there is no medicine in the clinics!’ That is madness,” President Banda said, in reference to Nawakwi’s recent statement that pregnant women at Chipata Clinic in Lusaka where being asked to dispose of placentas and other waste after giving birth.

“You know very well that we are trying our best. That is why I have here my Minister of Health. Wherever I go I always ask him to come along because I know issues of health are very close to the welfare of the people. Give me a chance! Amundipe chindi!”

President Banda thanked chief Mwanachingwala of the Tonga people of Mazabuka district for acknowledging the government developmental projects in Southern Province.

“When I met chief Mwanachingwala, he said to me, ‘thank you for that road which you are building there. Thank you for the road you are building in Southern Province’. We are people, we have to say, ‘thank you’ when something being done,” President Banda said.

“Those roads have been there in perpetuity and they have not been fixed. Your government under my leadership is ready to try its best to allocate resources so that we can rebuild our roads, so that we can build new schools, so that we can rebuild our hospitals, so that our children can have medicine.”

Meanwhile, former employees of Albidon Zambia at Munali Nickel Mine said they were prevented from protesting in the presence of President Banda over the mine’s failure to employ local people.

Representatives of the mine workers that were not re-employed by the new mine owner Jinchuan Group of China, Grovies Mushibwe and Joseph Mbanga said when the company was placed under care and maintenance, the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development assured the local people that the new owners would employee 90 per cent of the people that were under the previous owners but only 20 per cent of the former employees were re-engaged.

“We planned to protest but we have been blocked,” Mushibwe complained. “The local people have not benefited from this mine. Even the PS permanent secretary in the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development knows about our complaint, he has our letter. We are struggling. We have not even been given our redundancy packages. The government should not be cheated by these investors that they have employed Mazabuka residents. It’s a lie. Government has been misled that they have reconsidered everyone who was working here. We want the government to know the truth.”

Mbanga accused Zambians in management positions of nepotism.

“They have brought their relatives from afar to come and work here and leaving us the local people out. We are not asking for senior jobs but basic ones, but we have been sidelined,” said Mbanga. “We want the government to intervene and help us.”

And Vice–President Kunda boasted that Zambia has enough maize to export which Nawakwi and PF leader Michael Sata failed to produce when they were in government. Speaking during the launch of the MMD membership renewal exercise at Kitwe’s City Square on Saturday, Vice-President Kunda said it was criminal for Nawakwi to insult the President.

He wondered where Nawakwi was getting the courage to insult the President.
“Nawakwi is insulting the President. Where is she getting the courage? Who is sponsoring her? Defamation of the President is criminal, saying that the President is mad, that is an insult, that is criminal. You see we are a very tolerant government,” Vice-President Kunda said, adding that soon Nawakwi would be removed from her position as party president by some members of the party who had petitioned her.

Vice-President Kunda said that the MMD government under President Banda followed laws and rules.

“If we arrest, they say we are undemocratic. Our people are being irritated. I know where she is getting this courage. I am going to expose her but not now,” Vice-President Kunda said. “She has won the recognition but she has done it in a wrong way, very soon she will fall in a ditch. We cannot allow a situation where the President is being insulted.”

Vice-President Kunda wondered why Nawakwi and Sata were always critising President Banda’s administration. He said President Banda was working hard to ensure that Zambians were better served.

He said this year the country had enough maize, wheat and soya beans which could be exported to other countries.

“There is so much maize in Zambia, some of the maize is from last year’s farming season. We also have soya beans and wheat, we are going to export some of it. When Nawakwi and Sata were in government they were importing the maize through Carlingtone, it was a scandal,” Vice-President said.

He said the MMD government was very determined to develop the country and that the government had constructed schools and hospitals in all the districts.

Vice-President Kunda urged councils on the Copperbelt to play their role in helping to bring development in the country because they collect a lot of money from the people.

“They receive money from the mines. Some of this money should be used to delivery better services to the people,” he said.

Vice-President Kunda said the Zambian government and the Japanese government had signed an agreement to work on the roads in Ndola and Lusaka. He said presidential foreign trips had helped Zambia to woo foreign investors and that those critising them were just aimed at making President Banda fail to rule the country.

“Foreign trips are very necessary. He goes to represent us and bring investors, people are coming to this country. My President and me we are not going to stop traveling outside. We are members of the SADC, are they saying we should suspend our membership from these organizations?” asked Vice-President Kunda.

He said all the former presidents were travelling abroad and they brought investment from outside the country.

“They want to tie our President so that he does not travel. They want to make him fail. We are aware of this agenda and we are not going to fall in this trap,” he said.

And Vice-President Kunda said the red card campaign is very annoying and provocative because it was aimed at making the MMD fail to govern the country.

“We don’t want the so-called red card campaign. Trouble makers will be dealt with if they are not obeying the law,” he warned.

Vice-President Kunda said it was sad that the government was engaging security officers on useless things.

“I know most of our supporters are annoyed with the red card campaign. They (red card campaigners) want to bring trouble. I am encouraged when I came I found people waving white cards which showed that people want peace, they don’t want trouble,” he said.

Some people, including hired students from the Zambia Institute of Business Studies and Industrial Practice (ZIBSIP), were given white cards to counter the Red Card Campaign.