Maravi

Levy would have arrested me if I was corrupt – Sata

Levy would have arrested me if I was corrupt – Sata
By Christopher Miti and Patson Chilemba in Chipata
Tue 09 Mar. 2010, 04:30 CAT [

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) leader Michael Sata has said late president Levy Mwanawasa would have arrested him if he had been involved in corrupt activities when he was in government.

Featuring on Breeze FM's Political Hour on yesterday, Sata said late president Mwanawasa would not have spared him if he had stolen money during the time he served in the Kenneth Kaunda government.

Sata said president Mwanawasa wanted him to die in prison but he failed.
“If I had stolen mwa Kaunda, do you think Mwanawasa would have spared me? If I had stolen mwa Frederick Chiluba, do you think Mwanawasa would have spared me because Mwanawasa wanted to do anything? He wanted me to die in prison but he didn't succeed because I am too clean,” Sata said.

“I have never been a president, there have only been four presidents. …What Kenneth Kaunda did, everywhere you go even children are seeing it. The tar road we are failing to maintain, it was done by Kenneth Kaunda. Kenneth Kaunda built Luangwa Industries here, Kenneth Kaunda wanted every point to give something to the people. Kenneth Kaunda brought TAZARA Tanzania-Zambia Railways.

When we took over from Kaunda, if Frederick Chiluba was determined, his ten years he could have complemented what Kaunda did.

“When Mwanawasa came he could have joined where his brother left...and comrade Rupiah Banda cannot say I have just come because he was vice-president from 2006… So he can't say nabwela manje no, no, niwakudala [he can't say he is new, he is not.”

Sata accused the government of leaving the fight against HIV and AIDS to non governmental organisations (NGOs).

He refuted claims that he was engaging in politics of insults.

“I have enough material in my mouth and in my head, it's people who have short vocabulary who end up insulting. I have no shortage of vocabulary.

If I want to describe our President, I will describe him short of insults. If I want to describe George Kunda, I will even describe his lips without insulting him,” Sata said.

He said the relationship between PF and UPND was excellent.
Sata said the only people who portrayed that the relationship between the two parties in the pact was not good were the rebel parliamentarians and Namwala parliamentarian Major Robbie Chizyuka.

When asked by a caller to clarify the accusation by Eastern Province MMD chairman Kennedy Zulu that the opposition boycotted the Nc'wala ceremony, Sata said he did not attend the ceremony because he was not invited.

“We were not invited for the Nc'wala ceremony. Zulu was lying because you see I am very close to Njengembazo Mpezeni. Knowing very well the way they have done this traditional ceremony, if I don't have a piece of paper from the organising committee of Nc'wala, Kulamba and these other people, I will be humiliated and their aim was to see me at that gate and humiliate me so that it can make news in Times of Zambia and in ZNBC that Sata bamuthamangitsa ku Nc'wala Sata has been chased from the Nc'wala,” he said. “I was never invited.

If I was invited I would have come or if I wouldn't have come, I would have sent a token because I am a traditionalist. The question is why I didn't get a complaint from the organising committee of Nc'wala; we got a complaint from a party cadre. We expected a complaint from the organising committee of Nc'wala instead of Mr Zulu.

“So Mr Zulu, the same way he complains to say the opposition shunned Nc'wala that shows that they were very much ready that if they saw Mr Sata, UPND leader Mr Hakainde Hichilema they harass them so that it can become headline."

Sata said he had continued to set the political agenda in the country.
Asked by presenter Samuel Njobvu whether he had stopped setting the political agenda because he was now responding to issues raised by other politicians, Sata said he had continued setting the agenda and retired presidents had now started attacking him.

Sata also defended the Catholic Church, saying it had always been very fair with the MMD.

Asked whether the Catholic Church was anti-MMD and favoured him going by what Lusaka Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu said at his recent press briefing, Sata said the Catholic Church knew a lot about the MMD.

“The Catholic Church has been very fair, if the Catholic Church was anti-MMD the Catholic Church knows so many things which the MMD criminals have committed. If you look today, it is not PF... Is Auditor General Anna Chifungula PF? Is Anna Chifungula ZRP?

Is Anna Chifungula UNIP? Anna Chifungula is appointed by MMD. Have you seen how she is splashing how they are stealing money left, right and centre when people are dying in hospitals without drugs and they are even asking children to pay K20,000 in schools when people are stealing money left, right and centre?” Sata said.

He said it was not the preoccupation of the Catholic Church to talk about other people's matters but to ask them to repent.

“What we are trying to say is, corruption, theft, crime...it is not the preoccupation of the Church to talk about other people's things but to ask them to repent. The real Church asks people to repent,” Sata said.

“The Church has spoken about corruption because for example, I would like to tell you, why should - after 45 years of independence after grade seven - there be agony of finding a place?

Why should there be agony of finding a place to go to form one. Why should there be agony to find a place to go to grade twelve, to go to university? Why should we continue having cut-off points? Zambia today has the highest unemployment level at 82 per cent."

Sata said he would be very grateful if his colleagues who worked with him in the government operated the way he operated at the time he served in the government.

During the programme, several people were glued to their radios as Sata raised various issues. Earlier, Sata attended the 09:30 hours Nyanja mass at St Anne's Catholic Cathedral Parish.

Labels: MWANAWASA, SATA

posted by MrK @ 7:02 PM