Rupiah is a foreign-based President, says Sata

Rupiah is a foreign-based President, says Sata
By Patson Chilemba in Lundazi
Sun 07 Mar. 2010, 09:00 CAT

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata has observed that President Rupiah Banda has now become a foreign-based Zambian President because he is haunted by the 2008 elections he fraudulently won. And Sata said former president Frederick Chiluba has to be seen to continue attacking him in order to get more favours from President Banda.

Featuring on Radio Chikaya in Lundazi on Friday afternoon, Sata said President Banda had never been at peace from the time he fraudulently won the elections, hence his frequent trips to other nations.

He said instead of spending most of his time in the country to address problems such as the deplorable 174-kilometre Chipata-Lundazi Road which takes five hours to traverse, President Banda had seen it fit to enjoy himself by visiting other nations.

“Even today, they don't have the peace of mind. That is why they don't stay in Zambia. Our President has gone for good to China,” Sata said. “He will visit the country from China soon and after a little while he will go. He is a Johnny Walker.”

Sata said he won the 2008 elections but they were stolen from him and the Supreme Court did not sanction a recount.

“They want to get rid of me, they want to eliminate me. But I have more radical young men, and if things were going the same way they are going, Zambia would not be as liberal as it is,” he said.

Sata said he was not worried by the desperate attempts from the government to bar him from standing as president because he was always ahead of them.

“I was in the national executive committee (NEC) meeting when Chiluba proposed to bar Dr Kaunda from standing. He was scared that in 1996, if 'we don't bar Dr Kaunda, Chiluba was going to lose',” Sata said.

“When he saw we had barred Dr Kaunda and chief Inyambo Yeta had remained and was going to get it, so he brought in this fictitious clause to bar chiefs from participating in politics. All the chiefs suffered because of Inyambo Yeta.”

Asked on assertions by Chiluba that he abused office by putting K1.2 billion government money in his bank account, Sata wondered why Chiluba allowed him to remain in office for 10 years if he had abused office.

He said this only went to show that Chiluba had no problem with corruption.
He said he would campaign to ensure that the Chipata-Lundazi road was worked on.
Sata also promised to reinstate the chietaincy of Kapichiya.

He said people like National Constitutional Conference (NCC) chairperson Chifumu Banda were more preoccupied with making discriminatory laws and enriching themselves but had forgotten to speak for the development of the people.

“Chifumu Banda does not want anyone without a degree to become MP here,” Sata said.

Earlier in the morning on Radio Mano in Kasama, Sata said if Chiluba had continued where Dr Kaunda left off, Zambia would not have been this poor.

He said two days ago, he was in Kitwe and Mansa and he did not see the political shift that Chiluba was hallucinating about.

Sata said people should sympathise with Chiluba because his dubious acquittal as well as the criminal case facing his wife, Regina, were troubling him.

“So in order for him to get more favours from Rupiah Banda, he has to talk about me. So my relative Fredrick Chiluba, I feel pity for him. The Bible says be merciful on him because he doesn't know what he is doing,” he said.

Sata also said Chiluba's lie that he was a polygamist had been exposed by Lusaka Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu.

He said he had signed the affidavit to sue the Times of Zambia for carrying defamatory material and would sign another for Chiluba upon his return from this campaign tour.

On Vice-President George Kunda's assertions that he was mad, Sata wondered who looked more mad between him and Vice-President Kunda.

Sata said mad people were those who had taken away fertiliser from the people and channeled over K350 billion to the NCC.

He said Vice-President Kunda and his colleagues would want the NCC to continue so that they could continue looting.

“Then he goes back to Rupiah Banda to say 'extend the NCC and give me K5 billion',” said Sata.