Maravi

Sata, HH are miserable and frustrated politicians – Rupiah

Sata, HH are miserable and frustrated politicians – Rupiah
By Chibaula Silwamba in Mazabuka
Sat 27 Mar. 2010, 04:01 CAT

MICHAEL Sata and Hakainde Hichilema are miserable and frustrated politicians, President Rupiah Banda charged yesterday. And President Banda declared that he is going to fight hard to retain the Presidency next year.

Meanwhile, President Banda wondered why Fr Frank Bwalya was still a priest when in fact he was supposed to have been removed over his statement on Radio Icengelo after the 2008 presidential by-elections.

Speaking on arrival at Munali Nickel Mine where he officiated at the mine's reopening, President Banda said Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata and UPND's Hakainde Hichilema were frustrated because they had tried but lost elections for the Presidency.

“Have I ever insulted anybody here? How many times am I insulted every day? Many times! A red card should be shown against Mr Sata and Mr Hakainde. They are the ones who are breaking the rules of our politics in this country,” President Banda said.

“I understand them. To a certain extent they are frustrated, they are miserable because they have tried so hard to be President of this country and each time you the Zambian people have rejected them. Mr Sata has failed three times, Mr Hakainde has failed twice and now he wants to go again and fail the third time.”

President Banda urged the people of Southern Province to reject the PF-UPND Pact.

“You reject the Pact. Why should the UPND go into a Pact with a person you rejected in the last election?” President Banda asked.

“I am the first President of this country since independence to come from Eastern Province. The late president, my dear brother the late Mwanawasa was the first president from the Central Province to become president. He did not complete his 10 years of tenure because of death. I have only been President for one year. Does it not make sense to anybody that we follow the pattern of our Constitution, we follow the pattern of our predecessors that if somebody is the President he must become the President for the full tenure?”

President Banda said Sata was duping the people of Southern Province to support his 2011 presidential candidature.

“I am sure that the people of Southern Province would like one day to produce a President for this country and you are entitled to. You have good children here, well educated, hard working. You too must produce a President one day for this country. But you have been duped; you have been invited to participate in blocking me from completing my tenure as President. You are being duped by Mr Sata who is telling your president, president of UPND that he must join him so that in 2011 they must produce a president. But surely is that fair to me? No!” President Banda said.

“I am going to stand for elections in 2011. I am going to fight; I am going to appeal to the conscience of the Zambian people to give me and my party a chance to fulfill our mandate and to fulfill our development plan for this country.”

President Banda condemned Fr Bwalya for championing the red card campaign against him.

“The politics being introduced in this country by those who are following Mr Sata like Fr Bwalya who are saying you must produce a red card. In football when you produce a red card it means that that player must leave,” President Banda said.

“Is it in our Constitution that a President must leave by a red card? What have I done wrong to deserve this so-called Fr Bwalya, I said so-called because he was supposed to have been removed when he was using Radio Icengelo to stop other people. Whose Father is he?”

President Banda urged people in Mazabuka to rally behind the MMD and his candidature.

“I invite the people of the Southern Province to join us; our chairman for the province for the MMD here Mr Solomon Muzyamba, Honourable minister for the Province Daniel Munkombwe are inviting you to join the government. It is not fair that every time you are talking you have to be referring to the people of Southern Province as if they were tribalists. And I know you are not tribalists. That is why so many people are living in your villages. So many people are living in Mazabuka, they are living in Kalomo, Monze, in Livingstone because the people of the Southern Province are not tribalists,” President Banda said.

“I don't want people coming to you to teach you tribalistic politics. Join the rest of us and let us together develop this country. You know why you should join MMD? Because the MMD is the party for the whole country.”

President Banda bragged that during the 2008 elections he beat Hichilema in Livingstone, the provincial capital of Southern Province.

“Look at the famous map of the last elections, it will show you that the support of the MMD is in the whole country. Even here in Southern Province, we received a lot of votes. The only thing is that we didn't get the majority. Many people in Southern Province voted for the MMD. But the other political parties like your leader has led you to, to join Mr Sata's PF, it's a tribal party. Look at the map and you will see that the majority of his supporters only come from his province,” President Banda said.

“I can stand here and say, 'I was elected by the Southern Province'. Even in Livingstone, I beat Mr Hakainde, the president of the UPND. The people of this province supported me.”

Labels: FRANK BWALYA, HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 2:37 PM