Mulongoti dismisses media reports of Sata’s 1950s case as mere politicking

Mulongoti dismisses media reports of Sata’s 1950s case as mere politicking
By George Zulu in Monze
Tue 06 Apr. 2010, 04:00 CAT

WORKS and supply minister Mike Mulongoti has said the stories being published in the media about the conviction of Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata are mere politicking.

Featuring on Face the Media on Monze’s Sky FM on Sunday, Mulongoti said political opponents would do anything to disadvantage each other.


“Political competitors in an election do many things in order to try and disadvantage each other and the conviction coming out in papers now of PF president Michael Sata is just politicking,” Mulongoti said.

“Mind you, Zambia is a beautiful place, so people will go back in books to find out if you killed someone and it is up to you to say ‘I did not do that or I did and Zambians will understand.’ But as far as I am concerned this is just politics. Mr Sata has also accused others before.”

Recently, the public media has been carrying stories on Sata’s incarceration in the 1950s. They have interviewed people who allegedly shared the same cell with Sata, widows and those who were jailed for political activism during the fight for liberation who have claimed that Sata was not imprisoned for political offences. The government has even gone further to announce that they have instituted investigations into the matter to try and establish the offence Sata committed in the then Northern Rhodesia.

And Mulongoti said the decision on who should contest the Republican presidency would be made by the returning officer during the filing in of nomination papers at the High Court.

“During that day at the High Court, the returning officer will follow the criteria. For now whatever is being said in newspapers is just mere politicking. No one should stop anyone from standing. What is happening now is just politics. If that is what will disadvantage others for us to win and give us some space, then we will do that,” he said.

And Mulongoti called on Zambians to respect the judicial system of the country because it had competent judges to handle matters of different dimension.

Mulongoti was clarifying the government’s decision not to appeal against former president Frederick Chiluba’s acquittal.

“In any criminal case you are facing in the court, the prosecution needs to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the offence has been committed. The accusers must prove that you stole. So when Dr Chiluba was taken to court and in his wise decision the magistrates court discounted all the charges leveled against him because the prosecution failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that indeed Dr Chiluba stole as alleged,” said Mulongoti.

“He was acquitted on all charges because the people who took him to court failed to prove to the courts of law that he stole. And now if we agree that the courts of law is a system that we have put in place and that is where all of us must run to, then we must develop respect for such systems because once we refuse, we begin to undermine what we have put in place for protection. You are innocent until the courts of law finds you guilty and that is what the laws of this country say. But radio stations like this one and newspapers will find you guilty before the courts of law, pass judgment and when courts acquit you they scream blue murder because they had already convicted you and that is being disrespectful to the courts of law.”