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Rupiah is blackmailing Zambians – Kabimba

Rupiah is blackmailing Zambians – Kabimba
By Patson Chilemba
Thu 15 Apr. 2010, 04:00 CAT

President Rupiah Banda greeting some of the people who welcomed him at Katete Prison football grounds yesterday - Picture by Eddie Mwanaleza

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) secretary general Wynter Kabimba yesterday charged that President Rupiah Banda and his government are holding Zambians hostage by deliberately withholding development until election time.

Reacting to President Banda’s directive to finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane to immediately mobilise additional funds for the construction of main roads throughout the country, including the Mutanda-Chavuma road in North Western Province, Kabimba said President Banda had engaged in what he termed as developmental blackmail to win votes from the people, particularly those in Mufumbwe where there would be a parliamentary by-election on April 29, 2010.

“My view is that the Rupiah Banda government is holding the people of Zambia hostage by deliberately not undertaking development projects such as construction of roads, except during the time of by-elections so that the people can succumb to the demands of government that ‘if you vote MMD, then you can get your area development’,” Kabimba said.

“That is holding people hostage by a government elected by the people, and there is no civilised government in the 21st century that takes that approach that development can only go to an area or to a community of people if those people agree with that government irrespective of how corrupt that government is, irrespective of how corrupt the ministers of that government are.”

Kabimba said this was not the first time this philosophy of taking development to the people during elections was happening. He said President Banda and Vice-President George Kunda had made pronouncements in the past warning the people that they would not see development in their areas if they did not vote for the MMD.

Kabimba said there was no difference between the actions of President Banda’s government and those, which came to power through coup de tat.

“Now it is for that reason that I say that the government is holding the people of Zambia and our local communities hostage or blackmailing them, and this is a very uncivilised way of a government remaining in power. There is no difference between a government that acts in this manner and a government that comes into place via a coup de tat,” Kabimba said.

“Because both governments are in power without the will and the consent of the people; the government that comes to power through a coup de tat is holding or using the barel of a gun to hold people hostage, that ‘if you disagree with us we shall kill you’. The government such as this one which is in charge of the development of the country is holding people hostage by saying ‘unless you vote for us, you will not see the development.’”

Asked if the PF-UPND pact would petition the elections if the results went against them since they had raised complaints over President Banda’s conduct, Kabimba said going to court over such matters was academic going by past experience.

“What we want to say to the people is that they should not allow themselves to be held hostage. They must stand up to their rights and say ‘whether or not you will tar the Mutanda-Chavuma today, we shall still get rid of you’. That is the only way they are going to teach a government like this that is holding them hostage that they shall not succumb to developmental blackmail,” Kabimba said.

“Just like the people have gone to the streets and challenged leaders, it has happened in Burma…Niger…Equatorial Guinea, in Iran under the Shar, the people went to the streets and said ‘it doesn’t matter how many tanks you have, the Shar must go’. And the Shar had to leave in the middle of the night with the assistance of the American government, and that was the end of him.”

Kabimba said likewise, the people of Mufumbwe and Milanzi should show the government that they would not be blackmailed.

“They should say, ‘we shall still vote using our conscience, and you can keep your development’, after all it shall come if there is a good government,” said Kabimba.

President Banda has instructed Dr Musokotwane to immediately mobilise extra money from bilateral and multilateral institutions, specifically for the road sector.
He also directed works and supply minister Mike Mulongoti to mobilise contracts to ensure that the construction of key roads in the country was completed this year.

President Banda said he specifically wanted to see the completion of the Mutanda-Chavuma, Choma-Chitongo-Namwala roads in Southern Province and the Kasama-Luwingu road in Northern Province.

Labels: RUPIAH BANDA, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE, WYNTER KABIMBA

posted by MrK @ 3:21 PM