Chiluba pledges to 'score' second term for RB

Chiluba pledges to 'score' second term for RB
By Chibaula Silwamba in Mansa
Mon 17 May 2010, 04:00 CAT

Vice-President George Kunda (l) dishing out brown envelopes during a rally to drum up support for President Rupiah Banda as MMD presidential candidate for 2011 in Samfya on Saturday - Picture by Thomas Nsama

Frederick Chiluba has said he was not born a thief but a king.
And Chiluba has declared to help “score” a second term for President Rupiah Banda in next year's elections. Meanwhile, Chiluba said Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata can never be President of Zambia because he was a mere police constable in the colonial regime.

Officiating at the ‘development’ meeting of chiefs and parliamentarians from Luapula Province at Mansa Hotel on Saturday, Chiluba told the chiefs and people that they should not feel ashamed that their ‘child’ was a thief.

“I have come to say this here in Luapula Province because you people were walking sad and looking ashamed that, ‘maybe our person Chiluba indeed stole.’ No! It’s not true. Don’t feel ashamed; be proud because you did not give birth to a thief but a king,” Chiluba said.

“I will not stop to thank you. My suffering is over and God removed shame on my face. I thank God who freed me through the courts. You people of Luapula you did not give birth to a thief but a king; thank you very much.”

Chiluba said in 2006 he denied Sata’s offer to him to drop corruption charges.

“When we had elections in 2006, when Mr Sata was standing, he came to my home and said to me, ‘don’t worry Dr Chiluba, let’s help each other. When I am elected president, I will go to parliament to destroy your corruption cases so that you can be a free man’. Then I said, ‘no, according to my education and what I know and how governing is supposed to be, when the cases are in court, it’s not good for the head of state to go and stop the cases. You will have damaged the judicial process; you have to let the judicial process go on to prove that there is no case’,” Chiluba said.

“Mr Sata thought I would plead with him because I was in problems. I said, ‘no! I was President and I know how the judicial process works until the truth comes out in court.’ What surprised me was that after the court proved that, ‘Mr Chiluba didn’t steal,’ the same Mr Sata turned around and said, ‘No! This cases must not end, let the cases continue.’ That is what surprised me. But those who know him can’t be surprised. I know him, I can’t be surprised. Not at all! That is how he is.”
He said the corruption cases against him were propaganda.

“There was a leader called Hitler, who said, ‘if you lie about a citizen once, people will forget. But when you continue lying about that person over and over, people will believe. People will say, ‘how can the president hate just one person? It’s true that person did something wrong.’ That is how propaganda is; they repeat over and over until those people that are supporting you start saying, ‘how can the president hate one person?” Chiluba said.

“That is what worried me because for seven years, there was propaganda that I stole. I served as President for 10 years and when a person stole, it never used to take more than 10 years without proving that the person stole. What surprised me is that now these allegations that I stole can’t be proved in seven years, they can’t find where the things I purportedly stole are? Even now, they are still saying he stole.”

He said the support that the chiefs, parliamentarians and people of Luapula Province gave him during his corruption trial showed him that he was not born alone.

“All these parliamentarians even if they were PF, they were defending me. All of them were saying, ‘this person they are persecuting is our person and we know him, he can’t do this nonsense stealing they are accusing him of’,” Chiluba said.

“Therefore, to all of you who represent our people, I want to thank you. We have united. I was not born alone. That is why I have come here; to thank you, to thank all the people for a big job, love and what you said and what you are saying to defend me when I was being persecuted for seven years.”

Chiluba revealed that President Banda sent him to Mansa to enlighten the people.
He told the people of Luapula Province to pray that Sata does not become Republican president because he would destroy the country.

“I want to thank the President Rupiah Banda for allowing me so that I could come here and meet you here, like a person who hails from Luapula and a former second Republican president so that we could be helping one another with ideas,” Chiluba said. “I have not come to campaign for Mr Banda like the way our colleagues are worried. No! Mr Banda’s works will be campaigning for him because he is working.”

Chiluba likened himself to a football star who scores.
He said the opposition political parties, particularly PF, were scared of him because they were aware of his scoring ability.

“In line with the game we are playing in 2011, we have to start preparing now. I have just come to enlighten you not to elect wrong people,” Chiluba said. “We will join the game later when the election date draws near. For now we are just discussing how we should live with our friend. Who is our friend? It’s Rupiah Banda.”

He told the chiefs and parliamentarians that he was helping President Banda to be re-elected.
“When campaign starts next year, we will be going round explaining to you that this government has worked, our President worked. The President allowed me to come here to enlighten you. I am helping Mr Rupiah Banda so that people see that this is what the President is doing,” Chiluba said.

“I am not campaigning. If another party comes, it will destroy everything. Here in Luapula, we can’t afford to destroy or disrupt the progress that has been made. My fellow Luapula people, this is the time that the government should hear you, you come out of problems.”

He said PF rebel parliamentarians in Luapula Province were displeased with Sata’s way of managing the party.

“All MPs here saw that outside the MMD, they can’t bring anything to Luapula Province. That was why they told Mr Sata that we are tired of insulting Mr Banda every day. Mr Sata insulted Mr Kenneth Kaunda, Mr Sata also insulted me, then he also insulted late Levy Mwanawasa but just turned and said ‘he is my partner’, they even signed a contract,” Chiluba said.

“The MPs told Mr Sata that we heard you insult Kaunda, Chiluba, Mwanawasa and now Banda, what more when you become president? A person harvests what he sows and Mr Sata will harvest the insults he is sowing.”

He said Sata must never be president because he had no capacity to rule the country.
“Now, we are just praying to God, if there are PF members here, please forgive me, we are just praying to God that that man must not come and destroy this country. I was PF but I left; I was clever, I didn’t acquire a PF membership card. I just said by word of mouth that, ‘I am helping you’. My membership card is in MMD, number 02, number 1 was for Arthur Wina then number three for VJ Mwaanga. That was a card I was always renewing,” Chiluba said.

“There is no intelligent person who says everything is bad; he is put on the plane while he is not breathing and when he comes back says, ‘I was not evacuated to go and recover but I was evacuated so that he Mwanawasa is also seen that he can evacuate people abroad for treatment’. The way it is, is that when you are given a chance to stand as a candidate and you fail, you leave.”

He said Sata wanted to continue contesting as a presidential candidate because he was making personal money out of it.

“He says he will be standing and if he fails he will stand again and he even gave an example of Senegalese President Wade that he lost elections several times and finally won. It’s true! But President Wade is educated, he is a professor, he can lead people,” Chiluba said.

“But for Mr Sata who was just a police constable, can you lead a country?

It can’t be! Even here we have chiefs’ retainers, they wear uniforms and shoes, but colonial police officers were just beating freedom fighters on the head. Can such a person, who was a colonialists’ police constable, govern the freedom fighters now? Freedom fighters will refuse. I was in youth league, we used to be beaten by police officers in Mufulira. We used to run away from police officers, they were monsters. Mr Sata is just using the party to make money, he can’t rule this country. No!”

Chiluba said when MMD parliamentary chief whip Vernon Mwaanga decided to challenge Sata for the position of MMD national secretary during the party convention, Sata cried like a baby.

“Those who know Mr Sata he can’t stand in elections. No! Temisula I am not trying to belittle him! Mr Sata was our MMD national secretary, those who were close to me can agree. In 2001, Vernon Mwaanga said, ‘we can’t just leave those from Luapula and Bembas to be national secretary, even me I am standing’. Vernon Mwaanga nikalapashi Vernon is an expert. He organised Copperbelt, Luapula and all provinces and said, ‘I am going to file my nomination papers, I want to be the national secretary of MMD’,” Chiluba narrated as chiefs and MMD cadres cheered him.

“Mr Sata was national secretary at the time, when he heard that Vernon Mwaanga wanted to challenge him, Mr Sata cried, it was like a funeral house, he was crying to me. ‘Ine ba Chiluba mwalimpata, tamufwaya abena Mpika. Kuti mwasuminisha shani umuTonga kuti ese asende icifulo candi [President Chiluba you don’t like me, you don’t want people from Mpika district. How can you allow a Tonga Mwaanga to grab the national secretary position from me]?’ You people, is that not how democracy is?”
He said Sata did not believe in conceding defeat.

“There were elections in England and there was no clear winner but the political party leader who lost resigned. Gordon Brown has been told in England that he is not the leader of Labour Party. But you Zambians, I don’t know how you are. Someone loses presidential elections three times but you say ‘we will continue supporting him’. No!” Chiluba said.

“That is why he is even insulting. After losing once, a sincere leader says, ‘let me rest’. Us in MMD, we are convinced that we want development in all parts of Zambia, not just Luapula. This country will be going to elections every five years. Politics of violence must be avoided.”

He accused Sata of insulting chiefs.

“In 1991, we ended political violence. We brought politics of unity and respect for elders. But now the politics I am hearing from other parties are bad. Chief Puta was insulted, Mwata Kazembe was insulted, Chitimukulu, Mpezeni and other chiefs were insulted. Do you want your chiefs to be insulted? No! That means politics has gone bad. A person who insults a chief has insulted everyone,” Chiluba said.

“If they can insult chiefs how about you ordinary people? You will be insulted every day if they are elected? Even if they say I am campaigning, yes, I am campaigning for our chiefs to be respected. Even you chiefs don’t say he is our son even if he insulted us you forgive him. No! Punish that child who insults you.

“Those who insult chiefs…it is a violation of the principle and values of democracy which will help us to shape and judge our political institutions which include political parties and governance.”

He said his opponents were scared of his visit to the province because they knew that he would change their political fortunes.

“When I was coming here, my opponents were asking, ‘what is he going to do in Luapula?’ I even laughed. Surely, a person can’t go back to his home area? Even when fishermen when they go fishing they still return to the village, now why should they question my coming home that ‘what is he going to do in Luapula?’ Without Luapula there is no Chiluba. Chiluba came from Luapula.

Until he goes back to Luapula to thank all the elders,” Chiluba said. “They feared that if I dribble them I will score. That is why they are scared. Banda has started finding so many things because I don’t talk anyhow, I just go even during the day that, ‘boss, press here’ that is it. Even here, all the MPs know our President and all of us we know our President.”

He said he had done a lot in Luapula and Zambia as a whole.

“People were asking that ‘what did Chiluba bring to Luapula Province?’ Are there smugglers here? Do you still wake up very early to go and queue up for essential goods? I ended all that. I liberalised the economy. Can’t you see the taxicabs? I brought taxicabs,” Chiluba said.

“Zambians have built their own houses. Kaunda had stopped people from building houses and renting them out. He was saying that was exploitation.”

Chiluba said he called a man “a fool” in his Musangu village for querying him about what development he brought to the area when he was president.

“When I went to my village, Musangu, to see my elder brother I found one man who was drunk and he is PF, I told him that I know that party well. He said, ‘what development have you brought to Musangu village?’ I told him that, ‘you fool! Is it the President who brings money to the village?’” Chiluba narrated.

“What an intelligent President does is to bring good laws that give every Zambian or foreigner an opportunity to bring money and invest in the country. That is how Shoprite came. The mines have come.”

He called for unity in Luapula Province to foster development.

“This meeting is very big. We have to know what is hampering development. We want to be united. In unity there is strength. That is how Luapula will go forward. If we see that in Kawambwa there is something that hampers development, we sit down and see how we can resolve that problem,” said Chiluba.

“We have to work together here in Luapula; wherever there is a problem in any part of Luapula, we must consider that as a problem of the entire Luapula Province. If a certain place has no boat or bridge, we should know that we have a problem in the whole Luapula.”

Chiluba warned chiefs and parliamentarians against insulting President Banda because the province would not get development projects.

“If you are insulting the President always, he will never come here,” Chiluba said. “We came in the night Friday but what surprised us is that we found so many people at Samfya turnoff waiting for us; they were very happy, dancing and singing praise songs.

I am saying thank you. When we arrived here at Mansa Hotel we found Mrs Elizabeth Chitika Molobeka outside with women drumming and dancing. I can’t be surprised because this is my home. I am very happy that I have my birth place.”

Several chiefs, but not all, attended the meeting which ended yesterday.