Maravi

Kavindele demands release of Auditor General’s report on roads

Kavindele demands release of Auditor General’s report on roads
By Patson Chilemba
Fri 14 May 2010, 04:01 CAT

ENOCH Kavindele yesterday demanded that President Rupiah Banda release the Auditor General's report on the roads because people like Mike Mulongoti will assist him to get out of power should he fail to do so.

Reacting to works and supply minister Mulongoti's attacks on him, Kavindele, a former Republican vice-president, warned President Banda to learn lessons from UNIP which lost elections on account of failing to deliver on key issues such as roads.

"We demand that the President releases the report by the Auditor General on these roads because if he doesn't, the likes of Mulongoti will assist him to get out of power. The President has no right to defend the incompetence and corruption in the roads sector,” he said.

Kavindele said it was only in countries like Zambia where a "chap" who failed to run a three-bedroomed lodge could be appointed minister for infrastructure development.

“Hence now you see the roads in Zambia look like the country has been through a civil war and yet the donors have put in a lot of money. It's a shame that chaps like that total failure can be given such a very important ministry...those close to Rupiah Banda should remind him that UNIP actually lost elections in 1991 as a result of the bad state of roads,” Kavindele said.

"Now you have a situation where a chap who can't even run a lodge is in charge of repairing roads, and he has failed, not that money is not there but because of incompetence. There is a huge pothole behind State House that I found an expatriate fellow one Sunday morning pouring concrete into it and I stopped to ask him, and he said to me that 'you Zambian people you pass through here every day and you let your roads passing through State House have such recurring potholes'."

Kavindele said President Banda could find someone better to run the Ministry of Works and Supply.

"The Luanshya turn-off road was repaired or rehabilitated at a cost of US $10 million and six months later the road again is back to where it was. So the President should look for serious people. Roads are very important, now donors have stopped funding roads," he said.

On Mulongoti's statement that Kavindele had credit because he even failed to explain how he lost the building at the Great North Road roundabout, Kavindele said he sold the building for a good price.

He said he had built the building to accommodate a telecommunications company he wanted to develop but when the deal fell through, the building became too big for him and he had to sell it.

On Mulongoti's statement that he would petition the MMD national executive committee (NEC) to pursue the matter where he allegedly issued a bounced K5 million cheque during nominations for the MMD presidency in 2008, Kavindele said Mulongoti should have done that two years ago.

"As far as I am concerned I have just heard about this cheque after I talked about the events in Mufumbwe," he said.

On Mulongoti's assertions that Kavindele allegedly obtained about 82,000 Rands from TST company with a view to deliver it to the party but had not done so, Kavindele said he was cleared by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over the matter.

"As minister if he has no confidence in the operations of ACC who cleared me on this matter, he is very welcome to reopen it so that I can also be given the opportunity to inform NEC on how I raised K800 million towards the election campaign of late president Levy Mwanawasa in 2001. I do hope that this meeting can be chaired by the President Mr Banda and allow me to bring a witness or two who are aware about the colossal sums that I raised for Levy's campaigns," Kavindele said.

"There is no single bank in town that will claim I owe them money...over the years I have invested wisely and I have assets that I can always convert to cash whenever I want."

Kavindele said he was already in the business of building Isuzu vehicles in Livingstone when Mulongoti was still working as a stall kapitao shop keeper for the late Dawson Lupunga.

"He was working as a shop keeper that boy for former minister Dawson Lupunga. Even there Lupunga had to close the shop because the chap was very incompetent...he nearly sent his employer Lupunga into bankruptcy," he said.

On Mulongoti's statement that although he was not a member of MMD, the party allowed him to challenge President Banda because the time for choosing candidates was too short to check people's backgrounds, Kavindele responded:

"What does he mean there wasn't sufficient time? The TST issue was discussed in 2002, so six years, he says there wasn't sufficient time? Now all these things just waited for me to talk about Mufumbwe? All these things are being said because I talked about Mufumbwe."

On Mulongoti's questioning of Kavindele's integrity such that he could even go to the extent of colouring his hair black, Kavindele responded: "He has talked about hair laughs? Oh! He is ... For a whole minister to be talking about how good looking the other person’s hair is. How one looks is a personal choice. This other one is really below me, now I will be operating at the same level as him."

Kavindele further claimed that Mulongoti could not say that he contributed nothing to the party because he took president Mwanawasa to all the parts of the country during the 2001 election campaigns.

Kavindele said as a result of his labour, new people in the MMD who were in other parties like Mulongoti were now benefiting.

Labels: AUDITOR GENERAL, CORRUPTION, ENOCH KAVINDELE, ROADS

posted by MrK @ 4:07 AM