Govt distributing relief maize in Luena ahead of by-election

Govt distributing relief maize in Luena ahead of by-election
By Mwala Kalaluka in Luena
Sun 27 June 2010, 12:10 CAT

President Banda and first lady Thandiwe posing in front of a heap of salt during the tour of the Salt and Chemicals Company in Wavis Bay, Namibia
THE government is hastily distributing relief maize in several areas of the vast Luena Constituency in Western Province ahead of the August 5, 2010 by-election.

And Induna Sundano Sinvula of Mwene Chiengele’s Mushuwa Royal Establishment in Mongu has said there is nothing the MMD could give the people of Luena now.

A check by The Post in Ikwichi area of the constituency on Friday found a group of men off-loading 50 kilogramme (kg) bags of maize packed in Food Reserve Agency (FRA) sacks.

The bags of maize spotting some pests on them were being offloaded from a Fuso truck registration number ABM 6320 and stored in one of the buildings at Ikwichi Rural Health Centre.

In the vicinity, former Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Charles Milupi who is re-contesting the Luena by-election on the Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) ticket was addressing a campaign meeting.

Milupi, who is ADD leader, then approached the relief food distributors and asked them why they were coincidentally distributing it in view of the by-election campaign.

One of the men told him that the maize was to be distributed as food for work.
It was established that the government had within a week distributed relief maize in Isambai and Kate areas of Luena among others.

In an interview, Milupi said the relief food distribution was an indication of desperation in the MMD camp because they knew that they were losing Luena and Western Province.

“They have to go and get votes from elsewhere,” Milupi said. “We cried for relief food. There was nothing. The government could not bring relief food.”

On further inspection of the bags of maize, Milupi exclaimed and pointed out that the maize was rotten as seen from some pests on the sacks.

“People of Luena are being given rotten maize!” he exclaimed. “You want to kill the people even before they vote.”

Milupi said most residents of Luena had just harvested their maize and it was surprising that the MMD was desperately trying to buy votes through relief food distribution in June.

Milupi said the MMD’s desperation was also noted in the manner community development minister Michael Kaingu upped the women empowerment funds, which he personally distributed in some areas of Luena.

“All of a sudden because of the by-election in Luena, Kaingu himself moves from polling station to polling station,” he said. “This is the desperation of the MMD.”

Milupi said his campaign in Luena had so far placed the MMD in a desperate mode.
He said even the cheques that Kaingu had issued to ‘women’s clubs’ in the constituency could not be cashed at the banks in Mongu.

“Most of them (women) have been to the banks in Mongu to try and cash the cheques but they have been told to register a club first and that they need to pay K260,000 to open an account,” Milupi said.

“That process will last more than two months and by this time…the by-election will be over. Our suspicion is that the K5 million cheques are not backed by cash. That is how cruel the MMD party is that they can come and cheat.”

“I want to warn MMD and Mulyata who are involved in these schemes, that is the start of the concept of a warlord,” he said. “That is the start of a failed state.”

Milupi said that was how failed states like Somalia started.

“That is what Mulyata and his people want to start,” he said.

Milupi said Mongu District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) Mwangala Maopu, who is the potential MMD candidate in the Luena by-election had continued intimidating headmasters in the constituency.

However, Maopu recently declined to confirm whether or not he would contest the Luena seat and insisted that he was a civil servant.

But some teachers at Mange Basic School where MMD provincial chairman Simasiku Namakando addressed a campaign meeting on Thursday said the MMD would win because they were fielding Maopu.

Milupi said the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) had not allayed ADD’s fears that the forthcoming by-election in Luena would not be free and fair because the ruling party had engaged in the abuse of public resources to gain an advantageous position.

The MMD and the PF/UPND Pact are yet to officially announce their respective candidates in the by-election.

And Induna Sinvula in an interview at Ikwichi said the MMD government had failed the people of Luena.

“There is nothing they can give us now, which they did not give us then,” Induna Sinvula said. “How many times have we been crying for development? The government is not taking our complaints seriously.”

Induna Sinvula said although he was expected to be non-partisan, as a traditional leader, he would tell his children to vote for somebody who had exhibited exemplary leadership.

Milupi said the ADD had also verified reports that Mongu Central MMD parliamentarian Joseph Mulyata was indeed training some youths to go and fan violent acts in Luena, the Mufumbwe-style.