Rupiah to get brief from Kunda over M’membe

Rupiah to get brief from Kunda over M’membe
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sun 06 June 2010, 04:01 CAT

President Banda greeting pilots upon arrival from France at the Lusaka International Airport on Friday - Picture by Thomas Nsama

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda on Friday said he did not want to get involved in Fred M’membe’s jailing until after he gets a brief from Vice-President George Kunda. And President Banda said the just-ended France-Africa summit will greatly benefit Zambia and Africa in general.

Asked to comment on the four-month imprisonment of M’membe, President Banda, on return from France, said he was yet to be briefed.

“I just heard of it as I came down here. You know these are legal matters and I don’t want to get involved until I have had a chance to talk to my minister of justice and get a brief about it,” President Banda said.

On his health deputy minister Dr Solomon Musonda’s attempted murder case in which he shot and wounded a Patriotic Front (PF) cadre in Serenje District on Tuesday evening, President Banda said: “I have just arrived; I wasn’t aware of this until now when I came. I would like to ask that I don’t make a comment on what happened in my absence.”

And President Banda said some great benefits would come out of the France-Africa Summit, which he attended on Monday and Tuesday in the French city of Nice.

“As you know, we had three major subjects; one was on development and climate, the other one was for peace and security in Africa and the other one was the development issues between ourselves and the French government. It was really wonderful to see both French speaking Africans as well as Portuguese speaking Africans and English speaking Africans together,” President Banda said.

“As you know France is going to be the chair of the G20 and we have agreed amongst ourselves that France will try and carry some of our issues especially on issues of international governance, in other words permanent membership to UN Security Council and other such decisions. We have agreed with France that they will carry our message but they have to wait until when the AU will meet where we are going to finalise our position and pass it on to France. This was a very useful meeting.”

He also said he met several French investors that showed interest to do business in Zambia.

“I spent one and half days talking to various investors, people who want to come to Zambia, to invest in various fields. I look forward to greater achievement in that sense. The delegations will start to come from next week onwards,” said President Banda.