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Kunda’s ‘childish’ prattle forces Milupi to leave Kufuluhela ceremony

Kunda’s ‘childish’ prattle forces Milupi to leave Kufuluhela ceremony
By Mwala Kalaluka in Mongu
Mon 26 July 2010, 14:00 CAT

ALLIANCE for Development and Democracy (ADD) candidate in the Luena by-election, Charles Milupi has said he walked away from this year’s Kufuluhela ceremony because Vice-President George Kunda used the occasion to engage in pure childish prattle.

Reacting to Vice-President Kunda’s scathing attack on him in the presence of Litunga Lubosi Imwiko II during the Kufuluhela ceremony held in Limulunga on Saturday, Milupi, a former Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman, said Vice-President Kunda’s conduct was an attack on Lozi tradition and the institution of the Litungaship.

Milupi said in spite of the high poverty levels in Western Province, which was a result of the MMD’s 18 years of mismanagement, the people of Western Province had certain things that they still valued.

“This is our tradition and also our King the Litunga. We have reverence for the Litunga and institution of the Litungaship and BRE,” Milupi said in an interview at his residence in Mongu on Sunday.

“The BRE have said time and again that the Kuomboka and Kufuluhela are not the time for politics and our knowledge as Lozi people is that on this special day, regardless of the guest of honour, the eyes of the multitudes of the people who come to witness the ceremony are focused on one person, the Litunga.”

Milupi said his party strictly adhered to the non-politicisation of the traditional ceremony by discouraging any form of party regalia or poster.

“Therefore, it is surprising that George Kunda, who yesterday was boasting of having married from this same province, can assail the Lozi tradition in the manner that he did by first of all allowing his cadres to dress in the MMD chitenge material and T-shirts contrary to the requirements of our tradition,” Milupi said.

“And when he was given a brief opportunity to speak, because normally guests of honour do not speak at the departure of the Litunga; it is usually the Ngambela who bids farewell to the villagers, he chose that time in the presence of His Majesty the Litunga to assail and attack one of the subjects and the child of the Litunga, and he went on and on about Milupi this, Milupi that, ADD that.”

Milupi said he found Vice-President Kunda’s behaviour most despicable.

“I find that behaviour and lack of respect for the Lozi tradition most despicable. In any case if the occasion…was to demonstrate their parties popularity in Limulunga village alone, there would have been nowhere for people to step, ADD would have produced multitudes,” Milupi said.

“Some people cried yesterday, just go to Limulunga and verify. He thought he was assaulting me as an individual.”

Milupi said out of respect for the Lozi tradition, he left the ceremony venue to let Vice-President Kunda continue with his address.

“Yes, I did,” Milupi said. “Because he continued even after the Induna interpreter fainted. He asked for another interpreter just to continue. What I find objectionable is that that was pure childish prattle. His speech was pure childish prattle.”

Milupi said it was a pity that Vice-President Kunda abused the Litunga’s presence to find a crowd to address.

“That speech yesterday was a death nail in the coffin of MMD in Luena and by implication in Western Province, and if it is in Western Province that it is the whole of Zambia,” Milupi said. The pond is dry. That ladder is being removed.”

Milupi said Vice-President Kunda’s behaviour showed the MMD’s wanton disregard for the BRE and the Lozi tradition, adding that his conduct was a follow-up to that of his boss President Rupiah Banda.

“This is not the first time since (President Rupiah) Banda came into office because Mwanawasa respected this tradition,” Milupi said. “You all recall that he became President in November 2008, in spite of the massive vote he got here, he went to Northern Province where they did not vote for him to thank them.”

Milupi recalled that for the first time in the history of the Kuomboka, President Banda as the guest honour at the 2009 Kuomboka was left by the Nalikwanda when it set sail without him because he was playing around in Mongu.

“The following year when he came for the Kuomboka, which is 2010, this year, in spite of the very well-known tradition that the Lishushu beret, even the Litunga puts on a red beret, President Banda came in a white beret,” Milupi said.

Milupi said the role of the white beret and the people who adorn it in Lozi tradition and the Kuomboka culture was very well-known.

“Also that President Banda’s white beret was another assault on our tradition, which Kunda has done,” Milupi said. “If he has any soul within himself, if he has any dignity at all, we want him to apologise.”

Milupi said the people of Western Province should see the MMD for what it is following Vice-President Kunda’s conduct at the Kufuluhela ceremony in Mongu.

During the Kufuluhela ceremony, Vice-President Kunda said Milupi was a day dreamer who had failed to perform in Parliament and that compared to Nalikwanda Constituency where there was an MMD parliamentarian, Luena was underdeveloped.

Vice-President Kunda said Milupi had failed to fulfil the promises he made to the people of Luena and that he usually told people that Constituency Development Fund (CDF), which he used to undertake development projects in Luena was from his pocket.

“Here in Luena Constituency with Mr Charles Milupi, you have been entertained and fed on promises,” Vice-President Kunda said. “I am told that he has made some sheds at one of the markets, claiming that this is money from his own pocket.”

Vice-President Kunda said Milupi only spent the CDF money on putting up a few iron sheets.

“And he claims that is development,” said Vice-President Kunda. “CDF is government and this is the same money that Maopu Mwangala is going to use for your own benefit.”
Vice-President Kunda said Milupi formed the ADD to satisfy his ego and nothing else.

And Milupi said Vice-President Kunda should distinguish between promises and possibilities. Milupi said the gross abuse of office that Nalikwanda MMD parliamentarian and former education minister Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa engaged in by allocating more high schools to his constituency had become an MMD campaign strategy in Luena.

Milupi said Prof Lungwangwa’s action caused uproar in Parliament, even among MMD parliamentarians and that they condemned him.

“Today that gross abuse of power is used as a campaign tool to show disparity between Nalikwanda and Luena,” said Milupi.

Labels: ADD, CHARLES MILUPI, GEORGE KUNDA, MMD

posted by MrK @ 4:42 PM