Maravi

Rupiah has abused my wife, complains HH

Rupiah has abused my wife, complains HH
By Chibaula Silwamba
Tue 06 July 2010, 04:02 CAT

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has abused my wife, UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema has complained. And Hichilema said President Banda hates Indians and extended his tribalism into racism.

Reacting to President Banda’s statement that his wife had not been seen in public, wondering whether he could be married to a mwenye a derogatory reference to an Indian who is hidden from the public, Hichilema said his wife, Mutinta, would not accept President Banda’s invitation for her to swim in the sewer pond.

“The President chooses to abuse my wife. A head of state chooses to abuse Hakainde’s wife, chooses to abuse a citizen’s wife. My wife does not engage herself in the petty talk, in the political talk. So the President is inviting my wife to get into those petty issues,” Hichilema said.

“My wife and I discussed this matter this Sunday morning and we agreed that she will not respond to the President’s invitation to go and swim in the sewer pond. She will not respond to that. But let me give him facts about my wife; I am married, I have three children – a daughter and two sons. I also have a large extended family.”

Hichilema accused President Banda of using a derogatory word against Indians, most of whom financed the head of state’s political campaigns.

“To accuse me that I am married to a mwenye Indian and he is using a derogatory term, the President is being racist. I consider the President’s statement as racist. The President begs money from Indians. We all know in this country that President Banda goes around begging for money from the Indians,” Hichilema said.

“Let us assume I was genuinely married to an Indian woman, so he would have been ridiculing me using a derogatory term, mwenye. The President is a racist. I am sending a message to those Indian businessmen who are helping him politically and privately, which I know is happening, that he just wants their money. He doesn’t respect them. For me in my business I have Indian partners, white partners and Zambian partners.”

On arrival at Ndola International Airport on Friday, President Banda said Hichilema had no right to accuse the government of corruptly privatising Zamtel because he is a man who acquired his wealth through privatising 18 companies. President Banda said Hichilema needed to reveal a lot about himself before he could ask Zambians to vote for him as President.

“Who has even seen a picture of Hakainde’s wife in the newspaper or even a picture of him playing with his children? Why is he hiding his wife? Nimwenye? Is she an Indian?” President Banda asked.

“He has no brothers, no sisters, no uncle, acokela kuti wamene uyu mambala? Where does this crook come from? Perhaps he had a quarrel with his father and that is why he has no respect for old people.”

But Hichilema said unlike President Banda, he did not have hatred against other tribes and races.

“I respect all of them but here is a President who does not respect certain races. Beyond his promotion of a tribal agenda, he is now extending this abuse into racism. An Indian is a human being,” he said.

Hichilema said contrary to President Banda’s insinuation about his nationality, he is a Zambian from Monze in Bweengwa Constituency. He challenged President Banda to go to Monze and ask anyone about his village and they would take him to Bweengwa Constituency where he is even a village headman.

Hichilema said his wife Mutinta, who hails from Central Province, is a village headwoman. He said President Banda should have consulted the Zambia State Intelligence Services (ZSIS) to give him facts about him and his wife before making a statement based on speculation.

“If he was able to use his Intelligence, he would have known that. But I know that the Intelligence are now cheating him; they are misleading him deliberately because many of them are our supporters, anyway. So they are misleading him deliberately so that he can walk into a ditch,” Hichilema said.

“My family has been in Bweengwa probably for over 2,000 or 3,000 years. I am not like him who was born in Gwanda Zimbabwe. I was born in Bweengwa and my parentage is known. Besides, I am a senior headman there. I have heard him say I am a Namibian, I am a Ndebele from Zimbabwe. No, no, no. That is not true. None of that is true. I don’t think he should continue discussing this matter. He must discuss challenges of development.”

Hichilema said he had taken note of President Banda’s verbal abuse against him.

“In Mufumbwe he called me a puppy and he knows the reference I made in Mongu was to say that the President must not promote violence MMD cadres were beating UPND members. He has called me several names in the past,” Hichilema said.

“I want Zambians to know that their President is an insulting President. He provokes insults but my response to him is that I am not a mambala crook. If I am a mambala for speaking on behalf of Zambians that Zamtel was corruptly privatised and the country is not run properly then I am a happy mambala. My character is known and anybody who cares would know who I am.”

Hichilema said the privatisations that he participated in were not corrupt hence President Banda could not compare them to the Zamtel one.

“I think President Rupiah Banda must understand that every citizen of Zambia has a right to comment about the affairs of our country Zambia. Hakainde is no exception. I will continue commenting on a corruption of Zamtel and he should not attempt to stop me from doing that because he knows very well that he and Dora Siliya corruptly sold Zamtel,” Hichilema said.

“The initial steps they took of appointing RP Capital Partners, no tender procedures followed and that will not change because that is a fact. He must simply not try and silence all of us who are complaining about this. We have valid complaints and when he makes comparisons to other privatisations, he does not mean that when other privatisations were conducted correctly and he conducts the Zamtel privatisation wrongly and then he can argue on the basis of that, that there were other privatisations, it’s not correct.”

Hichilema maintained that the Zamtel transaction would never be clean because it was corrupt from its inception.

“In the same vein, he says that because the privatisation of Zamtel is now legal so no one should question it. It doesn’t mean that when you corruptly engage in a transaction and then later legalise it, should mean people have no complaint. That is wrong,” Hichilema said.

“And I don’t want to be dragged to his petty issues of Hakainde’s business enterprise. I have been in businessman for a long, long time and I don’t want to get into those issues. If I had committed any crime, the appetite that Rupiah Banda has for locking up people in opposition and those that he sees as competitors, he could have locked me up already. He calls me mambala crook, he is insulting but I am not going to insult him.”

Hichilema told MMD members to realise that their President was the one who provoked insults.

“He calls me mambala. I am not calling him any name. I am simply asking him to take responsibility on behalf of the people of Zambia because he is in that State House to work for the people of Zambia, not for himself. So I am not going to return the insults. Let the people now know who likes insulting. He calls Hakainde mambala, he calls Sata mambala,” Hichilema said.

“I did not insult him when I was talking about donors. The donors were right to ask for accountability. Zambians are right to ask for accountability. I am right to ask for accountability.”

Hichilema wondered why President Banda was jealous of him.

“I think his comment about my so-called wealth is simply a shame. How can a President be jealous of his own citizen? For me, if I became President, I want to promote citizens to have a comfortable life, to do business. He should be proud,” said Hichilema.

“What is the Citizen Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) for? Is it not for making Zambians improve in business enterprise? Here is Hakainde who is doing business and the President is jealous of a citizen. So what do you think that citizen will do? He will victimise Hakainde.”

Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, INSULTS, MUTINTA HICHILEMA, POLITICS, PRIVATISATION, RUPIAH BANDA, ZAMTEL

posted by MrK @ 7:48 PM