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Shame MMD on Thursday - Sata

Shame MMD on Thursday - Sata
By George Chellah, Abigail Chaponda in Ndola and Patson Chilemb
Tue 03 Aug. 2010, 04:00 CAT

PF leader Michael Sata addressing a rally at Ndola’s Chifubu Stadium yesterday to drum up support for the party’s candidate Susan Kawandami ahead of the Chifubu parliamentary by-election this Thursday – Picture by Abel Mambwe
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) leader Michael Sata yesterday urged the people of Chifubu to shame the MMD in Thursday’s by-election.

Addressing a rally to drum up support for PF candidate Susan Kawandami at Chifubu grounds in Ndola, Sata urged the people of Chifubu to ensure that they get back the votes which they gave President Rupiah Banda in the 2008 presidential elections. Sata told the people to shame the MMD by voting for Kawandami.

“The people that are saying the PF is finished, yes, I agree with them. So on Thursday vote for PF and shame them. Our friends are finished,” Sata said. “Mu 2008 mwampele 10,000, Banda mwamupele 5,000 In 2008 you gave me 10,000 votes while you gave Banda 5,000 votes. There is nothing he has done to deserve the 5,000 votes you gave him so get them back.”

Sata said there would be nothing for the MMD if people worked together.

“The women and youths of Chifubu have worked so hard. We have even heard of your hard work in Lusaka during campaigns here. So on Thursday, just break the watch MMD symbol,” he said.

Sata urged the people to ensure that the MMD does not rig the elections by voting early.

“Wake up early to go and vote. You can even go and sleep at the polling stations so that by the time it is 10:00 hours on voting day, the ballot boxes would have even known the message,” he said. “In Kasama we won because we woke up early. The women and the young men slept at the polling station.”

Sata bemoaned the poverty levels in Chifubu Constituency.

“When people have jobs they will even stop stealing and other vices,” he said.

Sata told the people of Chifubu that God had given them another chance of electing a genuine member of parliament through this by-election.

“Your previous MP was sweet-talked, he followed money at the NCC National Constitutional Conference. Next year when it comes to picking parliamentary candidates don’t look at money or faces, look at the work people have done,” he said.

Sata urged the people of Chifubu to collect the monies and gifts from the MMD during the election campaigns.

“Batila umutaba weshilu bakombola ilyolipenene. Kaingu is busy giving money to women in markets. Get it, if Frank Ng’ambi MMD candidate brings beer, drink the beer because Ng’ambi was just a printer so where is he getting the money to flash around,” Sata wondered.

“Those that are coming to get your NRCs National Registration Cards and voters cards, tell them that ‘leave the money first and come and collect the cards after voting’.”

Sata said PF had already started rehearsing for 2011.

”Ba mayo lekeni tukesepyange calo country women, let us come and put things in order. We have to come and change the country. The country is destroyed. The cemeteries are full, there are no drugs in hospitals, we want to come and change things,” he said. “So on Thursday, you have to break the watch. Rupiah is just playing. Today, he is in Livingstone, tomorrow he will be here to come and say what?”

Sata said President Banda had started shutting down companies.

“Banda is busy closing down companies that is why his cheeks are almost falling off. Rupiah wants to close Indeni saying he will be buying fuel, Zesco tariffs are also high and so is the price of charcoal. Rupiah has even sold Zamtel, Rupiah is competing with Chiluba. Actually Rupiah wants to get more than Chiluba,” he said.

Sata asked the people to forgive Vice-President George Kunda’s gaffes.

He also wondered why Energy Regulation Board (ERB) chairman Sikota Wina
was being referred to as party Lusaka Province patron.

“What position has MMD task force chairperson Joe Malanji got in MMD? When you hear people saying that ‘MMD task force’ then the leadership or the MMD in the province has failed to work. In Lusaka they are even calling Sikota Wina as MMD patron. There is nothing like patron in the MMD constitution, I was party national secretary and there is no provision for patron for Lusaka Province,” said Sata.

Earlier in Ndola, Vice-President Kunda’s motorcade was forced to move off the road to pave way for Sata’s huge convoy as he headed to Chifubu for the rally.

PF deputy national chairman Simon Mukupa tore a copy of the draft constitution and threw it in the crowd, saying it was just fit for marketeers to use as wrappers for vegetables.

The rally was also attended by PF and UPND officials from the Copperbelt.

And in an interview in Lusaka, Sata said the MMD was headed for the worst humiliating defeat in Chifubu.
Sata said he was confident of a PF victory.

He said what mattered now was the margin by which the PF would scoop the seat.

“MMD is headed for the worst humiliating defeat. Yes, because in 2008, Rupiah Banda ‘Gwandared’ 5,000 votes from me. And we are not looking at the 10,000 I had. We are looking at recovering the 5,000 which Rupiah Banda stole,” Sata said.

On the attacks on him by National Democratic Focus (NDF) president Ben Mwila (BY) that he should stop making wild allegations against President Banda to avoid losing respect in the eyes of the voters, Sata said Mwila’s mind needed examination.

“BY needs to go to a mental hospital to be examined. Is it not Malawian President Bingu Wa Mutharika who said Banda helped him to secure a second term of office? Now what have I lied? What I am saying is what has Rupiah Banda got to do with Malawi? It is Bingu who said without Rupiah Banda ‘I wouldn’t have got a landslide’,” Sata said.

“We didn’t see Rupiah Banda campaigning openly in Malawi? What was Rupiah Banda doing in Malawian politics?”

Sata warned that MMD Parliamentary Chief Whip Vernon Mwaanga and Mwila would one day be answerable for their wrongdoing.

“BY is haunted by the money he … for repairing Zambia National Building Society. That money haunts him. He will always comment on things which he is not supposed to because he feels Rupiah Banda might change his mind and arrest him,” Sata said.

“Where are the arms which he and his brother former president Frederick Chiluba paid US $20 million to Katebe Katoto? Because he was defence minister, he should be arrested and probed. That is why you find that he will always be commenting on things he doesn’t understand to protect his skin.”

Sata said whether Mwila liked it or not, he would one day account to the Zambian people who are the real owners of the resources.

Mwila was quoted in yesterday’s edition of the state-owned and government-controlled Times of Zambia saying Sata made statements without facts.

He said Sata must learn to respect foreign dignatories such as visiting heads of state, especially when they were still in the country.

Mwila was reacting to Sata’s earlier statement that President Banda helped to tamper with the elections in which President Wa Mutharika emerged victorious.

Last week on Thursday during a state banquet hosted in his honour, President Wa Mutharika said President Banda helped him in the campaigns to secure a second term in office.

Labels: BY-ELECTIONS, MMD, SATA

posted by MrK @ 3:59 AM