Maravi

Mpombo highlights flaws in Rupiah's Parliament address

Mpombo highlights flaws in Rupiah's Parliament address
By Kombe Chimpinde
Mon 20 Sep. 2010, 04:02 CAT

EXPELLED Kafulafuta MMD member of parliament George Mpombo has described President Rupiah Banda’s thinking as disillusioned over his speech when he opened Parliament on Friday.

And Mpombo has urged MMD to concentrate on ensuring that they retain the parliamentary seats they currently hold in 2011 rather than explaining developmental issues that they are incompetent to deal with.

Mpombo told Post Online in an interview after the opening of Parliament on Friday that President Banda’s speech was ambiguous and punctuated with boasting about not his own but late president Levy Mwamawasa’s projects.

“Generally I found it (speech) flat as well as ambiguous and also it went into engineering for next year’s election and a departure from the normal procedures in addressing the issues on the ground. For instance, he talked about the uniform fuel prices for all areas in the country,” he said.

“What he said was ambiguous because he did not give a time frame and measures that will be in effect and also he didn't tell the nation whether proper measures have been set up to be able to absorb transportation costs because it does make sense. People cannot take fuel to Kasama and sell it at the same price as those in Lusaka without their costs being subsidised.”

Mpombo said most projects that President Banda had boasted about in his speech where originated by the late president Mwanawasa.

“I would say that the issues that he talked about, for instance the road, development of roads, have been ongoing for a long time.

So what I would say is that I think there is disillusionment in Rupiah Banda's thinking that these road developments and most other projects are attributed to him,” he observed.

“He only became President in 2008 and these projects were there. The Mutanda-Chavuma road, he found the projects on the ground, even the Mchinji railway line, you remember it was started by Dr Kaunda then the project collapsed. Mwanawasa resuscitated the projects with Bingu wa Mutharika.”

He also dismissed government's self-praise that the country had recorded a bumper harvest due its good agriculture policies, adding that Zambia is not the only country that recorded a bumper harvest last season in the southern African region.

“That’s why you find that Congo is buying more maize from South Africa than Zambia because it is landing at a price which is much cheaper,” he said.

On the commissioning of Lusaka district hospitals, Mpombo said that the projects were not new as they were were commenced in the late Mwanawasa's administration. Mpombo has since urged the MMD government and its leader President Banda to embark on something that they were competent of doing.

“MMD should concentrate on retaining those constituencies under MMD rather than explaining issues that they are not competent to deal with,” said Mpombo.

Labels: GEORGE MPOMBO, KAFULAFUTA, MMD, RUPIAH BANDA, SPEECHES

posted by MrK @ 6:32 PM