Maravi

DC beats Mpongwe PF secretary

DC beats Mpongwe PF secretary
By Darious Kapembwa in Kitwe
Tue 02 Nov. 2010, 04:00 CAT

MPONGWE district commissioner Rasford Bulaya has assaulted newly-elected PF district secretary Joseph Mulenga after a tribal argument that Bembas cannot be leaders in “Lambaland.” According to Mulenga, Bulaya allegedly beat him up on Sunday after learning that he had just been elected district secretary for Mpongwe yet he does not hail from the area.

“He found us having a drink at his wife’s shop, so he asked us what we were doing and we told him that we had just come from having elections, so he got interested and asked who had been elected so we told him. That is when he said ‘Imwe mwe ba Bemba you Bembas you are confusing us here, this is not your area. Plus iwe (you) George I have planned to crush you’. He went out of the shop and his wife actually told us that he was just drunk and he would calm down,” Mulenga narrated.

“But shortly afterwards he returned and demanded that we move out and he grabbed me, hit me against the table and threw me out, that’s how we left, right now I have painful wait because when we went to the hospital there was no doctor.”

PF Mpongwe district chairman George Nsali explained that Bulaya openly declared that he could not allow Bembas to take leadership roles in the Lambaland.

“What happened was that we as PF were having our district elections and immediately after the elections the four of us (Barry Mukosa and Patrick Chirwa stopped over to have a drink at Bulaya’s shop. When we went to the shop, Bulaya’s wife was at the counter and (she) served us the drinks but as we were just about to get a second round of drinks Bulaya came in and started asking questions about the outcome of our elections and when he was told that Mulenga had been elected secretary, Bulaya got upset and started saying you ‘Bembas are bringing confusion in our land, I will not allow a Bemba to be a leader here whether in opposition or whatever’… and that’s how he pounced on Mulenga, threw him on the table and hit him hard,” Nsali also narrated.

“While he was pushing Mulenga out of the shop he was shouting on top of his voice that Mpongwe was for Lambas and not Bembas such that even his wife was very disappointed and she bitterly complained. That’s how we left and went to the police and later to the hospital.”

When contacted about the incident Bulaya, who sounded apprehensive said he could not allow politics at his shop.

“Excuse me, excuse me no politics in my shop, why holding a clandestine meeting in my shop? If I beat anyone let them go to the police,” Bulaya said before he hung up.

Later the same evening, Bulaya phoned this reporter again on a land line saying: “Am a friend of the press, please don’t be biased in your report, I never beat anyone but I just pushed him out of the shop, because that is my wife’s shop, what were they doing there? Nga bachilamfwaila abakashi (what if they were proposing to my wife)? That guy (Mulenga) I know him, he’s not Lamba, why must he start claiming to be one just because he has lived here?”

Challenged on his use of tribal remarks against Mulenga, Bulaya again retorted: “Nothing please, don’t be biased, write a fair report.”

Meanwhile, an MMD insider in Mpongwe revealed that Bulaya has been in support of President Rupiah Banda’s tribal campaign in Chipata recently hence his actions where he called on people in Eastern Province to vote for him because he was ‘their child.’

The source said Bulaya allegedly summoned MMD members and openly told them to ensure people who did not hail from Mpongwe should have a tough time in politics.

“In fact he often referred to the President’s speech in Chipata recently where he congratulated Timothy Nyirenda for making tribal remarks,” said the source.

Labels: JOSEPH MULENGA, RASFORD BULAYA

posted by MrK @ 3:28 PM