Maravi

Rupiah justifies his ‘abuse of office’

Rupiah justifies his ‘abuse of office’
By Patson Chilemba
Wed 03 Nov. 2010, 04:01 CAT

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda yesterday said those opposed to the removal of the abuse of office offence from the ACC Act do not understand what the government is trying to do.

And President Banda has said the PF women who have planned to stage a protest at the National Assembly building today against the removal of abuse of office are being used by those who have political agendas.

Speaking to journalists shortly before departure for Chipata, President Banda said the government was trying to transform the laws of the country to be in line with the current democratic dispensation.

“I am privileged to have been part of the system before, a person such as yourself cannot build a house; if you build a house we can come and arrest you and say that ‘you are earning only so much, how did you manage to build this house?’ If you drive and people can ask you ‘how did you afford to buy this car?’ That is presuming somebody guilty before he has been tried and found guilty,”

President Banda said. “We think this is retrogressive and anti-democratic. The people who are arguing against I think they don’t understand what we are really trying to do.”

President Banda said there were adequate laws that could deal with corruption issues, adding that there were many corruption cases the government was handling now.

He said with more explanation from the government, the people would be able to understand what the government was trying to do.

President Banda said the government was not trying to avoid fighting corruption because the economic development that the country was aspiring for could not be achieved when there was rampant corruption in the country.

However, President Banda said at the same time the government wanted to protect the freedom of the people.

He said the PF women who had planned to stage a protest at the National Assembly building today against the removal of abuse of office were being used by those who had political agendas.

President Banda said they were protesting over what they did not understand.

On his two years in office, President Banda said the main challenge was to complete some projects which were left by late president Levy Mwanawasa such as schools, health centres and repair of road infrastructure.

He said there was a lot of work ahead.

President Banda said with the growth in the economy, the challenge was to generate more electricity to the country.

He said his government could not afford to sit back just because it had worked hard.

President Banda thanked the media for following up on what the government was doing.

“This is my anniversary statement to the people,” said President Banda.

Labels: ACC, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 2:18 AM