Maravi

Rupiah thrives on tribalism - Sata

Rupiah thrives on tribalism - Sata
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sun 07 Nov. 2010, 10:28 CAT

RUPIAH Banda thrives on tribalism and he should not fool Zambians that he abhors it, PF leader Michael Sata said yesterday.

Commenting on President Banda’s statement that tribalism was the most abominable thing that any Zambian could commit, Sata said President Banda was not making sense because he was one of the people campaigning on tribal lines in his homeland of Eastern Province.

“Rupiah was trying to fool the people thinking Zambians are stupid. When he is in Eastern Province, he survives by tribe. When he goes somewhere else, he doesn’t want others to be practicing tribalism. That is typical of Mr Banda,” Sata said.

During the commissioning of the Zimba-Livingstone road on Friday, President Banda said he did not like tribalism.

However, during the 2008 presidential elections campaign, President Banda, then acting President, urged easterners to vote for him because he was their ”own son”. A fortnight ago, he repeated the same message as he appealed for re-election votes in next year’s polls.

And commenting on Konkola Copper Mine’s (KCM) latest contamination of the Kafue River, which is the main source of drinking water for people on the Copperbelt, Sata said the government did not care about the mine’s pollution of the Kafue River in Copperbelt Province because government officials drank water from bottles. Sata said the government had neglected the people that depend on the river for their drinking water.

“They can’t act as a government, they can’t act on FAZ; they can’t on violence in Western Province, they can’t act on the endangering of water, which a lot of people drink in Copperbelt Province because there is no government,” said Sata.

“They are not only neglecting the people of Copperbelt but all Zambians because Kafue River doesn’t start and end up in Copperbelt. Kafue goes right through even here in Lusaka Province. If Kafue is contaminated even people in Lusaka will die. And because government leaders drink water from bottles, they don’t care about the lives of people exposed to contaminated water.”

Labels: KCM, MICHAEL SATA, RUPIAH BANDA, TRIBALISM

posted by MrK @ 4:44 PM