Kalale can’t come back - Fr Luonde

Kalale can’t come back - Fr Luonde
By Mwala Kalaluka and Gift Chanda
Mon 31 Jan. 2011, 04:01 CAT

KITWE Anglican Church priest Fr Richard Luonde says fired Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) director Dan Kalale should stop insulting the intelligence of Zambians by insisting on getting his job back. And George Mpombo says President Rupiah Banda has laid a foundation stone to rig the general elections by getting rid of justice Florence Mumba as ECZ chairperson.

In an interview, Fr Luonde said instead of insulting people's intelligence through his insistence that he wanted to get back into the ECZ and complete his contract, Kalale should explain what led to his dismissal.

“I was surprised, today Dan Kalale wants to work up to February. Does he own ECZ? What does he want to accomplish in the remaining four weeks?” Fr Luonde asked. “Dan Kalale is one person who said he was going to disclose a lot of things against judge Florence Mumba which he has not yet done. Now he says, ‘I want to come back and work up to February.’ That is disrespecting the integrity of Zambians.”
Fr Luonde cautioned Kalale against taking Zambians for granted.

“Let him just keep quiet. He shouldn’t take us Zambians for granted because he is not the only educated Zambian. He was fired, period,” Fr Luonde said. “On the going of justice Florence Mumba, I am one of those people that held that woman in high esteem. She showed clearly that she is a woman with a pure and noble mind and in good standing with herself.”

Fr Luonde said very few people would have done what judge Mumba did given the circumstance that led to her resignation.

“Despite being criticised, very few people prefer to stand down,” Fr Luonde said. “This is a very sad development and again this is an election year and people who are supposed to run the elections begin to resign and the integrity of the ECZ is going to be doubted by Zambians.”

And Mpombo said the government had failed to handle the situation at ECZ properly because it had its hands dirt and was laying ground to rig this year’s elections.

“Its clear the government has got a hand in this matter and they cannot extricate themselves. This is pure skullduggery because the government wants to clear out possible obstacles for the forth coming general elections,” Mpombo said.

“So the removal of justice Mumba is a foundation stone to rig the elections. They know that she is uncompromised and committed. That’s why they wanted her out.”

Mpombo, who is Kafulafuta MMD member of parliament, said President Banda should be ashamed for hounding out justice Mumba in the most savage way when there were other important issues that have remained unanswered.

“Justice Florence Mumba has been shabbily treated by the government. They engineered the whole episode going by the excessive press coverage by government media and also coupled with the hostile stance by the government sponsored NGOs. If they are asking about following the tender procedures, we have seen the government failing to follow these procedures themselves. There are precedents. For example, when was the tender process on the renovations at State House done? In which newspaper was it advertised? Was it single sourcing or what?” Mpombo asked.

He said it was shameful that President Banda’s government was frustrating credible people like justice Mumba for the sake of hanging on to power.

“There are so many government institutions today who are in such a similar situation like ECZ. If you read the reports on the government institutions that have failed to follow procedures, you wonder what the government has done about them,” he said.

Mpombo said the government’s interference with ECZ had resulted in people losing confidence in the whole electoral process. He said President Banda's government was setting a very dangerous precedent for the future by tampering with the country’s “fragile” democracy.

“Instead of consolidating our democratic gains; consolidating the transparency in our electoral process we are weakening it. This whole thing has a political agenda attached to it, but as far as am concerned it is a serious indictment against the government’s integrity,” he said.

Mpombo challenged the government to explain to the nation if the right tender procedure was followed in the privatisation of Zamtel, the procurement of the mobile hospitals and the renovations at State House.

And Alliance for Democracy and Development president Charles Milupi said the government had shown its upper hand in the running of ECZ. He said judge Mumba was a woman of integrity and that having been a judge of international standing, there was a breath of fresh air when she was appointed to the ECZ.

“I see the hand of government in her unceremonial removal from the ECZ. There is a lot of suspicion and the government has to exculpate themselves,” Milupi said.

Milupi said it was unusual that when there was a tiff between an executive director and commissioners at ECZ, the executive director was given so much space in the state media. He said it was puzzling to see how the government swiftly removed judge Mumba from the ECZ when it was a known fact that the controlling officer was not the chairperson but the executive director.

“That clearly pointed to the fact that government has a hand in this. It is absolutely shameful. This government is staggering from one crisis to the other and in a very crucial year,” Milupi said. “What is at stake here as far as I am concerned is the independence and integrity of the ECZ.”