Maravi

Chitala certain of PF victory

Chitala certain of PF victory
By Patson Chilemba
Sat 30 Apr. 2011, 04:01 CAT

PF will certainly win this year’s general election because they are well represented and have a progressive national programme, says Dr Mbita Chitala.

And Dr Chitala said President Rupiah Banda’s decision to appoint education deputy minister Dr Boniface Kawimbe as his national campaign manager was a very desperate move to win Northern Province votes.

Featuring on a Hot FM radio programme yesterday, Dr Chitala, who is Zambia’s former ambassador to Libya and a co-founder of the MMD, said the PF would win going by the current analysis and work already put in.

“Yes, the PF will certainly win. They are much more represented everywhere and they have got a progressive programme which citizens support, and I think we should give them the credit, the support. And we shall work towards ensuring that they win massively,” Dr Chitala said.

He said leaders of PF were well meaning to serve Zambians saying that was why patriotic citizens were endorsing PF president Michael Sata. “In any case, even my travels as I go around I can see the PF winning with a landslide,” Dr Chitala said. He said an alliance would be a much easier way of defeating the MMD, but the PF still stood a better chance of winning if they went it alone.

“They just lost by 35,000 last time, I think they have done their work and they are much more experienced and organised… in my view, even as they are now on their own, they are quite afar from MMD in terms of winning,” Dr Chitala said.

“I have been travelling across the country, I feel time for change has come and it is based on concrete programmes to achieve.”

Dr Chitala said President Banda should not take credit for programmes which were concretised by the late president Levy Mwanawasa. He said any leader that would have come on board after president Mwanawasa would still have enjoyed the benefits of his hard work.

Dr Chitala said after the country qualified for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative during president Mwanawasa’s reign, a condition was given that the money should be channeled into sectors such as health and education. He said had President Banda continued where president Mwanawasa left the country’s growth could have tripled.

Dr Chitala said President Banda had negated on the issue of windfall tax for the mines and was still determined to give the Zambian people a one-party constitution when the people were calling for a totally new one. He said poverty in Zambia was still riding high at 73 per cent, while zero-tolerance against corruption had been abandoned through the removal of the abuse of office clause from the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) Act.

Dr Chitala said he found the PF manifesto keen on tackling poverty and reviewing taxes on the country’s minerals, as well as taking steps to deliver a people-driven constitution within 90 days.

Asked by the interviewer where the true blue MMD members were when the party was being taken over by the ‘UNIPists’ led by President Banda, Dr Chitala said ruling party members were naïve to allow such a situation to happen because they should have stopped it.

He said the challenge was about what to do next. Dr Chitala said the current scenario was retrogressive because it did not allow for the expansion of democracy. “What has happened is that there is inertia in government and we are partly to blame that we allowed it.

It is us who installed Mr Banda to be President and we regret,” Dr Chitala said. “Yes, I think we should apologise to our members that we assumed we would improve on what Mwanawasa had left.

But we have not, we are to blame.” Dr Chitala said the MMD had been turned into UNIP such that people like UNIP parliamentarian Mkhondo Lungu was now running the Ministry of Home Affairs, while William Banda was provincial chairperson in Lusaka.

Dr Chitala said he found Chanda Chimba’s documentaries on the state-owned and government-controlled ZNBC obnoxious, saying someone should file in an injunction to restrain the airing of the documentaries just as the MMD did in 1991.

On the decision by President Banda to drop parliamentary chief whip Vernon Mwaanga as his campaign manager after differing on the candidatures of Sylvia Masebo and Major Richard Kachingwe at the recently-held MMD national convention, Dr Chitala said the appointment of Dr Kawimbe in Mwaanga’s place was a misplacement of skill. He said knowing Dr Kawimbe as he did, he might have accepted the position under duress.

Dr Chitala said he knew Dr Kawimbe would want to be with him in the PF because they both stood for the advancement of the country. “I would just request him to decline. Let them appoint somebody else. It would be in his own interest that he declines this offer and joins progressive Zambians that want change.

As a Catholic, he knows what I mean,” said Dr Chitala. “As a Catholic he should not embarrass the multitude of Catholics who have already decided for change and are supporting PF.”

Labels: MBITA CHITALA, PF

posted by MrK @ 11:24 AM