Kabimba demands explanation on arms deal from Rupiah

Kabimba demands explanation on arms deal from Rupiah
By George Chellah
Sun 24 Apr. 2011, 04:01 CAT

RUPIAH must explain his alleged involvement in the US$100 million arms deal, says Wynter Kabimba. Commenting on former defence minister George Mpombo’s insistence that President Rupiah Banda had his fingers in the military arms deal, Kabimba, who is PF secretary general, urged President Banda to speak out on the matter.

“The English adage that ‘silence means consent’ seems to apply to the allegations by former defence minister George Mpombo that Rupiah Banda knows something about the
alleged arms deal which involved his children,” Kabimba said.

“I challenge RB to issue an equivocal statement to the Zambian public that the allegations by Mpombo are baseless and that no such a deal has ever taken place during his tenure as President. RB must explain his alleged involvement in the arms deal.

“In the absence of such a statement, the Zambian people should realise that another five years of RB in government and the MMD would give rise to a paternalistic regime like that of former president Suhato in Indonesia or that of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt who now faces corruption charges with his two sons and his crony ministers who always thought that Mubarak could rule Egypt ad infinitum.”

He said it was surprising that the President could decide to speak through chief government spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha and other government officials over such serious allegations.

“Unless, the President can come out with a personal statement to the public, members of the public will have to deem the allegations by the former defence minister as credible. This is more so that these allegations seem to touch on the President and his family,” Kabimba said.

He said the emerging trend in Africa is for heads of state to run government affairs as if they were family commercial enterprises.

“In this respect, Zambia seems to be joining the ranks of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and the Central African Republic. These have been regimes, which have been run and controlled by the respective presidents and their families,” Kabimba said.

“The result of such syndrome has been the concentration of power in the president and his family; patronage for the president’s cronies who have joined the president’s family in the plunder of public resources, oppression and tyranny against opposition political opponents and the breakdown of the institutions of democratic governance.”

Kabimba said the Jasmine Revolution currently sweeping the Arab World was as a result of the levels of abject poverty afflicting the majority of citizens in those countries while they saw the President and his family living in extreme affluence.

“The story by Mpombo as former defence minister as it stands should be a reminder to the Zambian people of the Chiluba era during which the man accumulated over 200 pairs of shoes when an ordinary person could not even afford a pair of flip flops or pata pata,” Kabimba said.

“Such an insatiable appetite for material possessions for the President and his family is a clear indicator of a leadership that does not have the welf are of the citizens at heart.”