Maravi

Rupiah goes for Mulongoti, Sata

Rupiah goes for Mulongoti, Sata
By Bright Mukwasa
Mon 09 May 2011, 04:02 CAT

MIKE Mulongti is a frustrated person and his tricks are catching up with him, says President Rupiah Banda. And President Banda explained why he wants to take credit for the projects initiated by the late president Levy Mwanawasa without giving him credit.

Meanwhile, President Banda says Michael Sata’s accusation that his government has failed to fight corruption are rantings of a frustrated man.

Speaking to journalists at the Lusaka International Airport before leaving for Turkey yesterday, President Banda said Mulongoti’s accusation that he had erased late president Mwanawasa’s vision showed that he had nothing to talk about.

“He’s just a frustrated person and his tricks have caught up with him. When he was in MMD he was making a lot of statements in the press some of which he didn't clear with anybody. He wanted to cover up, he wanted us to believe that he was really fighting for the government, but we were seeing through all this and we finally removed him,” President Banda said.

Mulongoti said the nation had witnessed a total erasing of late President Mwanawasa’s name in the projects President Banda was commissioning.

“You have got all these posters going up showing President Banda. Some of those projects started much earlier when president Mwanawasa was there. So why is that the credit just goes to him (Banda) alone? You cannot rub off history because that is part of Mwanawasa’s legacy. To try and just obliterate it is not right,” Mulongoti said.

But President Banda said Mulongoti had nothing to say.

“A friend of mine was telling me that it’s like a driver and his assistant they are driving, moving cement to Solwezi and when they get to Kabwe the driver falls ill and he’s taken to the hospital, but his assistant takes on the truck and takes the cement all the way to Solwezi. When he gets to Solwezi, you say thank you for bringing this and the thanks goes to the one who remained behind in Kabwe. It does not make any sense to say the continuation of what we are doing together, of what my predecessor, we came from the same party, he appointed me and the people of Zambia endorsed my being President. So Mr Mulongoti has nothing to talk about,” said President Banda.

He also said Mulongoti, his former works and supply minister, must no longer be called honourable.

“He is not honourable anymore. I nominated him and I removed him. Stop calling him honourable Mulongoti, he is just Mike Mulongoti,” he said.

President Banda said Mulongoti’s calls for change of government did not make sense.

“I was elected in 2008 and after the next election, after five years I am leaving. So it does not make sense for this change, change. They hope it will work like it did in 1991, it won’t. The people are much cleverer than that,” he said.

President Banda said if Mulongoti had nothing to say he better keep quiet and see how things would unfold.

“If he talks and says that people want change ,who is newer in the system? I am younger than Mr Sata, he had been in MMD much longer than myself, he himself Mike Mulongoti, had been in MMD much longer. He (Sata) was its national secretary. If he claims that Mr Sata should be president...I don’t know how he’ll be walking that time,” President Banda said.

“If he knew that our party was going to lose elections why didn’t he resign himself, why did he wait until I sacked him?”

And President Banda said Sata's accusations that his government had failed to fight corruption had been made numerous times.

“He (Sata) was in government and in MMD, he only moved when the party did not adopt (him) to be president. So those are rantings of a frustrated man,” he said.

President Banda said Sata could make accusations of him failing to fight corruption as many times as he wanted.

He also said Sata’s trip to the Oxford University in the UK was fake.

“And I received a report from the UK that it was a fake trip, it had no significance whatsoever. He was not invited by Oxford University per se, he was invited by a study group to go there. We saw the pictures in The Post,” he said.

President Banda said Sata exposed himself by going to Oxford through failing to provide answers to the questions he was being asked.

“He exposed himself like he does here in Zambia.You ask him this question, when answering you he is asking you a question as well. What kind of a president is he going to make if he can’t answer questions which the people want answers to?” asked President Banda.

President Rupiah Banda yesterday left for Turkey to attend the 4th United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

President Banda said Turkey was a strategic economic partner and believed government could forge deeper relations with that country.

Labels: MICHAEL SATA, MIKE MULONGOTI, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 5:09 PM