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Zambians are this year going to fire Rupiah - Sata

Zambians are this year going to fire Rupiah - Sata
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Tue 19 July 2011, 14:00 CAT

RUPIAH Banda is going to be fired by the Zambian people this year because he has failed, says PF leader Michael Sata. Featuring on Breeze FM’s political hour programme yesterday, Sata said the difference between President Banda and him was that he had never been fired in life.

“The difference between Comrade Rupiah Banda and I, is that I have never been fired in life, but Comrade Banda wherever he goes he is being fired. Even this one (presidency) where he is, the people of Zambia are going to fire him because he is just enjoying himself left, right and centre,” Sata said.

He said if Dr Kenneth Kaunda was as reckless as the current government is, a lot of development projects would not have been done.

“Any government must realise that we have problems in Zambia - we have the highest levels of poverty, we have people who cannot manage their own families, we have children who have been kicked out of schools. When you go to hospitals you don’t get free medical services, they give you prescriptions to buy drugs elsewhere,” Sata said.

He said the PF wanted to reduce poverty and bring respect and integrity to the people of Zambia. Asked what he would do in an event that he lost this year’s elections, Sata said he was one person who doesn’t want bloodshed.

“I did not lose the 2006 elections but I went public, I went to ZNBC, appealed to my supporters not to take to the streets like Ivory Coast because I hate to see the blood of any person,” Sata said.

“In 2008, Mr Rupiah Banda did not win the 35,000 votes from Eastern Province, he went to win in Western Province. I even went with Mr Sebastian Zulu to court and the High Court said they could not recount the votes because I wanted them to recount. But I still went public and appealed to the public. …I have survived for 10 years in the opposition but wherever Rupiah Banda goes I can go, whatever Rupiah Banda eats I can eat,” Sata said.

He said he was travelling around the country to see the poverty because he could not talk about something he did not know. Sata said he was much stronger than what some people thought. And during the programme, Mangani said President Banda was not being told the truth about what was obtaining in the country. He said Sata deserved to be president because he had done his homework.

Mangani said the issue of wind of change had nothing to do with his personal relationship with President Rupiah Banda.

On Radio Maria’s good governance programme that was aired three hours later, Sata said without the church that had done a lot for the country, he did not know how Zambia would be.

He said Mangani was a Catholic and that a real Catholic could not cheat.

Sata said the current policy of brutality against human beings in protecting animals was not a good policy.

He pledged that the PF government would place emphasis on the protection of people than animals in the current animal-human conflict that has seen a growing number of deaths among people living near game areas.

He also expressed happiness with the re-opening of the Chipata Central constituency office that was closed by angry MMD cadres last week.

On maize marketing, Sata said it was the government and not the Food Reserve Agency that had failed the Zambian people by taking money meant for maize purchase to minister’s campaigns.

PF provincial chairperson Lucas Phiri said Zambia needed Sata for president because he was hard working.

Phiri said he, together with Mangani, had observed that the most experienced person to serve the Zambian people was Sata.

He said Mangani left MMD because he was a genuine person committed to serving people.

“When Mangani realised that he had no peace in MMD I just invited him to say why you can’t just come so that we work with Sata,” said Phiri.

Labels: BREEZE FM, MICHAEL SATA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:39 PM