Maravi

Rupiah will soon go to jail, says Chitala

Rupiah will soon go to jail, says Chitala
By Patson Chilemba in Mpika
Sat 10 Sep. 2011, 14:00 CAT

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda will soon go to jail and become an example to leaders who plunder resources. This is according to politicians Mbita Chitala, Colonel Panji Kaunda and Bob Sichinga.

The trio made the remarks when they addressed rallies at Chinamanongo and Mpika main markets on Thursday. Col Panji, the People's Pact Forum chairperson, said President Banda was a corrupt leader who had abused his office. He said Zambians should ask President Banda how he had accumulated so much wealth within the short period he had been in office.

"He will be an example to all those who plunder public resources when they are in office. We don't hate him. We want to give an example to the nation that stealing is not good, it brings suffering on the people. When we vote Michael Sata, we shall tell him ‘do this and this', and if he fails, we shall rise against him," Col Panji said.

He said President Banda was a corrupt man who only cared about creating wealth for himself and his children.

Col Panji said those in the MMD kept on accusing Sata that he would cause war if elected, but they forgot that it was President Banda who was threatening the peace by allowing foreign leaders to participate in the election campaigns.

And Chitala, Zambia's former ambassador to Libya, said the country experienced sanity during late president Levy Mwanawasa's reign on the fight against corruption, but the vice had sky-rocketed under President Banda.

He said the MMD were abusing taxpayers money to buy chitenges as well as the usage of the helicopters for election campaigns by President Banda and Vice-President George Kunda.

Chitala said President Banda had been abetting corruption in the country.

He said President Banda even removed the offence of abuse of office from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Act in order to hide his corrupt ways.

"I agree with Col Panji that the law has to visit this man and his family, that justice must be seen to be done. They have been using Awards and Compensation where Vice-President George Kunda is. They have been using that vote to steal money from the state as MMD," Chitala said.

"The idea that US$450 million dollars which would have come in as windfall taxes was forgiven and agreeing with the mines to be given some commission which is the money they have used to fund their campaigns."

Chitala said some leaders in other countries faced capital punishment for the kind of abuse President Banda was engaged in.

He said President Banda and his clique had tasked themselves with the responsibility to approve contracts such as those to do with roads, merely intended to bribe voters.

Chitala said the actions President Banda had engaged in, such as the refusal to have his own nationals benefit from their mineral resources through the windfall tax, were anti-Zambian.

And economic consultant Sichinga asked Zambians to turn up in large numbers and sleep outside the polling stations on September 19, 2011 and only leave after the announcement of results in order to prevent President Banda's MMD from rigging.

Sichinga said lame excuses that the mining companies would run away from the country if they were asked to pay windfall tax did not hold water.

He said President Banda and the MMD should explain the acquisition of motor vehicles, which were in excess of US$300 million.

"The construction of Mpundu flats on Leopards Hill Road, how do you explain that? Misuse of public vehicles, where vehicles are changed from GRZ into other numbers in the first place, it is unacceptable. This is why we are saying they must be visited by the law," Sichinga said.

He said Newton Ng'uni was standing as an independent member of parliament, but asking the people to vote for Sata because he had the endorsement of the PF leader.

Sichinga said the candidate for Sata and the PF was Davies Mwango and not Ng'uni.

He urged Mpika residents to turn up in large numbers to vote overwhelmingly for Sata and the PF, rather than the 46 per cent turnout recorded during the last elections.

"Women, carry your children on the back and sleep at the polling station on September 19, to make sure your vote is protected," said Sichinga.

Labels: CORRUPTION, MBITA CHITALA, MICHAEL SATA, PANJI KAUNDA, ROBERT SICHINGA, RUPIAH BANDA, WINDFALL TAX

posted by MrK @ 5:17 PM