Mpezeni demands Probe of Rupiah

Mpezeni demands Probe of Rupiah
By Roy Habaalu
Wed 26 Oct. 2011, 15:40 CAT

RUPIAH Banda must be investigated for the misuse of public resources, says Mpezeni. In an interview, Paramount Chief Mpezeni of the Ngoni people of Eastern Province said the MMD was a wasteful government that disrespected traditional leaders and needed to pay back the money spent on their extravagant campaign.

He said his relationship with former President Banda turned sour when he advised him that people wanted change. He said anyone in the MMD that would be found wanting regardless of their status in society must face justice.

"Prisons were not built for animals, they were built for human beings, wrongdoers. So people that do wrong things, Chimbokaila (Lusaka Central Prison) does not choose, it has no selection of status. Anybody can go to Chimbokaila because that's what it was built for, for human beings," said Mpezeni

"They (MMD) need to be investigated so that we find out where they got the money to buy bicycles? Why farmers were not paid? I want the PF government to investigate and get it (money) and pay farmers. What I know is that parties don't have money, that was government money they used to buy bicycles. So let them PF government find out where the money came from and when they find out that it was not properly obtained they (MMD) must pay back, money was there they just had wrong priorities."

"President Sata was not a blind man. He himself was seeing what was happening in this country like we were all seeing. That money is not for one person to share with his family. The money is the people's money, so it must be used in the interest of the people. When you turn it into personal money, you and your children,... even me as Paramount Chief, everything that I do, I do it for the people.

It's not good for me to start sharing what is for the people among my children, it's wrong. People will begin to complain and when they do, you don't start blaming others for doing the right thing. My appeal is that these (MMD) people must be investigated. How do they cry before they are investigated?" he asked.

He said the power of any government lay with the people who got it from the MMD and gave it to the PF.

He said he had shamed the MMD government that accused him of supporting and campaigning for President Michael Sata and the PF when he told them that people wanted change.

"Myself and the MMD as a political party, we never co-operated. There was no cooperation between them and I. They did a number of things which were not good but because I am a senior person, I could not speak publicly. They showed a lot of disrespect to chiefs, especially senior chiefs. They promoted our junior chiefs to be more important than us senior chiefs so they brought in divide and rule in our administration but we could not speak out because we knew that one day these people are going to go. They didn't have respect for me so that's why today we have a new government," he said.

Mpezeni said he had been vindicated looking at the turn of events in the country, especially the defeat of the MMD.

"Power is in the people, the MMD didn't have a vision. They didn't see beyond themselves but today I have been vindicated and those people are now ashamed. They feel shy for what they thought was wrong advice from the people. We deal with the people so we knew and today PF is in government," he said.

Mpezeni also lamented the MMD government's failure to manage the maize marketing exercise despite the bumper harvest on account of its misplaced priorities.

"From the indications on the ground, the PF are doing what they promised the people. The MMD was a wasteful government, they wasted a lot of money on campaigns and you saw yourselves that trees were wearing MMD chitenges, now how many trees do we have in this country which we saw dressed in chitenge? So they were wasteful people. They were too wasteful, how many bicycles did they bring in? They brought in thousands of them or millions of them how many constituencies do we have in this country all of them received bicycles.

If they were a caring people that money that was spent on buying bicycles they would have paid farmers so that they prepare for this farming season. So we can't blame those that have just come in," he said.

He said from the one month that the PF had been in government they had brought fresh air into the country.

Mpezeni advised the PF government to learn from the MMD mistakes because people were expecting a lot from them.