Maravi

All Tongas should be voting for HH - Kapita

COMMENT - The UPND should just disband and merge with the MMD. Doesnt' Richard Kapita understand that by trying to get more Tongas to vote UPND, he is alienating the rest of the country and emphasizing the UPND's regional nature?

All Tongas should be voting for HH - Kapita
By Ernest Chanda
Wed 19 Sep. 2012, 10:30 CAT

UPND vice-president Richard Kapita has advised Tongas to be proud of voting for their tribesman Hakainde Hichilema in every presidential election.

Featuring with Hichilema on Sky FM Radio's Good Governance programme in Monze recently, Kapita said Tongas should not expect Hichilema to win the presidency if they did not give him massive votes.

"The point I want to relate to is this issue of people complaining from Southern Province that 'ba President, what shall we do?' You know what you should do. You people from Southern Province always surprise me; you know what you ought to do. Your friends when they are voting for their own person, and you should not be ashamed, people want to make you believe that for voting for Hakainde you should be ashamed. No! Be proud, you've got a capable leader that can run this country differently," Kapita said.

"And that I can assure you; not those people Patriotic Front who've gone there in government chancing because they cheated people. You should be proud of voting for Hakainde today, tomorrow and the other day and next year and so on. But what do you do you people from Southern Province? You give your own son; your own son you give him maybe 30 per cent of the vote. Ten per cent or 20 per cent is given to other people, how do you expect him to win? I think you should go out there and vote for Hakainde in the next election."

Kapita also accused finance minister Alexander Chikwanda of insulting the Tongas by saying that the UPND had a wrong leader.

"This is why I get surprised, for example one leader in the PF was actually literally insulting the people of Southern Province, and the Tongas. He was quoted, Mr Chikwanda, in The Post newspaper a few days ago saying that the Tongas have a wrong leader," he said as Hichilema agreed with him.

Kapita said no individual had a right to choose a leader for Tongas.

He said Tongas could not rule because they were intimidated.

"A number of them have asked, 'why can't we also rule?' The reason you can't rule is that you are intimidated as Tongas. When others say you are tribalists you agree to that, yet it is only in this land where you'll find people from Eastern Province, Northern Province who can aspire to be councillors and the Tongas have no problem with that. So when people turn around and say you Tongas are tribal, please tell them you are not tribal, and don't be scared," he said.

"Even those that are in buses or minibuses when they hear people talking in their own languages they can't even speak their own language as Tonga. Who is Mr Chikwanda to choose a leader for the people of Southern Province? I think you Tongas must wake up and say we are proud of being Tonga. Don't be shy and tamed when you are told you are Tonga you start hiding under the table. Go and give Hakainde the vote next time and make sure that other leaders get zero votes."

Asked by the moderator if indeed the UPND was a tribal and Bantustan party, Kapita responded: "Well, it depends on what he means. We are all Bantu and we are proud that we get our votes from… there's no body that can't be voted from where he comes from or where she comes from. The reason the people of Luapula, Northern Province voted massively for President Sata was they said he's their own. What you hear is actually just a joke when I hear people say 'Hakainde is only voted for by people from Southern Province', that's not correct."

He claimed that if it were not for rigging in the last general election, the UPND would have won a lot of parliamentary seats.

And despite facts showing that the UPND had more members of parliament in Southern Province than other provinces, Kapita refused to accept.

"How many MPs do we have from other provinces? They are many. In North Western Province we had a massive vote, if it wasn't for the rigging that took place we would have something like eight, nine MPs from North Western Province. In Western Province we have about six MPs," said Kapita.

"Why do you want to restrict Hakainde's MPs only to Southern Province when in actual fact he has MPs in North Western Province, Southern Province, Western Province and Central Province? But here is Mr Chikwanda saying the people of Southern Province unfortunately have a wrong leader."

And Hichilema vowed that he would not listen to what he termed abuse of ethnicity by other tribes so that they continued ruling the country.

"I think the vice-president has spoken sufficiently. I think it's time to remind people that vice-president Kapita comes from a long, long way; comes from Mwinilunga. So I am really grateful that he's here in Monze at this radio station talking to his brothers and sisters in Southern Province.

Vice-president Kapita is from Mwinilunga, Ikelengi, far, far away; he's Lunda," said Hichilema as Kapita retorted that he was proud to be Lunda.

"I'm sure the listeners are listening he's proud to be Lunda. The issue is that this thing is a gimmick. We will not listen to abusing ethnicity so you can continue ruling and suppressing your colleagues, absolutely no," said Hichilema.

Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, RICHARD KAPITA, SOUTHERN PROVINCE, TRIBALISM, UPND

posted by MrK @ 1:59 PM