Maravi

Nevers out to frustrate 2013 budget

Nevers out to frustrate 2013 budget
By David Chongo in Solwezi
Tue 16 Oct. 2012, 14:00 CAT

NEVERS Mumba has threatened to use opposition members of parliament to shoot down the PF's 2013 budget to punish President Michael Sata for 'poaching' MMD law-makers into the PF government.

Mumba accused President Sata of "stubbornly" poaching desperate MMD members of parliament for "basic jobs" of deputy minister.

"All PF wants is to hit 106 seats and they will continue. He (President Sata) needs 106 members of parliament or votes in order to unilaterally change the Constitution or not change it. What he doesn't want is to pass 50+1. So he is going to continue to do this.

But as a party, we have made a decision that those who want to continue getting jobs from the PF at some point there are going to be repercussions," Mumba said during an interview with Solwezi TV last week. "For the PF and the President, I want to send a very strong message; if the President continues to be stubborn and continues to abuse the democratic process of our country, we have enough numbers not to pass this budget.

And if we don't pass the budget, the government crumbles. And he must understand we are not just in that Parliament as stooges; we are there representing the Zambian people with full powers to stop any bill, including the budgetary bill.

And if that happens, if he tempts us that far and we decide this week that we are not going to pass this budget until he stops poaching members of parliament...because we don't wanna go all the way of stopping the budget. It is within our power to do that."

On President Sata's fight against corruption, Mumba said it was good to instil fear in people that if "you touch anything that belongs to government, there is an eye watching you".

"To that degree, I think that must continue. And I think that to just instil that fear is probably working out for some people but it's not genuine," Mumba said.

"And the issue that is happening in the PF where the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Justice have been accused of kickbacks in businesses that involve their offices and investor companies is going to prove to us that Mr Sata is really going to fight corruption in a genuine way or this corruption is about attacking MMD and depleting the fortunes of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy.

So the way he is going to handle this case is going to open our eyes to see whether he really means business or not."

On the 'alliance' with UPND, Mumba said MMD did not have a memorandum of understanding with the former but that they were cooperating in order to strategise a framework on how to work together.

"Our goal is to realise an alliance that works together on behalf of the Zambian people. I think the Zambian people have realised that by voting in PF they made a terrible mistake; and the Zambians are saying to us as the opposition, 'don't be selfish. If there is anything you can do to get together, please do that'.

And so we are listening to the Zambians. Both UPND president Hakainde Hichilema and myself are talking before we could answer this call from the Zambian people. So it's an active debate that is going on between our teams."

Labels: 2013 BUDGET (ZM), NEVERS MUMBA

posted by MrK @ 5:59 PM