Maravi

Rupiah's immunity displeases Sondashi

Rupiah's immunity displeases Sondashi
By Kombe Chimpinde
Mon 14 Jan. 2013, 16:58 CAT

LUDWIG Sondashi has expressed displeasure over the government's reluctance to lift Rupiah Banda's immunity over allegations of corruption. And Dr Sondashi says he will re-launch his party, Forum for Democratic Alternatives (FDA) this month.

In an interview yesterday, Dr Sondashi said he was displeased about the government's reluctance to make MMD and Rupiah Banda account for their alleged misdeeds. He said he was personally concerned with the seeming silence on the corruption-related allegations levelled against Banda and some former government officials.

"You know, I voted for PF, I backed PF because I wanted to get rid of MMD. There was no way MMD was going to be removed if PF did not win elections because PF was popular. The people trusted President Michael Sata. MMD was stinky as far as I am concerned," Dr Sondashi said.

"We are still waiting for the time when the government will take away Rupiah Banda's immunity, because Rupiah Banda was corrupt and his system too but look what we are seeing now, just isolated cases. What I know is Rupiah Banda's government was corrupt from bottom to top. This was their promise but it's the same corrupt people who are being appointed as permanent secretaries. You can't do like that."

Dr Sondashi vowed that he would never forgive MMD, which Zambians should treat with a pinch of salt.
"I will not forgive what MMD did with President Rupiah on top. MMD will never bounce back. How can they bounce back when we are there? We are not going to allow MMD to bounce back."

"There are many people who are being employed who were corrupt, they are being given political appointments and some are being sent to missions abroad..."
Meanwhile, Dr Sondashi said that FDA had not gone to sleep.
"We are expecting to have a re-launch of our party. The party is on. We were just resting," he said.

"We are not going to participate in these two coming by-elections because we are not ready for these elections. We will participate in the future elections. You can see that I have not been active and that is deliberate. I was planning and finding out how to move from here onwards. I was also giving time to the PF to prove itself.

"PF was also a laughing stock when they started. How did they marshal support? You know what they say: 'ako usulile ekopa noko".
Asked on the possibilities of his party uniting with other opposition political parties given its failure to marshal considerable support and membership, Sondashi said it would continue fighting alone.

"There is no need for opposition political parties to be united unless if an opposition party is not worth the name of being an opposition party because if two political parties unite, then it means they don't have principles and programmes which are different," Dr Sondashi said.
"For instance, my party has a programme of changing the system of government so that there should not be a partisan president and second, which is that Zambia should be a federal state.

So you can see these are principles no any other party here in Zambia has introduced except my party. If I unite with UPND for instance, or MMD, who don't have these principles, what will I be doing? That is why I have to be resolute and fight alone. Some of these parties are just interested in going to State House. If they are interested in just going to State House, yes they can unite but if you have important manifestos, you can't."

Labels: CORRUPTION, LUDWIG SONDASHI, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 5:28 PM