Nalubamba opposes Kalale’s return to ECZ
By Moses Kuwema
Sat 05 Feb. 2011, 04:01 CAT
IT is ridiculous for leaders in government to regard people in opposition political parties as enemies, says Senior chief Bright Nalubamba.
Commenting on the attacks on works and supply deputy minister Lameck Mangani for meeting PF member Judith Kapijimpanga, chief Nalubamba questioned the kind of multi-party democracy the MMD embraced in 1991 when it could not allow people with different views to meet.
“For someone to talk to a person from the opposition then they commit a crime. Mangani can still be close to the MMD but he must have the right to talk to people with different views,” chief Nalubamba said.
He said the political set-up in Zambia required people who were elected or nominated to Parliament to be representatives of everybody regardless of their political affiliation.
“Constituencies have people from the opposition who are free to make contributions to issues of national development. Now should these people be shunned? It’s ridiculous for a leader to only address party cadres from his party. People need to talk to you when you are their leader,” he said.
Chief Nalubamba said it was totally wrong for the MMD to consider Mangani their enemy on the basis of his meeting Kapijimpanga.
“Mangani is my friend too. Now should our friendship be determined by what I am to the MMD? He has a choice to be with everyone, whether they are from PF or not because that is the only way you can win the support of the people. I am totally in support of Mangani on what he is doing, friendship should not be stopped because of political affiliation,” he said.
And chief Nalubamba backed calls for former Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) director Dan Kalale not to return to the institution.
He said allowing Kalale to return to ECZ would only result in the stakeholders and voters losing their confidence in the electoral institution.
“If I were him Kalale I would respect the views of the stakeholders and stay away from the ECZ just like justice Florence Mumba did,” he said.
Chief Nalubamba said there was need for the ECZ to be audited so that the public could know how taxpayers’ money was being spent.
“How can an important institution like ECZ be ran without auditing? There must be something wrong they are trying to hide. I don’t care who does it but the auditing has to be done,” said chief Nalubamba.
Labels: CHIEF NALUBAMBA, DAN KALALE, ECZ
Read more...
Kalale can’t come back - Fr Luonde
By Mwala Kalaluka and Gift Chanda
Mon 31 Jan. 2011, 04:01 CAT
KITWE Anglican Church priest Fr Richard Luonde says fired Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) director Dan Kalale should stop insulting the intelligence of Zambians by insisting on getting his job back. And George Mpombo says President Rupiah Banda has laid a foundation stone to rig the general elections by getting rid of justice Florence Mumba as ECZ chairperson.
In an interview, Fr Luonde said instead of insulting people's intelligence through his insistence that he wanted to get back into the ECZ and complete his contract, Kalale should explain what led to his dismissal.
“I was surprised, today Dan Kalale wants to work up to February. Does he own ECZ? What does he want to accomplish in the remaining four weeks?” Fr Luonde asked. “Dan Kalale is one person who said he was going to disclose a lot of things against judge Florence Mumba which he has not yet done. Now he says, ‘I want to come back and work up to February.’ That is disrespecting the integrity of Zambians.”
Fr Luonde cautioned Kalale against taking Zambians for granted.
“Let him just keep quiet. He shouldn’t take us Zambians for granted because he is not the only educated Zambian. He was fired, period,” Fr Luonde said. “On the going of justice Florence Mumba, I am one of those people that held that woman in high esteem. She showed clearly that she is a woman with a pure and noble mind and in good standing with herself.”
Fr Luonde said very few people would have done what judge Mumba did given the circumstance that led to her resignation.
“Despite being criticised, very few people prefer to stand down,” Fr Luonde said. “This is a very sad development and again this is an election year and people who are supposed to run the elections begin to resign and the integrity of the ECZ is going to be doubted by Zambians.”
And Mpombo said the government had failed to handle the situation at ECZ properly because it had its hands dirt and was laying ground to rig this year’s elections.
“Its clear the government has got a hand in this matter and they cannot extricate themselves. This is pure skullduggery because the government wants to clear out possible obstacles for the forth coming general elections,” Mpombo said.
“So the removal of justice Mumba is a foundation stone to rig the elections. They know that she is uncompromised and committed. That’s why they wanted her out.”
Mpombo, who is Kafulafuta MMD member of parliament, said President Banda should be ashamed for hounding out justice Mumba in the most savage way when there were other important issues that have remained unanswered.
“Justice Florence Mumba has been shabbily treated by the government. They engineered the whole episode going by the excessive press coverage by government media and also coupled with the hostile stance by the government sponsored NGOs. If they are asking about following the tender procedures, we have seen the government failing to follow these procedures themselves. There are precedents. For example, when was the tender process on the renovations at State House done? In which newspaper was it advertised? Was it single sourcing or what?” Mpombo asked.
He said it was shameful that President Banda’s government was frustrating credible people like justice Mumba for the sake of hanging on to power.
“There are so many government institutions today who are in such a similar situation like ECZ. If you read the reports on the government institutions that have failed to follow procedures, you wonder what the government has done about them,” he said.
Mpombo said the government’s interference with ECZ had resulted in people losing confidence in the whole electoral process. He said President Banda's government was setting a very dangerous precedent for the future by tampering with the country’s “fragile” democracy.
“Instead of consolidating our democratic gains; consolidating the transparency in our electoral process we are weakening it. This whole thing has a political agenda attached to it, but as far as am concerned it is a serious indictment against the government’s integrity,” he said.
Mpombo challenged the government to explain to the nation if the right tender procedure was followed in the privatisation of Zamtel, the procurement of the mobile hospitals and the renovations at State House.
And Alliance for Democracy and Development president Charles Milupi said the government had shown its upper hand in the running of ECZ. He said judge Mumba was a woman of integrity and that having been a judge of international standing, there was a breath of fresh air when she was appointed to the ECZ.
“I see the hand of government in her unceremonial removal from the ECZ. There is a lot of suspicion and the government has to exculpate themselves,” Milupi said.
Milupi said it was unusual that when there was a tiff between an executive director and commissioners at ECZ, the executive director was given so much space in the state media. He said it was puzzling to see how the government swiftly removed judge Mumba from the ECZ when it was a known fact that the controlling officer was not the chairperson but the executive director.
“That clearly pointed to the fact that government has a hand in this. It is absolutely shameful. This government is staggering from one crisis to the other and in a very crucial year,” Milupi said. “What is at stake here as far as I am concerned is the independence and integrity of the ECZ.”
Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, CHARLES MILUPI, DAN KALALE, ECZ, FLORENCE MUMBA, RICHARD LUONDE
Read more...
Kunda is behind justice Mumba’s harassment
By George Chellah
Fri 28 Jan. 2011, 04:02 CAT
VICE-PRESIDENT George Kunda is behind the scheme to hound out justice Florence Mumba as Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) chairperson ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
And ECZ has dodged the Auditor General's office from conducting financial audits for the past two years. Well-placed government sources yesterday disclosed that Vice-President Kunda was the force behind the ECZ saga.
"Vice-President Kunda was fed with lies over the issues at ECZ. He was told that justice Mumba, The Post and Michael Sata were in league to ensure that President Banda is out of office. And the evidence they used to back their lies was past copies of editorial comments, which The Post ran on ECZ where the newspaper praised the commission on certain positive things it was doing," the source said.
"Clearly, this whole scheme is anchored on insinuations. And some of us know that when it comes to The Post the Vice-President is unreasonable, he doesn't even care to question what he is being told. It's the same lies that were passed on to the President, hence the unfolding events at ECZ."
The sources revealed that when misconduct was detected at ECZ, Vice-President Kunda was informed about the intention to discipline Dan Kalale dismissed ECZ director on a number of offences leveled against him.
"Actually, the issue of the KPMG audit was not even part of the charges Kalale faced. One wonders why Kalale at his press briefing decided to talk about the audit and not the issues behind his dismissal. What is even more shocking is that Vice-President Kunda asked the ECZ to pardon Kalale," another source said. "In fact, he even requested them to give Kalale another three-year contract. This seems to have shocked the ECZ because Kalale whose contract was supposed to come to an end this February had not even indicated his intentions to renew it. So why should the Vice-President ask on his behalf? What's his interest?"
The sources said Vice-President Kunda's panic over Kalale's departure was strange.
"What is it that he does to warrant this forcefulness just to ensure that he remains at ECZ? As a matter of fact, Kalale is on record to have requested for a final three-year contract from justice Mumba's predecessor judge Ireen Mambilima," the source said.
"Kalale indicated that he wanted to do something else because he was tired of conducting elections. So why is the Vice-President personally pushing for the extension of his contract?"
The sources revealed that despite Vice-President Kunda attempts, justice Mumba insisted on going ahead with administrative measures because Kalale was their employee.
"The Commission felt that they had a duty to bring sanity at the institution and that they could not sit and watch taxpayers’ money being abused or misapplied. What is even more surprising is how President Banda and Vice-President Kunda could orchestrate such a move when they were both informed at every stage regarding the disciplinary issues surrounding Kalale and his subsequent dismissal from the commission," the source said. "It’s actually hypocrisy of the highest order for Vice-President Kunda to receive a petition from disgruntled ECZ junior officers and promise to give the nation an answer on the matter when he was fully aware of the happenings at ECZ. In fact, during Kalale's disciplinary hearing, Vice-President Kunda was represented by a senior officer from the Ministry of Justice, who was equally part of the decision to dismiss Kalale summarily. The Labour Commissioner was also represented at the highest level. So the decision to dismiss Kalale cannot be said to be a personal act by justice Mumba."
The sources challenged Vice-President Kunda and Kalale to disclose the details of the disciplinary hearing that led to his dismissal.
"It must be stated that the decision to dismiss Kalale had nothing to do with the audit as he claimed. Let Kalale tell the public the reason why he was dismissed. We know that Kalale has tried to frustrate every ECZ chairperson so that he makes himself look very valuable to the institution," the source said.
"That is why he has been arguing that commissioners do nothing but commissioners at ECZ are there to provide checks and balances. The truth is Kalale wants to run ECZ like his personal business. He doesn't want any control whatsoever. Kalale has overstayed at ECZ," the source said. “In fact, ECZ is all he knows throughout his working life. He is actually holding ECZ hostage."
The sources disclosed that ECZ has dodged the Auditor General's office from conducting financial audits for the past two years.
"For the year 2009 and 2010 the ECZ has not been audited. For the year 2009, Kalale wrote to the Auditor General asking for 'forgiveness' so that ECZ could not be audited for that year claiming that they were busy with the voter registration exercise. So for the year 2009, ECZ was not audited. And recently the Auditor General's office wrote to ECZ informing them that they intend to start the audit next month February for the year 2010. But again the acting director, Priscilla Isaacs has written to the Auditor General's office asking for a postponement of the exercise," the source said.
"This means that for two years, that is the year 2009 and the year 2010, ECZ has not been audited and yet they expect the government to continue pouring in taxpayers' money, which they can't account for. The fact that ECZ has evaded auditing for two years is enough to raise suspicions. In fact, the Auditor General's office is concerned that it is having difficulties to conduct an audit in ECZ.”
Labels: DAN KALALE, ECZ, FLORENCE MUMBA, GEORGE KUNDA
Read more...
Police revoke PF’s C/belt protest permit
Written by Speedwell Mupuchi
Friday, November 14, 2008 8:08:05 AM
POLICE on the Copperbelt have revoked the permit granted to opposition Patriotic Front (PF) to conduct peaceful demonstrations against the election of President Rupiah Banda.
The Kitwe demonstration was also meant to press for the removal of Dan Kalale as Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) director for allegedly presiding over fraudulent elections. Meanwhile, PF vice-president Guy Scott yesterday said Zambia was back to a police state.
PF sources in Kitwe and Scott confirmed that police had cancelled the demonstration, which was supposed to be held tomorrow on grounds that there was high tension, especially following the arrest of Radio Icengelo station manager Fr Frank Bwalya.
"Yes, they have cancelled the demonstration but get to the party on the Copperbelt to get more details," said Scott.
PF Copperbelt youth secretary Elias Kamanga when contacted said he was not aware of the cancellation as police had not communicated to him.
However, other party sources said police had told them to defer the demonstration to another date.
"They [police] are also proposing that instead of the demonstration, why not hold a public rally in Kitwe to be addressed by Mr Sata," said the source.
Police in Kitwe had granted a permit to the PF to demonstrate peacefully to press for a recount of the just-ended presidential poll.
But Scott yesterday accused home affairs minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha of putting pressure on the police to cancel the planned demonstration in Kitwe and the PF's Mandevu meeting in Lusaka on Sunday.
"How can a politician say he is surprised by the permit granted to us by the police? Politicians are now driving the police and we are back to the police state," said Scott.
Scott also said he had spoken to Inspector General of Police Ephraim Mateyo over his attempt to defer the PF's Mandevu meeting scheduled for Sunday.
"All this is building up tension in the country, I don't see how it is diffusing tension," he said.
Scott said the police should grant the PF the permits because the peaceful demonstrations would reduce tension.
"The police should side with the law, with the people and not [Lt Gen] Shikapwasha who has not even been appointed by Rupiah Banda," said Scott.
Labels: DAN KALALE, ECZ, KITWE, PF, RIOTS
Read more...
