Differences should not destroy pact, says Simenda
By Salim Dawood
Mon 27 Sep. 2010, 14:40 CAT
UPND vice-president for political affairs Francis Simenda has called for calmness among members of the PF-UPND Pact following squabbles which have hit the alliance. Simenda told the Post Online in an interview that the problems the Pact was facing were not enough to curtail progress being made by the two political parties.
“Obviously we are facing some challenges but that doesn’t mean that the Pact is over. As far as I know the Pact is still there but I think what we need to do is for us to come to a round table look at the issues that are creating problems so that they may be resolved once and for all so that the people can know what the future is, that is what is important,” Simenda said.
He appealed to members of the Pact at grass root to allow the leadership of the alliance to meet and resolve the bickering.
Simenda said the voting pattern in the past general elections had clearly shown that Zambians did not want the ruling MMD and observed that the opposition would not be able to unseat the ruling party if it remained fragmented.
“It is clear that people don’t want the ruling party, but because we are fragmented, we are not able to get the MMD out of power which is why we need to unite. We shouldn’t be selfish for the people of Zambia, the hardships are so big, the people are suffering, there is no management and there is no quality leadership and so on and we can be able to offer that through the pact,” he said.
“So let’s come down let’s sit on the table and iron out these issues, its better to sit than what is going on,” Simenda said.
And Simenda describes as an assumption that the PF was a bigger party in the Pact was creating problems.
“As partners in the pact, we must respect each other, we should not disparage each other, we should not underrate each other,” he said.
Simenda said he did not understand what was fueling the differences when a joint meeting had been convened at which the two parties agreed that the PF would contest the Mpulungu by-election based on its regional strength while the UPND would contest the Chilanga seat.
“You see, as a pact there was a meeting which was chaired by honorable (Jean) Kapata while honorable (Gurry) Nkombo was the secretary, they agreed that Mpulungu should be for PF, based on that regional strength and Chilanga should go to UPND that was agreed and we have the minutes. So what’s the difficulty there because the pact agreed,” he wondered.
“That is why am saying that we must be sincere with each other and honest because we meet and agree and we implement, if we agree and we go back and say we didn’t agree that is not fair and we can’t resolve these problems by issuing statements in the media,” said Simenda.
Labels: FRANCIS SIMENDA, PF-UPND
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Give Rupiah an eviction notice from State House – Simenda
By Mwala Kalaluka in Luena
Tue 20 July 2010, 04:01 CAT
UPND vice-president for political affairs Francis Simenda has urged the people of Luena to give President Rupiah Banda an eviction notice to vacate State House in 2011 by overwhelmingly rejecting the MMD in the forthcoming by-election in the area.
And UPND provincial chairman Colonel Best Makumba said the people of Luena wasted their precious time when they voted for Charles Milupi in 2006, asking them to teach him a lesson by not voting for him in the forthcoming by-election.
Milupi, who is the constituency’s former Independent parliamentarian, is re-contesting the seat on his Alliance for Development and Democracy (ADD) ticket.
Addressing a rally that was attended by Miulwe area senior headman Sambo at Sikalelo village in Miulwe area of Luena Constituency on Sunday, Simenda said President Banda and his MMD should be given a red card by the people of Luena on polling day.
Simenda said the people of Luena could only claim to be part of the wind of change that was sweeping across Zambia if they overwhelmingly reject the corrupt MMD government on August 5 this year.
“Let us leave the MMD; they are just thieves who will not take us anywhere…if you vote for UPND you will give Rupiah Banda what they call a red card,” said Simenda during the rally held to drum up support for the UPND candidate in the Luena by-election Muyunda Ililonga. “This election is not a joking matter like the jokes that Milupi is doing. The issue is that this country is experiencing a wind of change, and this wind of change is becoming aggressive. Day and night, the people are crying for change.”
Simenda feared that if the people of Western Province and Luena did not align themselves to the changing political landscape, the harsh realities obtaining in the area would persist.
“People want to change because they have realised that the MMD has failed,” said Simenda as some women sang songs urging President Rupiah Banda to collect his non-functional clock MMD symbol. “If you do not change, it will entail that you are happy with the status quo, you are happy with your predicament. Let us change so that we move with the rest of the country.”
Simenda said the only way they could bring about change in their lives was to vote for Ililonga.
“On August 5, you should vote Muyunda Ililonga, and that is when it will become apparent that you are also geared for change,” Simenda said. “Whether we like it or not, this country is changing and there is no tribe which will run this country alone. That is a lie and anybody telling you that is a liar who just wants to confuse you.”
Simenda said Milupi was a political joker who should not be tolerated by the people of Luena.
“He is a dangerous person who just wants to confuse you because there is no person who can say ‘I want to form a party for Western Province.’ It will not go anywhere,” Simenda said. “Milupi wants to be elected an MP and also elected President. There is no way he can help you here even if he says you elect him in this short period remaining.”
Simenda wondered what time Milupi would have for the people of Luena since at the same time he would be running around the country, asking to be voted as Republican President.
“Leave him and ensure that you align yourselves with people that are eager for change,” he said.
Simenda said Milupi’s ADD and Sakwiba Sikota’s ULP were just small surrogate parties formed to split the opposition vote.
“If Sakwiba Sikota and Milupi really felt for you, why didn’t they come together to form one party? And these were the same people who were campaigning for Rupiah Banda in 2008; why should they come and say today they are in opposition?” Simenda asked.
UPND national treasurer general and the party’s Solwezi Central parliamentarian Watson Lumba asked the people of Luena to do what their compatriots in Solwezi and Mufumbwe did by not voting for the MMD despite engaging in massive vote buying.
And Col Makumba said Milupi should not be given back the Luena seat, which he discarded of his own selfish volition.
Col Makumba also asked the people of Luena to remember, as they cast their votes, President Banda’s statement that he did not solicit for the votes from the people of Western Province.
“Milupi’s time in Parliament was not exhausted. He was supposed to be in Parliament for five years but of his own volition, he left; and when he left, he wants to eat with both hands - one is for a President and the other is for a member of parliament,” Col Makumba said.
Col Makumba said Milupi should be taught a lesson for causing an unnecessary by-election.
Meanwhile, Ililonga said he asked the UPND to adopt him as their candidate in the Luena by-election because he had been touched by the area’s underdevelopment.
“I feel so much pain that our area is not developing,” said Ililonga as he knelt in front of the crowd. “My mothers, put me on your back and you my fathers put me on your shoulders so that I can cross and become your link that can bring development to our home.”
Labels: BEST MAKUMBA, FRANCIS SIMENDA, RUPIAH BANDA
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Give Rupiah an eviction notice from State House – Simenda
By Mwala Kalaluka in Luena
Mon 19 July 2010, 13:30 CAT
UPND vice-president for political affairs Francis Simenda has urged the people of Luena to give President Rupiah Banda an eviction notice to vacate State House in 2011 by overwhelmingly rejecting the MMD in the forthcoming by-election in the area.
And UPND provincial chairman Colonel Best Makumba said the people of Luena wasted their precious time when they voted for Charles Milupi in 2006, asking them to teach him a lesson by not voting for him in the forthcoming by-election.
Milupi, who is the constituency’s former Independent parliamentarian, is re-contesting the seat on his Alliance for Development and Democracy (ADD) ticket.
Addressing a rally that was attended by Miulwe area senior headman Sambo at Sikalelo village in Miulwe area of Luena Constituency on Sunday, Simenda said President Banda and his MMD should be given a red card by the people of Luena on polling day.
Simenda said the people of Luena could only claim to be part of the wind of change that was sweeping across Zambia if they overwhelmingly reject the corrupt MMD government on August 5 this year.
“Let us leave the MMD; they are just thieves who will not take us anywhere…if you vote for UPND you will give Rupiah Banda what they call a red card,” said Simenda during the rally held to drum up support for the UPND candidate in the Luena by-election Muyunda Ililonga.
“This election is not a joking matter like the jokes that Milupi is doing. The issue is that this country is experiencing a wind of change, and this wind of change is becoming aggressive. Day and night, the people are crying for change.”
Simenda feared that if the people of Western Province and Luena did not align themselves to the changing political landscape, the harsh realities obtaining in the area would persist.
“People want to change because they have realised that the MMD has failed,” said Simenda as some women sang songs urging President Rupiah Banda to collect his non-functional clock MMD symbol.
“If you do not change, it will entail that you are happy with the status quo, you are happy with your predicament. Let us change so that we move with the rest of the country.”
Simenda said the only way they could bring about change in their lives was to vote for Ililonga.
“On August 5, you should vote Muyunda Ililonga, and that is when it will become apparent that you are also geared for change,” Simenda said. “Whether we like it or not, this country is changing and there is no tribe which will run this country alone. That is a lie and anybody telling you that is a liar who just wants to confuse you.”
Simenda said Milupi was a political joker who should not be tolerated by the people of Luena.
“He is a dangerous person who just wants to confuse you because there is no person who can say ‘I want to form a party for Western Province.’ It will not go anywhere,” Simenda said. “Milupi wants to be elected an MP and also elected President. There is no way he can help you here even if he says you elect him in this short period remaining.”
Simenda wondered what time Milupi would have for the people of Luena since at the same time he would be running around the country, asking to be voted as Republican President.
“Leave him and ensure that you align yourselves with people that are eager for change,” he said.
Simenda said Milupi’s ADD and Sakwiba Sikota’s ULP were just small surrogate parties formed to split the opposition vote.
“If Sakwiba Sikota and Milupi really felt for you, why didn’t they come together to form one party? And these were the same people who were campaigning for Rupiah Banda in 2008; why should they come and say today they are in opposition?” Simenda asked.
UPND national treasurer general and the party’s Solwezi Central parliamentarian Watson Lumba asked the people of Luena to do what their compatriots in Solwezi and Mufumbwe did by not voting for the MMD despite engaging in massive vote buying.
And Col Makumba said Milupi should not be given back the Luena seat, which he discarded of his own selfish volition.
Col Makumba also asked the people of Luena to remember, as they cast their votes, President Banda’s statement that he did not solicit for the votes from the people of Western Province.
“Milupi’s time in Parliament was not exhausted. He was supposed to be in Parliament for five years but of his own volition, he left; and when he left, he wants to eat with both hands - one is for a President and the other is for a member of parliament,” Col Makumba said.
Col Makumba said Milupi should be taught a lesson for causing an unnecessary by-election.
Meanwhile, Ililonga said he asked the UPND to adopt him as their candidate in the Luena by-election because he had been touched by the area’s underdevelopment.
“I feel so much pain that our area is not developing,” said Ililonga as he knelt in front of the crowd. “My mothers, put me on your back and you my fathers put me on your shoulders so that I can cross and become your link that can bring development to our home.”
Labels: BEST MAKUMBA, CHARLES MILUPI, FRANCIS SIMENDA, RUPIAH BANDA
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Cops have been corrupted by MMD, says Simenda
By Florence Bupe
Wed 26 May 2010, 03:50 CAT
UPND vice-president for politics Francis Simenda has charged that police have failed to arrest William Banda because they have been corrupted by the ruling party. In an interview, Simenda said despite threats of violence from Lusaka provincial MMD chairman Banda, police had kept quiet.
“Despite complaints against William Banda over his threats of violence, police have not effected any arrests just because it’s a ruling party official involved. Every time we follow up the issue we are told the police are still investigating, what is there to investigate?” Simenda wondered.
He complained that police were dragging on the issue of the Mufumbwe violence despite overwhelming evidence indicating that the chaos was perpetrated by MMD cadres.
“We had one of our members Charles Kakoma battered and the culprits were identified but to date there have been no arrests made,” he said.
Simenda also welcomed the removal of Lameck Mangani from his position as home affairs minister. He suggested that there was need to revisit the appointment of the Inspector General of Police to ensure an independent law enforcement institution.
“The removal of Mangani is long overdue and we propose that it should be extended to the police service. We need to change the appointment of the Inspector General,” Simenda said. “We suggest that the Inspector General should be appointed by an independent body and ratified by Parliament as opposed to presidential appointments.”
Simenda said the proposed change would ensure that the police service remains non- partisan in their dispensing of duties.
Labels: FRANCIS SIMENDA, MMD, POLICE CORRUPTION
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Simenda advises Kunda to rest
By Moses Kuwema
Thu 20 May 2010, 04:01 CAT
UPND vice-president for political affairs Francis Simenda has advised Vice-President George Kunda to take a rest because he might collapse at the rate he is going. And UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma has said Vice-President Kunda has serious problems of daydreaming.
Commenting on Vice-President Kunda’s remarks that the UPND/PF pact is cracking, Simenda advised the Vice-President not to issue statements over things he did not understand.
“There is also need for him to take a rest. We sympathise with him, he just came back from hospital and at the rate he is going some of us fear that he may collapse,” Simenda said.
He said the UPND was disappointed with Inspector General of Police Francis Kabonde over the manner in which he handled the security situation in the country.
“We have a case in point of the violence in the Mufumbwe by-election where we have been reporting these cadres who attacked our people but the police have taken no action. Instead our innocent members are the ones who are being arrested. Our provincial chairperson for Copperbelt Elisha Matambo, police followed him on Friday and interrogated him. This is getting too much for us and I don’t think we can stomach it any longer and we shall have no choice but resort to other means,” he said.
Simenda said Kabonde’s conduct was likely to cause chaos in the country because people were capable of doing anything if they lose confidence in the police service. And during a briefing on Tuesday, Kakoma questioned Vice-President Kunda’s sanity.
“… This is not the first time he is hallucinating and we feel this is a serious psychological disorder where the Vice-President is daydreaming everyday. That is dangerous because one day the President may be out of the country and the Vice-President as acting president can start daydreaming that we are being invaded,” he said.
Kakoma said chief Chizela of Mufumbwe had continued to harass and intimidate UPND supporters even after the by-election.
“The MMD is so devastated with the defeat and because of the anger they have not accepted the defeat and have continued to perpetuate violence even after the by-elections…people’s houses have continued to be burnt while some people are being evicted and beaten by individuals who say they have been sent by chief Chizela,” he said.
Kakoma said the UPND-PF pact would participate in the Luena parliamentary by-elections because they wanted to increase their numbers in Parliament.
Labels: CHARLES KAKOMA, FRANCIS SIMENDA, GEORGE KUNDA, HIV/AIDS
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Mwanachingwala supports MMD because he is hungry’
By Namatama Mundia
Sun 21 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
UPND vice-president for political affairs Francis Simenda has charged that chief Mwanachingwala supports the MMD and makes noise because he is “hungry”.
Briefing the media at the UPND secretariat in Lusaka on Thursday, Simenda dismissed chief Mwanachingwala’s impact on the UPND-PF pact in Southern Province.
“Each time he is hungry, he makes noise so that he can be given a brown envelope,” Simenda said.
He warned that chiefs that wanted to participate in politics would be taken on because they wanted to be politicians.
“Chiefs should remain non-partisan because in their chiefdoms there are many people who support different political parties,” Simenda said.
UPND vice-president Richard Kapita accused Speaker of the National Assembly Amusaa Mwanamwambwa of allegedly helping ‘expelled’ Namwala member of parliament Major Robbie Chizyuka and the MMD to hold on to the parliamentary seat.
He wondered why Speaker Mwanamwambwa could not declare the Namwala seat vacant despite Maj Chizyuka’s expulsion from the party.
“We have dismissed him Maj Chizyuka from this party, I can’t see the reason why he can’t be expelled by Parliament,” Kapita said.
He said Maj Chizyuka could not win in Namwala even if there were a by-election because he had been rejected by people of that district.
Kapita advised Maj Chizyuka to stay away from the party and stop attacking party president Hakainde Hichilema.
“Maj Chizyuka can’t even win 200 votes for the MMD in Namwala,” he said.
He reiterated that the UPND/PF pact had the blessings of all the party members with the exception of Maj Chizyuka.
Kapita said Maj Chizyuka expressed his sentiments in a national management committee (NMC) meeting that he felt like vomiting to work with PF leader Michael Sata.
“Things that Chizyuka said were minuted and today he says he was not consulted, that is a blue lie,” he said.
Kapita said the UPND-PF pact had put in place programmes such as how to reduce poverty and should not be distracted from achieving their objectives in the event that they formed government.
“The pact is here to stay and our members overwhelmingly endorsed it,” he said.
Kapita said those who wanted to destabilise the UPND/PF pact would not succeed.
And Simenda warned that regardless of whatever gymnastics the MMD wanted to play, they would be out of power come 2011.
Simenda said the government would be made accountable on the Auditor General’s report on misappropriation of money when the UPND-PF pact takes over power.
He said the UPND-PF pact had given the MMD government timely advice so that they should not cry foul next year.
“They are colluding and sharing the loots so come next year, they should not say that there is political witchcraft. Let them redeem themselves by putting behind bars people who have stolen from the state,” Simenda said.
He said the MMD had realized that they would lose next year’s elections and were now planning ways of rigging.
“In areas where they MMD are not popular, they are not issuing NRCs (National Registration Cards), when they go to those areas, they don’t announce their programmes so that by the time the people realise that NRCs are being issued, those officers have already left, they are trying to rig,” said Simenda.
Labels: CHIEF MWANACHINGWALA, FRANCIS SIMENDA, MMD
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Simenda bemoans govt's failure to discipline erring officers
By Mwala Kalaluka
Monday September 10, 2007 [04:00]
FORMER Parliamen-tary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Francis Simenda has said failure by the government to swiftly take disciplinary action against officers who misapply public funds is a minus in the fight against corruption. Commending his predecessor, Luena Independent member of parliament Charles Milupi on the manner the current PAC has fought the abuse of public funds, Simenda advised President Levy Mwanawasa not to tolerate abusers of public funds.
He said to take swift action against such officers would transform the abuse of public funds into a habitual problem.
“I think the appointing authority should ensure that those who are found with various cases repeatedly over the years are shown the door so that we can clean up this abuse of public money,” Simenda said.
“I must commend the Auditor General that she has continued to work very hard with her team and even the current PAC has so far done very well under the chairmanship of my brother Charles Milupi.”
He said it was well-known that it was the same ministries that were always found wanting when it came to failing to account for financial allocations.
“When you look at the reports it is the same ministries that are failing to account for and recover imprest from officers who travel and you find that the money that was supposed to be taken to needy areas ends up paying for poorly done contracts,” Simenda said. “Strict disciplinary action must be taken immediately.”
He said there was need for parliamentarians to come up with legislation that would ensure that the recommendations from the various parliamentary committees are complimented by biting powers.
“Members of parliament should find a way of enforcing these recommendations instead of them just remaining recommendations,” he said.
Simenda said he was however happy to note that the parliamentary reforms had in a way enhanced members of parliament’s oversight role.
“They are able to play an oversight role especially that they now visit these various projects,” he said.
Labels: CHARLES MILUPI, FRANCIS SIMENDA, PAC
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