Kitwe elder man Patrick Tembo has said the decision by government to take the body of late President Levy Mwanawasa to provinces for body viewing did not mean disrespecting the deceased head of state.
Mr. Tembo said people should not misunderstood this decision, adding that it was not fair for some people to think that government was using the death of Dr Mwanawasa as campaign trick for the ruling party.
In interview with ZANIS in Kitwe today, Mr. Tembo said people, who felt that it was costly to take the body to all provincial centres, were doing that in bad faith.
He said not all people could afford to travel to Lusaka to pay their last respect to their beloved President hence the decision by government to take the body to provinces.
And Kitwe Town Clerk, Ali Simwinga, said it was a great honour by government to take the body to the people who elected him into office.
Mr. Simwinga said people would be grateful to honour the departed President by viewing the body of a leader who worked very hard for Zambia.
He also said the good things that the President stood for should not end with his death but should be continued.
Meanwhile, the Zambia National Former Councillors Association (ZNFCA) said the country has lost a sincere leader who had a vision of harmonizing and reconciling the nation.
ZNFCA president, Gabriel Chishimba prayed that the Almighty God should grant the nation the love, vision, strength and resolve needed to realise late Dr. Mwanawasa’s dream for a better nation.
He said the executive and all members of the association were mourning Dr. Mwanawasa with deep sorrow and grief.
Kitwe Mayor, Divo Katete, has taken a swipe at opposition political leaders for allegedly misleading Zambian’s over the late President Levy Mwanawasa’s leadership, whose economic policies have helped turn Zambia’s economy around.
ZANIS Kitwe reports that Mr. Katete, who is from the opposition Patriotic Front (PF), alleged that most of the Zambian political leaders were not honest and consistent with their criticism about the President.
He said it was such criticism that had made some Zambians believe that Dr. Mwanawasa’s economic policies were bad when in fact not.
He said the late President Mwanawasa could have achieved a lot in his tenure of office if the Zambian opposition political leaders had supported his policies and told people truth about his achievement.
Mr. Katete said this at Kitwe District Commissioner, Macdonald Mtine’s office, when he signed the book of condolences opened in memory of Dr. Mwanawasa today.
Dr. Mwanawasa passed away at Percy Military Hospital in France on Tuesday last week.
He urged the Zambian political leaders to be honest when making criticisms and not just say good things and honour a sitting president he has passed on.
He said opposition leaders could have told Zambians the truth about the late President’s leadership so that more Zambians could appreciate and supported his work.
Mr. Katete appealed to politicians to bring sanity in Zambian politics and honour national leaders while they were still alive.
And speaking earlier, Mr. Mtine urged Zambians to bury their differences by loving one another as demonstrated by the late Dr. Mwanawasa.
Mr. Mtine said the late Dr. Mwanawasa preached love, unity and reconciliation values which he said must be emulated by all Zambians.
And Town Clerk, Ali Simwinga, said the late Dr. Mwanawasa had facilitated the implementation of various developmental projects which had added value to the economy.
Mr. Simwinga said the K14 billion market rehabilitation programme, the construction of a shopping mall and the Kitwe water rehabilitation project were some of the major projects the late President facilitated to ensure that there was development in the city.
And High Court Judges, Magistrates and members of the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) also signed in the book of condolences which was opened at the Boma offices at 08:00 hours today.
Others, who signed the book, were political leaders from various political parties, heads of government departments and Kitwe residents.
ZANIS/LK/KSH/ENDS
Annonymous please not kutwana bantu manje please.no insulting
Kitwe Town Clerk, Ali Simwinga when are you retiring?
mu council mulibe pension?
It is not be “contempt” but its totally BIZARREEEEEEEEEE!
The dearth of independent media in Zambia is a big blow. Posterity must begin to debate what lead to the decimation of collective analysis. Is it the inherent dishonesty of those that are in charge of what has been thought to be independent media or is there a government hand attributed to this passing administration? Only time will tell why we had no clue about the state of health of our president, why we have no clue now about the 4 factions within the ruling party. We are treading in dangerous waters if all that we read even in so called free press are mare speculations, innuendoes and speculations
but off topic honestly..wen is ali simwinga retiring???I was in primary sku wen he was town clerk…went 2 high sku & i’m in my final year at uni..he still there as town clerk!!!!I bet he holds the record…is it his job 4 lyf??sum 1 kindly enlighten me…
# 2 Ok,
I also had the same question? Ka Simwiinga has been town clerk for Kitwe since i was in grade six and thats a very long time ago.
Kamudala nsikachokapo
If its not campaigning..why is body viewing only done for 3 hours in the provinces (when only 5% of the queue has viewed) and then quickly get onto the plane to the next province..sounds like end of the rally to the next province..
Let my president be burried umutende. I am getting more and more worried of more stampeeds and even death from large turnouts comprising mainly Government officials and the unemployed. My prayer is that the minors dont start rioting because they have been denied a day off to go and view the body. In my view it could have been enough to view it on TV.
I think the decision was made to bury Levy on what would have been his 60th birthday so gov’t had to find something to do with the body in the meantime and came up with this morbid idea of parading the body in the provinces.Disgusting.Iam sure looking down Levy is not amused.
Its suprising that when there is so much positive reporting from Zed only a few comment
If not costly, can we have a chance of body viewing here in the UK? Paris and London is just a stone throw and we should have been accorded a chance to mourn our presido. 3rd Sept is a public holiday indeed and the same should be applied to KK and FTJ if we mean well to the public servants who eventually become masters after being elected into office. Can the USA afford such public holidays and later on UK? NO and shame to us Zedians.
When are we ever going to respect LPM’s will? The man wanted to be buried in Palabana and its in black and white. Do we have more space for the past and would be presidos to be buried at Embassy park? Good idea if we make it as a HEROS burial ground
Winnie the posh just imagine the man is still saving people use to say the man is dying soon but ten years still strong Ali town Clerk Kitwe nishimbi.
we are yet to hear more people been injured and dying by the end of 21 days.Ba maureen differing with sata is bad mashamo.You don’t fight pachililo.
it seems like our country is been taken back to kk regime by the mmd power hungry thugs by predending to mourn lpm
But malilo aya has taken too long mwe eish! I cant wait for 8th Sept.
We jst need to move on soon,we are being held at ransom,nothing is moving now.
It does not just make sense, if we claim we are a Christian nation, how do we define a descent funeral for our late president? Should we use what we have recklessly or without serious consideration and later on endanger our fellow citizens because of lack of resources. Most people across the country did not even have a chance to see the president live and now someone says they have to see his dead body, it clearly indicates selfish motives some were in the system. Let us learn to be realistic and for once do things for the common good of the ordinary citizen. We still have elections to come, and needless to say all these expenses were not even budgeted for.
Ma campaign fye mule toba imwe bangwele. Tuka mimona.
Useless chaps!
Its so upsetting that MMD is capitalising, campaigning in 9 provinces using the dead. I had to update my mates on the goings around us and nabonse bapapa ati why the hell do they wanna parade a cadava like that, who is paying for all that? These are a developing and developed nations people talking, they cant believe our thinking. To be honest, this tour is on us the tax payers who work so hard for our money. Surely LPM deserves the best funeral but at what point do the expenses stop? I cant even imagine the bill from the entourage up keeps on this tour. I am trying to be realistic . After burial they will tell the nation, the govt has no money it went to the Funeral.
Flying the body around is not only cheap campaigning. It is gravely unethical. Not even the richest countries would so reckless in spending public resources. Levy would have been the first one to condemn this wastage. These public resources being wasted so callously could save many lives. This is how selfish politicians can be. It is most sad that even Maureen can buy into this cheap and even machination. She can only be too naïve or part of the scam. For how long shall we continue to allow this insanity in this country? Let us try Wila Mungomba or Patrick Chisanga for a change.
#21… am sorry to say that you are not a wise man… DR Mwanawasa was a president of the people. who dead on duty, in my way it is only fair for almost everyone that wants to pay there last repects be able to do so… if people thought as foolishly as you, ( happy that the dont) people woulnt hav turned out in the masses to say bye….its people like you that some zambians are acutally ashamed to be called zambians
I wud luv to give all the big wigs in front of this a big beating!
The time allotted to viewing defeats the whole purpose of the exercise. Laying a body in state allows for large numbers of people to pay their respects, so people are not rushed; if the limited times that have been allotted were secondary to logistics of preservation, the cabinet should have thought about this b4 embarking on the whole exercise – this just highlights their shortsightedness & we should seriously question their ability to govern us as it seems LPM always had to hold their hands showing them the way.
Mr. Zambian, with all due respect, your thinking just re-inforces the very problem that this country has – that we can easily be swayed or manipulated by selish politicians and we can’t see it. For the past 20 years or so, this country has been moving backwards because people like you think all is well when this country is bleeding from unmatched mismanagement. We are so easily blinded by the same old and dirty tricks by politicians and it is this very ignorance and naivety that is their capital. Rather than insult you back, Mr. Zambian, i sympathise with you sincerely.
Well it appears that Plot 1 – Paris is now pulling the strings. It appears we three power bases. First one is around Rupiah, the second one is the MMD and the third one is Maureen.
So who out of these three will triumph. Maureen appears to be taking her gloves off and is ready to defend the family tree to the last and the millions looted during levy’s rule.
Once the burial is done, we will start hearing on how Maureen held Levy Levy hostage.
Total WASTAGE of countrys money beter to be used on improving the countrys infrastructure.He is dead we cant be wasting all that money in mourning.
#21..represents a realistic approach to the issues at hand. Please refrain from name calling 4 people with different views.The’re millions of Zeds with no jobs, food, clothing, roads,water, ARVs etc.We’re being easily swayed by politicians with selfish motives, this is reckless spending of tax payers money.Look at costs 4 security, imprests etc.We’re saddened to lose our HE LPM and he deserves a dignified funeral & not to go on flying tour.if only the dead could talk he would probably say i am tired from being sick and now this tour let me sleep.Private coys could have met transport costs for mourners to Lsk, this w’ld not be on govt’s resources, IZB has donated K45M, watch out for others!
It is really disappointing that the body of LPM is taken to all the provincial capitals just for a few hours. If only a few people are able to view the body what is the justification for all the funds and time that have been used for the flights? Zambians we are not getting anywhere. We appreciate what the late LPM did for this country but mourning him this way eish… we are moving 100 steps back. Almost everything is at standstill. LPM will not be happy to see this happening if we trully believe that he wanted this country to move forward.
Taking the body is remniscent of those witch hunting missions in rural areas.TOTAL direspect to the former KATEKA!
1st widow and her so called government should have told that they were planing to bury Levy like were by even the living have to be buried with him….
how many stapeds are they waiting for? or is it bcoz they are no deaths recorded so far from the stapeds that have occured so far? Shame on RB, Mulongoti and 1st Widow…
Pliz!!! lets bury Levy b4 we loss potential leaders in the reported stapeds…