Chief government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha says it will be disastrous if Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata is elected in this year’s tripartite elections.

Lieutenant-General Shikapwasha said in Lusaka yesterday that Zambians should not make the mistake of voting for Mr Sata who is likely to be the biggest setback to the nation.

He was reacting to Mr Sata’s remarks in London recently that Zambia is headed for a disaster under President Banda’s leadership.

“Mr Sata is the biggest disaster because he has been promoting gay rights. Nobody is interested in homosexuality and lesbianism,” Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said.

He said Mr Sata should feel ashamed talking about President Banda’s leadership, which has been good and has contributed to the growth of Zambia’s economy.

Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said Mr Sata has done nothing for Zambians and that the opposition leader has lost credibility to stand as a presidential candidate because everyone knows that he is a disastrous person.

“Mr Sata is the biggest disaster because he has been promoting gay rights. Nobody is interested in homosexuality and lesbianism,” Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said.

The minister said Mr Sata’s position on gay rights cannot build the nation, but bring chaos.

“Mr Sata’s leadership failed to save the pact with the United Party for National Development (UPND). What can it do for this country if voted into office? I can only see disaster,” Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said.

He said Mr Sata has persistently attacked Mr Banda’s administration because he is jealous of the development the President has brought to the country, including building schools and hospitals and commissioning mobile hospitals.

He said Mr Sata should commend the President for all the development and economic growth.

And Evangelical Youth Alliance International chairman Moses Lungu said Mr Sata’s desire for power is dangerous.

Reverend Lungu said Zambia is a country that a lot of people wish to live in and it would be sad to endanger the country’s peace.

Rev Lungu said although President Banda was merely winding up President Mwanawasa’s term, he has done exceptionally well in terms of development.

Leadership in Development executive director Moses Kalonde said MrSata cannot win a presidential election.

Mr Kalonde said the opposition leader’s negative stance on President Banda’s leadership is sadism and cannot be tolerated.

Committee of Citizens executive director Gregory Chifire said Mr Sata is telling lies.

He said the opposition leader has failed to show the people of Zambia how he will perform if voted into power.

Mr Chifire said Mr Sata is a spent force who has nothing to offer Zambians.

“This is the reason he has gone abroad asking for money to continue promoting lesbianism and homosexuality. Mr Sata has gone to sell the country abroad because he is bitter with the economic development the country is witnessing,” Mr Chifire said.

Meanwhile, Caroline Kalombe reports that PF Luapula member of Parliament Peter Machungwa says Zambia does not need disrespectful leaders like Mr Sata.

Dr Machungwa said in Lusaka yesterday that the PF leader is a very disrespectful man who does not tolerate criticism from anyone.

He said Mr Sata does not take kindly to people opposing him, even his own party members despite them doing so in good faith.

“He would always resort to insults, which is very offensive,” Dr Machungwa said.

“Mr Sata has called us names for opposing him, especially when we decided to attend the National Constitutional Conference. He was so angry with us that he called us rebels and mercenaries,” Dr Machungwa said.

He wondered how Mr Sata can lead the nation if he does not want to take advice from others and always wants to have the last say on everything.

“We cannot afford to have a leader who does not want to listen to anyone. It is not helpful and we should not allow it,” Dr Machungwa said.

He said it is important for any leader to listen even when he is being criticised so that he or she can get the views of others on various matters.

Dr Machungwa made the comment following Chawama member of Parliament Bredt Sampa’s complaint that the PF leader is humiliating people who oppose him.

“Any leader should be able to listen to counsel even if it does not suit them, but for MrSata that is not the case,” Dr Machungwa said.
[ Zambia Daily Mail ]

TWO juvenile girls of Lusaka’s Mtendere township yesterday admitted indecently assaulting a two-year-old boy of the same area.

The girls, aged 12 and 11 years, respectively, initially denied the charge but yesterday changed their plea before resident magistrate MwakaMikalile.
The juveniles are charged with indecent assault.

Facts before the court are that on March 11, 2011, in Lusaka, jointly and whilst acting together, the girls unlawfully and indecently assaulted a two-year-seven-month-old boy.

When the matter came up for trial, the offenders’ lawyer told the court that his clients wanted to change the earlier plea and take a fresh one.

After the charge was read to them again, the girls told the court that they understood it and admitted committing the offence.

One of them said she touched the boy’s private parts after seeing her friend doing the same to the victim.

The other girl said she and her friend got the boy from his mother’s house in Mtendere, undressed him and ordered him to sleep on the floor and indecently assaulted the boy.

The court heard that the girls picked the boy from his mother’s house to ostensibly play with him, but indecently assaulted him.

The prosecution narrated that after an hour, the boy went back home crying whilst touching his private parts and later informed his mother that the girls who had earlier taken him to play with them had indecently assaulted him.

The court heard that when the mother checked the boy’s private parts, she found that he was bleeding.

In mitigation, the girls’ lawyer urged the court to consider an order for counselling and probation because they are first offenders and school-children who have a chance to become responsible children.

The case comes up on May 19 for the Department of Social Welfare to present a report on the girls to help the court come up with an appropriate order.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) spokesperson Charles Kakoma says the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) opinion poll tipping Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata to win the 2011 poll is fake, as it does not reflect the situation on the ground.

Mr Kakoma said in Lusaka yesterday that Dr Neo Simutanyi, the consultant and executive director of CPD who worked on the opinion, is just daydreaming and the UPND does not understand his motivation to make ‘wrong and fake predictions’.

Dr Simutanyi said at a press briefing yesterday that the opinion poll suggests that Mr Sata will win with 31 percent of the votes while President Banda will come second at 29 percent.

Dr Simutanyi said UPND president Hakainde Hichilema will trail in third place with 12 percent of the vote while other candidates will get five percent.

He said the CPD’s sample size is not reasonable enough to represent the views of all registered voters.

“Is the opinion of 1,000 people representative of more than 4,000,000 registered voters? That is a joke and his sampling techniques are questionable and too biased. He has not been to all parts of Zambia. How does he know what the entire voting population is saying?” he said.

About 31.6 percent of Zambians feel the MMD cares about the agricultural sector while 20 percent think the PF would do a good job and 10 percent opted for UPND.

Dr Simutanyi said corruption is not considered a serious problem as only 3.6 percent identified it as such.

He said a closer examination of electoral preferences suggests that there has been little shift from the 2006 and 2008 scenarios.

In 2008, Dr Simutanyi conducted a similar poll with the same predictions. He disowned it after it was discredited and the results of the elections were different from his prediction.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Choma District Commissioner Laiven Apuleni has described yesterday ‘s story in the Post newspaper headlined “Mazabuka MMD bemoan Rupiah ‘s unpopularity” as not only baseless and malicious but aimed at discrediting President Banda ‘s name.

The DC said President Banda ‘s visit to Choma last year was purely a government programme and not the purported information that he met Mazabuka MMD cadres in Mbabala.

Mr. Apileni disclosed that President Banda was on developmental tour in the area to commissioning the Choma – Namwala road adding that at no point did he meet Mazabuka MMD officials.

He explained that he was in the Presidential entourage through out Mr. Banda’s trip adding that the Republican President only met Choma MMD officials at Crystal lodge who demanded for the president to address them.
The DC refuted claims by the alleged source of the story in the post newspaper claiming that president Banda held a meeting with MMD officials in Mbabala citing that the president only addressed multitudes including marketers who were awaiting for him.

He said that during his trip to Namwala, President Banda made stop-overs at Crystal lodge were he addressed Choma MMD officials only, Kachenje were he met white farmers, Mbabala were he met marketeers, Ngonga bridge were he addressed hundreds of people who went to convey their happiness over the tarring of the road and Mapanza respectively.

Mr Apuleni described the story as a total fabrication collaborated by Post newspaper to put president Banda ‘s name into ridicule citing that said meeting with Mazabuka MMD officials in Mbabala was not part of the program and did not take place.

He called on the media to report facts not lies meant to bent on other people ‘s names.

“I as a DC facilitated that program because it purely government not that the president had a meeting with MMD Mazabuka officials ,to me that is a lie,”he said.

Today the Post newspaper carried a story were some MMD officials are said to be claiming that some party officials are secretly campaigning for Sata and would want to teach Rupiah a bitter lesson for embracing corrupt leaders and that they told President Banda during a meeting in Choma ‘ s Mbabala area last year as part of the story reads.

ZANIS

Patriotic Front president Michael Sata is the most preferred candidate ahead of this year’s polls according to the opinion poll conducted by the Center for Policy Dialogue.

CPD executive director Neo Simutanyi announced in Lusaka this morning that if elections were held today, PF president Michael Sata would get overall 31 percent of the votes, closely followed by MMD’s Rupiah Banda with 28 percent, with Hakainde Hichilema getting 12 percent.

Dr. Simutanyi further stated that in terms of voter preference of a political party, the Patriotic Front is likely to obtain the largest number of votes if elections were held today, with 29 percent of voters favoring the largest opposition political party.

He adds that the MMD would get 27 percent with the United Party for National Development getting 10 percent of vote preference.

Dr Simutanyi says his organization conducted a public opinion with a national representative sample of 1,200 registered Zambian voters.

He says the poll was conducted from 14th to the 24th of April 2011 and it covered all the nine provinces of the country and 19 districts.

He observed that a closer examination of electoral preferences suggests that there has been little shift from the 2006 and 2008 scenarios.

Dr. Simutanyi stated that the PF and Michael Sata still command support in their traditional areas of Lusaka, Copperbelt, Luapula and Northern Provinces.

He further observed that the support of all major parties declined significantly from 2008 elections in the areas they claim to have support.

The opinion poll further reveals that 47 percent of Zambians consider overall government performance so far as poor or very poor.

He says 43 percent of the respondents reported that they do not approve the performance of president Rupiah Banda.

QFM

By Maurice Makalu

There are media reports that there are some Muslim organisations who are planning an anti-Israel convoy that will start from Cape Town in South Africa and pass through several African countries including Zambia enroute to Gaza.

This must not be allowed in Zambia at all costs. The blockade of Gaza, though inhuman, is a political feud between Hamas and Israel because Hamas does not recognise Israel’s right to exist and wants to wipe it out of the face of the earth. The West Bank where Fatah rules is not blockaded because Fatah recognises Israel’s right to exist.

This persistent behaviour by a select few extremistic Muslims and their organisations to get involved in politics of hate, retribution and vengence is the reason the Pope expressed concern over the emergency of what he termed “Political Islam.” And he was being extremely mild. Zambia must add its voice to the Holy Father’s by NOT allowing that convoy on our soil.

Africa has known what it means to be occupied and ‘blockaded.’ We recognised it as a political predicament and fought it as such. If Arab Muslims want to support their Arab brothers, let them do so politically, not religiously. If they do it religiously, they should advance peace and unity not hatred and vengence.

It is even an insult for these people to want to start this convoy in South Africa, in the bid to liken Israel’s blockade of Gaza and just the whole Palestinian issue to Apartheid. The story of apartheid is not complete without the story of the ANC’s struggle; a struggle which was violent only when ANC was provoked. Overall, the ANC’s struggle against apartheid was non-violent; and this non-violence was epitomised in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in which the occupied reconciled with the occupier in pursuance of peace and unity.

Hamas’ founding charter is violence to exteminate Jews; they do not respond to violence, they provoke it. Unapologetically! ANC never sought to exterminate boers. South Africa must not allow anybody, individual or organisation, who sympathises with such a cause to even set foot on its soil. Such people will dent the legacy of the ANC’s struggle and its values. Nelson Mandela is not an icon for nothing!

Say NO to political Islam in all its skins.

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) leader Michael Sata has condemned the organisers of his meeting with Zambian residents in London when it was clear that only few people would turn up for his address.

The PF leader, who is in London, was expecting to address a huge crowd but was disappointed that only a handful of people attended his meeting.

The meeting almost flopped following the decision by many Zambians to shun the gathering at Oxford University, forcing Mr Sata to sound verbal attacks against the organisers.

The meeting was attended by former Kafue member of Parliament Bob Sichinga and former Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum secretary general, Kasuka Mutukwa.

Sources in Mr Sata’s delegation said the PF leader was in London to raise money to hire a chopper and other campaign activities apart from medical check-ups during his tour.

“On Saturday, two days before the meeting that took place on Monday, Mr Sata was asked to address Zambians in the UK but only met less than 20 people and sounded his displeasure to the organisers,” the source said.

Former MMD and ZADECO member Mbita Chitala, who is also in the UK, addressed the Oxford gathering to explain why he was in support of the PF leader.

Mr Sata is alleged to have been invited to give a lecture on how to build a strong opposition party in Africa by some UK-based Zambian students who are said to have been researching on opposition politics in Africa.

The source said Mr Sata was also planning to meet Zambian residents in Manchester and London on unspecified dates and unknown agenda.

“It appears Mr Sata also wants to be exposed to possible sponsors and partners in the UK as Zambia draws closer to the general elections.

“Mr Sata is also expected to meet Zambian communities in Manchester and London on unspecified dates,” said one source who attended the meeting at Oxford.

The seminar was about populism and opposition politics in Africa and was called by the department of politics and international relations at Oxford University.

Other topics discussed at the Oxford gathering included ‘Popular politics and resistance movements in South Africa’ by William Beinart of Oxford, ‘Opposition politics in Zambia and the rise of ethno-populism’ by Miles Larmer of Sheffield and ‘In search of the populist vote’ jointly done by Nic Cheeseman of Oxford and Rob Ford of Manchester.

Mr Sata was invited to Oxford University to speak at a workshop entitled Democracy, Populism, and Opposition Politics.

“We invited him simply because he has been a successful opposition leader and so we asked him to speak about how he has improved the performance of the PF from its inception to the last presidential by-election,” said Nic Cheeseman, who is head of the organising team and also a lecturer at Oxford University.

And when asked about his support for gays and lesbians, Mr Sata tried to backtrack from his earlier position, saying he did not support or advocate gay rights.

Recently, Mr Sata told a Danish media crew that Zambia recognised homosexuality and that laws were already there although what was remaining was to implement them.

[Times of Zambia]