POST ZAMBIA

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has misplaced agenda’s when it comes to good governance, Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (HCAWUZ) president Mubiana Sitwala has observed.

In an interview yesterday, Sitwala said revelations that the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) had spent K1.8 billion to procure microphones when the conference was almost winding up, was a scam.

“It is a scam being perpetrated by the MMD because it was better to cancel the procurement and pay penalty fees for the liabilities which definitely was not going to be over the purchase cost of the microphones. Our hospitals do not have drugs and the best the NCC could do is buy microphones which would not even be transferred to health institutions or prison after the conference ends.

This is a scam because President Rupiah Banda should have stopped the procurement. I don’t think that I will accept to hear that the President was not aware of the procurement of the microphones,” he said.

Sitwala said if it were a container of pens or not books, he would have supported the idea as any surplus could be given to schools and prisons.

“There is grave misplaced agenda in the MMD government. All one needs to do is look at the reaction to the flood issues in Lusaka, look at the drug issues in all our clinics including Livingstone, which has no TB drugs.

If it was a big container of pens and notebooks I would have said please give the left overs to Katombora Reformatory Prisons in Kazungula and give some to a basic school in chief Mukuni’s area,” he said.

And Sitwala said that Livingstone was far behind neighbouring Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls town, which had suddenly become a preferred destination due to Livingstone’s lack of good service delivery.

“I appeal to local government minister to do what he has done in Milenge where he has uplifted the suspension of the council. We have a World Cup around the corner and our friends in Zimbabwe have already struck some deals to have a lot of tourists coming to the Victoria Falls in between breaks of games. Just two weeks ago Limpopo provincial government officials were in Vic Falls where they have struck a lot of deals to make usage of accommodation and health facilities in Zimbabwe for the Polokwane World Cup games,” said Sitwala.