Defecting MMD MPs condemned

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 08:54:16 +0000

MMD Kasenengwa Member of Parliament (MP) Victoria Kalima has said MMD MPs crossing over to the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) are practicing politics of the belly and should not be expected to deliver any of their campaign promises because they are greed and selfish politicians.A

And Copperbelt MMD Women Chairperson Edith Mataka said most of the MMD MPs with cases of theft and corruption before the courts of law were defecting to the PF so that their cases could be written-off.

Ms Kalima said politicians practicing politics of the belly were an embarrassment to the political arena because the electorate were now seeing that they were in parliament not to serve the people, but for their selfish interests.

Speaking when asked whether she was one of the 30 MMD MPs party president Nevers Mumba had said they were intending to defect to the ruling PF, Ms Kalima said she does not practice politics of the belly., but that she was in parliament to serve the people of her constituency.

“Me, I don’t practice politics of the belly. Those who are defecting to the PF are practicing politics of the belly. I came to parliament to serve the interests of the people in my constituency, not my own interests. Even if i am in the opposition, i can serve the people.

‘I should be ready to serve the people whether in the opposition or in the ruling party. It actually gives good experience to serve the people as opposition MP and as ruling party MP,” Ms Kalima said.

And Ms Mataka has said MMD MPs who were facing cases of theft and corruption before the courts of law were defecting to PF so that their cases could be written-off because they had seen that the PF was accommodating thieves and corrupt people.

She said it was shameful that the PF, which alleged that the MMD was corrupt and campaigned on the platform of fighting corruption ahead of the 2011 elections, was now getting the corrupt people from the former ruling party.

She said the behaviour of the PF Government in the more than one-year it had been in office, had shown that the PF government was corrupt and had no ability to fight corruption.

“As you can see, the PF government has no ability to fight corruption because it is embracing MMD MPs who are facing cases of theft and corruption in courts. Even these MMD MPs who are joining PF are joining the ruling party because they have seen that once they join PF, their cases will be written-off.

“They have seen that PF is accommodating thieves and corrupt people. So this show that PF has no ability to fight corruption,” Ms Mataka said.

And Ms Mataka has advised MMD MPs who want to join PF to go quietly, instead of trying to create confusion in the former ruling party.

She said the party was aware that some MPs like Catherine  Namugala were being used by the PF to destabilize the MMD because the ruling party was scared of the MMD.

“The PF knows that the MMD has the ability to recover from the 2011 defeat and bounce back to power and so they want to use some MMD MPs to destabilize the party, but we are advising these MPs to go and join PF quietly if they want instead of creating division in the party.

“People like Ms Catherine Namugala should be very careful because we don’t even know who elected her as Women chairperson so she should stop talking on behalf of women. If she wants to go to PF, she should just go,” She said.