Fri, 30 Nov 2012 08:14:19 +0000
It is shameful for State House to justify budgetary allocation to the First Lady when Zambians did not vote her into office, says Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) National Overseer Bishop Paul Mususu.
Rev Mususu said Zambians did not vote for President Michael Sata’s wife Christine for Parliament to allocate funds to her unconstitutional office.
And Bishop Mususu has questioned why the Catholic Church has kept quiet over the ineptness of the Patriotic Front (PF) government and Mr Sata’s failure to show leadership in the fight against corruption.
In an interview, Bishop Mususu said “It is shocking that President Sata has justified the budgetary allocation to his wife’s office when he knows that it is unconstitutional. The people ofZambiadid not vote for Dr. Kaseba, we voted for Mr. Sata no wonder we don’t have problems with the allocation for State House. Who knows that in the next budget it will be for his children,” he said.
He said that it was morally wrong for President Sata and the PF to behave in the manner they have.
“The only thing that brings Mr. Sata’s wife into the lime light is her being married to the President. We did not vote for her. So why should she be allocated funds? If President Sata feels that she is qualified to do particular jobs why not appoint her Minister so that whatever she is doing is constitutional?
“She is just calling for her own problems which she will be required to respond to and if you cannot call this corruption at the highest level then I don’t know,” he said.
Bishop Mususu who is also former EFZ executive director said that with the limited resources Zambia has, it was unaffordable to allow for a duplication of activities which required funding such as what President Sata’s wife was doing.
“She is talking about cancer issues, this is a health matter, she is talking about Gender issues this is also another health matter which if anything should be dealt under the Ministry of Health or community development. I am sure that in the 2013 budget government had allocated funds towards those programmes and so why should we duplicate activities?
“It is a sheer waste of resources and one way of corruption by allocating K1.5 billion to the programme which is constitutionally being handled by an appropriate ministry,” he said.
And Bishop Mususu has questioned the silence by the Catholic Church over President Sata’s dictatorial conduct on many issues of governance.
“What is happening is of serious and great concern. Why is the church silent on matters of national interest? It is true that personally I have taken a low key on these issues but the fact is that we need to fight for this country. This is our country and not PF’s.”
