Former Works and Supply Minister Mike Mulongoti has advised President Michael Sata not to be too selfish by wanting to run all government parastatals at State House.
Featured on Face the Media programme on Radio Phoenix this morning, Mulongoti, who vigorously campaigned for Sata before last year’s general elections, warned the Head of State against being obsessed with power.
He said President Michael Sata is not an engineer and does not understand anything to do with road engineering.
“The president has too much power, and even if an engineer advices him against his decision he will not listen. Do you think and engineer can say no when the President speaks? That office is too busy, it does not need to handle other people business. Let the RDA operate from its office and the president is free to offer suggestions,” he said.
Mulongoti wondered why president Sata is falling in the trap that his predecessors fell into.
“When Chiluba took over the ministry of Commerce, it landed him in problems. I advised him and I also advised Mwanawasa against running the ministry of defence from State House because he is not an expert on national security, he is a politician. I am also advising our president, we want to protect him by asking him to stay away from such temptations, it will lead him in trouble once things go wrong,” said Mulongoti.
Critics of Sata’s seizure of the roads agency point out that there was no basis under law for him to be able to expropriate RDA under state house, while others suspect corruption will follow.