Maravi

Tribal politics will divide Zambia, warns Mangani

Tribal politics will divide Zambia, warns Mangani
By Lambwe Kachali
Tuesday January 15, 2008 [03:00]

THE battle lines for MMD presidency will be drawn among provinces if party members continue to support preferred candidates on tribal lines, Eastern Province MMD chairman Lameck Mangani has warned. And Mangani said MMD would be trapped in political regionalism if the issue of presidency were not left to President Levy Mwanawasa alone.

Reacting to Southern Province MMD chairman Daniel Munkombwe’s statement that finance minister Ng’andu Magande was clean and had qualities to succeed President Mwanawasa, Mangani said every province had clean and potential people to lead Zambia. He said he did not agree that Magande was the only clean person in the country to succeed President Mwanawasa.

Mangani said the issue of MMD presidency should be left to President Mwanawasa and the national executive committee (NEC). He said if party members like Munkombwe continued to handle the issue on tribal lines, the country would be divided.

“Every province has its potential, clean and competent people whom they would want to succeed President Mwanawasa. When we are silent, it does not mean that we are foolish or we don’t have clean people. It’s only that we are obeying the party regulations,” Mangani said. “While we accept that MMD is a democratic party, it does not mean that we should be practising tribal or regional politics. If this pattern of politics continues in MMD, we are going to draw the battle lines over the party presidency.”

He said Eastern Province had many potential candidates who were ready to run the affairs of the country after President Mwanawasa.

“Why I am saying so is that MMD in Northern Province, Western, North-Western, Luapula, Central and other provinces will come up with their candidates to compete for the presidency. If names have started to be floated, what will stop others from floating their preferred candidates?

All of us have people in mind but we have left everything to President Mwanawasa and the NEC to deal with it. What is important is unity and not divisions,” Mangani said.

He said the position of party president was not only a matter of being clean but there were other attributes to be taken into account. Mangani said MMD members should give NEC a chance to deal with the matter without fear, favour or interference.

“But if the pattern of supporting candidates continues the way it is, we will also be obliged to float our candidates,” Mangani said. “It’s just a question of sitting down with my executive committee and then announce our candidate.

We don’t want a situation where some people are favoured while others are disadvantaged. We know that this issue is now under public debate but it’s not good to start recommending people while the President has not announced his choice. This is not good because it will result in serious divisions within the party.”

Mangani warned that the MMD was likely to be trapped in political regionalism if the issue of President Mwanawasa’s successor were not well managed.

“Time has come for all of us not only in MMD but the country at large to learn a lesson from the Kanya violence. This is a serious matter because it is becoming imminent that each province is trying to push names of their preferred candidates. To me, immediately you see a person being sponsored, you will be perceived as perpetrating ethnicity or tribalism.

Tribal inclination is becoming stronger and stronger in MMD. We should be on the lookout. It is sad that Zambian politics are full of regional political inclination. We really need to learn from Kenya’s violence,” said Mangani.

Last Wednesday, Munkombwe said Magande was among a clique of good people being talked about for presidency and was an ideal candidate because he was ‘clean’.

Labels: DANIEL MUNKOMBWE, LAMECK MANGANI, MAGANDE, MMD, PRESIDENCY, TRIBALISM

posted by MrK @ 5:43 AM