Maravi

I joined MMD in 2002 - Rupiah

I joined MMD in 2002 - Rupiah
By Noel Sichalwe in Kasama
Sunday September 21, 2008 [04:00]

VICE-President Rupiah Banda has said he is no longer a member of UNIP because he joined MMD in 2002. But in a profile interview with The Post's Webster Malido which was published in the Sunday Post on December 7, 2003, Vice-President Banda said he was a Unipist and could not join any other party at his age. Featuring on a live interview at Radio Mano in Kasama on Friday, Vice-President Banda said he was no longer a UNIP member.

However, he said he did not announce when he left UNIP and neither did he announce when he joined the MMD.
"As you know, UNIP is a seed party of this country, although it is almost being wiped out like many parties. But they have always been there.

Anybody of my age, if he was in politics at all, he has been in UNIP. So that is not to be an issue but with regard to whether I resigned, or not, you don't have to announce when resigning just like when you are joining you don't have to announce either.

And in both political parties, UNIP as well as the MMD, you don't have to officially resign. The moment you join the other party, you resign from the other and I think UNIP national secretary or the general secretary of UNIP Reverend Alfred Banda who is being alleged to have said that I never resigned clarified that point and said that you don't have to resign.

"I got my MMD ticket in 2002, the card, the MMD card and I have renewed that continuously until now. I have, perhaps you are not aware of that, I was elected nominated as a trustee. MMD has three trustees and I am one of those three trustees in the party. All those things render me not UNIP.

You cannot be a trustee and a member of another political party. So you see, I liked this kind of debate which was going on. It shows that people were afraid. They were worried that if I get to the election, I may beat them and so they wanted to eliminate me before."

But in December 2003, three years before he was appointed Vice-President, Rupiah Banda gave a profile interview to The Post's Webster Malido in which he said he was a UNIPIST. This contradicts his position last Friday that he joined MMD in 2002.

Malido: Where do you stand in terms of politics at the moment?

Rupiah: I am really a UNIPIST, what people call UNIPIST. So it's very difficult for me perhaps at my age to join another political party.

And Vice-President Banda on Friday also said he was the suitable man to be elected Republican president on October 30. He said he had more regional and international experience than any of his opponents.

"I think that I do provide the stability, the unifying traits that the people of Zambia require, the healing traits that the people of Zambia require. As you know we have many problems in our country and we need to come together and heal these problems and proceed together to develop our country to higher levels," he said.

Meanwhile, Vice-President Banda said he received the MMD nomination to stand as Republican President with surprise though he was confident that he would be selected.

He said it was a great experience for him to work with late president Mwanawasa whom he described as very sensitive.

"I knew president Mwanawasa before he was president and I also knew him when he was president and when I was made Vice-President. I got a bit closer to him during the elections when he was elected as the President for the second time.

I got to know a little bit more than I knew him before. I must admit it has been a great experience to work with him. I found him to be a very sensitive person, sensitive in a positive way not sensitive in a negative way, he just reacted emotionally. He was a very sensitive person. He cared a lot about others," Vice-President Banda said.

"As you know there was a difference in age between him and myself. I am older than him and to illustrate what I am saying, he would call me in the evening and say Veep, can you come over and I would go to State House and he would be going there to ask me to do something for him like you are supposed to go to a conference overseas or to another city or province to officiate at some function of the state.

Then he would say to me “Veep, are you okay”, I would say “yes”. ‘Is it okay if I asked you to go and represent me say in Rome?’ And he would always do it in a very humane and very polite way.

He would apologise to me that I was older than him and he was sending me to do these things and he would say I was of great help to him. He was also very sensitive about my wife and he would say “Veep, how is Mrs Banda” and as you know my wife is much younger than myself.

He helped make her comfortable, both him and his wife went out of their way to make us feel welcome and we would cope with it. I remember the very first time I told him that ‘you know how old my wife is’ and that mine too was much younger when I started going out with her. He was a wonder man and I am not saying this because he left us, but I said this to many of my friends."

Vice-President Banda said president Mwanawasa was a firm person who was dedicated to work.
He said the late president was thorough in his work but fair.

"Many times he was very sensitive but he was also a very firm person. If it is work, he had to do it and he had to do it in good time. He never forgets instructions; he gave you a letter and asked you to do something and he would even reply in good time.

He would write you back and say ‘on such and such a date, I told you to do this and that’. When he received a letter from you, he would read every sentence and follow the logic of what you are saying. So that put us on our toes. All of us who worked with him realised that we were working with a person who was very thorough, very fair. You can't go to him and say something ill of your colleague."

Vice-President Banda said he could attribute any personal success at the moment because they worked as a team in government.

However, he said the only success he could point to was the manner he galvanised support from national leaders and Zambians during the mourning period of late president Mwanawasa.

Vice-President Banda also said he decided to reverse the proposed salary increments for ministers and members of parliaments after listening to concerns from members of the public. He said he had decided to attend to the most urgent needs of the country instead of proceeding with assenting the Salaries and Emolument Bill into law.

"There is a reason why I arrived at this decision because I listened to the concerns of the people and even if there was no election, this concern I presume could have existed.

Four credible organisations in this country, church organisations, unions, NGOs, student organisations and even our own political party had certain concerns," said Vice-President Banda. "Now, nobody said that the leadership were going to benefit from these increased salaries.

As you know everybody is looking forward to have an increased salary and you can never reach a level where you can say the salaries are adequate. But the people spoke, the people raised a lot of issues which I listened to and based on these issues that they raised, I said that it was not right for me to assent to this Bill and therefore, I returned it to Parliament hopefully that they can look at it once again and see what we can do.

They also raised a number of issues concerning other sectors of society like the re-opening of the University of Zambia, the housing problem, the problems that the doctors are facing.

They referred to other conditions of service for other groups within the country, the price of fuel etc. I felt that perhaps I should attend to this before deciding which way to go.”

Labels: MMD, RADIO MANO, RUPIAH BANDA, UNIP

posted by MrK @ 5:06 AM