Maravi

Munkombwe urges Mazabuka teachers to vote for Rupiah

Munkombwe urges Mazabuka teachers to vote for Rupiah
By Lambwe Kachali in Mazabuka
Sunday October 19, 2008 [04:00]

Southern Province minister Daniel Munkombwe on Friday suspended classes for pupils at St Edmunds Secondary School when he held a closed-door meeting with teachers from all schools in Mazabuka in a bid to convince them to vote for MMD presidential candidate Rupiah Banda. And Munkombwe said late president Levy Mwanawasa fired pastor Nevers Mumba as Republican vice-president because he is politically overzealous.

Meanwhile, Mazabuka UPND member of parliament Gary Nkombo condemned Munkombwe's political desperation by quarantining teachers, thereby denying pupils time to learn at the expense of winning the October 30 presidential election.

Addressing the closed-door meeting, Munkombwe attacked Heritage Party president Brigadier Godfrey Miyanda, Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata and UPND president Hakainde Hichilema. The meeting lasted about four hours.

Munkombwe described Brig Gen Miyanda as a loner who had nothing to offer to Zambians. He wondered how Brig Gen Miyanda could win the election when he struggled to raise 200 supporters during the filing in of nomination papers.

At this point, the teachers murmured and wondered whether the essence of the meeting was to hear Munkombwe's attacks on other political players.

“Please, I don't think I am worth murmurs because I have not said anything,” Munkombwe responded. “…So far we have General Miyanda, I think you know him. If you think he is the best person to run this country, you should know that he is a loner. Democracy doesn't allow murmuring and shouting.

And for me to qualify that thing of democracy, I have to talk about individuals. If I don't talk about General Miyanda, how are you going to vote for him? Let me talk about him. He is a loner. To get 200 supporters, he had to struggle.”

Munkombwe said he was a UPND founding member but quit because the party did not have a national tag.

“In politics you must have a vehicle to carry you to State House, and that vehicle is a political party,” Munkombwe said. “Now, there was a formation of UPND and people don't know how UPND was formed. I know. It was me and Jeremiah Munang'andu and two others.

Because we didn't like MMD that time, we went to see Levy Mwanawasa. We told him that ‘look we are not happy with some people in MMD and can we form a party'? He said to us, 'me I have a programme in MMD. I have a vision, which I want to achieve in MMD. You go and see Jack Chama.'

“We drove to Jack's house and we agreed with Jack. And we went back and told him president Mwanawasa that Jack is ready. But he was very agitative against us. It was him who said, 'you go and see Anderson Mazoka'. We told Mazoka but he said he was not ready to leave his job that time. Later on, Mazoka came up and proved to be a national leader.

He took Western Province in parliament; he took North-Western Province in parliament, Central Province in parliament and all the 18 seats in Southern Province. So Mazoka had 49 seats in parliament. When Mazoka died, there was a pronouncement that the party UPND was going to be run by a Tonga and a Tonga only. So Mazoka's national colours were erased.”

Munkombwe urged teachers to differentiate between a national leader from a regional leader. He said if Hichilema loses the October 30 election, he would be of no value even in 2011.

“Now in 2006 the man who followed us unfortunately, I don't like him and you don't like him perhaps, was Michael Sata. He lost terribly. And Hakainde, when he loses now on 30th October, he will have lost three times and that will mark the end,” Munkombwe said amid murmurs from teachers.

“Please, if you have no time to listen, you must listen even if it's something you don't like it, even if it's something you don't like to hear about. That is what leadership means. Irrelevant of a political party is based on parliamentary results.”

On pastor Mumba, Munkombwe said the late president Mwanawasa fired him because he was politically overzealous.

“President Mwanawasa settled on Nevers Mumba. I think the country knows what happened,” Munkombwe said. “He became so overzealous to the fact that even when the president was away, he would call a press conference and therefore he didn't have the capacity to be number two to anybody.
He was behaving as if he was number one. When you are a deputy headmaster, your role is to advise your headmaster effectively without being a sellout. So Nevers Mumba was unceremoniously retired.”

Meanwhile, Nkombo said it was ridiculous for Munkombwe to quarantine teachers on a working day for political expedience. He said it was clear that the MMD government did not care for education in the country.

“To hold a meeting with teachers on a Thursday and suspend school business is uncalled for. Munkombwe wants to take the country back to the old days of UNIP. I would like to advise Rupiah Banda to be careful with Munkombwe because he will worsen his already wrecked image,” said Nkombo.

Labels: DANIEL MUNKOMBWE, GARY NKOMBO, RUPIAH BANDA, TEACHERS

posted by MrK @ 6:53 AM