Magande isn’t indispensible – Teta

Magande isn’t indispensible – Teta
Written by Chibaula Silwamba
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 1:54:12 PM

MMD spokesperson Benny Tetamashimba yesterday charged that party deputy national secretary Jeff Kaande must not create an impression that Ng'andu Magande is untouchable and indispensible.

And Tetamashimba has told Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) president Edith Nawakwi and ULP president Sakwiba Sikota to shut up and not condemn the way President Rupiah Banda is running national affairs.

Commenting on Kaande’s statement that only an immoral person in the MMD would hound out party chairman for finance and economic development Ng’andu Magande, Tetamashimba said Magande was not a god.

“I don’t support that statement; people have different views in the party. His views about Magande could not be the views of other members of the party but I think what is important is for unity in the party,” Tetamashimba said. “What is important is for Magande not to be threatening those boys that they apologise, apologise! When we all know that when it comes to some of the issues, Magande can’t claim to be a god and I think that to say it’s immoral, that is not a good statement but I am sure the national executive committee will be able to deal with the issue of Magande.”

He said anybody could be removed from the party.

“There is nobody who cannot be hounded out of the party, if somebody does a wrong thing, he can be hounded out but I am not implying that Magande should be removed from the party. I am not saying that,” he said. “First and foremost, [the late president Levy] Mwanawasa lost the elections in Chilanga, the constituency of Magande, you know that. Even this time round [in the 2008 presidential election], we lost the elections there. Is that the man you can be saying it is immoral to hound out? We must just be working as a team and not to be fighting each to show that we are on this side or we are on the other side.”

He observed that in the past, Kaande had tried to hound some people out of the MMD and should therefore not pretend that everyone in the party should support his position on Magande.

“Kaande himself cannot claim that he has not been trying to hound people out of the party. Let us not be saying things that can be dividing the party and so on and I think that to say that, you annoy a certain group of people and the youths who have been our backbone in the party,” Tetamashimba said. “They should try at the secretariat to reconcile people and not say that Magande is untouchable because there is nobody who is indispensible in the party even myself if I did something that the party feels is not good, I can be removed from the party but I am not implying that Magande has done something that is wrong for which he should be removed from the party.”

He said Kaande’s position was not the position of the entire NEC.

“We have not met as the national executive committee but what Kaande is saying is as if he is speaking on behalf of the entire NEC members, I don’t succumb to that. That is his personal position and not the position of the party,” Tetamashimba said.

On Thursday, Kaande said as far as the MMD was concerned, Magande was a senior member of the party whom they would not allow any youth to harass.

And on Nawakwi’s statement last week that President Banda had not performed to her expectations, Tetamashimba advised her to just shut up.

“I personally went to see Nawakwi and Sakwiba Sikota myself even before their statements. I advised both of them that ‘you people since you were in the forefront campaigning for President Rupiah Banda, there is need for you people to sit down with President Rupiah Banda and tell him about your vision.’ Ask them if they have ever done that,” Tetamashimba said.

“None of them wants to give advice to Rupiah Banda. I personally told Edith and Sakwiba that find time so that you give President Banda your views about how the country should be run. Ask them if they have ever been to State House and if they have not been, they should shut up because they should have told him that, ‘look we campaigned for you and we feel that the country should go in this direction.’”

Nawakwi and Sikota campaigned for President Banda in the run up to the October 30, 2008 election.

However, last week, Nawakwi expressed disappointment with the performance of President Banda and his government.

She said the government had not lived up to the people's expectations.

Nawakwi said President Banda's honeymoon was over and people expected his government to work.