Maravi

Confine your stubbornness to workers at State House, Kavindele tells Rupiah

Confine your stubbornness to workers at State House, Kavindele tells Rupiah
Written by George Chellah
Sunday, October 18, 2009 3:16:15 AM

FORMER Republican vice-president Enoch Kavindele has told President Rupiah Banda to be stubborn with his employees at State House but not the MMD members because they are not his goats that he can command at will.

Reacting to President Banda's statement that he was stubborn and he would not allow anybody to interfere in the operations of the MMD, Kavindele insisted that President Banda must stick to the ruling party's constitution over the national convention.

“He may be stubborn with his employees at State House but here we are talking of a political party that is in power. We are reminding him that we have a constitution whether he is stubborn, soft, reckless or whatever, what we want him is to follow the constitution of the MMD. He can be stubborn with the people that he has employed, with his employees…he just has to follow the constitution,” Kavindele said.

“We are not his goats, we are governed by the constitution. We are not his goats that he can just command at will, tell him that. A President is first among equals, we are not his goats. He can be stubborn with his employees but here we have a party to maintain. You know with a goat you just push it that kabiye munanikane umo [you go there].”

He said the issue of the convention does not only involve President Banda alone but other national executive committee (NEC) members as well.

“What we are saying is that in the MMD there is a constitution, which we gave ourselves that every five years before any general election we should have a convention, that's our constitution and the constitution can only be changed by the convention not by himself or a few people who want to perpetuate their stay. This issue does not only involve Rupiah it also involves other members of the NEC,” Kavindele said.

“So if there is no convention it means that even the others will continue in their offices without reporting to the convention. We want to hear their reports, at the convention NEC members present their committee reports so it's not only Banda, it's him and the others. And those others are the ones who are saying that 'no! no! no! The congress shouldn't be there'. Perhaps they don't even have the reports or they have nothing to say, which means we won't take them to task.”

On President Banda's revelation that he went to meet him, Kavindele admitted having a meeting with the President to discuss his railway line project.

“It was on the 15th April, 2009 when I met him but he is saying the other day…it's about six months ago when I went to see him regarding construction of the North-Western railway. I told him that I had gone very far with the project I had even started constructing. And that it would be very expensive on my part to abandon the project because I had made commitments to the suppliers and all consultants. He was gracious enough when he offered me lunch with him. I had lunch with him but there was one other person there his legal advisor,” Kavindele said.

“And then he said that he will get back to me but this is six months later and I am still waiting. Now does it take the President up to six months to consult with his minister or the Cabinet? He is just trying to paint a completely different picture. If he is talking about my businesses that are what happened, the time I went to see him fyali fya njanji, North Western rail.

“…That it had gone very far and I had already started construction and that I was going to engage 4,000 people and this country's number one problem is youth unemployment. So I don't really see anything wrong in my approaching the head of state to tell him that the delay was totally unnecessary. And by now we would have reached Lumwana and saved him the costs of maintaining that road.”

Kavindele also maintained his observations on the Judiciary.

“The President knew that the matter of Vodacom Zambia was in court but he stated when he went to announce the privatisation of Zamtel that he had directed that there should be no more licences for mobile cellular phones, that he has directed, now who did he direct? If not the judges who were hearing this matter?” Kavindele asked.

“He is President and he said that he had directed that no more licences should be issued. He knew that my matter was quite active in the Supreme Court. So who did he direct then, if not the judges who were hearing this matter? So the judges wrote the way they did because they were virtually directed by the President.”

Speaking on arrival in Livingstone on Thursday where he had gone to officiate at the ZAF pass-out parade, President Banda said he did not need to be told what he should do for the MMD. President Banda said every political party had its own problems.

“We don't have to be told what we need to do, a ruling party. That is why they call me a dictator. That is not true. I'm not a dictator, I'm just stubborn,” he said.

“I will not allow any outsider to run this party from outside, to pretend that they are true members of this party when they are not. This party has come from a long way and no one will cause confusion in this party.”

President Banda said he would not allow anybody to interfere in the operations of the MMD especially people like Kavindele.

“As a President I won't allow anybody to interfere in the functions of the party from the outside. Just the other day he was at State House telling me the problems he was going through. Maybe he thought that I did not listen to his problems…” said President Banda.

Labels: ENOCH KAVINDELE, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 2:16 AM