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(NYASATIMES) Banda challenges Tembo, leadership change fight continues

Banda challenges Tembo, leadership change fight continues
By Nyasa Times
Published: October 25, 2009

There is no retreating in the fight for leadership change in opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), the taskforce has said.

The MCP Taskforce for Leadership Change has however conceded that some of its prominent members are “foot dragging” since the mysterious death of Ishmael Chafukila who was the championing the movement.

“It would be naive of us not to accept that the sudden death of Chafukira has put a dent on our mission, it has disrupted the momentum we had gathered, both in and outside parliament to wrestle MCP from the hands of a self serving leader, Hon John Tembo. But make no mistake to think that we are out and down,” said Chris Banda (pictured) who inspired Chafukira in the formation of the taskforce.

However he said the members’ safety is dependent on how strongly they stick to the agenda to force party president John Tembo, 77 to stand down.

“Much as we have suffered as an MCP Taskforce through the demise of Hon Chafukira, Hon Tembo too has no peace of mind as a human being for firstly decaying the MCP, vandalising the image of our hero president Kamuzu and ransacking his vision and for all the God knows things he has done to decapitate talent in MCP and in Malawi as a whole,” said Banda in statement made available to Nyasa Times.

“We have learnt a bitter lesson through the loss of Chafukira that those who are destroying the MCP and Kamuzu’s original vision, will not resort to reason, they know no democracy, they value no life, they will not sit down with us to talk, they will want to hurt us, they will want to demean us and they will even try to kill in order to continue to preside over a decaying MCP because by keeping MCP small, it makes them look big, by keeping MCP out of power, they look wealthier than they really are,” he said.

Banda said the taskforce is not weakening but they are re-strategising.

“The taskforce is not an organisation, it is a body of ideas for change in MCP, we have generated a large following of members of the MCP as well as those sitting outside the MCP, waiting for change to happen so that they can join and support the MCP’s steady progression back to power,” said Banda.

He said members of the movement include party officials at every level of the structure.

“They include people with serious money who are willing to put a vehicle in every regional and district office for MCP chairmen and their committees to use to rebuild the party. The message is clear for all members of MCP, Hon Tembo is sitting on the fortunes of your our party, of your families and of the legacies you will leave your children,” he said.

He wondered why Tembo is still holding to MCP leadership.

“Is it to justify that he still has a vision left in him to continue to lead MCP, with a view that he will one day still be president of Malawi? Is it that he has so much money that without him the party cannot survive? Has Hon Tembo been funding MCP and that without his funding the party will financially collapse? “

Banda said Tembo has no more political capital left pointing out that Kamuzu knew that he had no vision and that his capacities as a leader were both limited and tarnished.

“Hon Tembo is fighting to save his face. If he relinquishes the leadership of MCP, he will have no resources to live on, for he is dependent on the MCP financially. Hon Tembo has no known source of income; he has no viable business that he can call his source of income to justify his overtly seemingly lavish life. If I am wrong I am open to someone producing evidence,” said Banda.

He alleged Tembo is benefitting from being MCP president by controlling “The Kwacha Trust and is fighting for is to keep the control of the Kwacha Trust and its proceeds, not the love of MCP.

“The Kwacha Trust was established by Kamuzu to safeguard the MCP financially. Kamuzu was aware that Hon Tembo would not invest the proceeds of the trust into the growth of the party. That was why he left the Chairmanship of the Kwacha Trust with Mr. Gwanda Chakuamba,” said Banda.

He said the Kwacha Trust and its assets generate “serious money” per month.

“So it is clear that MCP will prosper without Hon Tembo, when we can allow the Treasury of the party and the party’s Finance Committee (which will be created), to plan how resources are deployed in the party to ensure that the funding that comes from the MCP assets do not just fund a lifestyle of one man who only loves himself. Who has never run a successful business all his life, who lived on the allowances from 20 or more government parastatals as its chairman in the Kamuzu era,” said Banda

“Tembo knew from the start that he had no chance of leading MCP to power. He knows that today. His desire to want to continue to lead MCP is only driven by selfish intentions that have become his trademark of the last five decades that he has been in Malawi politics,” he said.

Banda said those who have publicly claimed that Tembo has been funding MCP singlehandedly; they only lack the information and knowledge to know that it is in fact MCP money that Tembo has been living on.

“He has been splashing crumbs of such money at a few of his personal royalists to buy their unwavering support. The MCP is capable today of putting a vehicle in every regional office and district office but as long as Hon Tembo continues to lead the party this will not happen,” said Banda.

Meanwhile, Banda said the motion for leader of opposition in Parliament to be elected by the whole august House which was moved by ate Chafukira in parliament will continue although the mover died.

“I wish to remind everyone that although the motion was a private member motion by Late Chafukira, that motion was adopted by parliament and it is now owned by the whole parliament. It does not require that anybody else adopt it. In fact the demise of Chafukira means that that motion cannot be withdrawn any more, it is like a one way train to the end.

“We are confident in the judgements and visionary of all our elected members in parliament. We are also confident that those who seem to be toying behind the end of Tembo’s leadership will take an independent view, utilising the opportunity of the house wide vote (if this is what the Legal Affairs Committee has recommended) to join the leap of a generation towards a new political order in MCP,” he said.

He said it the taskforce’s prayer to God that he will touch the heart of every Member of Parliament in the November 2009 sitting so that Tembo will not be Leader of Opposition.

“This will give dignity to the work that Chafukira committed his last days on this earth. It will show that he has not died in vain. This is my call to every MP, wherever you are and whatever your current explicit political inclination might be. This is a call to a noble duty for the nation, it a fight between darkness and light,” Banda said.

posted by MrK @ 7:03 PM