Maravi

The heat is now building on Rupiah – Kavindele

The heat is now building on Rupiah – Kavindele
By Patson Chilemba
Sat 28 Nov. 2009, 04:01 CAT

THE heat is now building on Rupiah Banda because people are speaking boldly over national issues, former Republican vice-president Enoch Kavindele has says. And Kavindele said it was absurd for information minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha and President Banda to think that they were more MMD than him.

Reacting to Lt Gen Shikapwasha's statement that he had no right to attack the MMD with regard to the decisions it made on how to run the country because he was neither a member of the party nor the government, Kavindele said whereas in the past there had been too much hero-worshipping, even worshipping inefficiency, the Zambian people had now shown that they would not accept mediocrity.

“Yah this leadership is mediocre. That is why we are now losing ward elections in areas that were 100 per cent MMD,” Kavindele said.

He wondered on what basis the MMD allowed him to challenge President Banda's MMD presidential candidature last year if he were not a member of the party.

Kavindele said the man whom he recruited into the MMD, Lt Gen Shikapwasha, was now questioning his party credentials.

“I recruited Shikapwasha from Heritage Party after he lost the Keembe parliamentary election. The background is that the ex-service chiefs were undergoing challenges after reverting to civilian rule, and I convened a meeting at my office, the Vice-President's Office, where I met them. Based on the meeting, president Mwanawasa agreed to do something about retired service chiefs,” Kavindele narrated.

“But some had gone to opposition parties, it was suggested that we recruit them to MMD, and that is how Shikapwasha found himself in the MMD and was subsequently our candidate in Keembe.”

Kavindele said Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda even sued him over a statement he made whilst campaigning for Lt Gen Shikapwasha.

Kavindele said he had been a member of MMD since 1992 while others joined the party after it won the elections of 2001.

He said he stood as independent candidate in the 2006 to protest against the MMD's adoption of a former UPND member whom he once defeated.

“It is absurd that Shikapwasha can think that he is more MMD, or Shikapwasha or Rupiah can think that they are more MMD than I am,” said Kavindele. “So I am a member, and in any case you have had people who in the morning are in a different party and hours later they become MMD, and they are appointed to very high positions. It happened to Banda himself.

He was UNIP and most of these come from other parties, now they are in leadership. Even my own recruit Shikapwasha is now challenging the credentials of the man who appointed him. How can Shikapwasha question my credentials? I recruited him.”

Kavindele said he would continue criticising the mismanagement currently happening under President Rupiah Banda's “mediocre leadership”.

He said he was an MMD member and as a citizen was entitled to air views over the management of the party and the nation.

“Also as a citizen, I shall continue commenting on the management of the economy and the suffering arising from corruption. For instance, in the procurement of petroleum, it does not only affect MMD members, everybody is affected. The intended fraudulent sale of Zamtel concerns all citizens and therefore, whether in MMD or otherwise,” said Kavindele.

Lt Gen Shikapwasha was quoted in the Times of Zambia this week as saying Kavindele had ceased to be a member of the party the moment he decided to contest the 2006 elections when he stood as an independent parliamentary candidate.

Earlier, Kavindele had said the MMD's loss in Solwezi showed that President Banda could no longer win elections on the back of president Mwanawasa's legacy because people had now discovered his leadership style.

Labels: ENOCH KAVINDELE, MMD, RONNIE SHIKAPWASHA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 12:35 PM