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Katele should be concerned about MMD’s declining fortunes – VJ

Katele should be concerned about MMD’s declining fortunes – VJ
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sun 22 Nov. 2009, 04:01 CAT

MMD party founder member and parliamentary chief whip Vernon Mwaanga
KATELE Kalumba should be concerned about the declining fortunes of the MMD, party founder member and parliamentary chief whip Vernon Mwaanga said yesterday. And Mwaanga said many MMD members strongly feel that the party is not facing the right direction.

Reacting to MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba’s statement that the party did not sanction the strategic meeting held at Andrews Motel in Lusaka, Mwaanga said contrary to Kalumba’s statement, the workshop was even serviced by staff from his office.

“I think that whether the party sanctioned this or not, it was an MMD strategic planning workshop and I would have thought that the national secretary of the MMD Dr Katele Kalumba could welcome such an initiative because he as the chief executive officer of the MMD should be concerned about the declining fortunes of the party and should be taking initiatives of this nature to help the party get back on track,” Mwaanga said.

“To suggest that we took this initiative on our own, there were so many senior members including myself who was asked to open the workshop. We cannot be called sympathizers because I am a founder member of MMD myself and there were other members of the national executive committee who were present at this meeting and who even chaired the committee sessions. The workshop was also serviced by officials from the national secretary’s office. We had officials from the national secretary’s office who were servicing this workshop.”

Mwaanga said the workshop was called to help resolve the problems the MMD was facing.

“In my view, the workshop came up at a very important time in the history of the party and made a number of observations, made a number of recommendations and a number of conclusions, which the party needs to study very carefully because in comparative multiparty politics we must expect that competition against our party is going to increase and we must be able to provide strategic responses when these are called for,” Mwaanga said.

He said any party that did not have strategic meetings suffered the consequences.

“So really, I was extremely surprised, perplexed by the attitude, which the national secretary has taken because in my view, any initiative aimed at resolving the party’s problems must be considered welcome,” Mwaanga said.

“The party is not a closed shop for any one individual; there has to be an interaction between the party and its stakeholders, namely the members. When members feel strongly that the party is not facing in the right direction or doing the kind of things that they expect the party to do in accordance with the party constitution and take an initiative of this nature, I would expect the national secretary of the party to welcome such an initiative because it is aimed at rebuilding the party.”

Mwaanga said the workshop was attended by over 60 people who included founder members of the MMD.

“I have had to maintain my silence all along because I felt that it was an in-house workshop which dealt with a number of important issues the party is facing. It is unfortunate if the national secretary is trying to discredit this important workshop initiative which is intended to assist the MMD to strategise for the future because we had so many members of the party,” Mwaanga said. “The workshop was attended by over 60 people.

Over 60 people – academics, lawyers who have their own practices, business people, bankers, founder members of the MMD who are worried about the direction the party is facing. We all invested our time in order to help the party to re-energise, re-strategise and re-focus in terms of the future and I thought that such an initiative will be welcome. I am surprised that now we have become the subject of criticism from the national secretary. For me, that is unacceptable.”

Mwaanga confirmed that he opened the workshop.

“I opened the workshop and the programme clearly shows who is going to open the workshop and I made a number of important observations. They are making it sound as if this was a private and unnecessary initiative. It couldn’t have so many senior people if there wasn’t concern about the way the party...,” Mwaanga said. “The chief executive officer of our party should be concerned about what is happening in the party and the concerns of the members and sympathisers – not everyone at this workshop was a member of the MMD – there were sympathisers of MMD and there were also those who were invited just to present a factual position about what is actually happening, how they see the political scenario evolving between now and 2011.

“Just experts who were there so that the workshop could benefit from their analysis. Strategic planning in any party is important. And these recommendations, observations and conclusions which the workshop drew have been taken to the party. They were not intended for any other purpose except for the party to look at them.

“We held this workshop at Andrews Motel, even before Solwezi loss, because there is growing concern in the party about the way we are managing party affairs and party members are concerned. They believe that there are a number of things we should be doing to re-energise, revitalise the party which we are not doing.”

Mwaanga said the MMD still had a bright future despite the loss in the Solwezi Central parliamentary by-election.

“So the party still has a great future, it has got a great vision. The party’s economic policies are working, but we have to manage our politics. We have managed to deal with the economy but we don’t seem to be managing our politics properly,” Mwaangsa said. “I believe that the party after Solwezi, the party has had a reality check. First of all, this is not the first time that we have lost a seat as the MMD which belongs to us. We did that in Chipangali some years ago, we lost another seat in Chawama, we lost another seat somewhere else, the records are there to show that we have lost seats before and we have bounced back and re-won, retaken these seats after some time, after refocusing our campaign and our strategy.”

Mwaanga claimed that the workshop did not discuss anything concerning the Litunga. But Kalumba in yesterday’s Times of Zambia was quoted as having regretted, on behalf the party, any injury that could have been caused to the Litunga by the unsanctioned Andrews Motel workshop, going by the statements which were attributed to MMD.

“At this MMD strategic planning workshop which was held last weekend at Andrew’s Motel, no one talked about the Litunga. Any reference to the Litunga by any person must be considered as a reckless lie which is intended to discredit the workshop. I can confirm that, yes Simasiku Namakando was mentioned, he was talked about and the role that he has been playing in Western Province,” said Mwaanga.

“I want to state very categorically that no one even talked about the Litunga. How could we bring in the Litunga into the party matters? How does the Litunga come into it? We have got a very good working relationship with the Barotse Royal Establishment and we can never ever bring the Litunga’s name into disrepute. It’s a party matter; it has got nothing to do with him.”

MMD national executive committee treasurer Suresh Desai said he would issue a comprehensive statement tomorrow or on Tuesday to respond to Kalumba’s remarks about the workshop.

“I am the one who convened that workshop, so I am the right person to clarify all the issues. I will be making a full statement possibly on Monday or Tuesday to clarify all issues once and for all,” said Desai.

On Friday, Kalumba said the workshop, which Desai convened, was not sanctioned by the party.

“The workshop at Andrews Motel appeared to have been an academic exercise of MMD sympathisers but does not reflect the official position of the MMD,” stated Kalumba in a media statement quoted by the Times of Zambia yesterday.

He said Desai did not have the authority to convene such a meeting.

Kalumba advised MMD sympathisers to consult and clear their activities with his office to avoid misunderstandings in future. He said for President Rupiah Banda, the NEC and the entire MMD membership, he regretted the injury caused to the Barotse Royal Establishment and the Litunga on the statements attributed to the MMD.

Labels: KATELE KALUMBA, VERNON MWAANGA

posted by MrK @ 5:12 AM