Maravi

Mulongoti backs calls to block Mpombo at convention

Mulongoti backs calls to block Mpombo at convention
By Patson Chilemba and George Chellah
Sun 10 Jan. 2010, 04:01 CAT

WORKS and supply minister Mike Mulongoti yesterday supported calls by MMD youths to beat and block former defence minister George Mpombo from attending the convention, saying a nuisance should not be allowed at the convention. But MMD national youth chairman and former Kabwe Central member of parliament Patrick Musonda said Mpombo is free to attend the convention.

Commenting on MMD youth league president Daniel Tembo's statement that youths would wait for Mpombo at the convention and he should kiss it goodbye because they would not allow him to stand, Mulongoti said people should be in right standing with the party for them to be allowed to attend the convention.

“Let me tell you something, our party says for you to remain a member, you must be in good standing with the party, in your conduct, everything put together; you must be in good standing. If in the assessment of the party, your conduct is not in good standing, we have got every right to stop you from coming to contest the election, to stop you from continuing to be a nuisance,” Mulongoti said.

“How can you allow a nuisance to come to a convention? We want to go there as members to deliberate and eventually elect ourselves. A nuisance will not be admitted there because they will cause problems for us. We want good members with good standing to come to the convention.”

Mulongoti said spoilers should not be allowed to attend the convention because they might spoil the fun.

“You mentioned who and who? Yah, on others…, I have answered on Mr Mpombo first on the convention, who are the others?” he asked.

Reminded that the youths had also threatened to deal with former Sinazongwe member of parliament Syacheye Madyenkuku, FDD president Edith Nawakwi, Patriotic Front (PF) secretary General Wynter Kabimba and many others whom they said were insulting President Banda, Mulongoti said MMD youths were responsible but they were sending a message that political leaders should not be overly aggressive by demonizing the leadership of other political parties.

“I don't think that is fair. If you listened to our debate with Mr Kabimba, he thinks the use of unpalatable language is acceptable. I don't think in MMD we believe in that. What we want is that we must civilize our politics where we treat each other with respect,” Mulongoti said.

But Musonda disowned the MMD youths that warned Mpombo against going to the convention.

“There are only provincial, district, constituency and branch youth wings. We don't have yet a youth league as an organisation within the MMD. The party constitution has never provided for that. The hierarchy is such that a national youth chairman is the most superior personnel, then under the national youth chairman there are provincial youth chairmen, then district youth chairmen, then constituency youth chairmen, then the ward youth chairmen and branch youth chairmen. That's what it is, so there is no title in the youth wing of MMD as president,” Musonda said.

“Those who came to me as a national youth chairman I don't know them and I don't recognize them. This group of youths who came to your office they have got no blessing from the MMD leadership, we don't know them. They don't have the mandate to speak on behalf of the party youth wing. MMD is the founder of democracy in this country and that is the main principle, which MMD was founded on. And the people of Zambia accepted MMD just because of that democratic movement, so we are the pioneers and the preachers of democracy in the political dispensation of this country.”

He encouraged those that wanted to contest the elections at the MMD convention to freely do so.

“Coming to the calls that they are saying that they would ban and victimise Mpombo and ban him from attending the convention, that is wrong. In MMD we believe in democracy. Whoever wants to aspire, even the national chairman said that, they are free to come and can contest any position from the president and to a trustee at the convention,” Musonda said.

“So in this party, which is democratic, me as a youth national chairman… Mpombo is free if he will qualify to come and attend the convention and contest the position of his choice and that is good for him because outside that, he is growing wings as though he is very popular within the party membership.

“There are a lot of people that I know who are vying, who might come. Let them come…if they lose they will lose genuinely. If we are going to bar anyone from coming to contest, it means that we will just make them grow big for nothing.”

But MMD Lusaka Province youth chairman Chris Chalwe admitted that he knew Daniel Tembo.

“Those are Daniel Tembo's views and they do not reflect the views of the youths. We don't have an MMD youth league president or the youth league,” Chalwe said. “So what Mr Tembo is saying has nothing to do with the youth leadership. I know Daniel Tembo, he is an overzealous guy. He has no position, he is just an ordinary member of the party.”

MMD youths in Lusaka on Friday warned that they would block Mpombo from attending the convention.

“This is 2010, Mpombo should not even attend the convention because we will cut off his legs and all those who are insulting President Banda will not be spared,” said Tembo. “We are financially sound, we have hired 4x4 vehicles to get to where they are. We will beat them one by one like lizards coming from a hole.”

And on UPND president Hakainde Hichilema's assertions that the injury President Banda had caused the Lambas was too deep and would not be healed by his desperate appointment of Gladys Lundwe as lands minister, Mulongoti said Lundwe was a member of parliament from Masaiti and deserved to be appointed minister to replace her brother in apparent reference to former science and technology minister Gabriel Namulambe who was recently fired by President Banda who had left.

“It is him Hichilema who is panicking. He has got Mr Sata to deal with. It is not us. Him he has got Mr Sata to deal with first of all before he can show who he is. So let him deal with Mr Sata first,” Mulongoti said.

“You heard me, emphasise that, Mr Hichilema must first of all go back to Mr. Sata before he can claim that he has any chance to become president.”

On government bowing to media self-regulation, Mulongoti said he was information minister and government had never wanted to regulate the media but the problem was that there were those who resisted self-regulation.

“I think that is what is unfair. Yesterday, I was listening to a debate and somebody was saying that even to be told that 'regulate yourselves is not right'. You see, government cannot allow a situation where there is a total vacuum, where there is nobody responsible,” he said.

Asked if the government's decision to pave way for self regulation was not a tactical retreat because of the pressure against statutory regulation of the media, Mulongoti said government was not pushing the media to create a code of conduct.

He said the media had been in existence for a long time, but wondered how other associations had regulated themselves faster than the media.

“You want quacks to continue masquerading as journalists, why?” Mulongoti asked.

He said the MMD was grateful to its critics, both in Parliament and in the media, and was actively pursuing the advice it got from the two institutions.

However, Mulongoti said some critics were just malicious.
“This year we will be so robust about our achievements because it is evident, anybody can see what we have done, except that our critics because of jealousy have been saying that we have done nothing. But I can tell you we have proudly done so much,” said Mulongoti.

“I can tell you we have performed. We will not sit quietly this year and watch people disadvantage us on account of malice, sometimes jealousy, some hatred. Where we made mistakes, we apologise. We are human beings. We acknowledge that we have faults as well.”

Labels: DANIEL TEMBO, GEORGE MPOMBO, MIKE MULONGOTI, MINISTRY OF WORKS AND SUPPLY, MMD, MMD YOUTH LEAGUE

posted by MrK @ 4:17 PM