Maravi

Mpombo’s suspension is unfortunate – Magande

Mpombo’s suspension is unfortunate – Magande
By Patson Chilemba
Wed 31 Mar. 2010, 04:01 CAT

NG’ANDU Magande yesterday described as unfortunate George Mpombo's suspension by the MMD. Commenting on Mpombo's suspension, Magande, who is Chilanga MMD member of parliament and former finance minister, said this was a wrong time for the party to suspend Mpombo.

“I will just say it is at a wrong time, and it suspension is unfortunate because Mr Mpombo has been saying things, and like I said, even on the red cards, it's better you sit people down and say 'what are you saying?' So I don't know whether anybody in NEC national executive committee before they wrote that letter they had even a meeting with Mr Mpombo to say 'why are you saying what you are saying?'” Magande asked.

“Just writing letters to people and you don't know how they react, it's not very good actually. That is where dialogue should come in. Mr Mpombo has been talking, I think from one week after he left government. People should have called him to say 'what are you saying? How do we correct it?’"

Magande wondered if there was any effort by party leaders to dialogue with Mpombo before his suspension.

“If they did, perhaps we give them credit. If they didn't they will just disrupt now the whole party in his area...he is talking on behalf of his constituency,” he said.

Magande said Mpombo was not a small figure in the MMD, saying even a branch official was capable of disorganising the party at branch level.

”Honourable Mpombo actually held a very important ministry defence, so you can't say he is nobody really,” Magande said. “So anybody who says 'I am a member of MMD' should be listened to and you hear what they have to say.”

Magande said the matter should be properly addressed because by-elections were very costly as they diverted money from the much needed development.

“...Just changing faces in Parliament like now, it will not be very useful,” he said.

Asked if he saw anything wrong in the statements Mpombo issued to warrant a suspension, Magande recalled that Mpombo played a big role in advocating for the holding of the convention.

“He was just saying that ‘this is what the constitution says for the party’. So there was nothing wrong, and I am happy now that people have decided to follow the party constitution. That is what we should do,” said Magande.

“That is the only way people will believe that when we want to continue in state management, we are also going to follow the constitution, otherwise if we start breaking laws at the bottom then even when you are high up there you will start breaking those laws.”

The MMD recently suspended Mpombo for issuing derogatory remarks against President Banda and the other leaders and for participating in the red card campaigns, among other things.

Labels: GEORGE MPOMBO, MAGANDE

posted by MrK @ 4:21 AM