Maravi

Katele justifies UNIP MP’s appointment

Katele justifies UNIP MP’s appointment
By Christopher Miti in Chipata and Patson Chilemba in Lusaka
Wed 26 May 2010, 04:00 CAT

MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba has said UNIP has reached a stage where it has to feed off other political parties like MMD.

And Chipata district MMD chairperson Benson Sakala has revealed that the party membership in some parts of the district has been invaded by the opposition.

Commenting on the appointment of Lundazi Central UNIP member of parliament Mkhondo Lungu as home affairs minister at the Eastern Province card renewal exercise on Saturday, Kalumba said MMD was not ashamed to reach out to UNIP.

“If we are at peace within ourselves to work with first Republican president Dr Kenneth Kaunda who is the founding member of UNIP and a leader of that party for many years, why should we be ashamed to call upon UNIP to come and work with us? Why should we be ashamed to call upon Mkhondo Lungu to come and work with us? Why should we be ashamed? We should feel free,” Kalumba said.

“No one can say anything against UNIP really, all of us are children of UNIP. There is a saying in one of your relatives and cousins’language up there to say ‘iya kota ilya mumwana’. When you become old you feed off your children so UNIP now has reached a stage where it has to feed off us children, the products of UNIP.”

He said MMD was open to work with UNIP and other opposition parties that had decency in their heads.

“The door is open, come in. I was talking to Tilyenji Kaunda UNIP president, I said ‘what are you waiting for?’ Think of what happened in South Africa, the National Party dissolved itself and joined the ANC African National Congress. Now there are many ways you can consider our relationship, but we are open as MMD,” Kalumba said.

“Let’s give President Banda …for taking a bold step and bring in Honourable Lungu from Lundazi. The same people who were praising the late president for bringing in some of the opposition leaders into MMD are the ones who are in the forefront of criticising now because we have gotten Lungu. They would have wished Lungu to be on their side.”

Kalumba said MMD was proud to get a person like Lungu, a decent gentleman from Lundazi.

And in his report during the card renewal exercise, Sakala said the MMD membership had been invaded mostly in Mchini area under Dilika ward and Nabvutika under Kapata ward. He said Chipata Central Constituency women secretary Jessie Banda and Abdon Nkunika had defected to the newly formed Alliance for Democracy and Democracy (ADD).

“…In fact, in Dilika ward the entire committee with the chairman has gone to the opposition. The only solution to this according to the proposal from the committee of our members from all the four constituencies is that we must start organizing the party from the grass root,” Sakala said.

He said Kasenengwa Constituency had been invaded by would-be candidates after the news that area member of parliament Vera Chiluba Tembo might not contest the coming elections.
However, Sakala said his committee was behind President Banda.

Mambwe district MMD chairperson Lufeyo Zulu said there was need for the district executive committee to work hand in hand with the area member of parliament Maxwell Mwale.

“I want to say it to you our national secretary that I am not in good terms with our member of parliament together with the district and constituency executive committee. We are divided, half of the people in the district executive are behind the MP and part of them in the constituency are behind the MP while some of us are sidelined,” Zulu said.

He said the party was going down because of such bad developments.

Zulu said for the differences to be sorted out, Mwale should appear before the district and constituency committees so that he could reconcile with them.

“The MP doesn’t like us because earlier on, there were some promises from the MP that he has not fulfilled. Now he has realized that time is not with him so what he wants is to make sure we are removed so that he can easily cheat those who would take over from us,” Zulu said.

Zulu said the people in the district were happy with developmental projects that were taking place especially the tarring of the Chipata/Mfuwe road.

Nyimba District MMD chairperson Whiteson Njobvu said if the government does not attend to the roads leading to chiefs’ palaces, it would cost the party during next year’s elections.

Njobvu said the party was not enjoying the usual support in the valley because of the bad roads leading to the chiefs’ palaces.

He said area parliamentarian Forrie Tembo tried to visit the people but it had been difficult to get to all the areas due to the vastness of the constituency.

Njobvu said the people of Nyimba were happy with the developmental projects currently taking place in the district.

He said Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) had killed about three people since 2006 after they were found hunting in the bush and this had cost the party.

“People in the valley where we get a lot of support are not happy with the government because of what ZAWA is doing. From 2006 ZAWA killed three people in senior chief Lwembe’s area because they say they were found in the bush hunting. This has cost us as a party, people are saying the government is for animals and not for people because even if somebody has been identified that he has killed a person he is left scot free,” Njobvu said.

In response, Kalumba said he took note of the issues raised by the district chairpersons.
Kalumba urged Nyimba leaders to sensitize the people on the law relating to ZAWA.

Eastern Province minister Isaac Banda said there was need for all members of parliament to relate well with the party leadership in the province.

“If MPs work well with the party leadership then the provincial minister will find it easy because wherever he will be going to hold developmental meetings there will be people and the party leadership would know those projects and the same projects will be our campaign materials for 2011,” Banda said.

And Kalumba in an interview in Lusaka yesterday charged that Chilanga MMD parliamentarian Ng'andu Magande was part of the national executive committee (NEC)’s collective decision to endorse President Banda as the party's sole candidate for 2011.

Kalumba said those who thought they stood a chance of winning at the convention like Magande and his Kafulafuta counterpart George Mpombo were merely fantasising.

"They can fantasise. My friend Peter Ng'andu Magande can fantasise but I know him to be a reasonable person...whether he argues that he was not there during the NEC meeting which endorsed President Banda as the sole candidate, it is immaterial because he is bound by the collective decision of the majority, and you are bound by the majority decision," Kalumba said. "I recall very clearly that there was no one who stood up to oppose. But as national secretary I have no right to stop anybody from aspiring to contest."

Kalumba maintained that the MMD would go for the convention and he would present the NEC's resolution on the endorsement of President Banda to the gathering.

"I have said, and publicly so that anybody who wants to dream, are free to do so. The decision of NEC has endorsed one candidate...he who wants to fantasise that they are presidential material can do so. There are some people who think they are presidential material. As NEC we will be lobbying for that position," he said.

On Patriotic Front (PF) secretary general Wynter Kabimba's warning that the ruling MMD shall bear the consequences of rigging the 2011 presidential elections, Kalumba said his statement that President Banda had done the groundwork to fight the campaign next year did not imply that the party was ready to rig the election.
He said he meant that the team tasked with formulating the MMD manifesto for 2011 had finished its work.

Kalumba said MMD manifestos were prepared before the convention, saying what was presented at the convention was the report from the President.

"Campaign committees designated for the particular campaign strategy have done their work. So we are prepared as a party for the elections," he said.

On the MMD meetings held last year at Andrews Motel and Siavonga and Kabimba's statement that the MMD could not win without rigging the elections, Kalumba asked Kabimba to learn to read the documents correctly because the meeting at Andrews Motel did not have any strategy for rigging.

As for the Siavonga meeting, Kalumba said he had not seen the minutes of that meeting.
"As he has boasted he has more privileged information...just like there are many things that I know about his party than he knows himself," said Kalumba.

On Saturday, Kalumba revealed that President Banda had done all the groundwork to fight the campaign next year.
On Monday, Kabimba said PF was fully aware of the schemes.

He said he was not surprised at the confidence shown by Kalumba regarding the groundwork to ensure that President Banda won the elections next year.
Kabimba said Kalumba should know that PF had infiltrated the MMD.

Labels: BENSON SAKALA, CHIPATA, KATELE KALUMBA, MMD, UNIP

posted by MrK @ 3:34 PM