Maravi

Mangani needs more roasting, says Katele

Mangani needs more roasting, says Katele
By Christopher Miti in Chipata and Chibaula Silwamba in Lusaka
Mon 24 May 2010, 04:02 CAT

Left to right: Katele Kalumba, Lameck Mangani and President Rupiah Banda

MMD National Secretary Katele Kalumba has said former home affairs minister Lameck Mangani, like anyone else, needs a bit more roasting for him to become a better and stronger leader.

And George Mpombo yesterday said Mangani was overzealous and very excited with his ministerial post, which he used to harass perceived political opponents. Meanwhile, Kalumba said the MMD was committed to fighting anyone who would stand in the way of their quest to make President Banda re-elected next year.

During a poorly attended Eastern Province MMD card renewal exercise at Luangwa Lodge on Saturday in Chipata, Kalumba, who was commenting on Mangani's demotion to the position of deputy minister, asked him to be calm because the bowl of soup had just tilted and not spilt.

"Here you have your member of parliament, former Minister of Home Affairs and you have our party president. The soup has just tilted. It did not spill and therefore don't be misinformed by anyone,” Kalumba said. “What I did immediately I learnt about it (Mangani's demotion), I sent a message to the Honourable MP. I said ‘you stay calm’. That's the best advice you can give to any member of parliament who is under some kind of talk in our leadership structure.

"In politics, today you are above, tomorrow you may be out. So don't celebrate...those who didn't like Mangani and say 'yah chamuchita manje’. No! Today it’s on your friend, tomorrow it can be you. So all you do is encourage your friend to find a right channel to communicate, a right way to do things so that the authorities are happy. So I want to advise that there is no ill will at all.”

Kalumba said Mangani’s demotion was a necessary measure meant to protect all the parties involved.

“…and protect the integrity of our state and of course the safety of our Zambian society and country,” Kalumba said. “So I am hopeful that one day things may be better for Honourable Mangani. But for now, we all need to go through some tough time so that we are roasted a little bit, becomes tough. So every man and woman who wants to be a leader in future has to go through (this)...nothing special here."

Kalumba urged those who were close to Mangani to do him a favour by not telling him funny stories but encouraging him to be calm.

And in an interview yesterday, Mpombo urged Mangani to pick up his pieces and cut out a new life as deputy minister and MMD parliamentarian for Chipata Central Constituency.

"I really sympathise with Mr Mangani on moral grounds. But on the other side, he should have avoided being over excited with his appointment as Minister of Home Affairs,” Mpombo, a former defence minister, said. “What we saw was that he usurped the powers of the Inspector General of Police and even the police spokesperson. That didn’t go on very well.

“The other thing is the threats he had against fellow politicians. That didn’t go very well. Threatening people, fellow politicians…that created a very negative picture about Honourable Mangani. For instance, when I say overtaking the functions of the police, like in Mufumbwe, they police were looking for Honourable Whatson Lumba and it was Mr Mangani asking Lumba to surrender himself to the police. That was the work of the Inspector General of Police. Also, his utterances appeared to have shaken confidence in the police force because it was him who was using the government institutions to sort out political scores.”

Mpombo urged other public servants not to use their positions to harass their perceived opponents.

“He Mangani must have learnt something that when you are in power, you need your colleagues. These positions, you should not use them to settle scores with your perceived political opponents. It is also a reminder to our colleagues in government that the police force they are using to harass other people will be the same one who will visit them once they are out of office,” Mpombo said. “Whoever is in position, don’t think you will be there permanently. There will come a day when you will reach your waterloo.

“Mangani was overzealous. Even when I was defence minister, he had put up a very spirited campaign to say that the positions of Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Defence are not supposed to be controlled by ‘foreigners’, outsiders; meaning other tribes. They should be controlled by people from Eastern Province.”

Mpombo said President Banda knew the ploy that was being pushed to sideline people from other provinces from key portfolio.

“I think even RB is aware of that development where there were serious campaigns to ensure that Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Defence and other key ministries are controlled by the people from Eastern Province. Mr Mangani took part in that arrangement but what it is, is that we are one nation, one Zambia,” Mpombo said. “It’s me who created that position for him to become minister and I think he was also involved in my harassment but those we leave them to God.”

However, Mpombo said he sympathised with Mangani.

“On a personal note, it’s a very difficult situation. All I can advise him is to pick up all his broken pieces and cut out a new life. As a human being, I don’t take pleasure in the suffering or misfortune of a particular person. I know what he must have gone through but I just want him to pick up his broken pieces and just concentrate on his constituency in Chipata.” said Mpombo.

Meanwhile, Katele Kalumba said the MMD was committed to fight anyone who would stand in the way of their quest to make President Banda re-elected in 2011.

“We want to stand behind President Banda, and we are committed to fight anyone, whether he comes from Luapula or Northern, anyone who will stand in the way of our quest to make President Banda re-elected in 2011,” Kalumba said. “As national secretary, I am the number one campaigner for our party president. I have no apologies to make to anyone when I say NEC (national executive committee) listened to the petitions of provinces calling for President Banda to be the sole candidate all round the country. After that the NEC endorsed the decision of the party organs. I have no apologies to anyone when I am standing here and say the only candidate I know for 2011 is RB Banda,” Kalumba said.

He advised those who had ambitions to contest the party presidency and later become Republican presidents to continue dreaming.

“So I advise my colleagues who have ambitions to dream of being in State House. They can go on dreaming but this train is moving on, this train is not stopping. The RB machine is already working and if you are dreaming, we wish you luck,” Kalumba said. “But we will not walk back. We are moving forward and I ask my brother Mpombo, my brother Magande and whoever is there dreaming, ‘please come back home. Let’s be realistic’. There may be time for them (Mpombo and Magande) may be in 2016 but not in 2011, 2011 is the hour for RB a full five year term.”

Kalumba said President Banda had done all the ground work to fight the campaign next year.

“So as we go back let’s believe in our hearts President Banda. And I can tell you that and I am legitimately sanctioned to say that. I can tell you without feeling uncomfortable he has done all the ground work we need to fight the campaign in 2011,” Kalumba said. “So you may not see some of these things now but as the national secretary, I can assure you. If I didn’t know, I wouldn’t have been here to tell you.”

And Kalumba commended the people of Milanzi for voting for the MMD candidate which he said was in contrast with what happened in Mufumbwe where MMD had a difficult experience and had decided to go to court.

“I know a lot of people have been calling saying, ‘national secretary you are the party in power you shouldn’t go to court’. But let me justify because we are the party in power we have to help our people understand what happened in Mufumbwe,” Kalumba said. “If laws are broken, the party in power cannot just watch and pretend nothing has gone wrong. Because we know what happened in 1991, we want to prevent it. We want to prevent what happened in 1991 where a party in power loses not always to the electorate but to some other players. So we want to stop it. That’s why we are going to court.”

Kalumba urged the people of Eastern Province not to be tempted by the opposition who would go to the province.

“It may not be your son or your daughter who is in State House. But he is one of your children from the east and it bothers me to listen to some of our young men in Lusaka who are in NGOs who are in the forefront of taking away what President Rupiah Banda is doing and you hear them that somebody Lungu of Transparent International (Zambia), somebody Tembo of AVAP they are in the forefront of trying to undo a decent man’s work. It makes me so sad to see that the province had waited for so many years to produce the President,” Kalumba said.

He said Eastern Province only produced vice-presidents like Reuben Kamanga, General Christon Tembo, Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda and vice-president Banda who subsequently became President.

“But now an opportunity rose and the people of Zambia said ‘yes to Eastern Province’. You have President Rupiah Bwezani Banda and he has just served for one and half years. Already you are buckling in some places, hey!” Kalumba said. “Some people are telling you ‘it is enough you have just smelt leadership in State House’. They want to say, ‘give it out to’… who is this man? I even forgot his name. The Cobra Sata or HH Hichilema. You people you don’t know how to hold on to something that is good, eeh?” Kalumba asked.

He said the people of Luapula Province and their chiefs had made a pledge to stand behind President Banda.

Kalumba said the Luapula ‘developmental’ meeting was very successful contrary to what was written about the meeting in the print media.

“Luapula has had an opportunity to produce a president. And whatever, however you judge him, the fact is he was the president of the Republic of Zambia,” Kalumba said. “We are not selfish. Whoever is going to come to you to tell you that Katele Kalumba is going to stand, they are foolish, we are not all that foolish.

“Let me tell you, I have suffered for ten years on account of that stuff of saying ‘Katele Kalumba this and that’. I believe that my own actions speak for themselves. I stood by the party and I stand today to stand by the party and stand by the man who is proving to be a very decent human being who believes in reconciling with people, bring people together and everywhere he is not speaking the words of division, of insults but he is saying ‘let’s work together, let’s go back to the tenets left for us by the founding president, One Zambia One Nation.”

MMD Eastern Province chairperson Kennedy Zulu said the party was strong in the province and this was evidenced by its winning the recent parliamentary by-elections. He said he was happy because seven party members were appointed district commissioners, four district administration officers while two were in the diplomatic service.

Zulu said his committee had also produced a permanent secretary and a deputy permanent secretary.

Some party cadres attributed the low attendance to Mangani’s demotion while others said the party had a lot of intraparty problems.

The card renewal exercise which was postponed several times was only attended by Lumezi member of parliament Isaac Banda who is also provincial minister, Chama North member of parliament Todd Chilembo, who is also justice deputy minister and newly elected Milanzi member of parliament Whiteson Banda out of the 17 MMD members of parliament.

Recently, Zulu said the card renewal was postponed because of President Banda’s trip to Tanzania. He also said it was difficult for MPs who are ministers to get permission from the Head of State to come and attend the card renewal.

But after the card renewal, Zulu said he was impressed because the exercise took place and that the party did not ferry any person.

He said people came following an announcement on the local radio station.

Labels: GEORGE MPOMBO, KATELE KALUMBA, LAMECK MANGANI, MMD

posted by MrK @ 2:49 PM