Maravi

Magande discuses his political future

Magande discuses his political future
By Kombe Chimpinde
Sun 19 Sep. 2010, 11:20 CAT

EXPELLED Chilanga MMD member of parliament and former minister of finance Ng’andu Magande has disclosed to the Post Online that he intends to run for President in the forthcoming general elections slated for next year. The Post Online’s Kombe Chimpinde caught up with Magande for an exclusive interview at his residence in Chilanga. Read on as Magande shares his political future.

Kombe: The MMD will be having its Convention on a tentative date, as a former member of the party, are you going to attend.

Magande: I have answered that question before very competently… exactly I have said at the moment I am looking for another platform. I have to look for another channel to get to you people, because by me going to NEC in 2008, I didn’t have a chance to make a decision. I was not on the ballot paper.

So by me going to the Convention, I won’t have a chance again.

A political career is not a sure profession like an accountant, politics is about the people and those people have to determine whether they want you or not.

If I was just an economist, by now you would have found me here writing a report for the United Nations or for COMESA. That I can do on my own.

But if I want to get into politics, especially politics of the people in Zambia, I need the people and the only way I can see if they still want me is to give them an opportunity to choose among many people, including myself.
That to me is what I am now looking at.

Kombe: So are we seeing you joining an already existing political party or are we talking about something new?

Magande:It could be a new thing it could be an old thing, I am leaving my door open like this entrance (points to the door).

And that door, just like the other Saturday on phone, many people have come through that door to find out what I can do, or to try and see how we can work.
So once I am ready, I will, just like I have been all my life, I will come to the public and say that this is where I am and this is where I am going.

Kombe: Have you had some opposition party members coming to ask you to join them?

Magande:Yes, I have had parties, I have had individuals, so that is what I am assessing.

And when you have so many, not so many but two parties coming to talk to you, obviously for me the interest could be, can I be the bridge between the two parties? Why is it that the two of you find me attractive, if you both find me attractive, why can’t you use my character in order for you to come together?
So am also considering that kind of action.

Kombe: From your statement , I am thinking you are talking about the PF-UPND pact who have come to approach you separately, is that so.

Magande: I will not tell you exactly, I will not tell you who did this but I have told you everything, that people have come, on behalf of themselves or on behalf of parties.

Some people have come to say, I can register a party and I will become the leader of the party and all those are options that are valid.

And these are the people who think I shouldn’t just sit here and cover myself and forget about the people… So there are so many options which are coming through and I am assessing them and hopefully by next month, I will come out with them and say this is the direction.

I would love to have these parties which are coming to crash in my sitting room just like you have come and then I introduce them that this one is this party and this one is this party and both of you are interested in this progress of Zambia, can we all work together and bring about this progress.

So that is what I am doing now, I am listening and I am so excited because so many Zambians are coming to say look, you can’t give up and I tell them I am not giving up, this is my country…

When I left Europe, I said I don’t want to come back here because I know your trick, I know what you are not doing for us.

Kombe: Is that the reason why you are not re-contesting the Chilanga seat because you want to aim for something higher?

Magande: Yes. Because I want to have enough time to consult.

Kombe: Don’t you think it will be a bigger challenge for you to join an already existing party and assume the position that you are eying, like say the PF or UPND, won’t they say that you are destabilizing their party?

Magande: Why? What if one of those parties or both of them have approached me to say come and be our head? He he! …laughs

These are the issues, there is no way a leader can say I am a leader and you are failing to get to your destination, how? You can’t be a leader and you are not getting anywhere.

Me I have… from the time I was at Ministry of finance, would they have allowed me to stay there for five and half years if I was not taking you in the right direction?

So like I said, it’s a public job you are doing, if you are not taking people to their promised land, you should say look I thinks it time somebody else came.
People will still give you credit. That is why everyday that you are here as a leader, you must make a change, so that if I am not a leader the following day, people will still remember me.

So people should not say unless I do this in ten years time then that’s when people will respect me, No! It means you are wasting your life.

Kombe: Have you had people from the ruling party who are supporting your plans to either join another party or form your own?

Magande: Plenty. Plenty. I am even frightened, what will become of MMD once I announce my direction.

Kombe: Well, me I can’t wait to hear that announcement, but reading between the lines, I can see that the option that you are really looking at is forming your own party.

Magande:Really, I am keeping my mind open, just like I have been saying all along, there are too many parties already, and most of these parties are formed by individuals who because at the hospital when they went, they lost a child they get so upset.

Somebody when he went to the village he found his grandmother had sold the maize and Food Reserve Agency FRA is not paying much and forms a party.
Our parties in terms of ideology are not too distant, and you know that aside from UNIP, all other parties are offshoots of the MMD.

Okay, the first one was UPND, we formed UPND, I was one of the founder members of UPND… and we said president Chiluba has taken us in the wrong direction. So we said let’s form a party, but most of the ideas where the same ones that MMD had put in place.

Because in 1990-91 when we were starting the MMD I was already a managing director… and they involved me in writing the manifesto.

So when we formed UPND I said look, the main problem that MMD is facing is that they are not empowering Zambians.

It’s not empowering to sell a house like this one for K10, 000 and then the money disappear, so we formed UPND and then the rest of the people remained.
In 2001, if you recall, FDD was born. FDD was born out of people that were denied to go to the Convention, like me.

So the people that didn’t go there decided, let’s also group ourselves, lets group our energies and form FDD. Then from there you recall, Mr. Sata was still in MMD. So FDD was formed Mr. Sata was still with Chiluba until he went to the NEC meeting at State House.

When he was not selected, when FTJ introduced Mwanawasa, that’s when he stormed out of the meeting and said now I am going to form PF.
He formed PF literally, I think three… a month before the elections, so he is an offshoot of MMD.

Kombe: Maybe because his party manifesto is different?

Magande: If you are to ask him and say what is the difference between PF policies and MMD policies, he will tell you that they are different but the truth like I was saying is that he got upset that he didn’t win and left.
Then from there, FDD went into the election, PF went and UPND went into the election.

And in 2001 if you remember in 2001 people were saying UPND had won the election, but somehow, Mazoka could be the winner…

Then from there we continued with Mwanawasa, lucky enough we had a new person and the new person introduced new things and that’s what is important sometimes, we should not fear change because change sometimes brings better things.

And then we went with Mwanawasa and you saw how much Mwanawasa had to struggle in 2002, Mwanawasa literally was nearly impeached by the Zambians, you are failing to do this, you are failing to do that.

By March when he was dismissing Kavindele, dismissed Kasonde, dismissed so many of them, he was getting frustrated that I have so many ideas but these people are not implementing them.

And perhaps he remembered that Kasonde was one of the first ministers in Chiluba’s government, so perhaps Kasonde was going back to do the things that FTJ wanted him to do. Mwanawasa said no, sorry these are not the things I want, I will look for somebody else.

March, April, May, June, Mwanawasa was looking for a minister of finance, until he asked me, can you come and help me. When he asked me I said no, let me go and think about this thing. I went away and it took me one and half days to think about it.

I went to consult UPND, because that time I was with Mazoka and we were saying if Mwanawasa fails as he is failing, we are going to form government. So at that point he (Mwanawasa) said these people can do better perhaps I should take one of them, and he took me.

And for me because like I said, I had been to Europe, I had everything, I just said what do you want me to do? And I went there and worked, and I worked that’s all. So really, all these are outshoots from MMD.

In 1990, we said there would be a revolution that is when we had a big change, to change from one party state to multi-party state. Now we are not looking for a change like that, we are just looking for fine tuning.

Kombe: And that’s what you are seeking to do, fine tune?

Magande: If today for example I was going to be president of Zambia, I would go to the President of Botswana and say how are you getting 80 cents from every dollar of your diamond?

In Zambia we are getting 16 cents, and they will tell you, because the diamond belongs to us. And then I will come here and tell KCM, look, if you want to operate here, you give me even 50 cents, why would they run away. If next door someone is giving 80 cents?

So it’s fine tuning now from where Mwanawasa brought us to try and get this country to move as fast as possible.

Here is a bumper crop, what have you written today in The Post? Mazabuka, storage problem, Chipata, payment problem, Chief Chitimukulu, the whole market in problem…

But for how long did we know that we were going to have a bumper harvest? When I was an economist at Ministry of Agriculture, we used to do crop focus. By 30th of March, we knew what crop was on the market, and then we went to Kabwe Industrial Fabric to order empty grain bags.

This is now the time, and people are still crying they don’t have empty grain bags. And we have now, instead of walking into Barclays Bank branch in Kasama and borrow money to pay farmers in Chitimukulu’s area, somebody has gone overseas to go and borrow foreign currency to come and pay the people in Chitimukulu’s village, how will you pay that money back.

So it’s a big problem, like we need a shifting spanner, you know what a shifting spanner can do, that’s what we need. We don’t even need the whole tool box.

Kombe: Coming back to the issue, have you spoken to the people in Chilanga and how are they feeling regarding your decision not to re-contest the Chilanga seat.

Magande:No, I haven’t gone to talk to them , the people here in Chilanga are very complicated, even when we were doing the campaigns, you can’t hold a mass rally.

The people now in Chilanga are the people working with Lafarge, others are in the Bank of Zambia as directors, somebody is ministry of finance, then you have the Minister of Works and Supply.

So I can only talk to a few of them who are there in opinion makers, the rest of the people are at the far end.

But some of them have been coming to say, don’t even come, you are wasting your time and our time. Actually the people told me don’t even stand and waste your time, your money and our time because only four years ago, you said I will go and ask the Ministry of Education to bring a high school, the high school is being built.

Here you said you are complaining of a health center, the health center is there only the ministry doesn’t have nurses…

My people are actually saying if you have anybody in Chinsali who is doubting what you have done in our constituency, just give then our numbers, we will show them what you have done. So that is why we don’t want you to.. you go and do something else, something bigger.

Kombe: And finally is it next year or it’s 2016?

Magande: For what?

Kombe: Magande for President?

Magande: The maize is rotting now you want me to come in 2016? …laughs…It is now.

Kombe: Well, thank you for the opportunity to talk to me

Magande:You are welcome.

Labels: INTERVIEW, MMD, NG'ANDU MAGANDE

posted by MrK @ 5:47 PM