Is war vets ministry necessary?
by Busani Ncube
06/02/2010 00:00:00
THE Weekly Agenda of 30 January – 5 February 2010 – an in house publication of the MDC –T aligned civic group – Bulawayo Agenda had an interesting but shocking headline story titled – War Vets defy ZANU PF directive.
The story’s main source was Bulawayo Province war veterans leader Themba Ncube and some document with “resolutions” to the effect that the association has decided to attend a congress scheduled to take place at Border Gezi Training Centre on January 29 in Mutare, in contravention of a directive issued by the ZANU PF.
The directive advising the ex-combatants was broadcast on ZBC TV1 recently. One of the resolutions cited by the paper was that the ex-combatants want a Cabinet post to cater for their interests.
Said Ncube, “There should be a Cabinet post for war veterans……the office should be manned by a war veteran recommended by the association and this should include offices countrywide.”
I seek to argue in this article that having a war ‘vets’ minister would be tantamount to reversal of the much vaunted values, goals and gains of the liberation struggle of our fatherland and indeed a complete reversal of the founding principles of our nation.
I raise this argument today not for any foul purpose. I have high respect of the sons and daughters who freed this country from the jaws of imperial exploitation, abuse, thuggery and colonization. Without them, this country would still be languishing in abject oppression and denial of many freedoms.
However, creating an ex-combatants ministry would be too excessive and
inconsiderate a move, if not totally selfish in light of the fact that there are many special interests groups that will cry over such a ministry.
The Zimbabwe Ex- Political Prisoner and Restrictees Association will also want a ministry of their own. The Chiefs will cry for same. The Zimbabwe War Collaborators Association and indeed the Children of War Veterans Association will cry for the same.
Already, the disabled want to be a stand-alone ministry and not to be bundled under the social welfare umbrella as is presently the case.
Our country is undergoing economic recovery after being crushed by political matters and illegal sanctions imposed on us by western war mongers.
The treasury is looking at all directions for financial aid and at this point in time, having an “extra burden” of a ministry whose intended beneficiaries are already covered by a certain structure will be counter-productive and hence such a call is counter revolutionary to the resuscitation of our socio-economic and political fabric.
Comrades, I submit further that it does not make any sketch of fiscal sense to just have a ministry for ex-combatants at this time of the year- especially after the budget has been made and some funds have already been allocated and used by existing ministries.
We do not have time to even toy around the issue of having the ministry in future because simple common sense dictates that war vets are not going to be there forever. Naturally, the number of war vets does not have a single chance of extending; we expect it to dwindle as age goes on and death takes its course.
Without any measure of contempt for the role of the ex-combatants today, it is also a naked fact that the war veterans belong to a yester-year era and they have been hugely thanked for the noble and brave job they did then while monthly gratuities to sustain their living are flowing to their bank accounts to date.
So what will the ministry do? How will the ministry relate with other ministries, in the unpopular event that is put in place?
I further argue that war veterans are already fully represented in Zimbabwe and there is no need for the creation of a specific ministry because almost three quarters of members of Zanu PF Central Committee and most of the party’s Politburo are war veterans. More than half of the present cabinet ministers are war veterans.
Even “His Excellency the President and First Secretary of ZANU PF and Commander in Chief of the Defence Force and Chancellor of All Universities in the land” Cde Robert Mugabe is a war veteran.
Are the ex-combatants alleging that ZANU PF and the President have failed them? I view their resolution as being in contempt of the honourable office of the President and structures that Government has put in place to cater for their needs.
More so, and even strangely to mention, the choice of media outlet and modus operandi used by the war veterans to vent out their foul ideal is shocking.
The use of a civic society mouthpiece or megaphone whose governing principals are part of a demon possessed team of lost Zimbabweans that urged the imposition of illegal sanctions against the people by western war mongers defies logic and only depicts who is behind this whole un-progressive idea.
The Government of National Unity should thus dismiss the whole thing as a joke; which is not even funny.
The hullaballoo about the war veterans wanting a ministry of their won brings the writer to the issue of who is a hero in our country.
I raise this matter because there is a bad tendency by ex-combatants to think that they have a monopoly of deciding such matters on the grounds of whether or not a person fought in the liberation struggle; how they fought, for how long and was where, amongst other considerations.
My humble submission, comrades, is that there is a world of difference between a war veteran and a national hero, though a war veteran can be a national hero.
A national hero is a person who did an outstanding and or heroic act for the benefit of the country in any field of operation whereas in the Zimbabwean context, a hero is a former soldier in the liberation struggle that ended in 1979. There is nothing more to that.
A lot of our sons and daughters now qualify to be heroes even though they did not carry any M16, and or AK 47 gun. Notable examples are – Peter Ndlovu, Nigel Chanakira, Oliver Mtukudzi, Kirsty Coventry, Shacky Tauro and indeed our own Barnabas Sibanda who created his helicopter.
I rest my case by urging the leadership of the noble war veterans grouping to revisit their renegade stance of lobbying for a ministry because that will only serve to soil the image that our leaders in the Government of National Unity have created so far.
We have many priorities in this country like writing a new constitution, finishing projects like the “new” National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project and campaigning for the lifting of illegal sanctions.
Our unity of purpose in this collective rebuilding revolution will take us to a better and progressive nation. Aluta Continua!
Busani Ncube is a freelance journalist now based in Bulawayo. He can be contacted at ncube.busani **** gmail.com
Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, WAR VETERANS
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Miliband comments: no diplomatic gaffe, but MDC snub
Comment
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:43:00 +0000
IT is naive for anyone to think that British Foreign Secretary David Miliband made a diplomatic blunder when he mentioned that the MDC-T party controlled some sanctions and that Britain was waiting to take the cue from that party on whether to lift sanctions or not.
While most leaders try to achieve political unity, some do use divisive tactics to maintain control, or to expand influence by fostering disunity and mistrust. Britain is well-known for "Divide-And-Conquer" or "Divide-And-Rule" tactics. They are playing those tactics with Zimbabwe now. MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai is no longer an asset to Britain, he is now dispensable and disposable.
The way to dispense of Tsvangirai it is to create confusion. His crime is that he entered into an inclusive Government with President Mugabe against the advice of the British, now he is no longer an asset to them, nor their foreign policy.
Miliband's comments are merely a public diplomatic strategy to discredit the inclusive Government and cause problems for the new administration. He did it very well on January 19 during that Q&A session in the House of Commons.
Britain wanted someone to replace, not work with, President Mugabe. They have a regime-change agenda, and they will not rest until that's achieved.
Miliband gave Tsvangirai a rope to hang himself with, and thereby divided the new Government.
The British Foreign Secretary never issued a retraction, only the British embassy tried to explain the statement.
Britain is now looking to the next person, or group, to use in their foreign policy objective on Zimbabwe, or rescucitate Tsvangirai by discrediting the inclusive Government.
Simply put, the relationship between Britain and the MDC is finished - as long as the MDC remains in the inclusive Government.
The issue was never about the welfare of Zimbabwe or Zimbabweans, otherwise how does one explain the fact that Britain shipped, and are still shipping, Zimbabweans of British descent to Britain and left thousands of senior citizens and vulnerable groups at the mercy of their illegal sanctions?
Infact, Britain claims that the sanctions are not hurting ordinary people, so why ship out their own?
The MDC-T party, with all its naivety, aided Britain to achieve what was already a planned move: to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe so that the land reform programme can be reversed.
The Chilcot Iraq Inquiry recently found out that Tony Blair would have deposed Saddam Hussein whether or not there were weapons of mass destruction. In the same vein, Blair also wanted President Mugabe removed with or without the various arguments proffered against political governance in Zimbabwe.
The MDC was merely a pawn in the wider scheme of things. They were only duped to believe that they were taking part in a game that was already in place.
The absentee British landlords that sat in the House of Lords wanted President Mugabe to go, at any cost, so that they could keep the land that had been conferred to them by the white supremacist and racist Prime Minister of Rhodesia, Ian Smith.
The Westminster Foundation (WF) that funded the MDC works to fund "emerging democracies". What are emerging democracies? They are merely former British colonies, or places where Britain has a foreign policy objective.
Otherwise, why did Britain not fund them pre-1992 before it was established? Why was Britain not as vocal about human rights when Ian Smith and South Africa's PW Botha were brutalizing blacks?
Why does the WF, a branch of Miliband's office, only work with "partner organisations to foster democracy" and not with governments?
As they seek to strengthen civil society institutions and opposition parties, why do they not also strengthen "and help foster democracy" by working with ruling party and government departments?
Infact the name Movement for Democratic Change is found within the objects of the WF.
The Foundation's website says it aims to "establish contact with, offer assistance to, and work with individual political parties or MOVEMENTS with which they have a political affinity" to encourage "DEMOCRATIC CHANGE".
The WF only works in areas where Britain has foreign policy objectives: Kenya, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, etc. They train women, youth, parliaments, trade unions, etc. but never engage governments.
Here is a snapshot of their work: Giving Iraqi People a Voice, Citizens' Empowerment in Kenya, Women in Local Government in Sierra Leone, Engaging Sierra Leonean Youth in Politics, Sudan Mirror Sheds Light, Developing the Skills of Young Iraqi Trade Unionists, Parliamentary Committees in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Promoting Active Youth Participation in Ukraine, Training Young Political Leaders in Moldova, The Serbian Code of Conduct, Paralegal Training in Uganda, Promoting Information Sharing, etc.
Now that the MDC is in government, they are slowly being disposed of.
Morally, Britain could not have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe without a local political group to support that process.
Afterall colonial Britain was responsible for the decades of suffering of the black population in Zimbabwe, South Africa and many other areas where they colonised. They cannot be seen as recolonising these lands, so they use pawns: the MDC is one such pawn. That pawn is no longer useful and it is being disposed of gradually.
Comments and suggestions: info *** talkzimbabwe.com
Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, DAVID MILIBRAND, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NEOCOLONIALISM, UK, WESTMINSTER FOUNDATION
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MDC-T phone service cut off over unpaid bill
Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:17:00 +0000
TEL-One last week cut services to MDC-T's Manicaland provincial offices in Darlington medium-density suburb of Mutare over an unpaid bill, which is almost US$10,000, as accusations of financial embezzlement and corruption continue to swell in the party's Manicaland executive.
Party supporters said it was high-time the party's national executive sent auditors to check the party's books at the Darlington offices.
They said the unpaid bill was a result of the many financial mishaps happening at the provincial offices, alleging that some people were pocketing party funds for their own use.
When asked for a comment, the party's provincial spokesman, Pishai Muchauraya, said the party had since purchased contract mobile lines for its workers, hence the land line was unnecessary.
“What is US$10 000? That's little money and we shall pay it. Our workers at the office are now using contract mobile lines and anyone who wants to phone the offices knows the numbers," he said.
Inside party sources said some heavyweights in the provincial executive were diverting party funds for their own use hence the financial discrepancies that were resulting in crucial services like telephones being cut due to unpaid bills.
“There are people who are stealing money. For as long as the people from Harare do not take action about what is happening here, the party will bleed to death,” said the source.
Corruption has since reared its ugly head within the MDC-T, with most local authorities under the MDC-T leadership making the headlines for fraud.
The corruption tide within the opposition party has also swept across the borders with oversees offices of the party in the UK facing a £57,000 corruption probe.
The party's treasure general, Roy Bennet, revealed recently that the British Branch — second only to the South Africa office of the party in importance — had been suspended in the wake of what he described as a problem the party faced "everywhere".
Ambassador-designate for Germany Hebson Makuvise is implicated in the corruption.
Bennett said although a formal instruction had yet to be given, all other overseas branches would be disbanded.
He said the party's branches across the world faced rogue elements.
“They are bleeding us. I would hate to know the amount of money that has been raised by Zimbabweans in exile purporting to represent the MDC. They have used the MDC name and pocketed the money,” he was recently quoted as saying.
The MDC-T secretary-general and Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, also described the unfolding corruption charges as “shocking” financial irregularities.
Labels: MDC CORRUPTION
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Anti-Mugabe propaganda discredits British journalism
Ralph Ditima - Anti-Mugabe propaganda discredits British journalism
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:30:00 +0000
THE desire to see President Robert Mugabe out of office has put
British journalism is danger of being completely discredited. Somehow British journalists seem to report stories from Zimbabwe that no other journalist, from any other part of the world, knows about.
They concoct some of the craziest stories on planet earth. One such story is from the Sunday Times entitled
"Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe pays security goons $5,000 a day"! Who believes that?
This story is simply ridiculous. In September last year Finance Minister Tendai Biti revealed that Presidnet Mugabe earns US$300 a month. Biti controls the budget, and is better poised to know such information.
"Over 10 days in Switzerland, each accumulated a total of $50,000 in cash. The money was theirs to keep, a perk of the job, and they did not have to account for it on their return to Harare," says the report in the ST.
Quoting "authoritative sources" and unnamed western diplomats, as usual, the ST reports: "Less important members of the huge entourage were paid $2,000 (£1,300) a day."
The ridiculousness continues: "Recently, while Biti was abroad, Gono plundered millions from the statutory reserves to pay bills, including some questionable sums that found their way into a fund connected with the presidency.
“There are all sorts of scams to circumvent Biti. A lot is authorised by people beneath him in the finance ministry who have a high level of authority,” said one source. “It goes on beneath his radar.”
Biti would need to confirm this to be believable. The fact that the ST fails to mention even one individual in this story, or consult the finance minister, makes for bad journalism.
Interestingly, this story will be picked up by naive Zimbabwean journalists who live abroad and wait for such propaganda to please their paymasters.
Labels: BBC, MUGABE, PROPAGANDA
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Britain losing influence over Zimbabwe
Mhofeti - Britain losing influence over Zimbabwe
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:09:00 +0000
DEAR EDITOR - (This article is in response to Britain's statement that sanctions on Zimbabwe will stay until full implementation of the Global Political Agreement). Sanctions may stay only because Britain is exploiting its influential position on international politics.
But as they begin to entangle themselves with conflicting statements in an attempt to deny and justify the existence of sanctions at the same time, some of that historical influence is and surely will wear away.
Let us not forget that the crisis surrounding the implementation of the GPA was fuelled by the failure by the United States and Britain to immediately endorse the power-sharing deal as they did with the Northern Ireland one.
And Britain, of all nations, to say they want to see the full implementation of the GPA now, does not inspire much confidence.
All that Zimbabwe and Africa were asking for from the US and Britain was a chance to put their house in order without these two countries screaming to the whole world who is to blame and better placed to rule in Zimbabwe.
It is not normal practice that an impartial mediator has a publicly known outcome and prefered party of the feuding parties in a political stalemate.
Labels: GLOBAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT, SANCTIONS, UK, ZDERA
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Khama will not threaten our sovereignty
*Tendai Nyika - Khama will not threaten our sovereignty
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:57:00 +0000
DEAR EDITOR - Can someone in the MDC-T leadership advise Botswana Presiden General Ian Khama, who never was involved in any real war, that Zimbabwe allows no interference or violation of its sovereignty.
The so-called 'wildlife officers' who were caught tresspassing in Zimbabwe will be tried and convicted or exonerated by Zimbabwean courts, not through some diplomatic manouvre.
President Khama should be reminded that in Zimbabwe there are real courts real judges who administer judgments unlike in Botswana where a Head of State has to issue deportation orders, or interfere in matters exclusively reserved for legal institutions.
If Khama expects President Mugabe to interfere with legal processes, then let him continue hallucinating.
It will never happen, not here in the land of liberated soils.
Let it be known that in our land trespassers will be prosecuted and yes indeed those "wildlife officers" will face the full weight of the law.
As Zimbabweans, we will go the full length in defence our motherland.
Simply put: President Khama will not threaten our sovereignty.
*Tendai Matenga is the acronym used by two contributors to this piece.
Labels: BOTSWANA, IAN KHAMA, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Botswana recalls senior diplomats from Zimbabwe
Ralph Mutema
Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:44:00 +0000
BOTSWANA says it is recalling two senior diplomats based in Harare in protest against the detention of three 'wildlife officers' in Zimbabwe. The government of Botswana said it would withdraw its intelligence and defence attaches.
It also asked Zimbabwean intelligence officers to leave Botswana and for those posts to never be filled again. The ambassadorial posts are, however, not affected. Co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa said that Government was aware of the issue. He said efforts would be made to hold discussions with Tswana authorities.
“Government is aware of the matter and we will be meeting with our Tswana counterparts to discuss the arrest of the rangers in the coming week (this week),” he said.
“The meeting will focus on a number of issues and the case of the rangers will have to be resolved before we map the way forward.”
He added that Government was handling the matter as “a special case” given the need to maintain diplomatic relations.
“Botswana is our neighbour and the issue of the rangers should not terminate our relations,” he said.
“So, we have to come up with a good ending to the matter. These are our neighbours and they should understand that the matter is before the courts.
“Government’s intervention was, therefore, limited.”
The diplomatic row began three weeks ago with the arrest of three Batswana 'gamekeepers' who had strayed across the border while allegedly tracking a lion.
The Botswana Minister of Foreign Affairs, Phandu Skelemani said that he had tried to discuss the matter with the Zimbabwe Ambassador to Botswana but nothing much was achieved.
He tried to call the Zimbabwe Foreign Minister but was told that he was too busy. He indicated that he was going to discuss the matter with the minister at the African Union meeting in Addis Ababa. Skelemani returned yesterday but no news of the anticipated meeting was immediately available.
The three officers briefly appeared before a Zimbabwean court on Tuesday in the resort town of Victoria Falls.
Botswana has tried in vain to have the officers released as the Zimbabwean authorities insisted they must face a full trial.
Botswana often illtreats Zimbabwean citizens who cross into the neighbouring country for business and personal travel.
Botswana also reguarly rounds up illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe who at times are flogged in public for petty crime.
Labels: BOTSWANA, NEOCOLONIALISM
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COMMENT - This minister's response is an insult to any thinking person's intelligence. With an annual profit of $2.4 billion and over, and the creation of a mere 58,000 jobs (Zambia has a labour force of 5 million), we are paying foreign mining companies $41,000 for every job 'they create'. In other words, we could be creating
8 jobs and pay every worker $6,000 a year ($500 per month), for all the money WE are PAYING THE MINES. The mining sector does not exist to create jobs, it exists to create capital for our economy, so we can diversify into agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure, which is where jobs are really created. Right now, all that is happening is that foreign mining companies are lining their own pockets. And the MMD are defending them, not the Zambian taxpayer.
‘Windfall tax abolition was done to save mining sector’
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Sun 07 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
THE abolition of the windfall tax last year was done to save the mining sector, mines and minerals development minister Maxwell Mwale has said.
Reacting to Luena independent member of parliament Charles Milupi who said Zambia had lost an estimated US $600 million in mine tax revenues following the government’s abolition of the windfall tax last year, Mwale said the MMD government had taken a decisive decision to safeguard job losses in the mining sector.
“We had to maximise the benefits. It is either we got an instant gratification from the windfall tax and make US $600 million as he says or we see a decline in the mining sector.
The key issue is that with windfall tax you kill exploration. So with no discoveries there would be no developments in the mining sector, we had to take a long-term view of the industry,” said Mwale in an interview on the sidelines of the 5th Africa Mining Congress at the Zambezi Sun Hotel on Saturday.
Mwale said President Rupiah Banda’s government had taken a long-term measure and was mindful of the historic happenings in the mining sector.
“With job security in the mining sector we mitigate poverty. Imagine that apart from Nkana mine, also Luanshya, Mufulira closing down. There would have been a total social chaos on the Copperbelt. So we made sure that the industry remained secure and vibrant again,” Mwale said.
He charged that Milupi was just politicking over the issue and he did not know how he arrived at the US $600 million loss.
“We need to have a bigger picture of the mining sector because we are not the only ones who want investors to come. You have seen for yourself here it is not only us, Europe also wants mining investors. We are not an island. Some companies go to DRC, which has 10 per cent copper. Why invest in Zambia? It is because of the peaceful and safe political climate that we have all because of President Rupiah Banda’s administration. So let us not just politic for the sake of it,” Mwale said.
Milupi, who is also former chairperson of the parliamentary public accounts committee (PAC) was commenting on revelations by President Banda to World Bank president Robert Zoellick that Zambia was trying to seek higher interest loan facilities from the Breton Wood Institute to finance the repair of roads damaged by mining activities in the country.
President Banda said Zambia was considering borrowing from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) window for financing crucial infrastructural projects.
Borrowing from IBRD, a non-concessional window, attracts interest rates of between three to three and half percent while disbursement of the International Development Association (IDA) window is done through grants and soft loans.
Milupi said if the country had maintained that popular windfall tax, the treasury coffers would have been boosted without borrowing from the World Bank.
Labels: MAXWELL MWALE, WINDFALL TAX
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Electoral promises
By The Post
Sun 07 Feb. 2010, 06:50 CAT
IT is undeniable that elections anywhere in the world come with all sorts of promises. Interestingly, the Bible is very clear about promises. In Proverbs 25:14, we are told, “People who promise things that they never give are like clouds and wind that bring no rain.”
Whenever the country heads to the polls politicians mount campaigns, rightly so, to lure voters to elect them and they promise to do certain things to improve people’s lives for the better. For instance, politicians will promise to tackle the economy, the country’s social sector, infrastructure, fight poverty and provide more jobs among other things. Some promises are feasible while others are totally outrageous and impossible, but still people go ahead to vote for them.
The leaders will govern the country and not fulfil some of their promises or at times they will just meet a fraction of people’s expectations. Come elections, the politicians will be back on the campaign trail with the same promises and the cycle continues.
Our country is not an exception as far as unfulfilled electoral promises are concerned. Our people have been promised hills and mountains and in most cases nothing much is done to improve their welfare; they have been promised heaven but have not even been made to see purgatory. There are actually projects that have now become campaign tools to woo votes from our people.
For many years now, the Mutanda-Chavuma road in North Western Province, Bottom road in Southern Province, the Chipata-Mchinji Railway - though there is progress currently - in Eastern Province and the Mongu-Kalabo road in Western Province are some of the projects that come up on the list of election promises.
Politicians have asked for votes from the people on the grounds that they will, for instance, work on the Mutanda-Chavuma road but the road still continues to be in bad state. And not so long ago some traditional leaders from that province vowed not to support the government in the next election if they did not tar the road in the next few months.
Politicians need to understand that they undermine the public trust in our politics and electoral process by not fulfilling election promises. Why should our leaders promise to tar roads, build hospitals and schools for our people and later on not fulfil their promises? Could it be that they have no capacity?
Could it be a matter of deception, manipulation, miscalculation or corruption? Could it be a combination of all these factors? Whatever the case, this situation needs to be corrected or else our people will continue to lose confidence in politics and politicians.
There is need for our politicians to start accounting for their election promises if this country is to see any semblance of development. We cannot continue to talk about tarring a road for 20 years when money is being spent on other less important things.
This is the reason why civil society organisations have been advocating for the signing of social contracts between political parties and the electorate to ensure that they stick to their promises. Politicians need to take stock of the many unfulfilled election promises to the electorate before they embark on election campaigns this time around. Our people also need to be proactive and take their leaders to task for not meeting their needs if their vote is to count.
Leaders need to understand that people will not sit and remain blind to their unfulfilled promises. How long will people wait for roads to be tarred in their areas? How long will the people wait for serious employment opportunities?
How long will people wait for decent housing, clean water and good services? How long will retirees wait for their retirement benefits? How long will the people stand by and watch the gap widen further between the poor and the elite?
How long will it take before the disillusionment turns into discontent among our people? Our politicians have over the last few years continued to give false hope to our people on many issues affecting them. And we would not be wrong to state that they have somehow betrayed their proclaimed mission.
As the country nears the 2011 elections, politicians need to seriously reflect on the promises they intend to make. They need to reflect on the manner in which they have continued to manipulate and hoodwink our people for votes.
In some cases, politicians have continued to take advantage of the illiterate who do not have sufficient information to make informed decisions. We have had reports where the poor have just been given a few handouts in rural areas and they have gone on to vote in the hope of a better tomorrow.
But today, they continue to wallow in poverty and they will again be casting their votes for the same politicians next year.
We need to move forward as a nation, as a people. The same way we want development in various sectors of the nation’s economy, is the same way we should expect development in our type of politics.
We cannot continue to tell the same lies to our people and ignore them after they have given us jobs. This is crookedness, it is theft – it is obtaining votes by false pretences.
Politicians are elected into power to work for the people and our people expect nothing less than that. Our people need to be more demanding of our politicians so that they start to understand that accountability is a must, a priority.
They need to understand that people need good public services and protection from avoidable hardships. They need to understand that they have a contract with the people to deliver and cannot operate on their own terms.
Their job is to serve the people and their interests, heart and soul.
We know that campaigning and winning an election is not easy. The temptation to cheat or deceive is high. But politics need people who are honest with the people; who tell the people the truth; who don’t promise what they can’t deliver.
False promises lead to apathy and low election turnout; it makes people withdraw their participation in the belief that their votes don’t count, don’t matter as whoever is elected will do their own thing, ignoring their election promises and manifestoes.
We hope that we will have tenable and practicable election campaign promises as politicians embark on their campaigns in readiness for next year’s elections.
Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, ELECTIONS
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Shamenda warns politicians over 2011 elections
By Abigail Chaponda in Ndola
Sun 07 Feb. 2010, 07:10 CAT
FACKSON Shamenda has observed that the 2011 elections will be characterised by violence and death if the current political happenings in the country are not checked.
Shamenda said political party leaders and senior government officials should sieve what they say in public because it is taken as gospel truth by their followers.
“I was scared when I read The Post Newspaper on Monday that some people attempted to burn Bank of Zambia guest house where the former president Frederick Chiluba was lodging. This is a serious issue and if not checked, the Cha Cha Cha that happened during the struggle for independence will repeat itself,” said Shamenda in an interview last Wednesday.
“Have you ever asked yourselves how the genocide in Rwanda started; people from Rwanda did not apply for it. It started small and in the end resulted in death..”
Shamenda said government officials and political party leaders should avoid making careless statements that in the end incite those who support them to take the law into their own hands.
“Believe me once government leaders start making careless statements and those who support them will feel encouraged to act upon what their masters are saying. In the end people will feel oppressed and this could lead to a civil war as people who feel oppressed will rise against the people they feel are oppressing them. We need to be careful,” he said.
He urged Chiluba to retire from active politics and learn from former politicians like Grey Zulu who had not involved himself in cheap politics from the time he retired.
“It is time that Chiluba stayed out of politics, look at how people are disregarding him. He should be like Grey Zulu. Have you ever heard anyone speak ill of Grey Zulu? No. Why? Because he is a respected man. Like Shakespeare says, ‘the world is like a stage, we all play our role and then leave the stage and let others play’. Why can’t Chiluba do the same?” he wondered.
“It is not good for Mr Chiluba to be disrespected like that, it is not good for the country, he was our head of state. But what do you expect from him, he is involving himself in politics and people, the young and the old are insulting him. Chiluba must leave politics for other people.”
Shamenda said he learnt a lot from the late academician and lawyer John Mwanakatwe who taught him that those living in the evenings of their lives should stay out of controversies by living honestly.
He said the incident where unknown people attempted to burn Bank of Zambia Guest house was not the end but the beginning because more attempts would occur as Zambia approaches the 2011 elections.
Police have instituted investigations into the attempts to burn the guest house.
Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, FACKSON SHAMENDA, POLITICAL VIOLENCE
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kunda has been caught pants down, says sata
By George Chellah
Sun 07 Feb. 2010, 06:40 CAT
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) leader Michael Sata yesterday said Vice-President George Kunda has been caught pants down over his recommendation to Cabinet to pay about K5 billion to ministers and other Lusaka-based parliamentarians attending the National Constitutional Conference (NCC).
Reacting to Vice-President Kunda's statement that the government is following financial regulations as they pay delegates to the NCC, Sata said Vice-President Kunda's justification on his illicit looting list at the NCC did not make sense.
“George Kunda has nothing to say on this plunder. That's why he has been trying really hard to have a go at the pact without success. He is trying to use his plunder to associate innocent UPND members of parliament but it won't work because people are able to read through his lies,” Sata said.
“We all know that UPND went to the NCC in good faith. So Kunda is just wasting his time by trying to destabilise the pact. He won't succeed in destabilising the pact. Tell George Kunda that he has been caught pants down. On this one, alepela he has failed. Aloba ilyauma It is an exercise in futility.”
He said Vice-President Kunda was very selfish.
“George Kunda will be pursued on several other matters. George Kunda is very careless so he will be mincemeat. He cannot just resist money, because when it comes to money he is careless and very fast. If there is no criminal offence, there will be a civil case on this matter. George Kunda is the initiator and the law will decide,” Sata said.
“Kunda is using government to become rich. I would like to warn him that many people that have used government to become rich have ended up being very miserable. And Kunda hasn't got a long way to go. He will soon be in trouble over money.”
Sata insisted that there were no financial regulations being followed as claimed by Vice-President Kunda.
“They went to Cabinet at the inception of the NCC. Cabinet approved regulations of paying, but which regulation said they should be going to Cabinet every day?” Sata asked.
“He should accept that this particular one is plunder because it was not under the NCC regulations that's why he went to seek for approval in Cabinet.”
He said Vice-President Kunda was trying to soothe himself.
“George Kunda is trying to appease himself because all the regulations and financial regulations for financing and managing the NCC were done in 2006. And it is those financial regulations that have never been amended on which the NCC has been surviving and there have been budgetary provisions for those,” Sata said.
“He is wasting his time to try and defend himself and why didn't he answer here? Why did he go and answer in Livingstone? The original regulations excluded ministers and deputy ministers. The reason they denied them that allowance is because they use taxpayers fuel, taxpayers vehicles and taxpayers accommodation. That's why they excluded them.”
Sata said it was clear that Vice-President Kunda was an insensitive and selfish individual.
“For example, mealie-meal has been increased from about K65,000 to K70,000. So Zambians are paying the extra K5,000 on mealie meal to enable George Kunda and his friends to get K5 billion," Sata said.
“Transport has gone up too and George Kunda is busy jumping on an aeroplane to go and talk rubbish in Livingstone on taxpayers money. What sort of leaders are these?”
On Friday, Vice-President Kunda said the government was following financial regulations as they pay delegates to the NCC.
Speaking upon arrival at Livingstone International Airport yesterday, Vice-President Kunda said the NCC had credible men and women who could not be matched with Sata and the money they were being paid was budgeted for.
Vice-President Kunda’s comments came in the wake of condemnation from various stakeholders in the country over his recent recommendation to Cabinet to pay about K5 billion to ministers and other Lusaka-based parliamentarians attending the NCC.
Labels: GEORGE KUNDA, NCC, SATA
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Mabenga loses temper on live phone-in programme
By Agness Changala
Sun 07 Feb. 2010, 06:50 CAT
MMD chairman Michael Mabenga on Thursday lost his temper and labeled one of the caller’s contributions “stupid” and “foolish” when he featured on Q FM. During a live phone-in programme dubbed Public’s Last Say, the caller identified as Muchindu opted to call Mabenga Mr Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
In response to Muchindu, Mabenga, who is also lands deputy minister, angrily asked Muchindu to explain what he meant by calling him Mr CDF. “What do you mean Mr CDF?” Mabenga asked.
“You ate the money for Mulobezi,” replied Muchindu.
Mabenga said it was very foolish of Muchindu because he did not even know what he was talking about.
“If I am able to get you there, I am going to get you and you will get arrested for that. That’s very silly of you, I must say,” he said.
Mabenga said when people attacked him in a stupid and foolish manner, he would defend himself from such attacks.
“You see when you have people speaking stupid like this; I must be able to defend myself because he has no evidence at all. He has no evidence,” he said.
Mabenga threatened to take Muchindu to court if he talked about corruption allegations without evidence and asked him not to open what he called new routes.
“I was not found guilty. I should have gone to prison, which prison did I go to? Nothing like that happened, and that’s why I am saying don’t talk about empty things,” he said.
Mabenga told the caller to just complain about the drainage like he earlier started.
He urged Muchindu to be objective and talk about things that were meaningful.
“You see, we know you are the same people who call almost all radio stations and people understand you. We know you but let us speak things that are objective, then we will be able to answer you,” Mabenga said.
And a sympathiser of the MMD advised Mabenga to appreciate what people were saying about his party.
He said the government must attend to people’s needs because that was what people needed at the moment.
“What people need at this moment is food, mealie meal prices are rising by the day so as a government, what are you going to do about it? Try and sit down on the table, what are we doing?” the sympathiser said.
Earlier, Mabenga said the MMD government was trying hard to ensure that employment was created for the people of Zambia.
He said the government was also encouraging more investors to come to Zambia.
“Each time you see the President going out, he tries as much as possible to woo investors to come to our country, to come and work together with us in Zambia here,” he said.
Mabenga said it may take a bit of time but the government was convinced that it was there and the employment opportunities were being provided.
He said the mines would be opened in some provinces and employment would come forth.
On concerns that the government had failed to address drainage problems in Lusaka, Mabenga said the government should not be blamed because there were members of parliament and councillors in charge.
Mabenga advised the public to go to Lusaka Province minister Charles Shawa to get a yellow book and see what had been allocated to the province for such works.
Mabenga said the government had responded by giving provinces resources that should cater for their needs.
Labels: CDF, MICHAEL MABENGA, QFM
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Chiluba threatens those calling for withdrawal of his benefits
By George Chellah
Sun 07 Feb. 2010, 06:40 CAT
FREDERICK Chiluba has threatened to take legal action against his critics that are calling for the withdrawal of the benefits he enjoys as former president. And Chiluba stated that the bliss ignorance so far displayed by Ng'andu Magande amounts to irresponsible behaviour and his conduct should be beyond the petty.
In a statement issued on former president Chiluba's behalf, Emmanuel Mwamba stated that many people including persons such as lawyers like Wynter Kabimba have maliciously alleged that the pension and benefits that Chiluba enjoys should be taken away on the pretentions that he is involved in active politics.
“Dr Chiluba and any other former president that wish to comment on matters of public affairs and supports a candidate and political party of his choice does not in any way break the law. Nor are their benefits threatened in any way. The law provides as follows: Article 42 (3) of the Republican Constitution specifically provides for pensions, benefits and gratuity to a former president as prescribed by an Act of Parliament and that such benefits shall be charged on the revenues of the Republic of Zambia,” Mwamba stated.
“The enabling Act for these benefits is ‘The Benefits of Former Presidents Act’, CAP 16 of the Laws of Zambia. This Act is comprehensive and stipulates the benefits that a former President is entitled to and ancillary benefits that accrue to his family and his office. The Act also provided for benefits to a President that dies whilst holding office or after leaving office, and stipulates the benefits that will accrue to the remaining spouse and children."
He stated that the Act also provided for circumstances under which such benefits may be taken away.
“The Act stipulates that a former President shall be disqualified from the pension and other benefits conferred by the Act; (i) If he ceases to hold office of President on the ground of wilful violation of the Constitution or of misconduct, (ii) if he is convicted of an offence and sentenced to imprisonment for a term exceeding six months, (iii) engaged in active politics. This same law defines ‘active politics’ to mean as follows; (a) the doing of any act indicating a person's intention to hold elective or appointive office, (b) the holding of elective or appointive office, (c) Or by a resolution of two thirds of the majority of members of the National Assembly,” Mwamba stated.
“Dr Chiluba does hold and does not intend to hold any political office. It is therefore folly to allege that his benefits should be taken away on the false assumption that he is engaged in active politics. The law defines clearly what the framers intended to mean by ‘active politics’ and Dr Chiluba does not in any way fall in that category.”
He stated that the calls for the withdrawal of Chiluba's benefits were malicious and intended to prevent him from meaningfully contributing to national development.
“This law has been applied equitably in the past; In 2002, when Dr Chiluba retired as Republican president, he remained MMD party president for a period of three (3) months. During that period, his pensions and benefits were taken away in compliance with the law.
The benefits were only restored to him, upon resigning his position as MMD president. Similarly, when Dr Kenneth Kaunda returned to active politics and became UNIP president between 1995 and 1998, his benefits were too taken away in compliance with the law.
When Dr Kaunda retired from active politics and relinquished his position as UNIP president, his benefits were immediately restored," Mwamba stated. "We therefore wish to reprimand such persons as Ng’andu Magande who know the provisions of the law but chose to mislead the nation by alleging that Dr Chiluba is breaking the law by merely rendering political support to President Rupiah Banda.
Dr Chiluba is merely exercising his fundamental rights such as freedom of choice, freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of movement as guaranteed by the Republican Constitution. Therefore people like Mr Magande who are bent on making such calls, are the ones breaking the law by insisting on taking away his fundamental rights, freedoms and entitlements that a former president, and human being enjoys.
“The bliss ignorance so far displayed by Mr Magande, in our view, amounts to irresponsible behaviour and having held a senior position such as a finance minister, his conduct should be beyond the petty. We ignored similar and irresponsible remarks from two chiefs namely, Chief Nalubamba and Chief Chona. Maybe their ignorance in these matters can be excused. However, we condemn their strange demands that Dr Chiluba should not speak on public matters, or that his association with President Rupiah Banda is taking away the popularity of the MMD.”
He stated that Chiluba's decision to support President Banda and MMD should be respected without question, as this is his fundamental right.
“We also wish to dismiss the false allegation by The Post that repeatedly refers to Dr Chiluba's trip to the Copperbelt as funded by State House. These allegations ought to be dismissed with the contempt they deserve,” stated Mwamba. “Since 2002, Dr Chiluba, as former president, has had his trips, local and foreign, funded by government as a matter of entitlements.
Therefore, the assertion that the funds released for this Copperbelt trip to meet the welfare of his accommodation, food, and that of his accompanying staff came from State House is only designed to embarrass President Rupiah Banda.
“We caution The Post and other persons such as Chief Nalubamba, Chief Chona and Ng’andu Magande, that Dr Chiluba reserves the right to take legal action against such persons and institutions that are determined to scandalise and defame him without cause or justification.”
Labels: CHILUBA, EMMANUEL MWAMBA
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PAC cautions govt on Indeni Oil Refinery
By Mwala Kalaluka
Sun 07 Feb. 2010, 06:00 CAT
THE parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has cautioned that confidence in the government’s negotiation on the future of Indeni Oil Refinery will be lost if the anticipated Cabinet decision does not separate equity from contract management.
And Indeni Oil Refinery is currently operating without a board. During the submission by energy permanent secretary Teddy Kasonso before PAC on Thursday, committee chairperson Emmanuel Hachipuka urged Cabinet to specifically separate the management contract from the equity partnership.
Hachipuka said the government lost out from the previous arrangement where Total was allowed to hold a stake in equity but also managing Indeni on contract management basis.
“If you don’t we are losing faith in the manner the government is negotiating on the future of Indeni,” Hachipuka said. “We are concerned with the manner Indeni has been managed.”
Hachipuka said there was need for the government to furnish his committee with a properly hatched plan to decide the future of Indeni.
“PS, I am sorry you find yourself in that job. What comes out very clearly is that you have had a very poor relationship with the other shareholder,” he said.
Hachipuka said the arrangement created uncertainties on the future of Indeni.
“You have to furnish this committee with the plan to get Indeni from the red. It is not easy that the government owns 100 per cent shareholding,” he said. “We want to be assured that the new management can hatch a plan that get Indeni from its current situation. We will actually raise this issue with the Secretary to the Treasury when he appears before us.”
Kasonso agreed that there was still some uncertainty around the company until Cabinet makes a decision on the way forward for Indeni.
And Kasonso said a board for Indeni was yet to be reconstituted and as of last Wednesday, the Ministry of Energy and Water Development was still discussing with the ministry of finance over the matter.
“That we quickly legalise this position before April,” Kasonso said.
Ministry of energy director of energy Oscar Kalumiana said there was need to re-look at the articles of association before the Indeni board is reconstituted.
Luena Independent parliamentarian Charles Milupi said over the years, Indeni had continued to be problematic.
“Cooperate governance demands that rules and procedures are followed,” said Milupi.
Responding to the concerns of the committee, Kasonso said Indeni was far much better than the way it was under Total.
Labels: CHARLES MILUPI, EMMANUEL HACHIPUKA, INDENI, PAC
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Black History Month should educate children about their roots – Kaunda
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Sun 07 Feb. 2010, 07:10 CAT
DR KENNETH Kaunda has said Black History month should serve to educate children about their history as a people.
During the commemoration of the Black History Month on Friday at Lusaka National Museum, Dr Kaunda who is Zambia’s first president said it should also serve to remind people of their responsibility to teach children in schools about history and the umbilical links with the Africans outside the continent and the circumstances under which they left their ancestral land.
“We live in an interdependent world, Indeed a fast globalising world. A world in which competing national interests take pride of place, yet this world needs international cooperation and understanding to enhance peace. Yet this world needs multilateral collaboration for the good of humanity. Let the Black History Month remind us of the importance of working together for the attainment of global peace, economic and socio development,” he said.
Dr Kaunda said there was need to work together to fight poverty and underdevelopment.
“We need to work together to fight illiteracy, diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS. We need to work together towards the attainment of prosperity for all,” he said.
Dr Kaunda said although slavery was abolished during the 1860s, black Americans continued to suffer racial discrimination and other forms of oppression and injustice.
“Yes, for a long time, nothing much changed in the lives of the freed slaves. As the old adage goes ‘Bad habits die hard’. It had to take a protracted struggle and concerted efforts by courageous men and women to fight for liberty, freedom, justice and dignity,” he said.
He said in that struggle history had recorded many heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives so that Americans of all races could live in peace and harmony.
Dr Kaunda named some of the heroes as Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Junior.
He said he had the privilege of meeting Dr King Jnr in 1962, with whom he held an insightful discussion on the struggle for justice not only in America but also on the freedom struggle in Africa.
Dr Kaunda said he viewed him as he did today to be one of the greatest statesmen of the world.
He said Africans fought colonialism and apartheid so that all races could live together in peace and harmony.
“Indeed so that our succeeding generation can enjoy peace as they develop our nations to greater prosperity,” he said.
Dr Kaunda said he believed Black History month served as an important purpose to remind people about the need to live together in harmony.
Black History Month has been on the calendar in the United States of America since 1926, then referred to as Negro history week.
An idea initiated by Carter G Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator and publisher, it became a month long celebration in 1976.
Labels: BLACK HISTORY MONTH, EDUCATION, KENNETH KAUNDA
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Should De Klerk be in prison with Eugene?
On February 2 1990 ,the last president of the repressive nationalist regime FW de Klerk stood before parliament and made this important and long overdue announcement: “I wish to put it plainly that the government has taken a firm decision to release Mr Mandela unconditionally.”
The announcement of the release of Mandela marked a crucial turning point in the political history of black people in this country. Many lives had been lost in the persistent fight against the repressive system of apartheid. The death of apartheid was inevitable. The evil Nationalist regime had recognised that the tide was shifting, that the global climate was unfavourable to the continuation of such a demonic system such as apartheid.
De Klerk had no other choice but to respond positively to insurmountable pressures internally and internationally. There may be those who wish to attribute some measure of heroism to De Klerk for unbanning political parties and paving a way for the negotiations that led to the new dispensation for all South Africans but the reality is that he did what he needed to do and what was the right thing to do and had been for a long time.
It was evidently clear in his speech before parliament that the decision to release Mandela was not inspired by the genuine willingness to secure the freedom of the oppressed black people but other interests. His government’s decision to release Mandela was a further response to the revolutionary wave that swept across Eastern Europe towards the end of 1989. Communism was staring the end of its relevance as the people of Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria rose against the rule of authoritarian oppression.
For a protracted period during the liberation struggle against apartheid, the Nationalist government suffered from chronic paranoia of “die Rooi Gevaar” to the security of the white minority. PW Botha once proclaimed that “the free world wants to feed South Africa to the Red Crocodile [communism], to appease its hunger”, “Die Groot Krokodil” as Botha was commonly known was obviously ignorant to the fact that indeed black people in this country could no longer contend with spasms of hunger for freedom. The liberation of black people was necessary, by any means.
While the West had pretended to hold a moral high ground when it colonised Africa, the Soviet Union had taken a principled position to support the cause for the liberation of Africans. Vladimir Shubin wrote that “according to the USSR Constitution ‘supporting the struggle of peoples for national liberation and social progress’ was regarded as one of the aims of the Soviet foreign policy”. The Russians and the Cubans were with Africans. not against them nor conniving with the apartheid regime against them.
The fall of communism in Eastern Europe must have brought a collective sigh of relief among the Afrikaner Nationalists because liberation movements across Africa had enjoyed unwavering support from the Soviet Union. The support by the Soviet Union for liberation movements such as the ANC under Mikhail Gorbachev was faltering. De Klerk along with his Afrikaner Nationalist cronies was imbued by these developments and opportunistically moved to unban political parties and “unconditionally” release Mandela and other political prisoners.
In his speech to parliament he warned that “those who seek to force this failure of a [communist] system on South Africa, should engage in a total revision of their point of view. It should be clear to all that is not the answer here either”.
He knew very well that communism was a direct threat to the accumulation of illicit wealth by the white minority at the expense of the oppressed masses. His posturings were in the interest of the preservation of economic interests of the white minority. If indeed he had real interest in the freedom of the oppressed masses, he and his cronies should have immediately prepared for the first democratic elections without the need for a negotiated settlement. They were negotiating to preserve whose interests? They were not negotiating for the greater good of the oppressed masses. The dream of Afrikaner self-determination was at the core of this pursuit of a negotiated settlement.
The ANC bent over backwards to appease paranoid Afrikaner Nationalists, compromising the immediate prospect of real economic empowerment of black people. Fifteen years in, the ownership of the JSE by black companies is still dismally low, hovering below a shameful 5% though the control of market capitalisation is slightly higher. The ANC policy of black economic empowerment has not assisted much as it served only to dispense patronage to the politically connected. Technically, black people have been screwed!
Now on the 20th anniversary of the release of Mandela from prison, there are those who seek to exalt De Klerk as a hero who the black people should be eternally indebted for ushering their freedom. De Klerk had no choice. Apartheid had to end. It is an insult to heroes of the liberation struggle to seek to credit De Klerk with the freedom of the black people. It was even more of an insult to Mandela to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize which he had to share with De Klerk. The period of black-on-black violence between 1990 and 1993 is a serious indictment on De Klerk.
The then Kenyan president, Daniel Arap Moi, on his visit to South Africa pleaded with De Klerk to stop the senseless cycle of violence which had engulfed the country and resulted in great loss of life. De Klerk did nothing to stop the ferocious violence among black people. It was reported that his police force was training and arming supporters of the Inkatha Freedom Party to launch a violent offensive against supporters of the ANC.
Mandela had very harsh words for him during the 1991 Codesa negotiations: “I have said to him: You have got a strong, well-equipped, efficient police force and defence force. Why are you not using that capacity to stop this violence. I have pointed out to him that the perception that exists amongst our people is that in the forefront of this violence, are elements of the security forces. No doubt. It is common knowledge that organisations like the CCB, their main task is to eliminate freedom fighters in this country. So many activists have been killed, without trace. The killers have never been traced, or hardly ever traced. And in those massacres not a single member of the National Party was even grazed with a spear. It is all activists who are in your position who fight apartheid … we could never give our arms to a government which we are sure either has lost control over the security forces or the security forces are doing precisely what he wants them to do. I can’t see any head of government who would allow such a culture of violence to take root, without interfering.”
Mandela also said “even the head of an illegitimate, discredited, minority regime as his, has certain moral standards to uphold”. It had become apparent to the ANC that De Klerk and his cronies were not negotiating in good faith while South Africa burned.
It is important that as we celebrate an important occasion in the history of our country we do not distort which side of history De Klerk stood. It must be remembered as De Klerk attempts to endear himself to the nation that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that while he claimed he was never aware of the full extent of the human-rights abuses, he very well knew about the 1988 bombing of a building in Johannesburg used by several anti-apartheid groups.
De Klerk should be sharing a jail cell with Eugene de Kock for presiding over one of the most violent periods in the struggle of our people for freedom. He is no hero, neither to black people nor the progressive section of the white minority.
Labels: HISTORY, LIBERATION, SOUTH AFRICA
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Chaibva abandons Mutambara for Zanu-PF
By Our Correspondent
February 5, 2010
HARARE – Former MDC legislator for Harare South constituency Gabriel Chaibva has abandoned the smaller MDC party led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara to rejoin President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.
In a letter to the MDC-M’s deputy president Gibson Sibanda dated, January 1, the controversial politician described Zanu-PF as the “people’s party” while branding his party as a “tribal grouping”.
“You know I have tremendous respect for you as a person,” Chaibva was quoted in the Herald Tuesday, “and it is for that reason that I felt it necessary to advise you in particular of my resignation from the party, which you now have christened MDC-M, for the love of personality cults, I guess.
“I do not want to leave you doubting as to what my next political move would be. I want you to know that I have joined Zanu-PF immediately.
“I seek to work hard for the people’s party, Zanu-PF, to regain its revolutionary image as the defender of our freedom, democracy and the gains of our liberation struggle.”
“Your faction of the MDC has degenerated into a small group of people numbering three who have now become the party unto themselves.
“On many occasions as secretary of information and publicity, I refuted the allegations that we were a tribal grouping, but it has become evidently and visibly clear that this is indeed the case.”
Chaibva accused the MDC leadership of pretending to be progressive during the day “yet in the pitch of darkness, they sup with the devil”.
He also said the MDC was being sponsored by America and that both factions of the MDC were only concerned with jobs for “blue-eyed boys and bootlickers” in the inclusive Government.
“I cannot be part of that and have decided to re-dedicate my energy and a modest 26 years experience in politics to working amongst and with cadres who know where we have come from and who cherish our liberation struggle legacy, in deed and in word. I am a child of Zanla and back home I am going!” he said.
Chaibva was part of the young crop of founding legislators in the then united MDC in 2000.
But since he joined a group of legislators who broke away from the mainstream MDC party led by founding president Morgan Tsvangirai in 2005, Chaibva has seen his political fortunes wan.
Perhaps the biggest signal that he had lost popularity was during the Budiriro by-election in 2006 when he suffered a humiliating defeat to Emmanuel Chisvuure, who was candidate for the MDC-T.
Chaibva, who was the MDC-M’s candidate, polled 504 votes against Chisvuure’s 7 949 votes.
In the same election, Zanu-PF’s Jeremiah Bvirindi polled 3 961 votes.
The former lawmaker has also stocked more controversy in Zimbabwe’s acrimonious sanctions debate by “revealing” that top officials within the then united MDC drafted the controversial Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (Zidera) at a hotel in Nyanga, Zimbabwe.
“I was there when Zidera was crafted in Nyanga by the MDC,” Chaibva told the State controlled ZBC TV during a current affairs programme in September last year.
“At that point Munyaradzi Gwisai (former MDC MP) stood up in protest and told everyone present that the MDC had been taken over by the US and Europe and business was no longer controlled from Harvest House (MDC headquarters).”
Zanu-PF blames Zimbabwe ’s economic collapse on the sanctions, allegations which the MDC dismisses as propaganda.
Chaibva was in August 2008 deported from the neighbouring Botswana after a visit in which he intended to confront the Ian Khama government for adopting a negative stance towards President Mugabe’s government.
“I had gone there to meet some government officials to discuss a few issues; among them their negative stance about Zimbabwe ,” Chaibva later told the media.
“They are ill-treating our people there and their foreign policy on Zimbabwe is basically bad, but they would not listen and accused me of being a government spy and their police accompanied me all the way from Gaborone to Plumtree.”
A month before, Chaibva was fired by Mutambara as party spokesperson for attending Mugabe’s inauguration as President at State House.
Mugabe won the election after Tsvangirai, his challenger had pulled out citing the impossibility of holding a free and fair run off election due to increased state sponsored violence which claimed over 200 of his supporters.
The MDC-M had also distanced itself from the “sham” election.
Chaibva joins independent Tsholotsho North legislator Jonathan Moyo who has also rejoined Zanu PF.
At party level, he becomes one of its frustrated senior officials in the MDC-M who have abandoned the embattled party citing alleged abuse of power by Mutambara’s executive.
Job Sikhala, a former legislator who lost his St Mary’s seat for siding with the less popular Mutambara group, left the party last
year.
Last year MDC lost three legislators; Abednico Bhebhe (Nkayi South), Njabuliso Mguni (Lupane East) and Norman Mpofu (Bulilima East) after the party’s disciplinary committee found them guilty of indiscipline.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, GABRIEL CHAIBVA, MDC, ZANU-PF
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Lusaka Residents blame Opposition Councillors for floods
Friday, February 5, 2010, 7:39
IRATE Lusaka residents have blamed their area councillors and Members of Parliament (MP) of failing to address the perennial floods in the city and have warned that politicians risked de-campaigning themselves if nothing was done.
Mr David Mkandawire of Chaisa Township said the problem of floods in Lusaka needed urgent attention and threatened to de-campaign politicians who had taken the electorate for granted.
He said politicians were failing to deliver on their election promises and had not met the people’s expectations.
Mr John Phiri of Mandevu said it was sad that the issue of floods had continued despite promises from politicians who had not done much to resolve the problem.
Mr Phiri called on the area councillor to find ways of resolving the problem and claimed that in the last few days, most schoolgoing children had not been able to go to school because the roads were impassable.
He said it was saddening that despite paying land rates to the council, little improvements to their livelihood had been made.
“We are disappointed because no one seems to be in a position to help us. We have not seen any improvement either on our roads or other necessities and worse still, when it is rainy season, you cannot even pass,” he said.
And a marketeer at City Market Jane Sakala who spoke on behalf of other women blamed the council of failing to work out a programme on how to address the floods in the city.
Mrs Sakala said in the last few days, because of the heavy rains, there was little business because customers shunned the market.
She called on the law enforcement agencies to investigate how the council was using the levies collected from the marketeers.
But Kanyama Patriotic Front (PF) MP Gerry Chanda blamed the Government for failure to release grants for nearly all the councils rendering them unproductive.
Col Chanda said currently, most councils had no source of revenue because all the houses and other sources of income were sold.
He said calls for him and other councillors to resign were not genuine but politically motivated, as people wanted to gain political support over the situation.
But Local Government and Housing Minister Eustarkio Kazonga said councillors should be sincere because the Government had been releasing all the grants for the capital projects to all the 72 councils.
Dr Kazonga said last year for instance, the Government had released all grants and other entitlements by December for the councils to undertake various projects including drainages.
He said that the Government was doing its part but the councils were failing the people because they were not delivering the service to the residents.
Dr Kazonga called on all the councils countrywide to put to good use funds they were receiving so that the residents could be served.
He said the Government had also released the Constituency Development Fund, which the councils could use to mitigate the effects of the floods and work on things like drainages.
Chief Government Spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha said that PF councillors in Lusaka should resign because they have failed the residents following the floods that the city has experienced after the heavy rains.
Gen Shikapwasha said the people were paying rates but wondered where the funds were channelled to. He challenged the councillors to explain where the funds were going to saying there was a possibility that it was channelled to PF activities. “Mr Sata should concentrate on helping the councillors to solve the drainage system instead of him talking about the NCC which he refused to be part of,” Gen Shikapwasha said.
Speaking in an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Gen Shikapwasha said the poor drainage system in
Lusaka should be a concern of the councillors considering that residents were paying too much in the form of rates.
Gen Shikapwasha said the people were paying rates but wondered where the funds were channelled to. He challenged the councillors to explain where the funds were going to saying there was a possibility that it was channelled to PF activities.
“Mr Sata should concentrate on helping the councillors to solve the drainage system instead of him talking about the NCC which he refused to be part of,” Gen Shikapwasha said.
He said that Zambians wanted to see development and as a result, he said that councillors should show that they could deliver rather than continuous politicking.
Gen Shikapwasha said the issue of drainage was about life and the councillors should therefore look at the matter with a sense of urgency.
Kitwe District Commissioner (DC), MacDonald Mtine said one needed not to be told that most drainages in the city were blocked because it was clear for anyone to see.
Mr Mtine said the problem of poor drainage system in the city was a straight and direct responsibility of the council and that the local authority should account for it.
Copperbelt Provincial Local Government Officer, Solomon Sakala also expressed concern at the poor state of drainages saying his office had noted how the problem was causing most streets to flood after heavy rains.
[Times of Zambia]
Labels: FLOODS, LCC
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First Lady urges membership diversity in traditional ceremony committees
Saturday, February 6, 2010, 15:26
First Lady Thandiwe Banda has called upon traditional ceremonies committees to expands their membership by having members who do not reside or hail from one Province.
Mrs. Banda observed that if the Committee succeeds in having members who hail from other provinces, the Committee would also have succeeded in making the ceremony more popular
Mrs. Banda made the call in Lusaka last evening at the fund raising dinner dance for the Kuomboka-Kufuluhela Lusaka Committee. This was in a speech read on her behalf by wife of the Vice President George Kunda, Irene.
She said the Kuomboka-Kufuluhela Lusaka Committee should consider having members who do not come or hail from Western Province because a number of non-Lozis have increasingly taken pride in wearing the Msisi, a traditional attire for the Lozi speaking people even during other national events.
The First Lady said having a balanced membership is vital to accerating national development thereby marketing Zambia’s rich cultural gheritage home and abroad.
Mrs. Banda said this would also assist in uniting the country through the popularization of the common heritages irrespective of the origin of the traditional attire as well as other cultural deeds; cultural music and expressions.
Meanwhile, the First Lady also called upon Zambians from other regions to become members of the Kuomboka-Kufuluhela Lusaka Committee.
Mrs. Banda added that this would assist the ceremony acclaim its elevated status not only at its organizational level.
And Kuomboka-Kufuluhela Lusaka Committee Chairperson Oliver Saasa urged government and other stakeholders to continue rendering support to the Kuomboka ceremony.
Professor Saasa said this year’s Kuomboka would be different from last year’s in that the Organizing Committee is doing everything possible to make it more colourful.
The Kuomboka traditional Ceremony is an annual event held in April by the Lozi people of Western Province. It symbolizes coming out the waters by the Lozi Chief Litunga.
ZANIS
Labels: CEREMONIES, THANDIWE BANDA
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Constitution unlikely to be ready by 2011 polls – Dr. Simutanyi
Saturday, February 6, 2010, 11:46
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CFPD) has expressed doubt at the possibility of Zambia having a new Constitution ready before the 2011 tripartite elections.
CFPD Executive Director Dr. Simutanyi told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today, that there are a lot of things remaining for the National Constitution Conference (NCC) to put in place a new constitution that can be ready before 2011.
He explained that after the current deliberations, the draft constitution is supposed to be made available for public scrutiny before a final report is done.He said that this is to ensure that the document is made inclusive and reflect the diverse views being expressed by people around the country noting that it can be done through a plenary session.
Dr.Simutanyi said that only an amended constitution can be ready for use in the 2011 general elections. He however, advised Zambians to give the conference sufficient time for it to come up with a good document that will have the support of the majority and be able to stand the test of time.
He said the NCC is a legally established body that should be given enough time for it to reach its conclusion.
Dr. Simutanyi, who is also a political analyst, has further advised the NCC to concentrate on debating issues that are aimed at benefiting many people in the country rather than their individual interests.
He pointed out that the recent payment demands dating back as far as 2007 are not justified as there are many areas that need government’s support.
Dr. Simutanyi expressed sadness at the delegates demands to be paid over K5 billion saying that this will compromise their work.
ZANIS
Labels: CFPD, CONSTITUTION, DR NEO SIMUTANYI, NCC
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Zambia has lost $600m in mine tax revenues – Milupi
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Sat 06 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
ZAMBIA has lost an estimated US $600 million in mine tax revenues following the government’s abolition of the windfall tax last year, Luena independent member of parliament Charles Milupi has observed.
Milupi said it did not make economic sense for President Rupiah Banda to propose to borrow commercial loans from the World Bank for infrastructural development for mining activities when the country was not deriving corresponding economic benefits.
Milupi, who is also former chairperson of the parliamentary public accounts committee (PAC) was commenting on revelations by President Banda to World Bank president Robert Zoellick that Zambia was trying to seek higher interest loan facilities from the Breton Wood institute to finance the repair of roads damaged by mining activities in the country.
President Banda said Zambia was considering borrowing from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) window for financing crucial infrastructural projects.
Borrowing from IBRD, a non-concessional window, attracts interest rates of between three to three and half per cent while disbursement of financing for projects by World Bank through the International Development Association (IDA) window is done through grants and soft-loans.
Milupi said if the country had maintained that popular windfall tax, the Treasury coffers would have been boosted enough to fund infrastructural development in mining activities without borrowing from the World Bank.
He wondered the logic behind lowering taxation rate to the mining firms when key Western donors were trying to increase revenue, through taxation, from banks that were bailed out using public funds at the height of the global financial crisis.
“Specifically they are talking about infrastructural development in mining areas,” Milupi said.
“That is good because if you look at roads on the Copperbelt, they require to be tarred, most of the towns like Mufulira, Kitwe are like ‘ghost towns’, the state of the roads is deplorable and they need to be improved upon. But this is the government that is now going to ask for commercial loans, higher interest loans, when not too long ago, despite well reasoned arguments that we gave them, they gave up on raising money from using country’s resources – the windfall tax. For this year 2010, if you look at the planned production figures and also where the copper price is, we are talking about having lost in the range of US $600 million.”
“Now, this is the government that is giving up on collecting our own money because the concept of windfall tax is acceptable world over, Western countries like America, even as we speak now, are putting in place measures to try to gain windfall tax in as far as bonuses of banks are concerned.”
He said key donor countries had always backed the country’s plan to raise mine taxes.
“Now this is the government that gave up windfall tax on mining and now they have to go and borrow commercial loans to develop infrastructure in an area where the mines are making these huge profits,” he said.
“It does not tie up. By using our own money, you see the people who give us donor aid are saying ‘why should we give you our tax payers’ money when your own money is going elsewhere outside the country?” We could have avoided borrowing by using revenues from our own resources.”
He warned that the country risked slipping into another debt trap for as long it did not grow capacity to pay back the fresh loans being contracted.
Milupi said the country should look more towards the grants as well as concessionary loans for infrastructure development.
“Loan contraction is very serious business of a country because Zambia was almost sunk by the US $7.2 billion debt until the lenders decided to forgive us,” said Milupi.
“But already from the time they forgave us, we are now back to over US $2 billion which is a very worrying trend. So, we thought that after that forgiveness, loan contraction will be with extreme care, that is why some of us are insisting on parliamentary oversight before loans are contracted, it’s for the reason that we understand that the loans are going to be used for intended purposes and that they have been contracted at acceptable interest rates.”
Labels: CHARLES MILUPI, TAXATION, WINDFALL TAX, ZOELLICK
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Tertiary education
By Editor
Sat 06 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
A society which values its future affords the highest priority to providing its young people with the best possible education.
The statistics of figures of secondary school leavers who access higher education given by Dr Patrick Nkanza tell a very frightening story. We are told that only six per cent of the total number of pupils who complete Grade 12 are able to access a higher education. We are also told that only three per cent of this six per cent access technical, educational, vocational and entrepreneurship training, two per cent go to universities and one per cent pursue other tertiary programmes. And this leaves 94 per cent of our school leavers in limbo, waiting for the dice to roll.
Dr Nkanza further observed that there was need for the government to formulate the national skills development plan, so as to increase the number of training institutions in the country. Are we being told that our country doesn’t have a national skills development plan? If this is so, how can we seriously talk about development? Is there a country in the world that has developed without such high skills among its people? Is there a country that has developed with 94 per cent of its young people, of its school leavers not accessing tertiary education?
Good tertiary education policy is very critical to the development of our country. And it is time our policy makers recognised that tertiary education is a major driver of economic competitiveness in an increasingly knowledge-driven global economy which has made high quality tertiary education more important than ever before. The imperative for our policy makers, for those who manage the affairs of our country is to raise higher-level employment skills, to sustain a globally competitive research base and to improve knowledge dissemination to the benefit of society.
It is criminal to deny 94 per cent of our school leavers access to tertiary education. Tertiary education contributes to social and economic development in many ways – the formulation of human capital, primarily through teaching; the building of knowledge bases, primarily through research and knowledge development; the dissemination and use of knowledge, primarily through interactions with knowledge users; and the maintenance of knowledge.
Of course, the scope and importance of tertiary education have changed significantly over the years. Over 40 years ago, tertiary education, which was more commonly referred to as higher education, was what happened in universities. This largely covered teaching and learning requiring high-level conceptual and intellectual skills in the humanities, sciences and social sciences, the preparation of students for entry to a limited number of professions such as medicine, engineering and law, and disinterested advanced research and scholarship. These days, tertiary education is much more diversified and encompasses new types of institutions such as colleges, university colleges, or technological institutes. These have been created for a number of reasons: to develop a closer relationship between tertiary education and external world, including greater responsiveness to labour market needs; to enhance social and geographical access to tertiary education; to provide high-level occupational preparation in a more applied and less theoretical way; and to accommodate the growing diversity of qualifications and expectations of school leavers.
As participation in tertiary education is expanding, tertiary education institutions are expected to assume responsibility for a far wide range of occupational preparation than in the past. And as the result of a combination of the increased knowledge base of many occupations and individual’s aspirations, not only doctors, engineers and lawyers but also nurses, accountants, computer programmers, teachers, pharmacists and business managers now receive their principal occupation qualifications from tertiary institutions.
Furthermore, tertiary institutions are now expected to involve themselves in a wider range of teaching than their traditional degree or diploma level courses. It is also increasingly becoming more common for tertiary education institutions not only to engage in teaching and research, but also to provide consult services to industry and government and to contribute to national economic and social development.
Clearly, what is needed here is not only to increase access to tertiary education but also to encourage institutions offering tertiary education to be more responsive to the needs of society and the economy. This calls for a reappraisal of our tertiary education and the setting of new strategies for the future.
Knowledge and advanced skills are critical determinants of a country’s economic growth and standard of living and learning outcomes are transformed into goods and services, greater institutional capacity, a more effective public sector, a stronger civil society, and a better investment climate. Good quality, merit-based, equitable, efficient tertiary education and research should be essential parts of whatever social and economic transformations we undertake. Our country will certainly benefit from the dynamic of the knowledge economy. The capacity for our country to adopt, disseminate, and maximise rapid technological advances is dependent on an adequate and efficient system of tertiary education. Improved and accessed tertiary education and effective national innovation systems can help our country progress toward sustainable achievements in the Millennium Development Goals, particularly those goals related to all levels of education, health and gender equality.
There is need for us to be very clear when we talk about tertiary education. When we talk about tertiary education broadly, we are referring to all post secondary school education, including but not limited to universities. Universities are clearly a key part of our tertiary system, but the diverse and growing set of public and private tertiary institutions in our country – colleges, technical training institutes, nursing schools, distance learning centres, and many more – should be developed to form a network of institutions that our country needs to support the production of the higher-order capacity necessary for development.
As we have already stated, it will not be possible to develop this country without a good system of tertiary education. But our politicians, our policy makers don’t seem to see this as a priority area, a key result area. The amount of money that they spend on their own personal allowances for attending political meetings far outweighs what they spend or are willing to spend on tertiary education.
It seems to be such an easy thing for George Kunda to ask for an additional K5 billion to cater for an increase in allowances of Lusaka-based members of parliament attending the National Constitutional Conference. It also seems so easy for the Minister of Finance to mobilise such money for allowances of members of parliament, which include himself and George. But if any of our tertiary institutions – the University of Zambia, Copperbelt University, Evelyn Hone College, among others – ask for a smaller amount of money than this, it can’t be found, it’s not there, it wasn’t budgeted for. This is how our country is being run. When one looks at the amount of money that has been spent and is being spent on allowances for those attending the National Constitutional Conference, one wonders if this really is a poor country. Why should ministers of government be paid additional allowances for attending to public duties within the normal working time when they are on full time salary? Ministers are paid a salary for being full time servants of the people, why should they be paid an allowance for going to Parliament or for sitting on the National Constitutional Conference during the time they should be sitting in government offices and are being paid for that? This is banditry! This is corruption! They are collecting double pay for one job, for the same job from the same employer! They can’t say they are being paid overtime because there is no such a thing in that job. They are simply stealing public funds.
This also applies to other public workers, whatever their description, who are in full-time employment and are salaried, who leave their offices to go and collect allowances from the National Constitutional Conference or the boards of other public institutions on which they sit.
This money is needed for tertiary education. And all those receiving such money as double pay should in future, when there is change of regime, be asked to return it. It is needed for tertiary education.
Labels: CARITAS, TEVETA, VOCATIONAL TRAINING
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Caritas calls for broadening of vocational training
By George Chellah
Sat 06 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
CARITAS Zambia executive director Sam Mulafulafu yesterday called for more commitment towards the broadening of vocational training institutions in the country. And Mulafulafu said the nation has been very slow to respond to the increasing demand of youths' need for vocational training.
Reacting to Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA) director general Dr Patrick Nkanza's revelation that only six per cent of the total number of pupils who complete Grade 12 are able to access higher education, Mulafulafu said the system was churning out Grade 12s who could not get into colleges.
“It's a problem to get a child into a college now. Now they are being at the mercy of exploitation by these private colleges which have mushroomed then TEVETA itself is not monitoring the standards,” Mulafulafu said.
“So we have most of them just being exploited, they pay to these private colleges they get the qualifications but the job market does not accept them because of those qualifications.
“They want them to go into the traditional government colleges or better recognised colleges. So it's really a problem because it's aggravating the problem of youth unemployment and we need to see more commitment to broadening vocational training institutions.”
He stressed the need for institutions to equip youths with skills that would make them self-sustaining.
“But I think those institutions must also ensure that they prepare the youths not only for employment maybe in the formal sector and so forth. They should be skills that should be able to make them live on their own if they can't get employment into the industry or other formal sectors,” he said.
He said the current situation as far as tertiary education is concerned was a matter of serious concern.
“They should invest more in education, there is more demand for vocational institutions than the infrastructure which is available. We can hardly pinpoint at new colleges that have been constructed since the ones which where constructed by Dr Kenneth Kaunda,” Mulafulafu said.
“And yet the schools have expanded. The number of secondary schools, the number of basic schools have grown so where are all these youths going to be trained?"
Mulafulafu said the nation had been very slow to respond to the increasing demand by youths for vocational training.
Making a presentation during a familiarisation meeting on the operations of TEVETA at the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr Nkanza noted that out of over 300,000 pupils who complete Grade 12 every year, only six per cent - translating into 14,000 - were able to access tertiary institutions.
"On the issue of training support, there is need to improve access to training because when you look at the figures here, from the schooling Grade 12 we only have three per cent accessing TEVET institutions, one per cent access other tertiary institutions, for instance education colleges, and two per cent are able to go to universities, but you see here 94 per cent of school leavers do not go anywhere," he said.
Dr Nkanza said the scenario had led to a number of pupils enrolling at unregistered institutions.
Labels: CARITAS, TEVETA, VOCATIONAL TRAINING
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Chiluba is breaking the law – Magande
By Patson Chilemba
Sat 06 Feb. 2010, 04:01 CAT
NG'ANDU Magande yesterday charged that former president Frederick Chiluba is breaking the law by engaging in active campaigns for President Rupiah Banda and risks having his presidential benefits stripped.
And Magande said holding the MMD national convention would be a waste of time if President Banda has already been declared the party's Republican presidential candidate.
Commenting on Chiluba whose recent trip to the Copperbelt was recently bankrolled by State House to campaign for President Banda, Magande, who is former finance minister and currently the MMD's Chilanga member of parliament, said this was the same Chiluba who refused to give Dr Kenneth Kaunda benefits on grounds that he was engaging in active politics.
He asked Chiluba to stay out of active politics and enjoy his rest now that he had healed and stopped frequenting South Africa for medical treatment.
“He is breaking the law, and he has to be very careful,
Parliament is opening on 23 rd of February; and someone could read the Constitution in Parliament, and we end up now not removing his immunity which others did for some reasons, but stripping him of his presidential benefits,” Magande said. “It is not allowed by the law, by the Constitution, and he knows it. He is the one who didn't pay Dr Kaunda because he said Kaunda, by making comments, he is actually participating in politics. This is what some of us are trying to do, let's give everybody a fair playing field. Don't say ‘do what I say and not what I do’.”
Magande said everybody remembers how Chiluba mistreated Dr Kaunda.
“This is what people are saying, let president Chiluba know that he is no more going to court, his health also has improved, he is not going to South Africa, let him enjoy his rest, not getting in these compounds in Chifubu, in Ndola,” Magande said. “He is just now getting to the cadres, and cadres can say anything. Let him just continue enjoying his respect.”
Magande wondered why Chiluba had gone to campaign for President Banda when the party had not yet decided on the presidential candidate.
“Perhaps he has been given that information that President Banda is the candidate. But you know who you should ask? Ask RB himself, 'are you the candidate?' If you can't ask RB, then ask the secretariat,” he said.
Magande said he would start serious campaigns for the convention because that was the channel through which one would eventually become presidential candidate.
“And you know these are the same people who are in control. He is acting president, what does he feel the ordinary members will understand; that we will go to these elections where he has already decided he will be the presidential candidate? Why would we then go there?” asked Magande. “He should start asking those questions, why would anybody go to the convention if they have already decided he will be the candidate? So it just brings a lot of uncertainty in some of our minds.”
MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba on Thursday said whoever would be elected president at the convention would not be an automatic Republican presidential candidate for the party.
Kalumba said the MMD national executive committee (NEC) had endorsed President Banda as the party's Republican presidential candidate.
Labels: CHILUBA, MAGANDE, MMD, PRESIDENCY
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