Maravi

MMD stuck on Katele’s replacement

MMD stuck on Katele’s replacement
By George Chellah and Patson Chilemba
Wed 23 Mar. 2011, 04:01 CAT

THE MMD is stuck on the person to fill the position of party national secretary following Dr Katele Kalumba's lack of interest in re-contesting the position.

And sources have revealed that President Rupiah Banda recently refused to endorse Bwalya Chiti for the vice-presidency because he had already endorsed Republican Vice-President George Kunda for the same position.

According to highly placed senior government and party officials, the ruling party is currently in limbo on the position of national secretary.

“There is panic within the top leadership because we don’t seem to be making headway on the position of national secretary and yet we are only remaining with a few weeks before the party national convention, which will elect new leadership is held in Kabwe,” the source revealed.

“This is as a result of certain senior leaders in government and the party that are indirectly fighting Katele. They want to ensure that Katele does not return as national secretary when in actual fact the guy doesn't even seem interested in the position anymore.”

The sources disclosed that there were manoeuvres by named government and party officials to make sure that Dr Kalumba was blocked from filing his nominations in an event that he decided to defend his position.

“In fact, they have been pushing that there is no way the party can have a national secretary who currently stands convicted by the courts of law. Therefore, in order for them to safeguard their interests within the party they are insisting that Katele is kept away from party leadership,” the source said.

“They now seem likely to achieve the goal to stop Katele because some of them have been having meetings with ECZ commissioners and word is that Katele will not be allowed to file his nominations if he stood because he is a convict.

“They view him as a threat owing to his popularity within the party. Even as they are scheming, they know quite well that if Katele decided to defend his position, he will easily sail through. No wonder they are determined to thwart any possibilities of a Katele candidature at the convention.”
The sources revealed that intelligence collected within the party suggest that Dr Kalumba might not re-contest his position.

“Those fighting Katele are just wasting their time because from the information, we have gathered within the party structures, we hear that Katele doesn't even seem interested to defend his position at the convention. We really doubt if he has even formally applied to the secretariat to re-contest his position,” the source said. “Obviously, you have noticed that ever since the momentum for the convention started building up, Katele has never openly expressed interest in defending his position. Katele is a good guy and those of us who know him and have been with the MMD for a long time know how broken the guy is at the moment.

“That is why we really feel sad that there are senior people within the party that want to still fight Katele in his current state, that's really not fair. So don't be surprised if in a few days time you hear that Katele is not standing at the convention.”

The sources said the search for someone to contest as national secretary in an event that Dr Kalumba is not running for re-election was becoming problematic.

“There are people that are suggesting that Major Richard Kachingwe comes back from Foreign Service and take over from Katele. But Maj. Kachingwe also seems indecisive on choosing between his diplomatic job and becoming national secretary. This has also left the top leadership in a dilemma. The campaigns for Maj. Kachingwe to become national secretary were still being championed by his supporters,” the source said. “And there are also certain quarters within the party who strongly feel that Chembe Nyangu, who has been acting as national secretary ever since Katele went on leave automatically fills the position. Their argument is that Nyangu has entrenched himself so well with the party structures countrywide during the absence of Katele.

“What we don't know right now is whether Nyangu will be willing to replace Katele if called upon because we hear Nyangu's initial plan was to contest the position of party deputy national secretary. We hear that VJ MMD parliamentary chief whip who was initially linked to the bid for party national secretary has refused to contest indicating that he wanted to leave it to the younger ones.”

And the sources said Chiti, who is MMD chairperson for legal, wanted to go for the vice-presidency but he had been talked out of it by President Banda and other senior party officials.

“He was told that Vice-President Kunda had already been endorsed for the position,” said the source. “Therefore, he has opted to defend his position at the convention.”

Labels: KATELE KALUMBA, MMD

posted by MrK @ 4:47 AM