Maravi

Nevers vows to fight corruption in MMD

Nevers vows to fight corruption in MMD
By Roy Habaalu and Kombe Chimpinde
Wed 30 May 2012, 13:30 CAT

NEVERS Mumba has declared that fighting corruption within MMD will be his first call of duty. But MMD founding member Alfred Lienda says fighting corruption in the former ruling party wouldn't be easy as some national executive committee (NEC) members were used to corruption and handouts which came to nestle during Rupiah Banda's reign.

Meanwhile, Situmbeko Musokotwane says Pastor Mumba must work on getting MMD into a position where it will be electable. In an interview yesterday, Pastor Mumba assured that he would use the mandate given to him to remove the tag of corruption on the party.

He said he would work closely with the NEC to remove any traces of corruption in the MMD.

"I am determined to make that fight against corruption as my first call of duty. I am addressing our general membership on Friday…That corruption you are talking about was when President Michael Sata was national secretary of the MMD.

Now that he's not in the party, we have a very small job. The main person who left that image is no longer in the party; he's the President of the country so it will be very easy to clean up," said Pastor Mumba when asked if he would drop NEC members facing corruption charges in the courts of law.

Pastor Mumba was elected fourth president for the MMD last week through provincial conventions, beating six other contestants.

But, Lienda, a former commerce deputy minister, said it would be difficult to reorganise the MMD with the corruption that was prevalent in the party.

He further said genuine members of the MMD would have difficulties dealing with Pastor Mumba because he had embraced people facing corruption charges who had allegedly bankrolled his campaigns for the party presidency.

Lienda said it would be difficult to reorganise the MMD under Pastor Mumba because of corruption since people were used to handouts and free money.

"So I don't know where Mr Mumba will find that money. There is no more reasoning in the MMD, the corruption was so much in Frederick Chiluba's second term and came to nestle under Rupiah Banda where everything was about money, whatever you do is money. It will become difficult to organise MMD without money because it lacks ideologies now," he said.

Lienda said the survival of the MMD would depend on the performance of the Patriotic Front government.

And Dr Musokotwane, a losing candidate for the MMD presidency, said what happened in the elections must now be "water under the bridge".

"The most important thing for him Pastor Mumba right now is to get MMD into a position where it can win an election. If you can't win an election, then of course it becomes hard, so that is the first priority," he said.

"The next one, which is critical, is it is one thing to make promises and it is another thing to deliver. This is what is getting the PF into trouble today. They made so many promises but they do not know how to deliver. We shouldn't fall into that trap."

Dr Musokotwane said if the MMD got elected again, people would expect it to deliver.

"…Failure to which, this will spell total doom for the party. The elections are over and we have to move forward, meaning, those who won and the rest of the members should now do what we said we were going to do, that is reorganise the party, hopefully get it into a better shape than it is in right now," said Dr Musokotwane.

And Pastor Mumba is today expected to convene the first NEC meeting under his leadership.

He also said a report on the just-held elections would be tabled by the convention development committee.

"I will receive reports of what happened in all the provinces if they are saying there was any vote buying. We will be able to look at the report and we will ensure that we audit every development that took place and if there was anything that was below the arrangement we made, then we are going to deal with it. But I do not agree that any of my members were involved in that vote buying," said Pastor Mumba.

Labels: MMD, NEC, NEVERS MUMBA, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE

posted by MrK @ 3:05 AM