Maravi

MMD MPs stop funding the party, want Kachingwe out

MMD MPs stop funding the party, want Kachingwe out
By Roy Habaalu and Kombe Chimpinde
Thu 22 Nov. 2012, 12:50 CAT

MMD wrangles deepened further yesterday after some members of parliament resolved to withhold their K2 million monthly contributions to the party until such a time that Major Richard Kachingwe is removed as national secretary.

But Maj Kachingwe says the future of MMD is under threat and warned against pushing members to their limit through threats of expulsion.

And Catherine Namugala says MMD has weakened itself further by calling for the resignation of Maj Kachingwe.

Meanwhile, Maj Kachingwe says he went to State House together with Namugala to resolve issues of appointing MMD members of parliament as ministers and not to look for a job.

Some MMD members of parliament said they would not contribute to Maj Kachingwe's salary this month and accused him of playing golf instead of campaigning for the party in Mufumbwe.

They said Maj Kachingwe was supposed to be galvanising the party especially in the recent by-election but was however busy 'working' with PF.

"We feel disconnected. Let me give an example. Here is President Sata going to Mufumbwe; the first person who should be there to lay the groundwork is our national secretary. We ordinary MPs are there struggling, helping in by-elections but Kachingwe is nowhere to be seen. He hasn't been to a single by-election. The President is campaigning there, but we see in the newspaper Kachingwe playing golf and frequenting State House. He is paid from our meagre resources you understand," said an MMD member of parliament.

The sources wondered why Maj Kachingwe was not offering even solidarity support during their High Court petitions for their seats.

"When it comes to petitions, Major Kachingwe did not attend a single petition. The party did not contribute to assist a single member of parliament while they suffered in court. We won our cases, there was not even a recognition by major Kachingwe that we had won but this is a person we are paying. Now, we won't pay towards his salary!" an MMD member of parliament said.

"When these cases started, we were all being told to approach Sunday Nkonde of SBN. Suddenly we were told to look elsewhere. There are also underlining factors such that MMD cannot afford to be as broke as it is. When MMD was in government, it had all sorts of money. The insiders know. While we are suffering in the bush, he is busy frequenting State House."

But Kachingwe at a briefing yesterday said those calling for his removal merely wanted him to insult the President.
He said he would rather step down as MMD national secretary than insult President Michael Sata.

Responding to a series of allegations which have been leveled against him by a group of MMD members of in the party, Major Kachingwe said he would not be coerced into politics of insults directed at President Sata and his government.

Major Kachingwe said he was shocked at the allegations that he was compromised by the PF which led him into issuing flat statements against the government and President Sata or those which tended to favour them.

"In our set up, they think when we wake up and insult the President, that is when you are a national secretary, then you are looking for a wrong national secretary," said Kachingwe as some MMD cadres in attendance murmured in disagreement.

"If you want a national secretary who will wake up to insult Sata, then look for another person. I have very strong views about this business of insulting myself."

Maj Kachingwe said President Sata was not only an elderly person but also an elected President of Zambia.
He added that President Sata was currently commander-in-chief of the armed forces while he was an ZNS officer.

"So don't force me. When I say no! it's no. I will not insult him (President Sata). I will differ with his policies. Like now, I have differed with him on the way the government is implementing the public order Act. You can't change me. I am very objective. I don't go for political expedience myself," he said.

Major Kachingwe said the future of the party was under threat because of a clique of MMD members who were championing hate agendas, which cadres were not even interested in.

"I want to say there is a clique that is cooking within the party which has surfaced. Through their actions, they want to destroy this party. They started with honourable Mutati, he had to resign but we won't let them. You find that at the weekend, they would be calling and asking me to expel people. Let them get this word. Let them get bull dozers and graders if they like," he said.

"Even when I say don't expel MPs serving in government, they say I am PF but you see I am the institutional memory of the party. We (MMD) are the ones who started appointing ministers.

This is why I went to State House, so we could solve the problem. I had to engage President Sata. What kind of a job can I look for at my age? Moreover if I needed a job from President Sata, I would simply call him and say Bashikulu, I need your help but that is not me. I believe in the ideals of this party and will not sell out.

Yes I have been to State House twice, not to look for a job but first to seek an appointment and when that appointment was granted, I went in the company of Honourable Catherine Namugala and we got assurance from President Sata that the affected MPs were told to keep their allegiance to the MMD."

On allegations that he had squandered money channeled to election court petitions of its members of parliament, Maj Kachingwe said the party did not allocate money for cases because there was no money.

Maj Kachingwe also dismissed claims that he was not participating in by-elections saying he was always in court to answer to litigations against the party.

He said he played golf during weekends to refresh himself.
But MMD die-hard national coordinator Bowman Lusambo says Maj Kachingwe was compromised and ready to trade off his soul for money.

Lusambo, who walked out of the briefing addressed by Maj Kachingwe, said the national secretary was leaking information to PF.

He said Maj Kachingwe was not fit to hold the position because almost all officials and members of parliament had lost confidence in him.

"This briefing is nonsense. Kachingwe is just wasting our time. He's being silly. He will do anything to please President Michael Sata and PF because whatever the President says is bread and butter for him. He came to bore us with history when he was constituency and district chairman for Kabwata, when the President was member of parliament and national secretary, that's nonsense. We expected him to apologise for going against the party," said Lusambo.

"That's indiscipline on his part. How can he say his allegiance is to the system and not an individual? It means he can't be controlled by any leader. Our president says this is not good and he says the opposite. His lust for money will cause him to crash," said Lusambo.

This was after Maj Kachingwe thanked President Sata for paying his wife's medical bills when she was hospitalised and for keeping his son in the foreign service.

Maj Kachingwe was forced to pause repeatedly after some MMD cadres shouted that he was for sale while others in their drunken state poured scorn on him saying he had run the party down.

Some MMD members want Maj Kachingwe and his deputy national secretary Chembe Nyangu out of the party.
Sources said members had softened on Nyangu because they did not have 'evidence' of his collaboration with PF.

But Namugala, who is MMD chairperson for women affairs, said in an interview that those calling for the duo's resignation had been sponsored to destroy the party.

"The calling of Kachingwe and Nyangu to go is in bad faith. I am expecting the president of the party himself to speak about this because we need to know his position. What is his position on this?" she asked.
"For me as a member of the party who has been there for many years, I think it is very sad that MMD should end up like this wanting to divide itself and weakening itself even further."

Namugala, who is also Mafinga MMD member of parliament, claimed that MMD would have gone into extinction had it not been for Maj Kachingwe and Nyangu.
"Kachingwe has been in and out of court. We were even evicted from regional offices, Kachingwe was there to pick up the pieces, found the secretariat, put everything together. Our motor vehicles were seized, Kachingwe was there being harassed. When there were threats to deregister the party, Kachingwe was there being ridiculed," she recalled.

"It is very unfortunate that anyone of us can demand that Kachingwe and Chembe Nyangu go. Kachingwe and Chembe Nyangu have contributed more than their fair share to the well being of this party up to this stage. Kachingwe and Chembe Nyangu have sacrificed a lot to keep MMD going. If it wasn't for those two gentlemen, there would be no MMD to talk about today."

Namugala urged MMD members to follow the laid down procedures when dealing with issues concerning the party.

"We should be thanking them for holding the party together. As human beings, if there is anything that they are doing wrong, any system has internal mechanism of dealing with those problems. But not to be going out to the press and calling for their removal. These two people were elected by the convention," said Namugala.

"MMD has procedures and it is most unfortunate that some of the people who are speaking loudest about the removal of these people, are people who don't even know MMD. People who move from one party to the other are the ones who are in the forefront saying; 'remove this one and remove that one'."

And Solwezi Central MMD member of parliament Lucky Mulusa said in an interview that there was a feeling of uncertainty in the party.

"The political landscape has not settled yet. Some people are looking at short term settlements of the political landscape as something permanent," he said.

"My advice to them is they need to stay where they are. They need to wait a little longer and not to jump sheep. They shouldn't just look at comfort. When we start destroying the opposition then we don't even know who we are."
Mulusa said what had led to the calls for Maj Kachingwe to step down had clearly shown lack of intra-party communication.

"We have been talking more about each other outside the party than within the party. We would have managed to get off incidents that have led to the perceptions that perhaps our national secretary and deputy are compromised," he said.

Meanwhile, Chitambo MMD member of parliament Mushili Malama said there was 'no smoke without fire' when any allegations were raised against any member.

He however said whether the expulsion of Maj Kachingwe would be considered or not, correct procedures should be followed.

Labels: CATHERINE NAMUGALA, MMD, RICHARD KACHINGWE

posted by MrK @ 5:36 PM