Maravi

Andrew Banda calls for an all-Easterners caucus
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Wed 24 July 2013, 14:01 CAT

ANDREW Banda says there will be a caucus for all Easterners in the province to map out a strategy to ensure that they are not made irrelevant in the politics of the country. And Andrew maintained that MMD is the only vehicle left for Easterners to participate in Zambian politics.

Andrew yesterday said Easterners, even those that were out of the country, were expected to attend the meeting, whose venue would be announced later. He appealed to Easterners to crosscheck the MMD.

"We (MMD) are going to protect our province like the Southerners and the Northerners have protected their political parties. Why do they want the MMD to die today in a democracy? I challenge anybody to tell me whether what I have said is wrong, whether it is wrong for an Easterners to say we will protect MMD," he said.

Andrew claimed that geographical politics was practiced world-over, including in Africa.

"Of course, we all have to guard against injuring each other because of politics. You know, what is amazing is that the PF leadership has come here, they have beaten our people, they have insulted the former president (Rupiah Banda). Vice-President Guy Scott came here and called the former president 'chap' on Radio Breeze. Nobody wrote anything to condemn him for that. The President was here over the weekend; all he was saying was that imwe banthu bakum'mawa muchita monga kuvuli (Easterners are like the back). Why didn't you people write things like that and expose them?" Andrew asked.

He gave five reasons why he felt PF would lose this Thursday's Chipata Central by-election.

"My father, Rupiah, belongs to a clan, and there is no way he can be insulted by (Vice-President) Scott without an apology or without showing any remorse. The President said we are backwards; the other issue is the subsidies, which was underestimated by the PF. They have failed to deliver on many promises that they made," Andrew said.

He said load-shedding would also affect PF.

Andrew claimed that most powerful positions in the country had been given to Northerners.

Labels: ANDREW BANDA, EASTERN PROVINCE, MMD

posted by MrK @ 4:01 PM