Integrity
By The Post
Thu 24 Jan. 2013, 17:30 CAT
THE media is full of stories about leaders who lack integrity - men and women who, while leading, had some breach of trust that usually led to personal gain.
It is a well-known fact that Rupiah Banda came into Levy Mwanawasa's government broke and had serious challenges meeting his financial obligations. This was a man who was losing properties that he had pledged as collateral for failing to service his debts.
We also know that before he became president of the Republic following the death of Levy in 2008, Rupiah did not have the wealth he left government with three years later. The earnings of the president of the Republic of Zambia are not a secret.
And so are the businesses of the president because he has to make a declaration of his assets when filing in nominations to contest the elections for that office. We all know what Rupiah declared in 2008. But look at what Rupiah owns today, what he left State House with! It doesn't tie up with his earned income as President of the Republic. The question is: where did the extra or surplus money come from? Money does not grow on trees like some human beings, at least some.
Rupiah can claim to have received donations from well wishers. But who are those well wishers? Are they not people who were doing business with government?
We agree with Reverend Richard M'bao that the government should not allow plunderers and crooks that held public offices in the previous MMD regime to go scot-free.
We have repeatedly stated that leaders are not perfect people; neither are their followers. We will never have perfect leaders. Integrity, honesty doesn't require perfection, however. Rather, integrity, honesty demands that leaders and followers take responsibility for wrongs done and take steps to correct or make restitution for those wrongs.
At the heart of any assessment of biblical qualifications for leadership lies the concept of integrity - that uncompromising adherence to a code of moral, artistic, or other values that reveals itself in sincerity, honesty and candor and avoids deception and artificiality. The God-given capacity to lead has two parts: giftedness and character. Integrity is at the heart of character.
Integrity is a vital price of leadership for anyone who is serious about establishing a leadership style and legacy that will impact the society in a positive manner.
Lack of integrity can undermine almost any other effort to create high trust accounts. People can seek to understand, remember the little things, keep their promises, clarify and fulfill expectations, and still fail to build reserves of trust if they are inwardly duplicitous.
Integrity includes but goes beyond honesty. Honesty is telling the truth - in other words, conforming our words to reality. Integrity is conforming reality to our words - in other words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations. This requires an integrated character, a oneness, primarily with self but also with life.
In Daniel 1:8-21, Daniel faced an integrity check that could have cost him his life: "But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
Now God had caused the official to show favour and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, 'I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned you food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.' Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 'Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.
Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.' So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days, they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
To these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. At the end of the time set by the king to bring them in, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king's service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus."
Please bear with this long passage, but we believe it says best what needs to be said about integrity, convictions.
Daniel, a teenager away from home and parental influence, was forced to decide if the convictions he grew up with were his own. In this case, the inner conviction was a religious one involving food. He was under pressure to violate this conviction, but he stuck to his conviction. God gave him relationships that allowed him to work out a plan that did not compromise his convictions. God honoured his unyielding character.
Daniel and his friends were respected for their knowledge and skills and were given top-level government jobs. This promotion to a strategic position is an example of expansion - an integrity check. Daniel stood firm and saw God provide a solution. This enabled him to stand on even tougher issues later in life.
Daniel had value-based integrity that helped him make decisions. He decided to be true to the dietary laws of his God and people in Babylon. His integrity didn't cost him his leadership; his integrity enhanced his leadership. He was a man of integrity.
Later in his career, there were many people who were jealous of Daniel's high position and sought to bring him down. When they observed him at work, we find this testimony to his levels of integrity that didn't wane as the years went on. "Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so.
They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally, these men said, 'We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God'" (Daniel 6:3-5).
That's part of the price of leadership - to be above reproach. If a mistake is made, then integrity demands that a leader take ownership for it and make it right. In this generation where everyone is a victim and wrongs done seem to be no one's fault, there is a desperate need for men and women of integrity to lead the way.
It is therefore very important that Rupiah and those who abused their public offices and trust with him are made to account. In this way, those who take up leadership positions will be made to hold to their values and make decisions that are consistent with who they are and what they believe in. In this way, we will reduce the chances of them selling out or cutting corners hoping that no one will know or will one day make them to account.
Let our leaders follow the example of Daniel, a man of integrity. Daniel's leadership remains a model to follow 2,500 years after he led. You might say his leadership has survived the test of time and want yours to do the same and pay the price of leadership that demands integrity.
Labels: AU, KENNETH KAUNDA, LEADERSHIP
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AU to honour KK
By Roy Habaalu
Fri 25 Jan. 2013, 14:00 CAT
THE African Union will honour Dr Kenneth Kaunda for his contribution to the liberation of Southern Africa. And President Michael Sata is today expected in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend the 20th session of the Africa Union heads of state summit.
Zambia's Ambassador to Ethiopia Francis Simenda said the African Union (AU) had approved Zambia's request to honour its founding president for his role in liberating southern African countries.
He said the honouring of Dr Kaunda in May, would be part of the activities to celebrate 50 years of the African Union' existence from inception when it was called Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
"I am happy to tell you that after we made an intervention at the AU, as you know AU will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in May this year, a number of activities are being planned at national and here at continental level. If you look around the conference here, look at the pictures of those that contributed to this organisation, you don't see the picture of president Kenneth Kaunda here. We did put in a request (and) I am happy to inform you that Dr Kaunda will be honoured this year here at the AU for the role he played in the liberation of southern Africa. You know Zambia sacrificed so much of its resources, the manpower to liberate the southern region, Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and so on," he said.
Zambia last year complained that Dr Kaunda's portrait was missing among other African presidents that were displayed at the organisation's headquarters in Ethiopia.
Simenda said it was important that leaders that sacrificed for the good of the continent were honoured.
Earlier, Simenda said President Sata who would be accompanied by his wife, Dr Christine Kaseba, would be part of the meeting that would peer-review Zambia ahead of the summit.
"The summit will look at a number of issues, among them conflicts in Africa. For Africa to develop we need to have peace in various member states. There are a number of conflict areas in Africa, the situation of Mali, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), therefore, focus will be made to see how heads of states can resolve these issues. We are beginning to have a new trend of people wanting to overthrow legitimately elected governments through the back door. The AU made a decision that any government that comes into place through unconstitutional means will be suspended from the AU," said Simenda.
And opening the 22nd Ordinary Session of the AU' s executive council at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa yesterday, AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the institution's 50th commemoration activities must enable member countries to tell their own story.
She said Africa must demystify, appropriate and popularize its own history and narrative in honour of the past generations and to inspire current and future generations.
"This year is special, for we will be commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of our continental organization (the OAU) - hence the theme, 'Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance'. This means that we have the additional task of taking forward preparations for the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary in May," said Dr
Dlamini-Zuma at her first address to the AU Executive Council.
"Our 50th Commemoration activities must enable us to tell our story: the story of Africa's rich pre-colonial history of great civilizations, its struggles against slavery and colonialism and its process of nation-formation and state-building over the last fifty years."
She said the founders of the OAU had fulfilled the mission they had
defined for themselves to liberate the continent from colonialism.
"Young people must have a voice in the affairs of the continent," Dr
Dlamini-Zuma said. "We must maintain a healthy balance between
achieving peace and advancing development. We cannot sustain peace if
there is no development and we cannot sustain development if there is
no peace."
And Dr Dlamini-Zuma said the structural budget of the African Union where member states fund the operational budget while external partners finance the bulk of the programme budget is unhealthy and unsustainable.
She said the inadequacy of resources was not helped by the trend of creating more and more African Union institutions.
Dr Dlamini-Zuma said while the importance and usefulness of such institutions cannot be doubted it did not speak well of the AU if it continued establishing institutions while failing to sustain existing ones.
Other issues on the agenda of the AU heads of state summit are youth unemployment, poverty reduction and mortality rate.
Labels: AU, KENNETH KAUNDA, LEADERSHIP
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AU to honour KK
By Roy Habaalu
Fri 25 Jan. 2013, 14:00 CAT
THE African Union will honour Dr Kenneth Kaunda for his contribution to the liberation of Southern Africa. And President Michael Sata is today expected in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend the 20th session of the Africa Union heads of state summit.
Zambia's Ambassador to Ethiopia Francis Simenda said the African Union (AU) had approved Zambia's request to honour its founding president for his role in liberating southern African countries.
He said the honouring of Dr Kaunda in May, would be part of the activities to celebrate 50 years of the African Union' existence from inception when it was called Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
"I am happy to tell you that after we made an intervention at the AU, as you know AU will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in May this year, a number of activities are being planned at national and here at continental level. If you look around the conference here, look at the pictures of those that contributed to this organisation, you don't see the picture of president Kenneth Kaunda here. We did put in a request (and) I am happy to inform you that Dr Kaunda will be honoured this year here at the AU for the role he played in the liberation of southern Africa. You know Zambia sacrificed so much of its resources, the manpower to liberate the southern region, Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and so on," he said.
Zambia last year complained that Dr Kaunda's portrait was missing among other African presidents that were displayed at the organisation's headquarters in Ethiopia.
Simenda said it was important that leaders that sacrificed for the good of the continent were honoured.
Earlier, Simenda said President Sata who would be accompanied by his wife, Dr Christine Kaseba, would be part of the meeting that would peer-review Zambia ahead of the summit.
"The summit will look at a number of issues, among them conflicts in Africa. For Africa to develop we need to have peace in various member states. There are a number of conflict areas in Africa, the situation of Mali, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), therefore, focus will be made to see how heads of states can resolve these issues. We are beginning to have a new trend of people wanting to overthrow legitimately elected governments through the back door. The AU made a decision that any government that comes into place through unconstitutional means will be suspended from the AU," said Simenda.
And opening the 22nd Ordinary Session of the AU' s executive council at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa yesterday, AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the institution's 50th commemoration activities must enable member countries to tell their own story.
She said Africa must demystify, appropriate and popularize its own history and narrative in honour of the past generations and to inspire current and future generations.
"This year is special, for we will be commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of our continental organization (the OAU) - hence the theme, 'Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance'. This means that we have the additional task of taking forward preparations for the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary in May," said Dr
Dlamini-Zuma at her first address to the AU Executive Council.
"Our 50th Commemoration activities must enable us to tell our story: the story of Africa's rich pre-colonial history of great civilizations, its struggles against slavery and colonialism and its process of nation-formation and state-building over the last fifty years."
She said the founders of the OAU had fulfilled the mission they had
defined for themselves to liberate the continent from colonialism.
"Young people must have a voice in the affairs of the continent," Dr
Dlamini-Zuma said. "We must maintain a healthy balance between
achieving peace and advancing development. We cannot sustain peace if
there is no development and we cannot sustain development if there is
no peace."
And Dr Dlamini-Zuma said the structural budget of the African Union where member states fund the operational budget while external partners finance the bulk of the programme budget is unhealthy and unsustainable.
She said the inadequacy of resources was not helped by the trend of creating more and more African Union institutions.
Dr Dlamini-Zuma said while the importance and usefulness of such institutions cannot be doubted it did not speak well of the AU if it continued establishing institutions while failing to sustain existing ones.
Other issues on the agenda of the AU heads of state summit are youth unemployment, poverty reduction and mortality rate.
Labels: AU, KENNETH KAUNDA, LEADERSHIP
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RDA plans tollgate system
By Henry Sinyangwe
Fri 25 Jan. 2013, 13:20 CAT
THE Road Development Agency (RDA) plans to start building a toll-gate system across Zambia's national road network by the end of the year, says chief executive officer Bernard Chiwala.
And Chiwala says the Agency had a challenge of using all the disbursed funds to the road sector due to lengthy procurement procedures.
He said the Agency expected to raise about 25 per cent (about KR1 billion) of its annual budget from the planned toll gates which would go towards roads maintenance.
"We have appointed the road tolling manager and in the next four
months, they will begin the works to prepare for the installation of
toll gates. We will install them on 17 selected sites which we have
already identified. We are expecting by June, we will have concluded
this plan, with building to begin in the second half of the year,"
he said.
The routes the RDA will initially focus on tolling are those linking Livingstone, the tourist capital and Nakonde bordering
Tanzania.
And Chiwala said governments of Zambia and Botswana earlier this month
appointed engineers in charge of building the planned $260 million
bridge that would link the two countries at Kazangula.
"We are planning to start the construction next year in April. It will
take four years to build the 923-meter (3,028-foot) bridge," he said.
Chiwala said all the required funding had been secured for the project.
And on the Chingola-Solwezi Road, Chiwala said the Agency would soon
move on site to maintain it.
"We will be moving onto site for the Chingola-Solwezi and also the
Kabwe-Kapiri. The tolling will address the aspect of trucks on the roads because we will be charging them more towards the maintenance of the roads," he said.
Addressing contractors yesterday, Chiwala said the Agency also faced
challenges of shoddy works, poor designs and uncaring supervision.
He said the country had enough material to undertake the 8000-kilometre Link Zambia Project.
"Don't entice our people in anyway so that the can give the contracts. We will give the evaluating process to independent evaluators to increase transparency. And some people have said the Link Zambia 8000 Project will not work, why should it not? asked Chiwala.
Labels: RDA, ROADS, TOLL ROADS
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UPND ready for showdown with police
By Moses Kuwema and Kombe Chimpinde
Fri 25 Jan. 2013, 13:20 CAT
UPND deputy spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says the party is ready for a showdown with the police this Sunday for being denied permission to hold a rally. But the Ministry of Home Affairs has warned the UPND that they will have themselves to blame if they go ahead with a public rally slated for this Sunday in Kabwata.
In a statement, Ministry of Home Affairs public relations officer, Moses Suwali, said that if UPND went ahead with their planned rally with or without police approval, they would be breaking the law because they would conduct themselves in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace.
But Mweetwa insisted that the UPND's planned rally would go ahead and
that the police should be ready for a New Year's present if they
decided to stop the rally.
"For the police, this Sunday if they want, they should come and try to
stop the rally the way they did in Kanyama. We are ready to give them
a New Year present," he said.
Asked what he meant exactly by New Year present, Mweetwa responded:
"we are going to give them a new present. We have the law on our side
and we expect them to come and protect us and not to export anarchy to
a peaceful rally."
Mweetwa said rallies for the UPND as a political party were a life
blood of their existence because they provided a market place for them
to merchandise their ideas.
And Mweetwa said the police should apologise to his party for stating
that the UPND was incapable of holding violent free events, failure to
which the party would commence legal action.
He said the police should also apologise for tarnishing the image of the party.
"If the police fail to do this, we intend to commence very serious
legal action against them. The basis for this contemplation is as
follows; we find the statement by the police highly insulting and
defamatory to the integrity, persona and character of the UPND
leadership, to an extent that this statement has not only tarnished
the good image of our party but they have brought the image of the
UPND into public ridicule and hatred because the people of this
country abhor violence, detest it, they are allergic to violence,"
Mweetwa said.
Mweetwa said it was extremely intrusive for the police to brand UPND a
violent party.
He said the position of the police on the UPND, had served to act as
confirmation to what he termed as the fears of people that under the
PF, Zambia was now a police state.
But Suwali stated: "the UPND after being informed not to go ahead, they will have themselves to blame for the consequences of their acts and they should not claim that they were not forewarned."
Suwali urged the UPND to go by what the police had advised
adding that the ministry was aware of Lusaka Province police
Commissioner, Joyce Kasosa's, gesture to dialogue with the UPND.
"We therefore encourage the UPND to respond positively and dialogue
with police and come up with an amicable solution. We therefore
implore UPND to dialogue with police unlike taking a confrontational
approach towards the issue as police are not willing to be at variance
with UPND but instead promote a spirit of dialogue as stakeholders,"
stated Suwali.
Lusaka police have denied the UPND a permit to hold its planned rally
in Kabwata, saying the opposition political party could be trusted to
hold a violence-free event.
Kasosa stated that police did not trust UPND to hold a violence-free rally due to what happened at Woodlands Police Station, where suspected UPND cadres, who escorted their president Hakainde Hichilema, caused commotion, and assaulted a police officer.
Meanwhile, Mike Mulongoti has described as unfair the continued refusal by the police to allow the opposition to hold political rallies.
Mulongoti, a former works and supply minister, said the refusal by police to approve of the latest notification by the UPND to hold a public rally in Kabwata was creating frustration and suspicions among political parties and the electorate.
"What is unfortunate is that those who can't hold rallies themselves, for whatever fears, are the ones who are stopping those capable of doing it. The conversation with the public must continue and more so for the government itself. People are hungry for conversation with their leadership but what is happening now is that they are keeping that pressure in a bottle," Mulongoti said.
He said that it was not fair for the government to sit idle while police had continued to deny the opposition space to hold political rallies, because the latter held rallies while in the opposition with ease.
"…It's blatant disregard of the freedoms of association and the law. When you monitor them, the police are saying the UPND has no capacity to hold the rally peacefully? They have not even allowed one rally so that they can see what happens; they are just stopping and stopping (the opposition), creating anger and frustration," Mulongoti said.
"It's nonsensical because the constitution provides for freedom of movement, assembly. How harmful can visiting a market or chief be? I think they are extending this intolerance to ridiculous levels. They had an opportunity to do that when they were in the opposition, I think they cannot stop others from doing it."
Mulongoti said this when he featured on UNZA radio yesterday.
He said the existence of political parties would be irrelevant if its leaders were not given chance to interact with the electorate.
"How many people are they going to stop? Suppose all parties decided to visit markets, do they think they can contain that? What is important is to promote cooperation with the opposition," said Mulongoti.
Labels: CORNELIUS MWEETWA, MOSES SUWALI, UPND
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Farmers group stops SA chopper donation
25/01/2013 00:00:00
by SAPA
THE North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has granted an order to freeze the delivery of South African helicopters to the Zimbabwean military, lobby group AfriForum said on Friday.
"An urgent interim court order was awarded to AfriForum late this afternoon by the North Gauteng High Court to prevent delivery of Alouette III Air Force helicopters by the SA National Defence Force to the Zimbabwean army.
"The interim order shall stand pending the finalisation of the main application by 19 February 2013," said AfriForum's legal representative Willie Spies.
AfriForum made the urgent application to the court on Friday after the news about the donation to the Zimbabwean government broke.
Last week, AfriForum's legal team presented letters on the matter to the Minister of Defence Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, as well as the Minister of Justice, Jeff Radebe, who is also chairperson of the national conventional arms control committee.
The letter were written after rumours surfaced that the SANDF had decided to donate its entire fleet of used Alouette helicopters to Zimbabwe.
"The ministers were given seven days to react to the letters, but no reaction had been received by close of business yesterday."
Spies said while the two ministers declined to react to the letters delivered to them, their spokesperson confirmed to Mail & Guardian that arrangements for the delivery of the helicopters had been finalised and that the delivery would take place shortly.
"We have also informed the acting French Ambassador to South Africa in writing of the potential risk for his country, in that France may be contravening the arms embargo against Zimbabwe, as imposed by the European Union, as the South African government will now be donating imported French helicopter parts to Zimbabwe," Spies said.
He said according to the National Conventional Arms Control Act of 2002, the National Conventional Arms Control Committee must consider certain principles before the sale or delivery of military equipment to another country can be authorised.
"These principles include, inter alia, the human rights record of the particular country."
The National Director of Public Prosecutions was recently ordered by the North Gauteng Pretoria to investigate certain offences against humanity committed by Zimbabwean military officers, he said.
Spies said indications were that the Zimbabwean army was enhancing its visibility and mobility in anticipation of the national elections scheduled to take place later this year.
Labels: AFRIFORUM, ARMED FORCES, SANCTIONS
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VP Nkomo: The family man
Saturday, 19 January 2013 21:17
Lincoln Towindo
“Our father was not the typical family man who returns home every night after work, or one who takes his children to school every morning. “In a sense, we had a father but never had a ‘father’ since we rarely enjoyed his presence.” Jabulani Nkomo, the son of Vice-President John Landa Nkomo, was close to tears yesterday as he recounted the few moments he
enjoyed with his father during his living years.
Many have described him as a committed leader, a fountain of knowledge, a unifier, a public servant and a man of the people, among other colourful adulations.
But, sadly for his family, they were condemned to sharing such qualities — in most cases at a disadvantage — with millions of other people.
But it is not with regret that his family looks back at the revolutionary’s life.
“Such was his commitment to fighting for the cause of liberating his people that we as his family had resigned to foregoing his regular companionship,” said Jabulani.
“We, however, came to understand that we had a political person for a father who would not stop at any cost until his vision of delivering a free Zimbabwean people was a reality.
“He always told us that everyone has a time to come and a time to go, but what matters is what you actually do when you are around.
“Although we are still trying to come to terms with what has happened, we are proud that we still have memories of his vast achievements and we will do all within our power to hold on to those memories.”
According to Cde Nkomo’s brother, Mr Sam Sipepa Nkomo, the late Vice-President’s leadership qualities and wisdom were a direct result of his astute upbringing. He was educated in the rare arts of humility, compassion, empathy and grace.
“My brother was a giant and today a giant has fallen,” he said.
“He was born a natural leader even from the days when we were growing up he would always stand shoulders above all his peers.
“The family has been devastated by such a harsh blow and will struggle to come to terms with the situation.
“He has always played the role of a father — a leader, but what struck me the most was his willingness to tolerate unity in diversity.
“As you know, we are members of different political parties, but he never allowed such a situation to upset family unity.”
However, for Jabulani, the memories from the days of the liberation struggle when his father was frequently in detention, in hiding or out of the country, remain the most poignant.
For a child who was barely an adult, it was a nightmare having to deal with news that his father was a wanted “terrorist”.
He remembers visiting Tsholotsho to alert the rest of the family that his father had actually survived a assassination attempt and was recovering in hospital.
“I remember arriving at our rural home only to find that a ‘funeral’ wake was already under way,” he said.
“They all thought I was hiding the truth from them until a friend of my father brought pictures of him recovering in hospital to Tsholotsho.”
As thousands of relatives, friends and colleagues of the late Vice-President thronged his Milton Park home in Harare yesterday to pay their last respects, an air of oneness was palpable.
Even in death, he managed to unite the nation.
MDC-T secretary-general and Finance Minister Mr Tendai Biti led a delegation from his party.
“He was a fatherly figure for all of us in the inclusive Government such that we could look up to him for the provisions of answers to difficult situations.
“His humane and accommodative character made him accessible to people from different persuasions and races,” said Mr Biti.
Jabulani summed up the sad last days of the late revolutionary: “What is sad for us is that in the days leading to his death, we were beginning to notice signs of recovery, but God had his way.”
Cde Nkomo made a seamless transition from being a firebrand trade unionist to liberation politics and, subsequently, going into Government.
Vice-President Nkomo died at St Anne’s Hospital on Thursday last week after a long battle with cancer.
He will be buried tomorrow at the National Heroes’ Acre.
Labels: JOHN LANDA NKOMO, ZANU-PF
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COMMENT - This article refers to the newly published book,
Zimbabwe Takes Back Its Land, by Joseph Hanlon, Jeannette Manjengwa, and Teresa Smart. A similar book was published on Zimbabwe's land reform and it's New Farmers, which is a collection of essays and articles, by Prof. Ian Scoones et al,
Zimbabwe's Land Reform: Myths and Realities. This article is reproduced
here at NewZimbabwe.com.
Britain's Mugabe-phobia has obscured the good news from Zimbabwe
With elections looming the media will resume their old crisis lines, ignoring the positive results of the land occupations
Jonathan Steele
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 January 2013 19.30 GMT
Elections will be held in Zimbabwe later this year, leading with grim predictability to another bout of Mugabe-phobia in the British media. The trigger for the presidential and parliamentary poll was the deal struck last week between the 88-year-old president and the leader of the rival Movement for Democratic Change, the rime minister Morgan Tsvangirai, on a new constitution.
After months of wrangling the two men, who have been running the country in an uneasy coalition for the last four years, agreed on a text. It has not yet been published, so doubt remains on whether it reduces the president's power in favour of parliament, as the MDC wanted. But whatever it contains, the document will have to be put to a referendum.
Then follow elections, and there are already strong hints that they could again be marked by violence. Mugabe seems determined to stand once more, admitting he is vulnerable but saying he will fight like "a wounded beast". Meanwhile, a group of 58 civil organisations last week condemned what they called a "well-calculated and intensive" assault on human rights activists and journalists as voter registration gets under way.
As passions risk becoming inflamed again and the old battle positions resume in Britain's media as well as Zimbabwe's, the danger is that long-term trends get overlooked. Good news has just emerged from Britain's last former African colony that shows that the land occupations and evictions of white farmers by angry veterans of the liberation struggle that was the big Zimbabwe story of a decade ago did not destroy the country's agriculture, as so often claimed. Far from it, production is now back to the levels of the late 1990s and more land is under cultivation than was worked by white farmers.
The evidence is contained in Zimbabwe Takes Back Its Land, a book based on several research studies in various parts of the country. The authors look at Zimbabwe's first land reform right after independence in 1980, which was not so fiercely contested, as well as the changes sparked by the veterans' occupations in the late 1990s, which Mugabe's Zanu-PF party originally ignored but later took over and turned into a political weapon.
The authors criticise Mugabe's economic mismanagement, which led to hyperinflation between 2005 and 2008.
[Actually it didn't. I am sure that the authors are unaware of the existence of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, S.494 of the 107th US Congress, because media like The Guardian, BBC, CNN and other corporate owned media do not report on the economic sanctions that have been in place against Zimbabwe for the last decade. ZDERA destroyed the Zimbabwe Dollar, by severing the Zimbabwean government's access to lines of credit from the global financial system. This left the government with no recourse other than the national currency, over which they did have control, and printed money to save foreign currency. This was the intent of ZDERA, because the Rhodesian elements in the MDC knew the importance of financing in establishing Rhodesian agriculture, which was the monopoly of whites.
To cite the relevant portions of ZDERA, specifically Section 4C:
SEC. 4. SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY.
(c) MULTILATERAL FINANCING RESTRICTION- ... the Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against--
(1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or
(2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.
This bill came into force on Jan. 1st 2002. Predictably, this freeze out of the international financial system had a terrible effect on the Zimbabwe Dollar, which can be seen from for instance the Zimbabwe Dollar/US Dollar chart, courtesy of the anti-Mugabe Economist Intelligence Unit. See chart here.
The attempt was consciously and knowingly made to 'take down Zimbabwe' and 'blame Mugabe' or more generically 'Mismanagement By Mugabe' (TM). Clearly, this is a highly unspecific political slogan, and yet breathlessly repeated by the BBC, CNN, etc., tapping into the well established racist conceit that as soon as Africans do something, it must 'somehow' fail. What is this 'mismanagement by Mugabe', again? Because clearly, it was not the land reform process itself which collapsed the Zimbabwe Dollar in 1999, 2000 or 2001, during the so-called 'farm invasions'. Here are the 2002 effects on tobacco exports and the trade surplus - notice the dramatic change in the year 2002, and not before:
Tobacco Exports:
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
548.8 594.1 434.6 321.3 226.7 203.8
Trade Deficit in million US$
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
-295.6 -322.5 18.2 108.3 305.2 387.9 231.3
The negative trade deficit numbers are a trade surplus. Notice that the trade surplus was growing during 2000 and 2001, uninhibited by the 'farm invasions'. It is only in the year that ZDERA came into force, that we see a rising trade surplus turn into a trade deficit - that is ZDERA, not the farm invasions.
Source: Special Report, FAO/WFP Crop And Food Supply Assessment Mission To Zimbabwe, 5 June 2007
Table 1: Zimbabwe - Key economic indicators, 2000–2007
http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/10127e/10127e00.HTM
- MrK]
It was not the land reform that caused hyperinflation, but bad economic decisions. They say the introduction of the US dollar by the unity government four years ago brought a quicker economic recovery and hence greater benefits for farm producers than anyone expected.
They have the courage to criticise Amnesty International for exaggerating the plight of farm workers who were forced off formerly "white" land taken over by Africans, and say that by 2011 the number of people working on resettlement land had increased more than fivefold, from 167,000 to over a million.
They have a go at a prominent BBC report which, they say, fell for the myth of a cornucopia when white people ran most of commercial agriculture and a "black disaster" thereafter. White farmers never used all the land they had taken. In the years just before minority rule collapsed, in spite of generous government subsidies, 30% of white farmers were insolvent and another 30% only broke even. Some 66% of arable land was lying fallow.
After the occupations in 2000, although some new African farmers reverted to subsistence agriculture, a growing number have been moving into commercial farming and there has even been a healthy return to the land by urban black people. In part this is because land is still highly prized in Zimbabwe and the desire to recover it was so crucial an element, ideologically and emotionally, in the struggle against white settlement.
Indeed, the authors start their book with an arch reminder of an earlier generation of war veterans who evicted farmers and burnt their houses. They included the former Rhodesian white minority leader Ian Smith and other champions of white minority rule who got their economic start in life in 1945 by defining African farmers as squatters and throwing them – without compensation – off land that the foreign settlers' government designated as the exclusive preserve of white people.
"Regaining the land was central to the independence struggle in a way that was never the case in Mozambique and South Africa … Mozambique's urbanised elite simply do not think of farming," they write.
[That is because in Mozambique, the leaving settlers destroyed everything of value. They also nearly immediately were faced with a South African and CIA sponsored rebel movement called RENAMO. In South Africa, there has not yet been an effective land reform program put into place, 18 years after the ANC came into power. Part of the hostility to effective land reform in Zimbabwe was the prospect of similar land reform in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Botswana and other countries. - MrK]
In spite of the progress of recent years the book argues that Zimbabwean farming still faces major challenges of investment shortages and training. It takes a generation for farmers to master their land and 10 years is too short a period to judge the complete success of the occupations.
But the record is far better than the outside world gives credit for. While Zimbabwe Takes Back Its Land focuses on a specific controversy, its challenge to conventional wisdom and stereotyping offers wider lessons. It is a reminder that crisis coverage, even when accurate, is only a part of what the media should be about. Follow-ups and reports on long-term trends are equally needed.
• Jonathan Steele covered Zimbabwe's elections in 2000 for the Guardian
[Read more about the sanctions that are in place against Zimbabwe here and this review of a hatchet job of an interview by Christiane Amanpour with President Mugabe on CNN. - MrK]
Labels: AGRICULTURE, COLONIALISM, LAND REFORM, ROBERT MUGABE, ZIMBABWE
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Anti-Mugabe fog clouds land reform success: Researchers
23/01/2013 00:00:00
by Jonathan Steele I guardian.co.uk
ELECTIONS will be held in Zimbabwe later this year, leading with grim predictability to another bout of Mugabe-phobia in the British media.
The trigger for the presidential and parliamentary poll was the deal struck last week between the veteran President and the leader of the rival Movement for Democratic Change, the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, on a new constitution.
After months of wrangling the two men, who have been running the country in an uneasy coalition for the last four years, agreed on a text. It has not yet been published, so doubt remains on whether it reduces the president's power in favour of parliament, as the MDC wanted. But whatever it contains, the document will have to be put to a referendum.
Then follow elections, and there are already strong hints that they could again be marked by violence. Mugabe seems determined to stand once more, admitting he is vulnerable but saying he will fight like a “wounded beast”.
Meanwhile, a group of 58 civil organisations last week condemned what they called a "well-calculated and intensive" assault on human rights activists and journalists as voter registration gets under way.
As passions risk becoming inflamed again and the old battle positions resume in Britain's media as well as Zimbabwe's, the danger is that long-term trends get overlooked.
Good news has just emerged from the country showing that the land occupations and evictions of white farmers by angry veterans of the liberation struggle that was the big Zimbabwe story of a decade ago did not destroy the country's agriculture, as so often claimed. Far from it, production is now back to the levels of the late 1990s and more land is under cultivation than was worked by white farmers.
The evidence is contained in Zimbabwe Takes Back Its Land, a book based on several research studies in various parts of the country. The authors look at Zimbabwe's first land reform right after independence in 1980, which was not so fiercely contested, as well as the changes sparked by the veterans' occupations in the late 1990s, which Mugabe's Zanu PF party originally ignored but later took over and turned into a political weapon.
The authors criticise Mugabe's economic mismanagement, which led to hyperinflation between 2005 and 2008. It was not the land reform that caused hyperinflation, but bad economic decisions. They say the introduction of the US dollar by the unity government four years ago brought a quicker economic recovery and hence greater benefits for farm producers than anyone expected.
They have the courage to criticise Amnesty International for exaggerating the plight of farm workers who were forced off formerly "white" land taken over by Africans, and say that by 2011 the number of people working on resettlement land had increased more than fivefold, from 167,000 to over a million.
They have a go at a prominent BBC report which, they say, fell for the myth of a cornucopia when white people ran most of commercial agriculture and a "black disaster" thereafter. White farmers never used all the land they had taken. In the years just before minority rule collapsed, in spite of generous government subsidies, 30% of white farmers were insolvent and another 30% only broke even. Some 66% of arable land was lying fallow.
After the occupations in 2000, although some new African farmers reverted to subsistence agriculture, a growing number have been moving into commercial farming and there has even been a healthy return to the land by urban black people.
In part this is because land is still highly prized in Zimbabwe and the desire to recover it was so crucial an element, ideologically and emotionally, in the struggle against white settlement.
Indeed, the authors start their book with an arch reminder of an earlier generation of war veterans who evicted farmers and burnt their houses.
They included the former Rhodesian white minority leader Ian Smith and other champions of white minority rule who got their economic start in life in 1945 by defining African farmers as squatters and throwing them – without compensation – off land that the foreign settlers' government designated as the exclusive preserve of white people.
"Regaining the land was central to the independence struggle in a way that was never the case in Mozambique and South Africa … Mozambique's urbanised elite simply do not think of farming," they write.
In spite of the progress of recent years the book argues that Zimbabwean farming still faces major challenges of investment shortages and training. It takes a generation for farmers to master their land and 10 years is too short a period to judge the complete success of the occupations. But the record is far better than the outside world gives credit for.
While Zimbabwe Takes Back Its Land focuses on a specific controversy, its challenge to conventional wisdom and stereotyping offers wider lessons. It is a reminder that crisis coverage, even when accurate, is only a part of what the media should be about. Follow-ups and reports on long-term trends are equally needed.
• Jonathan Steele covered Zimbabwe's elections in 2000 for the Guardian
Labels: LAND REFORM, ZIMBABWE
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IMF tells George Osborne austerity plan is failing
IMF's Olivier Blanchard suggests UK needs reassessment of fiscal policy including changes to tax and public spending
The message to George Osborne from the International Monetary Fund could scarcely have been clearer. It's time to think about a plan B.
Coming as it did on the eve of the fourth quarter growth figures, the intervention of the fund's chief economist Olivier Blanchard, was particularly ill-timed for the chancellor, but it was hardly a surprise.
The IMF has never been wildly enthusiastic about Osborne's tough austerity plan for the British economy and has been saying for at least a year that the Treasury should ease off if recovery falters. But up until now it has tended to avoid telling Osborne that his policy is failing.
No longer, it appears. "We said that if things look bad at the beginning of 2013 – which they do – then there should be a reassessment of fiscal policy", Blanchard said.
Fiscal policy involves changes to tax and public spending, and Blanchard noted that the chancellor has the perfect opportunity "to take stock and make adjustments" in the March budget, due in less than two months.
Three factors probably lie behind Blanchard's decision to go public with his concerns. The first is that the IMF, while supporting the need for budget deficits to be reduced, believes action should not be so aggressive as to derail growth. The second reason is that it has done some recent work on fiscal multipliers – the knock-on effects of tax and spending changes on the wider economy – and found them more powerful than it previously thought. The third reason, obviously, is that Osborne's forecasts of a recovery lurking just around the corner have proved totally wrong. The economy has flat-lined for the past two years and if the City is right about the fourth quarter 2012 growth figures there will be fears of a triple dip recession this winter.
The interesting question is whether Osborne will heed the IMF's advice. If he does, any loosening of policy in the budget is likely to be modest, and not just because of the political damage caused by the U-turn.
Osborne believes that any backsliding will come at a price. Looser fiscal policy will mean tighter monetary policy – perhaps not from the Bank of England but from the financial markets in terms of higher long-term interest rates. His advisers have pointed out that the IMF believes the fiscal multipliers are weaker in open economies such as Britain than they are in more closed economies such as the US or Germany.
The chancellor's problem, though, is that long-term interest rates may go up anyway. It is not just the IMF but the credit rating agencies who are worried about the absence of growth in the UK. A credit downgrade looks likely and, given the dire state of the economy, would be merited. Britain does not feel like a country that deserves its AAA status.
As for the fiscal multipliers, it might be the case that their impact is less powerful in the UK than in the US. But austerity is still having a dampening effect on the economy, and is making it harder for the chancellor to hit his deficit reduction targets. The IMF is right. It is time to take stock. It would be a risk for the chancellor to announce tax cuts and a slower pace of spending cuts in the budget. But it will be a risk – and probably a bigger one – if he does nothing.
Labels: CONSERVATIVES, GEORGE OSBORNE, IMF, NEOLIBERALISM
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Zambia’s emerald potential exhibited in US
January 23, 2013
By JUDITH NAMUTOWE -
The potential of Zambian emeralds has been exhibited in the United States by GEMIFIEDS Plc, where a stunning 1,354 carats of the country’s emerald beads were showcased by a local television icon Lara Spencer.
The 11th Gem award hosted by Gemifields Plc, the company that operates Kagem emerald mine in Lufwanyama District on the Copperbelt, was held at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City last week.
This is according to a statement made available in Lusaka yesterday.
Gemfields chief executive officer Ian Harebottle, alongside presenter Brooke Shields and ABC’s Good Morning America host and event MC Lara Spencer, who wowed the audience in Gemfields’ multi-strand necklace with 1,354 carats of Zambian emerald beads attended the event.
The event, honoured industry icons, including Stellene Volandes, Style director of Town and Country, who received the organisation’s GEM award for Journalistic excellence and Matthew Runci, former president and chief executive officer of Jewellers of America, who received the GEM award for Lifetime Achievement.
Mr Harebottle said the event demonstrated Gemfields’ commitment to promoting Zambian emeralds to the international jewellery industry at the highest levels.
“It also shows that Zambia’s gemstones are being internationally recognised as the finest in the world.” Mr Harebottle said.
Gemfields Plc is a leading gemstone miner listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.
The company owns 75 per cent of the Kagem mine in Lufwanyama, in partnership with the Zambian Government.
Besides the Kagem emerald mine, Gemfields has a 50 per cent interest in the Kariba Amethyst mine in Zambia.
The company also owns controlling stakes in highly prospective ruby deposits in Mozambique and various licences in Madagascar including ruby, emerald and sapphires deposits.
The GEM awards recognises the outstanding achievements of individuals and companies whose work amplifies the Jewellery information centre’s mission.
Labels: EMERALDS
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Zambia, Zim set for UNWTO indaba
December 15, 2012
By MIRIAM ZIMBA -
ZAMBIA and Zimbabwe are on course with preparations to co-host the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general assembly next year.
Zimbabwe’s Tourism and Hospitality Minister Walter Mzembi said resolutions of the 94th UNWTO held in Mexico recently indicated that the two neighbouring countries were on course to co-host the international showpiece.
Meanwhile, Zambia’s Tourism and Arts Minister Sylvia Masebo said the Statutory Instrument issued recently to waive tax on imported tourism goods and articles had improved the quality of service in the tourism industry in Zambia.
The two ministers were speaking in Lusaka yesterday during a second joint ministerial meeting ahead of the general assembly scheduled for August.
Mr Mzembi, who led a joint delegation during the 94th session of the UNWTO executive council, resolved that the level of preparedness by the two countries to co-host the general assembly was excellent.
“I am happy to report to you that the resolution of this meeting is that we are on track, and there is a statement of confidence in both Zambia and Zimbabwe’s level of preparedness,” he said.
He said the UNWTO executive council meeting scheduled for Serbia in May 2013 would be the last to be held outside the venue for the 2013 general assembly.
Mr Mzembi commended the Zambian Government for introducing a Statutory Instrument that waives duty for the importation of capital goods and others directly associated with the tourism industry.
Ms Masebo, on the other hand, said the Statutory Instrument was aimed at improving service delivery in the tourism industry.
The Zambian Government, she said, would ensure maximum benefits accrue from the industry such as the creation of employment and the generation of foreign exchange.
Ms Masebo called for accelerated efforts in the two countries as the date of the general assembly draws closer.
She said the second joint ministerial meeting in Lusaka was a measure of the levels of preparedness to co-host next year’s general assembly.
Labels: SYLVIA MASEBO, UNWTO, WALTER MZEMBI
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Corruption should be made an unbeneficial undertaking - ACC
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Thu 24 Jan. 2013, 14:00 CAT
THE Anti-Corruption Commission in Eastern Province says corruption should be made an unbeneficial undertaking.
Speaking during the gender-based violence and corruption training organised by the Young Women Christian Association on Tuesday, ACC provincial community education officer George Kanguya said if corruption was made an unbeneficial undertaking, many people would desist from engaging in such activities.
Kanguya who presented a paper on the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) protocol on corruption said there were some laws like confiscation of the proceeds of crime that had been put in place to make corruption an unbeneficial undertaking.
He said the fight against corruption called for strong morals adding that the fight was "not for the weak hearted".
"We want corruption to be made a non-profitable venture and this is the reason why we have come up with this issue of confiscating proceeds of crime. You know without this law, one can build a hotel as a proceed of a crime but if this hotel is not confiscated the owner can go to prison and come back, the hotel can continue operating. Now, in that case what is the impact?" he asked.
Kanguya said confiscation of proceeds of crime could act as a good deterrent. He urged people to take keen interest in fighting corruption.
"You know if a crime is profitable then people would continue committing it, so we are trying by all means to make corruption non-profitable," he said.
An officer from the police child-protection unit appealed to parents and guardians to take full control of their children, so that they do not go on the street.
Assistant Superintendent Kenneth Mapiki-Konayuma said parents should not lose their mandate of responsibility for their homes.
Konayuma said being future leaders, children must be taken to school and brought up in a responsible manner.
"The issue is that if we don't take care of these children in our homes, then we will be depriving them of their right to develop into responsible citizens who will in turn develop this country. My other appeal is that the parents should discourage early marriages because they are not good for the children," he said.
Labels: ACC, CORRUPTION
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'Dora committed govt to paying additional funds for radar'
By Agness Changala
Thu 24 Jan. 2013, 14:00 CAT
A WITNESS on Tuesday told the Lusaka Magistrates' Court that Dora Siliya as minister in-charge of airports committed the government to paying additional funds towards what was supposed to be free radar repair by Selex.
And the witness told the court that the committee recommended the outright purchase of a radar system for Lusaka International Airport (now Kenneth Kaunda) because it had information that the equipment that existed was not serviceable.
During re-examination by the prosecution in a case where Siliya, a former Transport and Communications minister, is in court for two counts of abuse of authority of office, John Chipuwe, a former Ministry of Transport and Communications assistant secretary in-charge of air transport, told the court that Siliya accepted the free offer from Selex to repair the radar system at Lusaka International Airport.
He said additional costs arose from the same free offer.
"At first there was a free offer by Selex to repair the radar system at the airport but later they submitted additional interventions and according to technical people, free offer should have gone up to the time the equipment started working," he said.
Chipuwe said Thales was recommended because it met the criteria according to the evaluation committee and that it was not new for companies to form a consortium to bid for a tender.
And earlier, during examination in chief, Chipuwe told the court that in April 8, 2008, he was chairing a committee tasked to advise the ministry on the purchase of a radar system for Lusaka International Airport.
Chipuwa said among options were to repair the radar system at the airport or to out-rightly purchase a new one.
He said after the recommendations were accepted, the procurement process commenced and that later, site visits were conducted at Lusaka and Livingstone international airports.
Chipuwe said bidders submitted their bids and that six of them were evaluated.
He said the committee recommended the supply of equipment by Thales because they met all the criteria to be awarded a tender.
Chipuwe said Dr Eustern Mambwe, who was permanent secretary, referred the report to the Zambia Public Procurement Authority who also accepted the recommendation for Thales to supply the radar.
He said on December 8, 2008, he received a memo through the director of planning addressed to the permanent secretary and the minister seeking his opinion on Selex's proposal to repair the radar equipment.
"My observation was that I was wondering as to why Selex which said the equipment was serviceable had u-turned and was saying it was irreparable," Chipuwe said.
He also said there was a pledge from Ministry of Finance and National Planning to purchase the radar system.
In cross-examination, Chipuwe said his report on the irreparable radar system was based on a report which was submitted by the evaluation mission which stated that the radar system was unserviceable.
Chipuwe said he had no idea about the current status of the radar system and that it was beyond his control to comment further.
Chipuwa also said the committee recommended the single sourcing of Selex in 2008.
He also said Siliya did not sit in any committee but was quick to mention that once the committee made recommendation, the minister and permanent secretary made the decisions.
Trial continues.
Labels: CORRUPTION, DORA SILIYA, MMD
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My expulsion is illegal - Namugala
By Allan Mulenga and Kombe Chimpinde
Thu 24 Jan. 2013, 14:01 CAT
CATHERINE Namugala yesterday rubbished her expulsion from MMD, saying it is illegal. But MMD president Nevers Mumba says Namugala was not granted any injunction by the court to restrain the party from expelling her and, therefore, her expulsion was final.
Namugala, whose faction broke away to operate from another secretariat in Rhodes Park in Lusaka, was expelled on Tuesday by Mumba's faction. During a national executive committee (NEC) meeting held at Chrismar Hotel in Lusaka , some NEC members opposed Namugala's expulsion from the party by Mumba.
Sources within NEC disclosed that senior party members among them, the party's vice-president for administration Dr Brian Chituwo, chairperson for legal affairs Bradford Machila, party's deputy national secretary Chembe Nyangu, on Tuesday during an emergency meeting called to expel Namugala, who is the party's chairperson for women affairs and Mafinga MMD member of parliament, including Lusaka Province chairlady Mary Phiri, said that the decision was unconstitutional and disrespectful of the law.
"Forty six members attended the NEC meeting. Almost everyone was for the idea of expelling Namugala except a few. Dr Chituwo just said: 'no, I am not voting. It is against the law and our constitution'. Nyangu didn't vote," the source said.
"Of course, others argued that on this issue, there is an injunction. So, you can't go ahead with a court process going on. But they just ignored it and they went ahead, saying that: 'it is our club and we have our own rules. We will not be stopped by a court order'."
Sources revealed that Machila belaboured on the legal implications that would arise, if members went ahead with the decision.
"Nyangu didn't raise his hand because he was in an awkward situation. His position was similar to that of Machila. Machila's position was that there is a court process, 'let's respect the courts'. One person even said: 'we as opposition, the courts seem to understand us, now if we start going against them, they will turn against us and say, these people are useless'. So, let the court come up with something today on Wednesday and thereafter we can sit to determine the fate of Namugala and others. Even if we expel her, the court might rule otherwise and we will face legal implications'," the source said.
Sources explained that senior members told the gathering that at the moment, lower organs were only interested in organising the party and not by-elections arising from expulsions.
"They didn't like it, but when they read the exculpatory letter from Namugala, as usual you know how those women who surround the president behave, they started shouting 'expel her! expel her!' These people didn't want to accept the advice, especially those Mumba adopted to NEC, like Peter Machungwa, Winnie Zaloumis, Faustina Sinyangwe, Dr Canisius Banda and others," the source said.
Sources further explained that the meeting delayed to start because most invited NEC members were reluctant to attend.
"The meeting which was supposed to take place in the afternoon, only started around 19:00 hours and it ended after 23:00 hours at Lusaka's Chrismar Hotel. The deputy national secretary received about 20 apologies and the meeting was chaired by Nevers Mumba. Tobias Kafumukache, the party's national youth secretary, was thrown out of the meeting because of his alleged relationship with Kachingwe's camp," the source said.
Sources explained that the matter was then subjected to a vote, where the majority of members endorsed the expulsion of the duo.
But Namugala rubbished her expulsion, insisting that Mumba was not MMD president.
"It is illegal because Nevers Mumba is not the president of MMD. There is no secretariat Nevers Mumba is leading," said Namugala, in an interview.
And when contacted for a comment on her expulsion, Phiri said Mumba had no powers to expel any member.
"I don't know anything about that. Besides, it is only Maj Kachingwe who can write me and ask me to exculpate myself and then take me to the disciplinary committee to determine the matter," said Phiri.
And Dr Banda, who is chairperson for health, referred all queries to the national chairperson Kabinga Pande.
Meanwhile, attempts to get to the newly-appointed MMD chairperson for women affairs Sinyangwe proved futile as she cut her mobile phone upon learning that this reporter was from The Post.
Dr Peter Machungwa's mobile phone went unanswered.
And Mumba said Namugala was not granted an injunction by the court to restrain the party from expelling her.
"There is no injunction against the party taking any disciplinary action. They had applied for an ex-parte and an order to restrain our party from making a decision in that regard, but the courts did not grant her an ex-parte and the injunction to stop our party. So there is nothing standing in the way of the party to conclude the disciplinary action which began before she went to court," he said.
Mumba said not only had he obtained legal advice from the legal team of the party, but that the law was also clear.
"If there was any restraining order, we wouldn't have done it," he said.
On reports that Machila was reluctant to endorse the said decision during the meeting, Mumba said: "I don't think so. His role was to provide legal information, which we used to base our information. His advice from the legal point of view is what we used. He was very clear."
Efforts to get a comment from Machila failed as his mobile phone went unanswered.
Dr Chituwo, who refused to endorse the decision to expel Namugala, when contacted, said the party had not authorised any member other Dr Kaingu to talk about Tuesday's NEC emergency meeting.
"Could you raise Dr Kaingu to talk about that," Dr Chituwo advised.
And MMD vice-president for political affairs Michael Kaingu confirmed the expulsion of Namugala and Phiri from the party, accusing them of being inimical to the ideologies of MMD.
Kaingu told a media briefing at the party's secretariat in Lusaka that as far as MMD was concerned, the expulsion was final and the party was ready to go for a by-election.
"It can only be prejudicial if we expel her after an action that will take place in court. As far as we are concerned ourselves, we have taken the action to expel honourable Namugala. She can go anywhere, if she wants to go to London; to Local Court; to the High Court; to Subordinate Court. If she wants to go anywhere as far as the party is concerned, she is an expelled member. We don't care where she goes. I think she has the right to go where she wants to go," said Kaingu.
Labels: CATHERINE NAMUGALA, MMD, NEVERS MUMBA
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Only senseless people can oppose Sata - Munkombwe
By Cynthia Phiri in Choma
Thu 24 Jan. 2013, 14:00 CAT
VETERAN politician Daniel Munkombwe says President Michael Sata is an original man and he Munkombwe cannot afford not to work with him. Munkombwe, who on Tuesday defected from the MMD to PF in Choma, said that he had been attracted to join the PF by the quality of leadership the ruling party had displayed.
He said he would avoid platform politics but assured the PF that he was ready to work with them and render his services whenever called upon.
"When people say I'm not a factor, yes, I'm not a factor to useless people, Sata is reviving the Zambia Railways and these have been the things we have always dreamed of. He is bringing back what KK did, so why should people oppose him? Only senseless people are saying no; he is bringing back the roads that we the MMD destroyed, so let those who do not understand the theory of politics say I'm useless. With the little that I have, I will support Sata," he said.
Munkombwe was Southern Province minister and deputy minister in the Office of the Vice-President under MMD. He also once defected from MMD to UPND of Anderson Mazoka before going back to MMD under Levy Mwanawasa.
During Mwanawasa's time at a rally in Maamba, Munkombwe said he was interested in politics of benefits, where cadres were given jobs.
Munkombwe recently said he would gladly accept a job from President Sata if offered.
And receiving defectors at the PF office in Choma, commerce minister Robert Sichinga said the ruling party welcomes all people who want to work with the party for the development of Zambia.
Sichinga said even UPND members of parliament recognised that they could not bring development without working with the government of the day.
Speaking on behalf of the UPND defectors, Caesar Muchindu said UPND was on a path of self-destruction.
The UPND defectors who included 42 youths said they were sick and tired of clinging on to the opposition, which they said had failed to provide quality leadership.
Labels: DANIEL MUNKOMBWE, MICHAEL SATA, ROBERT SICHINGA
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The Coming Imperial Implosion in the Arab World
Wed, 01/23/2013 - 01:03 — Glen Ford
The imperial offensive in North Africa and Syria “was designed to put a Euro-American spin on the momentum of change” with the advent of the Arab Spring. But it has actually empowered Islamist forces and their royal Persian Gulf patrons. This house of cards must ultimately collapse.
The Coming Imperial Implosion in the Arab World
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
“Although the NATO powers account for about 70 percent of total worldwide arms spending, they are by no means fully in charge of their own offensive in North Africa and the Middle East.”
The French intervention in Mali and the deadly Salafist assault on an Algerian natural gas facility on the border with Libya reveal the deepening crisis of U.S. and European imperialism in northern Africa. What is playing out in the western Sahel is the direct, and broadly predictable, result of the aggressive Euro-American response to the outbreak of the so-called Arab Spring.
Two years ago, Washington, Paris and London were swept by panic at the prospect of a realignment of forces in the Arab world. With Egypt’s Mubarak on the way out, the West’s henchman in Tunisia overthrown, and America’s warlord in Yemen facing opposition from all quarters, the NATO powers decided to alter the regional chessboard to what they thought would be their own advantage with a mass application of force against Libya. The assault on Muammar Gaddafi’s government, with absolutely no provocation and no basis in international law, was designed to put a Euro-American spin on the momentum of change. Almost simultaneously, Syria was targeted for massive subversion, and it was universally assumed that Algeria was next on the hit list.
This scheme for wholesale game-changer in the region necessitated an even deeper alliance with the royal regimes of the Persian Gulf. In practice, it was the West that became dependent on the Saudis and Qataris to provide Arab cover for NATO’s military and, much more importantly, to provide the Islamist fighters who would actually seize power on the ground in Libya and then Syria and beyond. Moreover, the Saudis and Qataris are rich, and can afford to pursue their own political objectives.
“The Islamists hate them with far more intensity than the secular leftists and Arab nationalists that the U.S. and Europe are so keen to destroy.”
This fundamental reordering of the relationship between the West and its royalist Arab allies is reflected on the ground in Libya, where it is Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s Islamist friends who wield the guns. The real crisis in Benghazi was that the Islamist fighters for whom NATO had provided an air force were not totally dependent on the U.S., Britain and France. They have rich friends in the Persian Gulf, on whom the West is now also dependent. Although the NATO powers account for about 70 percent of total worldwide arms spending, they are by no means fully in charge of their own offensive in North Africa and the Middle East. The Islamist fighters and their Persian Gulf patrons have their own agendas.
Ultimately, the Pentagon and the CIA and their counterparts in Europe cannot win this game. They are racist imperialists who will always make themselves hated. Certainly, the Islamists hate them with far more intensity than the secular leftists and Arab nationalists that the U.S. and Europe are so keen to destroy. That’s why the Americans can’t operate safely in Benghazi.
The great contradiction is that the Islamic fundamentalism with which the West is now allied and critically dependent behaves, in practice, like a nationalism without borders. And, like nationalism, it is ultimately incompatible with imperialism, which today is corporate rule without borders.
The fighters that attacked the gas facility in secular-ruled Algeria surely entered through Libya, partially controlled by fellow Islamists who are friends with the guys who killed the U.S. ambassador, and who are also friends with the Saudis and Qataris who are supposed to be America’s allies. The Arab Spring is far from played out, and nowhere near under U.S. control. For the West, it will end in a huge implosion, because this house of cards cannot stand.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
Labels: ARAB SPRING, COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, NEOCOLONIALISM, SYRIA
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Mali Invasion Shows That “Adieu” Does Not Always Mean
Tue, 01/22/2013 - 15:54 — Mark P. Fancher
by Mark P. Fancher
Whether rightists or “socialists,” all French governments believe in their inalienable right to dominate Africa. French troops are on the move in Mali and the Central African Republic, and not long ago overthrew the regime in Ivory Coast. If the colonial era has passed, somebody ought to tell Paris – and French-speaking Africans – the news.
Mali Invasion Shows That “Adieu” Does Not Always Mean “We’re Gone”
by Mark P. Fancher
“Decades of indoctrination and French cultural domination left an indelible imprint on the colonies.”
Recent military raids into Mali may seem like they came from nowhere, but France has never really been able to let go of its former colonial possessions. Like a bad case of athlete’s foot the “mother country” just keeps coming back, and Mali is now hosting a visit.
The French military presence in Mali may now raise a few eyebrows, but there was a time when the French domination of vast territories in Africa was taken for granted. Other European countries had African colonial possessions as well, but they often managed them in a clumsy, violent manner that portended the inevitability of resistance, and ultimately independence. Not so the French. For them, colonialism was handled with style and finesse. Historian Walter Rodney wrote:
“In 1935, a team of British educationalists visited French Africa, and they admitted with a mixture of jealousy and admiration that France had succeeded in creating an elite of Africans in the image of Frenchmen – an elite that was helping to perpetuate French colonial rule.”
So confident were the French in the undying loyalty of their African subjects that in 1958 as independence fever was sweeping the continent, French leader Charles De Gaulle offered France’s African colonies a referendum.
They had the option of voting in favor of a “French community” made up of France and its African colonies; or they could vote for complete independence. Guinea voted to go it alone. France was shocked, and it withdrew from Guinea in a huff, destroying the country’s infrastructure in the process.
“France had succeeded in creating an elite of Africans in the image of Frenchmen.”
Mali and other French colonies were to join Guinea in independence in 1960, but decades of indoctrination and French cultural domination left an indelible imprint on the colonies, and these territories often proved to be fertile grounds for the growth of neo-colonialism.
Even though the African countries had “flag independence” and France appeared to maintain an arms-length relationship, it was an arrangement that preserved France’s advantage.
Hugh Schofield of BBC News characterized it as: “…a devil’s bargain: you stay tame and send us your minerals, and when we need it, under-the-counter cash. In return, from time-to-time, we will send French troops to save your presidential mightiness from the mob.”
It is ironic that although it is France that has intervened in Mali, it is also France that has nevertheless come to be regarded in some quarters as a moderating influence in the world as compared to the U.S., which has gained a reputation for reckless cowboy militarism. This is due in part to the fact that it was France that declined to become a member of the “coalition of the willing” during the invasion of Iraq, earning threats by angry U.S. politicians to re-name French fries “freedom fries.” But not much later France’s willingness to act ruthlessly was betrayed by its enthusiastic partnership with the U.S. in the kidnapping of President Jean Bertrand Aristide from Haiti because of his refusal to function as a neo-colonial stooge.
“The continuing success of the insurrection in northern Mali was apparently too much for the supposedly progressive French president.”
Notwithstanding France’s colonial and neo-colonial record, Schofield suggests that there has been a change in perspective.
“And now we have [French President] Francois Hollande, who as a good socialist has drunk deeply of the anti-colonialist potion and genuinely feels embarrassed about much of France’s past involvement on the [African] continent.”
Schofield goes on to say of Hollande:
“…now we have a socialist leader, a man who has promised to keep downsizing the military commitment in Africa…”
However, the continuing success of the insurrection in northern Mali by what are claimed to be a mix of Tuareg secessionists and purported Islamic extremists was apparently too much for the supposedly progressive French president and he responded with air strikes and more than 1,400 troops on the ground.
The debate over whether a military intervention was necessary to address the Mali crisis will continue. An even more significant question however is why France and other western countries believe that it is their duty to make these decisions for Africa. The obvious answer is that Africa’s oil and minerals are vital to western economies and the western countries will do whatever is necessary to preserve access to these resources. But in the process they are increasingly engaged in ridiculous efforts at public deception and self-delusion. France talks the talk of progressive non-intervention, but walks the walk of the paternalistic colonizer. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) deploys thousands of troops to Africa, but in its efforts to claim that it is not engaged in military occupation, it locates its headquarters in Germany and bases its African “rapid reaction force” in Colorado.
For Africa’s sake, it might be best for France, the U.S. and others to abandon the charade and simply admit that they will continue their efforts to call the shots in Africa. That might at least awaken those gullible Africans who never understood that when the colonizers said goodbye more than fifty years ago, it didn’t mean they were gone.
Mark P. Fancher is an attorney who writes frequently about armed conflicts in Africa. He can be contacted at mfancher@comcast.net.
Labels: MALI, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Professor Tony Martin Dies at 70
Trinicenter.com Reporters
January 17, 2013
Professor Tony Martin
Dr. Tony Martin, former Professor Emeritus at Wellesley College, has passed over tonight, January 17th 2013 in Trinidad & Tobago at West Shore Medical Hospital. Trinidadian-born Dr. Martin taught at the University of Michigan-Flint, the Cipriani Labour College (Trinidad), and St. Mary's College (Trinidad). He has been a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota, Brandeis University, Brown University, and The Colorado College and also spent a year as an honorary research fellow at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad.
Professor Martin has written, compiled or edited 14 books including Caribbean History: From Pre-Colonial Origins to the Present (2012) published by Pearson Education; Amy Ashwood Garvey: Pan-Africanist, Feminist and Mrs. Marcus Garvey No. 1, Or, A Tale of Two Amies (2007), Literary Garveyism: Garvey, Black Arts and the Harlem Renaissance (1983), and the classic study of the Garvey Movement, Race First: the Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1976).
His work on Marcus Garvey was featured on the curricula of many African studies programmes around the world and he was a well-known lecturer in many countries.
Labels: AFROCENTRICITY, OBITUARIES, TONY MARTIN
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Caring for our senior citizens
By The Post
Wed 23 Jan. 2013, 14:30 CAT
THE way we are treating our old people, our senior citizens needs to improve. We need to give honour and respect to those who are old. We need to show respect for those who have lived long on the face of this earth. We need to learn to love older people. Anyone can love the young and beautiful, particularly when the hormones flow. To love an older person comes closer to true love. Of course, it is a pleasure to deal with an old person who is sweet, lovely, intelligent and self-sufficient.
Anyone can do that. It takes real character to love those who aren't lovable. So, if the person you are dealing with is an impossible old man or woman, rise to the occasion and be challenged to treat them especially well. Treat old people just like you want to be treated when you get old. Your children will treat you the way you treated your parents, and on and on it goes. If we show respect for old people, when we get in that condition, people will be more likely to show respect for us.
Visit the old people and try to alleviate their loneliness. The Bible very clearly tells us, "Honour your father and mother" (older people), which is the first commandment with promise (that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth).
This principle of honour is the major way of dealing with our senior citizens because it is the best way of dealing with older people.
We have the responsibility to ensure that older persons live and enjoy healthy lives in which they participate fully in the economic, social, cultural and political arenas of our society.
There are large numbers of healthy and willing senior citizens who can be of great service to society. Senior citizens should be treated as a community asset and their decades of work experience channelled to creating national wealth.
We have to respond to the twenty-first century challenges for the development of an inclusive society for all ages. Everyone in existence deserves honour and respect.
The value of being older and having lived long is that you have experienced the totality of the experiences that form part of a human being's journey. This includes the lessons that you have learnt based on mistakes and decisions you may have made. In this sense, part of the role of older persons in society is to share these lessons with the young and upcoming generation so that they can make better decisions and thereby contribute to building a better future for their children and future generations.
We need to treat elders with respect and dignity. It is through dignified interaction with people older than us, even if we disagree with them, that we will earn the respect of those who come after us. Mutual trust, mutual respect and reciprocity are what will build a better society for ourselves, our children and their grandchildren.
It is against this background that we discourage the abuse of older persons because they form part of the institutions of heritage from which we can learn customary and cultural practices.
The abuse of older persons must not be allowed to threaten the lives of these true beacons of hope because they still have a lot to offer the current generation, in particular young people.
We have the responsibility to treat our senior citizens with the respect and dignity they deserve. Our senior citizens have an important role to play and contribution to make in the transformation of our society to a more just, fair and humane one. There are experienced persons that can share us their knowledge and wisdom. There are people who, despite their unique views of life, have a lot to offer.
The elderly are full of wise tales and wisdom which, unluckily we are casting aside. People do not like to seek advice from older persons anymore.
There is need to treat our old people, our senior citizens with some priority. On buses, for example, they deserve to be reserved the best seats.
They also deserve priority for medical assistance. And wherever possible, they should be given discounts for medicines and food supplies. Airlines should also give them discounts and treat them as special customers.
The elderly are part of our society, and should not be disrespected or ignored to the point that they are pushed away. They should be valued and cherished for their experience and knowledge.
Sometimes we say we want to live long, but we forget that living long is growing old.
Of course, it is not always easy to deal with some old people. We shouldn't expect old people to be much different from any other age. Some old people can be very difficult; but so too are some young people. We do not believe that people change much, in other respects, by getting old.
A stubborn young person becomes a cantankerous old one. A lifetime of evil character does not suddenly become sweet and innocent with age. People can change at any age, if they want to; but they don't automatically change for the better as they grow old. Why is it that people who have been driving for many decades are often more reckless than someone who has been driving for a few weeks, months or years? Does practice make perfect? No! Practice does not make perfect, because we often practice our errors and without proper feedback, we cannot correct them.
A person who has been driving for many decades can be a bad driver if he or she continues to perpetuate bad driving practices. Just because a person has lived long, don't expect them to be a saint or perfect. Accept people, even old ones, as they are.
We are reminded in Sirach 3:10-16: "Never seek honour for yourself at your father's expense; it is not to your credit if he is dishonoured. Your own honour comes from the respect that you show your father. If children do not honour their mothers, it is their own disgrace. Son, take care of your father when he grows old; give him no cause for worry as long as he lives. Be sympathetic even if his mind fails him; don't look down on him just because you are strong and healthy.
The Lord will not forget the kindness you show to your father; it will help you make up for your sins. When you are in trouble, the Lord will remember your kindness and will help you; your sins will melt away like frost in the warm sunshine. Whoever abandons his parents or gives them cause for anger may as well be cursing the Lord; he is already under the Lord's curse."
A society that does not value its older people denies its roots and endangers its future.
Labels: PENSIONERS
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Katema implores families to care for the aged
By Fridah Nkonde
Wed 23 Jan. 2013, 13:59 CAT
COMMUNITY development minister Joseph Katema says elderly people are a source of information and experience if society makes proper use of them. And Dr Katema says elderly people should not be viewed as a burden or enemies in society. In an interview yesterday, Dr Katema said Zambians needed to be educated on the importance of taking care of the aged in society.
"The elderly should not be viewed as a burden or an enemy in society. That is what is happening because when some people are having calamities in their families, they have to look at an elderly person in the neighbourhood to point a finger at to say, 'that is a witch'," he said.
Dr Katema said taking care of the aged should be the responsibility of families and communities.
"The best place where the elderly should be taken care of is the home environment, the family environment," he said.
Dr Katema said most families were unable to take care of the aged because they were incapacitated by the harsh economic and social conditions which were prevailing.
He said the government would empower families which were looking after people above the age of sixty.
"That is the reason why you will find that in all our social protection programmes, the social cash transfer, the food security pack, the public welfare assistance schemes, beneficiaries are those households keeping the aged. This is one of the strongest criteria which we consider for people to get food security packs and other things," he said.
Dr Katema said the government had formulated a policy on ageing which would be taken to Cabinet for tabling and publication.
Labels: JOSEPH KATEMA, PENSIONERS
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Siabutuba implores youths to be useful
By Cynthia Phiri in Choma
Wed 23 Jan. 2013, 13:59 CAT
YOUTH Development Organisation executive director Partner Siabutuba has implored young people in the country to take advantage of the government's political will in youth leadership by being useful. In an interview, Siabutuba said the PF and its government had given a lot of leadership positions to the youth to serve at various levels and advised them not jeopardise their opportunities by allowing political parties to use them in perpetrating violence.
"For a long time now we have not seen youths take up leadership positions like we are seeing today. Most of our youths have been given jobs in foreign missions which is a plus to our generation. So youths should not shoot themselves in the foot by being disorderly," Siabutuba advised.
And Siabutuba urged youths in the country to fully participate in the Mpongwe and Livingstone by-election by electing leaders of their choice. He appealed to politicians to make good use of the youth than using them as tools for perpetrating violence.
"There is a lot that youths can do other than violence, like the situation we saw at Woodlands police station where they assaulted a police officer; instead youths can be mobilised and used as peer educators who can actually disseminate their party manifesto, there is no democracy in violence," Siabutuba said.
He said for the youth to enjoy respect, they need to have self-respect first and be able to show the rest of the world that they were ready to take up leadership positions.
Siabutuba explained that when the youth are known for lack of respect and violence, they tend to take away from what society perceived them to be.
Labels: PARTNER SIABUTUBA, PF, YOUTHS
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Report Nevers if he attempts to represent MMD - Kachingwe
By Allan Mulenga and Kombe Chimpinde
Wed 23 Jan. 2013, 14:00 CAT
MAJOR Richard Kachingwe says he has issued instructions to all party members to report Nevers Mumba to police if he attempts to represent the MMD in any way. But Mumba has accused Maj Kachingwe and the party's chairperson for women's affairs, Catherine Namugala, of peddling lies against him.
Commenting on Mumba's threats to take legal action against him for forming parallel structures and establishing its secretariat along Nambala Close, off Lusaka's Bwinjimfumu Road in Rhodes Park, Maj Kachingwe, who was expelled as national secretary by Mumba two months ago, insisted that Mumba was president of Reform Party and not MMD.
"I have told the cadres all over the country that if Nevers Mumba, who is the president of Reform Party, appears to organise them, they must report to police," he said.
"Nevers Mumba is a thief who has come to steal the party, and the members have refused. How can you lead the party when members have said no?"
Maj Kachingwe said all members wanted the party to be liberated from Mumba's failed leadership style.
"The entire country has said: 'you have liberated the party. Let these hooligans go away'. Little did we know that they have brought all Reform Party members to take over the party. For us they are the impostors; they are the hijackers; they are the ones who should be reported to police," he said.
"It is up to them. They have a secretariat that belongs to Reform Party, we don't belong to Reform Party ourselves. We belong to MMD."
Maj Kachingwe said his faction had leadership throughout the country.
"We have leadership all over provinces. We have no problems with leadership. We are going to prepare for a convention. We have not formed a new political party; that is MMD. Nevers Mumba came to this party and he has dumped the constitution," he said.
"Never before in the history of MMD has a NEC meeting been held in someone's bedroom. A president who is always in police cells, where can you go with him? We have said we don't want Reform Party to be part of us."
But Mumba said Maj Kachingwe and Namugala were peddling lies against him.
Mumba said that he was too busy to be pre-occupy himself with the issue of his alleged dual membership with the MMD and Reform party, as he was organising the party.
"Just to help them, I am not president of the Reform Party. I resigned in 2008. So they are peddling a lie just to satisfy themselves," Mumba said.
"There is a team that is going to deal with that issue. I have been very busy dealing with the running of the party. I have not had time to deal with that issue, so I will not comment on the substantive issue of what they said in response to whatever legal action because the statement will be made by the party tomorrow morning (today)."
Mumba also confirmed that the party's emergency NEC meeting was held yesterday.
"I will just chair the meeting to talk about the 2013 strategy and other issues," said Mumba, indicating that the issue of the parallel MMD structure would not arise at the meeting.
"It's not in our constitution, so we can't be discussing it," said Mumba.
Labels: MMD, NEVERS MUMBA, RICHARD KACHINGWE
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