Masebo backs Magande
By Chansa Kabwela
Tuesday September 02, 2008 [04:37]
Local government and housing minister Sylvia Masebo yesterday said she will not betray President Levy Mwanawasa’s wishes on succession in order to protect her ministerial job. Commenting on first lady Maureen Mwanawasa’s statement on Sunday that some ministers were aware that President Mwanawasa preferred Magande as his successor, Masebo said Maureen’s statement was correct.
“I know that the President had also discussed this issue with a few other ministers at different occasions and in different places,” Masebo said.
“I can mention a few names. I am aware that the President talked about this issue with my colleague Sara Sayifwanda who was in the company of Bradford Machila. He also discussed this issue with Kabinga Pande, agriculture deputy minister Daniel Kalenga and energy minister Kenneth Konga.
I also know that the President discussed this issue with Magande himself. He further discussed the issue with justice minister George Kunda, among others. But I will speak for myself because I am not sure if all these ministers are ready to defend the truth since I am now told that there are ministerial jobs to be protected.
“But speaking for myself, I remember that the President personally talked to me to help Magande in a number of areas because he thought that he was a suitable person to succeed him, a man who could sustain economic development and the fight against corruption.
The President and I discussed Magande’s strengths and weaknesses. After that discussion, he assigned me to ensure that the weaknesses were reduced, and from time to time the President asked how I was doing on that assignment.”
Masebo said as a way of honouring President Mwanawasa, she has decided to support and defend his wishes on a number of things, including succession. “So those of us supporting Magande are supporting him on a matter of principle. I will follow and support the President’s wish because I accepted to do this when he was living,” Masebo said.
“We are supporting Magande because the President thought he is the one capable of carrying forward his vision. So our support for Magande does not mean that we do not like the Vice-President and all those candidates who are standing. I like and respect the Vice-President. But my conscience will not let me free to do something to the contrary, to betray the President even before he is buried, to abandon what I was working on with him for any consideration. That is not what loyalty to someone or a principle entails.”
Masebo said it would have been nice if Vice-President Rupiah Banda was in the forefront of ensuring that President Mwanawasa’s wish on succession was implemented.
“His Honour the Vice-President may not be aware of who the President preferred but he is definitely aware about who the President did not want to succeed him because they discussed this matter and a number of ministers know this fact, including the Vice-President himself,” Masebo said.
“That’s why I am thinking that as a sign of love and loyalty to the man who nominated him, the Vice-President could have led the way in ensuring that the President’s wish is implemented
Labels: MAGANDE, MMD, PRESIDENCY, SYLVIA MASEBO
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No chief's meeting was held to endorse Rupiah - Mukuni
By Patson Chilemba, Mutuna Chanda, Mwila Chansa and Abigail Cha
Tuesday September 02, 2008 [07:55]
Senior chief Mukuni of the Toka-Leya people of Southern Province yesterday asked chief Mwanachingwala to stop misleading Vice-President Rupiah Banda that chiefs in the province had endorsed his candidature for the MMD presidency.
Reacting to chief Mwanachingwala who on Monday said traditional leaders in the province met in Livingstone on the day of the late President Mwanawasa's body viewing procession and decided to endorse Vice-President Banda for the MMD presidency, chief Mukuni said it was not true that Southern Province chiefs met and endorsed the Vice-President's candidature.
Chief Mukuni said he had spoken to National Royal Foundation of Zambia chairperson senior chief Bright Nalubamba who told him that there was no meeting which discussed Vice-President Banda's endorsement. Chief Mukuni said traditional leaders were supposed to meet on August 29, 2008 but that endorsing Vice-President Banda was not on the agenda.
He said some items on the agenda included thanking late President Mwanawasa for having appointed Daniel Munkombwe as minister for Southern Province and strategising on how to avoid taking sides over the candidates. "We want to apologise to the rest of the institution of chieftainship because by so doing endorsing Vice-President Banda, it's like the chiefs of Southern Province had entered the domain of party cadres. We are not party cadres. We as chiefs we love all our political leaders," chief Mukuni said.
"Now what I am saying is 'let's not mislead the office of the Vice-President by giving him a false impression'." Asked if he was referring to chief Mwanachingwala not to mislead Vice-President Banda, chief Mukuni responded: "Exactly." "Let us report what has been said, not what should have been," he said. Chief Mukuni refused to endorse any of the aspiring MMD candidates because doing so was not a domain for chiefs but political cadres. He said the domain of the chiefs was to work with the government of the day. "But if the government of the day misdirects itself on a constitutional issue, we come in. We take issue with that government," said chief Mukuni.
And senior chief Chikanta of the Tonga people of Kalomo district said it was not correct for chief Mwanachingwala to bring in other chiefs to support his personal stance. "I think you recall that not long ago, chief Mwanachingwala issued an individual statement which was supporting RB and that he was urging Magande to wait until 2011," he said.
Chief Chikanta said it was wrong for chiefs to take sides because all the aspiring candidates were entitled to stand. "Even if we did that, we are not the MMD NEC. Suppose we said we endorse Rupiah and the NEC picks Brian Chituwo Minister of Health, what would happen? We'll look foolish in the eyes of the Zambian public," said chief Chikanta. But former Nchanga MMD member of parliament Richard Kazala urged the MMD national executive committee (NEC) to respect late President Mwanawasa's preference by electing finance minister Ng'andu Magande as party presidential candidate.
Commenting on first lady Maureen Mwanawasa's statement that President Mwanawasa preferred Magande to succeed him, Kazala urged the NEC to honour President Mwanawasa's wish by adopting Magande.
He said electing Magande would be one way of showing love to late President Mwanawasa. Kazala said Maureen had no hidden motive by disclosing that Magande was the preferred candidate because if she wanted, she would have claimed that she was the anointed one. "NEC members should respect that statement. Of course they should also take into account the MMD constitution which says that a member can only apply for a position after serving for three years. It's not good to vote for a person who is nominated because he is not known on the ground," Kazala said.
"They must honour late President Mwanawasa by trusting the comments of the first lady." Kazala said conscience should prevail over Vice-President Banda by withdrawing from the race because at no time did President Mwanawasa indicate that he should be the successor. "I'm sure where President Mwanawasa is, he's not happy that his number two has done that contesting the presidency knowing that his wife has revealed what his intentions are," said Kazala.
But former Zambian ambassador to Switzerland Love Mtesa said MMD risked losing the mandate of ruling until 2011 if it did not adopt Vice-President Banda as its candidate. Mtesa said the MMD risked emerging divided if acting-President Banda was not adopted. "This is an emergency and in an emergency what is required is unity and the only one who can guarantee that is the acting-President," said Mtesa. "...We are not privy to what was discussed in private. We acknowledge that President Mwanawasa could have had a preferred candidate but that was for the year 2011. In this case, the only one who can ensure that the MMD completes its mandate without being divided is the Acting-President."
MMD Kalulushi district youth information and publicity secretary Charles Kabubi said the youths' endorsement of Vice-President Banda to succeed President Mwanawasa would not be a betrayal of the late leader because they were not there to believe Maureen revelation that Magande was the President's preferred candidate. He said leadership was not just about good education but it was also about wisdom and how one related with people.
Meanwhile, a source in Vice-President Banda's campaign team yesterday complained that ministerial jobs have already been allocated without considering some of the more experienced people in the group. "VJ is bouncing back as foreign affairs minister," the source said.
"Mbita Chitala has been promised a top position while Benny Tetamashimba will be the new minister for local government and housing. Bwalya Chiti will be the Republican Vice-President. This is according to the list which they have dubbed as the Dream Ticket."
Labels: CHIEF MUKUNI, CHIEF MWANACHINGWALA, CHIEFS, MMD, PRESIDENCY, RUPIAH BANDA
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Levy tried to change MMD but failed
By Editor
Tuesday September 02, 2008 [04:00]
The supreme function of any serious and honest leadership is to provide against preventable evils. In seeking to do so, it encounters obstacles, which are deeply rooted in human nature. One is that by the very order of things, such evils are not demonstrable until they have occurred: at each stage in their onset there is room for doubt and for dispute whether they be real or imaginary.
By the same token, they attract little attention in comparison with current troubles, which are both indisputable and pressing. Hence the besetting temptation of all politics to concern itself with the immediate present at the expense of the future.
Above all, people are disposed to mistake predicting troubles for causing troubles and even for desiring troubles: ‘if only’, they love to think, ‘if only people wouldn’t talk about it, it probably wouldn’t happen’. Perhaps this habit goes back to the primitive belief that the word and the theme, the name and the object, are identical.
At all events, the discussion of future is grave but, with effort now, avoidable evils is the most unpopular and at the same time the most necessary occupation for the politician. Those who knowingly shirk it, deserve, and not infrequently receive, the curses of those who come after.
We can already hear the chorus of execration. Only resolute and urgent action will avert it even now. Whether there will be public will to demand and obtain that action, we don’t know. All we know is that to see, and yet not speak, would be great betrayal.
What everyone needs to know is that this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it is a good place for all of us to live in.
Zambia is in trouble today not because her people have failed, but because her leaders have failed. And what Zambia needs are leaders to match the greatness of her people.
One can today ask for goodness, for reason, but such things come only from the hearts of people.
And today when we go home, let us look into our hearts, and let us look into the faces of our children. Is there anything in the world that should stand in their way? None of the old politics being brought back by the likes of Vernon Mwaanga, Mbita Chitala, Mike Mulongoti and others campaigning for Rupiah Banda’s adoption as MMD’s candidate in the forthcoming presidential by-election means anything when you look down into the faces of our many children.
In their faces is our hope, our love and our courage. That child is more important than any politician’s job, appointment or political office ambition. That child is Zambia, is everything we have ever hoped to be in everything we dare to dream about. He sleeps the sleep of a child, and he dreams the dreams of a child. And yet when he awakens, he awakens to a living nightmare of poverty, neglect and despair.
You can see why we believe so deeply in what Levy Mwanawasa was trying to do, in his honest efforts, albeit saddled with many problems and deficiencies.
It is very easy for Levy’s efforts, his legacy to be buried with him tomorrow. It’s clear to all that very few of his colleagues in government and in the MMD truly shared his vision, his dreams, his aspirations. They were there simply for jobs, to earn a living, a salary, an allowance or gain some advantage of one form or another that goes with belonging to a ruling party.
The MMD is still very much the corrupt party of Chiluba. All the elements that were part of Chiluba’s corrupt era still dominate all the structures of MMD. Probably Levy tried to transform the MMD by bringing in a few good people, a few honest members and leaders – but this doesn’t seem to have been enough to transform this corrupt party into an honest one. This is probably why some of the good people Levy tried to push into the leadership of MMD lost at the party’s last convention.
This demonstrates that the MMD, in its current form and character, cannot be totally relied upon as the vehicle that will deliver Levy’s legacy. It is also clear that even at the time of his death, Levy and his type didn’t have control over the MMD. The MMD remained and still is under the control of criminal elements, crooked characters, power-hungry elements who will not stop at anything to defend their evils.
On his own, even Levy couldn’t have managed to be adopted as a presidential candidate for MMD in 2001. It had to take the manipulation, the corruption of Chiluba to impose him on the party. And thanks to Levy’s ability to respond favourably and yield to good things, to honest and legitimate demands – the crooks, the manipulators in MMD were short-changed.
And this time around, with Levy not there, the evil elements are totally back in control of MMD, of their party. They certainly don’t want another Levy to lead them and stop them from stealing, from corruption, from patronage and everything that these things can bring them.
Those who were naïve enough to think that the evil in MMD would let the good prevail without a fight were misled, or misled themselves. Chitala made it very clear the other day that this is a life and death battle for them. They are fighting for their lives, for their jobs, for their evil desires.
An old refrain says that humans are the only animal who stub their toe on the same stone twice. This is especially so if the stone is the struggle for power, for privilege. As Lenin correctly observed, “history as a whole is always richer in content, more varied, more multiform, for lively and ingenious than is imagined even by the best of parties”.
A leadership commits a crime against its own people if it hesitates to sharpen its political weapons, which have become less effective. Levy tried to do a lot of good things but he did not try very hard to teach his people what he was doing.
There was no serious and well-planned political education of MMD cadres and leaders on his lines. It is clear from the conduct of MMD cadres and leaders today that they did not understand what Levy was doing or where he was taking them. And as such Levy didn’t change them into beings closer to him, to his values, to his principles and standards.
These people didn’t change. They were just scared of the strength of his character. The MMD today is still dominated by Chiluba mentality; it is still being run on the principles and standards of the Chiluba regime.
But we know that there are good people in MMD who don’t want to take the party back to the Chiluba ways and have put up a good and very honourable fight to defend Levy’s legacy that is now under serious threat from Rupiah and his crooked sponsors of the Mwaanga type. Whatever happens, whatever befalls them, they should not accept to be taken back to the Chiluba ways and they should fight with all the tenacity and determination. For them, it shouldn’t be the question of winning an MMD NEC contest, and not even of winning the forthcoming presidential by-election, because this whole issue is about standing up for the truth, defending that which is just, fair and humane against all odds of vicissitudes.
It will be dark, but light will eventually come – don’t despair, don’t give up, fight on. Many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintops of our desires.
What is happening in our country today, the way our people are mourning Levy, the way they are extolling his virtues should reaffirm our convictions and give us more arguments for our enthusiasm to fight for just causes and for taking the measure of the affront and honour of our people.
Levy’s death and what is being said about him in obituaries provides a stimulus to reflection and encouragement to preserving our hope in causes that have never ceased to be legitimate no matter how hard they may be to fight for.
We have always looked at things this way, so we haven’t had that concern, being tortured by what jobs a president is going to give us, what favours are going to be extended to us by those running government. That’s something we don’t feel we have the right to concern ourselves about.
It’s as if you were to fight in a battle without seeking to achieve a goal. Is any person’s glory worth the sacrifices of the eleven or twelve million Zambians who wallow in abject poverty? We believe that “all the glory in the world fits in a kernel of corn”.
We know very well that our adversaries take the prize in lies, disinformation, manipulation, deceit and calumny.
We have no doubt that in the future the ideas we are defending and advancing today will be made realities; in the future, people will know everything about what happened: what we did and what our adversaries did, what goals we sought, and who was right – we or the opportunists trying to defy Levy’s wish and start a process of ending his legacy, who acted dishonestly in discharging a public trust and were serving selfish interests.
We are challenging them on every front, absolutely convinced that the wishes and legacy we are defending will triumph in our homeland someday – a conviction will always hold, that our people’s legitimate causes will always advance and triumph eventually; that good will eventually prevail over evil. When this happens, we will feel compensated for everything life has dealt us.
Labels: CORRUPTION, MMD
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HH accuses MMD of making assumptions
By Chibaula Silwamba
Tuesday September 02, 2008 [04:00]
UPND president Hakainde Hichilema yesterday said it is wrong for the MMD to assume that whoever they pick as their presidential candidate will become Republican president. Commenting on the wrangles in the ruling MMD over who should be adopted as its presidential candidate in the forthcoming presidential by-election, Hichilema said there was a wrong perception in MMD about the person who would succeed the late President Levy Mwanawasa.
“They are assuming that whoever becomes MMD presidential candidate becomes the president of Zambia. That is not true. It does not mean that the MMD presidential candidate will be automatically the Republican president.” Hichilema said.
“The people of Zambia under the Constitution of Zambia will choose a president they want, a president who will be able to take the country to a better level.”
Hichilema said it was sad that while opposition political parties like UPND were calm and mourning the late President Mwanawasa, MMD members were busy fighting for the presidency.
Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, MMD
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Ignore Levy's wish at your own peril
By Editor
Monday September 01, 2008 [04:00]
Time has come to reflect on President Levy Mwanawasa’s wishes regarding succession and continuity. We will live to regret if we don’t collectively stop to think and ask ourselves what could have been in the mind of Levy when he expressed the wish that finance minister Ng’andu Magande should succeed him. Why did he not do the obvious? Why didn’t he prefer his Vice-President to succeed him?
Levy brought both Magande and Vice-President Rupiah Banda into his government from political inactivity and political retirement. He knew both of them. He must have understood their strengths and weaknesses.
It is very important that we address this matter of leadership succession with level-headedness and cool minds. It is not about who we like or who we dislike. It shouldn’t even be about personal benefit.
It is about the 12 million Zambians and those not yet born. It is about the future of our country and the plight of our people; it is about the happiness and wellbeing of the great majority of Zambians who wallow in abject poverty with no hope, no future and not even a proper present.
These are the things that Levy was very concerned about. These are the things Levy talked about all the time – how to alleviate the sufferings of our people, how to move them out of poverty. It is about the dignity of every man and woman, every boy and girl in this country.
Our democracy is a young one. It has yet to mature and no wonder the level of our discourse has not yet reached full objectivity. People are not prepared to face facts and the truth.
And yet they expect the public to make choices. How can the public make choices without full information; without the full disclosure of information on the matters that they have to decide? If we are going to choose a leader as a country, all the contestants must be subjected to microscopic examinations, scrutiny.
Once they offer themselves for public office, they must be ready to subject themselves to the piercing torch of public scrutiny.
As we seek to answer the question ‘what could have been in Levy’s mind when he preferred Magande as his successor’, we need to examine the strengths of the two leading candidates. What is it that they bring to the table?
Magande brings a clear track record of successful and honest public service. He has distinguished himself as a man of integrity. It would appear this played heavily on Levy’s mind. Anxious to safeguard his legacy, he seems to have been intent on handing over to someone of good standing and ability.
Rupiah is past his prime. He is now in his 70s. And Levy did not want such a person to succeed him because the office of President, as his wife told us, is very demanding and requires an energetic person, someone who is not in a retirement mode.
If you get a tired leader or a leader who is not able to manage, whose administrative skills are weak, we will take the country back to the Chiluba era and probably even worse. We say this because it is very easy for people to do things in the name of the President without the President knowing. And if he is not energetic and vigilant, it is possible to build tyranny and cronyism right under his nose.
It is very evident from the behaviour of those around Rupiah, those championing his adoption as the MMD candidate in the forthcoming presidential by-election, that this is already happening. They are already showing worrying intolerance to divergent views. It is clear that if they had power, they would reverse most of the strides that we have made in deepening good governance.
Rupiah’s campaign reminds us of Frederick Chiluba’s third term campaign where poor people from all over the country, including pastors and chiefs, were paraded as evidence for the overwhelming support that Chiluba had to continue the third term.
At that time, there was an attempt to emasculate democracy within the MMD. Their activities were designed to buttress a falsehood, a lie that suggested that most Zambians wanted a third term. They even conducted fake opinion polls to prove it.
Vernon Mwaanga, as Chiluba’s information minister and chief government spokesman, was an integral part of this lie, of this third term falsehood and deception. Mwaanga has been recruited, or has hired himself out, to do the same thing once again.
Shamelessly, as Levy’s remains have been taken around the country to allow our citizens to pay their last respects in person, it seems Rupiah’s campaign team has been in top gear and busy extracting support petitions at every stop to create apparent spontaneity.
This is exactly what happened in 2001. Chiluba and his tandem of thieves did not want the nation to debate the third term issue and anybody doing so became an enemy.
We are also not surprised by Mbita Chitala’s behaviour at the state-owned Zambia Daily Mail on Saturday. We know that Chitala is working very closely with his very close friend, information minister and chief government spokesman Mike Mulongoti, in their campaign for Rupiah. And it is not surprising that Chitala has the audacity to threaten journalists, expecting submission.
These are things that should worry Zambians. It is an ominous sign which Zambians should not ignore that while Chitala is claiming to be interested in public service, he is telling these journalists that they should cover him in promotion of the Rupiah agenda because it is a matter of life and death. Surely, how can offering oneself for public service be so desperate as to be a matter of life and death? Are we at war?
Competition for public office should not be a matter of life and death. It should simply be a competition to serve. But this is how cash-and-carry politics are. It is clear that those congregating around Rupiah and making the loudest noises are cash-and-carry politicians who are bent intent on bringing back the brown envelope and politics of patronage.
But how else can these people carry out their hopeless agenda if not with lies, if not with patronage, if not with nepotism and even outright tribalism? The moral bankruptcy of these characters is frightening.
It is no wonder that most of those around Rupiah are people Levy had rejected – were either fired, not appointed to anything at all or were to be fired. This is the guidance Chitala claims to be giving to the nation in choosing their next leader. What type of guidance can come from this type of character? The only thing that can come from Chitala is misguidance of the nation.
It is said that you judge a person by the type of people who support him. If the Mwaangas, the Arthur Yoyos, the Chitalas and others like them are at the core of Rupiah’s campaign, then it is not difficult to discern what type of government they want to give us.
As we reflect on Levy’s wish, it will be very useful to the nation to look at Zambia before 2002, to examine what happened in the third term campaign when the likes of Mwaanga held sway.
We should not forget that Radio Phoenix was closed by Mwaanga to achieve political ends. What Chitala is showing is a clear sign of what we can expect from them if we ignore Levy’s wish. We will ignore Levy’s wish at our own peril.
Labels: MAGANDE, MMD, MWANAWASA, PRESIDENCY
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Maureen is right on Levy's preference - Sayifwanda
By Joan Chirwa and Mwala Kalaluka
Monday September 01, 2008 [04:00]
AGRICULTURE minister Sara Sayifwanda yesterday said first lady Maureen had rightly stated that President Levy Mwanawasa preferred finance minister Ng'andu Magande for a successor. And lands minister Bradford Machila said Maureen's revelation that her late husband preferred Magande as his successor was an opportunity for ministers that want to twist facts to honestly state what they know.
Meanwhile, a member of MMD's national executive committee (NEC) Japhet Mwakalombe said he will defend President Mwanawasa's wish while those who wanted to betray him were also free to do so.
And defence deputy minister Elijah Muchima yesterday said one of the MMD presidential candidates has booked some MMD members at Lusaka's Chrismar Hotel and paid them an initial K2 million with K16 million to be paid to each member after giving him victory this Friday.
Commenting on Maureen's revelations that President Mwanawasa had settled for Magande as his potential successor among two other ministers, Sayifwanda said the first lady had explained the matter clearly.
"She has explained clearly and I can't make a comment further," Sayifwanda said.
Maureen said yesterday that information that President Mwanawasa preferred Magande for a successor and a few ministers were aware about it.
And Machila said Maureen's sentiments effectively collaborated with what he said earlier that there were some ministers that the President had talked to on his preferred successor and yet they had opted to remain quiet.
"The first lady's statement clearly highlights that and I have no doubt that those ministers who are aware will not try and embellish the truth, as to try and basically deny that this is a fact," Machila said.
But Vice-President Rupiah Banda's campaign team manager Mbita Chitala pleaded that those campaigning for the MMD presidency should wait until Zambians had finished mourning President Mwanawasa.
"I think for me, it is difficult to make a comment on the President's widow's comment," Chitala said. "But the sentiments were said at a very wrong time by a wrong person and the whole nation is mourning. We should respect our culture as Africans."
Chitala said it would be unfair for anybody to place the NEC under duress as they decide who the party would float in the forthcoming presidential by-election.
Local government and housing deputy minister Benny Tetamashimba, who is Vice-President Banda's campaign manager in the presidential race, said he would comment on the issue of succession after the President is buried.
Tetamashimba said he had noted that Maureen had chosen to speak out openly on the issue of succession when the nation was still mourning her husband but that his team would wait until after the President’s burial before they could make any comment on the matter.
When pressed to comment further, Tetamashimba said the comprehensive statement that would be issued a day after President Mwanawasa's burial would answer all the questions raised.
However, Tetamashimba started the succession debate on August 20, a day after President Mwanawasa died, when he featured on Radio QFM where he said it would be a mistake for the MMD not to pick Vice-President Banda as MMD presidential candidate.
Tetamashimba's call was later supported by Chitala and veteran politician Vernon Mwaanga who have since featured on radio and television on several occasions.
Last week, Tetamashimba reinforced his statement and declared that he was campaign manager for Vice-President Banda.
And Machila said whether Maureen's statement was made before or after the burial, its factuality would not be diluted.
"Whether it was stated before or after the burial, it will still remain the same," Machila said. "Anyway, this discussion follows some interviews that Tetamashimba had on QFM. If you look at the genesis of all this discussion, you can trace it to that.
The timing may be inappropriate or unfortunate but the fact still remains that the President had talked to some people about his preferred candidate and it is them who started this succession discussion, so they can't turn around and say they are now mourning when they started this talk before burial."
And finance deputy minister Jonas Shakafuswa, who has backed Magande in the presidential race, said some ministers were trying to be economical with the truth on President Mwanawasa's preferred successor because they were only interested in protecting their jobs, seeing that the President was gone.
"I have no further comment, the people of Zambia should be the ones to comment. We were just trying to say what the President wanted. We know what we shared with the President," Shakafuswa said.
"I am not looking for a job. My conscience is very clear because I am saying the things the way they were then...for me I will not forget President Mwanawasa and that is why I would rather say the truth."
And NEC member Japhet Mwakalombe said he would at all cost support the candidature of Magande to fulfill President Mwanawasa's wish. He said he was quiet because he was waiting for a clear position on the matter which Maureen has now clarified.
Mwakalombe said MMD wanted to continue President Mwanawasa's legacy by improving the economy and therefore needed to elect an economic manager as President Mwanawasa's successor.
"Those who want to disregard the President's wish are free to do that but in doing so, they will be betraying the man they claimed to support and be loyal to," Mwakalombe said. "Clearly, a lot of people and ministers have betrayed Mwanawasa even before he is buried.
But this is a lesson to the Vice-President that he will also be betrayed in the same way Mwanawasa has been betrayed by the people singing praises for him now. As for me, I will remain loyal to Mwanawasa. If it means Magande receiving one vote in NEC, I will give it to him because loyalty to individuals is important. The job and favour-seekers are free to betray Mwanawasa the way they have done. Let them get those jobs and favours."
And Mwinilunga West MMD member of parliament Elijah Muchima said there were a lot of dirty politics going on in MMD where members were forced to endorse Vice-President Banda's candidature.
Muchima, who is also defence deputy minister, said most members were forced to rally behind Vice-President Banda as they were threatened with expulsions from the MMD. He said party members in North-Western Province were not given a chance to collectively decide on who should be the MMD presidential candidate in the forthcoming by-election.
Muchima also urged MMD members to reject corruption because it was President Mwanawasa's enemy number one.
"We know that some people within MMD have been camped at Chrismar Hotel and they are being paid K2 million each and have been promised K16 million each if they win," Muchima said.
"We don't need corruption. I think the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) should move in and investigate what is going on in the MMD. In my view, the democratic process should be undertaken when choosing the candidate to stand in the by-election.
We don't need a government full of corruption because that is what President Mwanawasa fought against. We need a government which is corrupt free. Otherwise, what is happening in the MMD now is dirty."
Labels: MAGANDE, MAUREEN, MMD, MWANAWASA, PRESIDENCY, SARA SAYIFWANDA
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Magande was Levy's preference - Maureen
By Amos Malupenga
Sunday August 31, 2008 [04:00]
First lady Maureen Mwanawasa yesterday disclosed that President Levy Mwanawasa preferred finance minister Ng'andu Magande to succeed him. In an interview at State House, Maureen said there were ministers who knew about Magande being the preferred successor. She said it would be nice for these ministers to come out and speak the truth instead of letting former commerce minister Dipak Patel to say it when he is not a member of Cabinet.
Maureen said although President Mwanawasa preferred Magande, it does not mean that the democratic principles must be dispensed with because even if the President was around, he would have subjected Magande to the same democratic principles as his preferred candidate.
Maureen said she was saying this at the risk of being misunderstood that she is not mourning her late husband. She said as far as she was concerned, she would mourn him forever.
“If people say give her two weeks or six months before she can open her mouth on anything, that will not be enough because I will mourn him forever…” Maureen said. “I am saying this with a lot of courage and boldness and without fear or favour because I know I am surrounded by enemies.
But I want to warn them that I am so strong. They shouldn't think that I am saying this from a weak position. I am a leader and therefore I must show leadership as I speak to the large masses who are going to read the message that you are going to give.
“Therefore, what I have said, I have said it with responsibility on my shoulder. I am able to defend every statement that you are going to write down. I would rather go down saying the right thing than be glorified for embracing things which will not do any good to the nation. The Mwanawasa legacy must be carried forward by honest people. If they are not, we will reach a separation stage.”
And Maureen disclosed that President Mwanawasa had left a recorded message to the nation which will be shown on national television the day after his burial on Wednesday September 3. Maureen said according to the family lawyer who has had custody of the tape, the message was recorded on video in 2005. She was not aware of it because the late President Mwanawasa kept it as a secret.
Below is the verbatim report of the interview with Maureen.
Question: May I start by thanking you very much for giving me an opportunity to discuss some national issues at the time like this when you are mourning the passing away of your dear husband and friend. We are mourning with you, the whole country is mourning with you on this great loss. Please, accept our deepest condolences.
But even as we are all mourning, a lot of things are happening; press statements are daily being issued. The one statement that immediately comes to my mind is the one saying that you should be allowed to contest the MMD presidency so you can finish the term of office for President Mwanawasa which expires in 2011.
What is your position on this matter?
Answer: Before I discuss my position on this issue, I want to say that it's a very difficult time for me and my family. I am sure I also speak on behalf of the nation that the death of my husband who has been President of the Republic of Zambia, has robbed us an opportunity for us to take the country forward and has created a leadership gap which everyone thought would only come in 2011 when the President would have retired.
I must admit that, yes, on several occasions I have been called upon to say that I am one of those people could look for to lead the nation. But I never thought that the call would repeat itself soon before 2011. I remember that I gave an interview to The Post in which I said 'I am in the reserve as a leader, where there is need for some of us to be called upon to lead the country, we would be available'.
But I never thought that the leadership gap will come through death which affects me so much because this is my husband whom we are talking about; a very close friend, a person I have spent more than 20 years with. It is not as easy as that for me to jump on the bandwagon and declare that I must stand.
I believe that this is the time for me to stand in the gap and remind the leaders and those who will be vying for positions what Mwanawasa stood for and whether any of our names being called upon are ready to take the mantle.
Q: To your knowledge, what did Mwanawasa stand for?
A: It is very difficult to describe Mwanawasa's stand in one word. He is a man of integrity. We all know that. He is one man who had courage, bold enough to make tough decisions which would even affect him personally, which affected his personality.
But the difference is that it was not about him. It was about national interest. And on several occasions, he reminded us that 'if I make a decision and that decision is not in the interest of Zambians', as a President he was bold enough to reverse it. This is the kind of man that we are discussing today, a man who wavered opposition even inside government where he had to take bold decisions.
Q: There is so much being said about the Mwanawasa legacy now in his death. When you hear such statements, what is it that come to your mind?
A: The legacy must be protected at all cost. It means we must look for someone who will nearly match the qualities of Mwanawasa. The reminders are even coming from military people. The message that we received when the body of President Mwanawasa was brought was clear to all of us and directed at those people who wanted to vie for leadership; that the person who wants to lead this country should follow the footsteps of President Mwanawasa and that he should not temper by negatively destroying the foundation that has been laid; the progress that has been made in all sectors - politically, economically, technologically, socially and culturally. Mwanawasa has been able to bring these factors and leveled them.
Because of the fiscal policies he put in place, Zambia now is proud to even talk about reserves at our central bank which was never existed. ZRA (Zambia Revenue Authority) can now talk about the revenue which is coming in the country.
Regardless of what levels of society, Zambians will talk about the positive impact of the Mwanawasa administration even if they are just selling tomatoes in the market. They will say 'I used to have problems to have capital at the market'.
So we are talking about a President and policies which touched every level of society and everybody; whether you were a child, male or female, adult, working or you are in private sector. Mwanawasa managed to bring an environment suitable for everybody. This did not come on a silver plate. We had a visionary leader. You cannot be leader and not be able to have ideas about where you are taking the country.
Therefore, we want to ensure that that leader who should emerge should emerge at a level where these reserves I have talked about must be protected at all cost because the President had an agenda to say that having stabilised the macro-economics of this country, he wanted these resources to start trickling down to an ordinary man on the street.
And every time in his speeches, you are witnesses on how worried he was on the poverty levels in Zambia and how he wanted to make changes and these changes have already started. How do we continue with the levels which Mwanawasa created?
We need to look for a person who has management capacity, someone who can jealously guard these reserves. And this should remain within MMD because we know that for Mwanawasa to ascend to power, the opposition were not the right people to lead the nation. Therefore, this power lies inside.
And when we look at the candidates that are there, this is the yardstick which we should use. Are they transparent? Are they sincere? Do they have managerial and financial skills which we should use to look after the resources? What is there background?
It's not about politics. Politics are there as a stepping-stone. At the end of the day, we need to look after the nation. It's about MMD, except that MMD right now is the vehicle which has the power base.
President Mwanawasa didn't finish his term. But if we do not bring in a good manager it means that the reserves that we are talking about; if we have leaders whom we know are bad managers, this money will go back to where Zambia was.
The corruption will set. Right now the investors and local entrepreneurs are looking to say 'where is the nation?' They are waiting to be told that now the person at the helm of it is trustworthy and can look after the resources.
So those people will be making a decision on whom to choose. Let us not look at what you can gain at a personal level from that person you want to put in power. Mwanawasa ensured that corruption should be done away with even at party level. Therefore, we should not allow corruption to decide the fate of this country.
As for me, I want to connect the legacy of Mwanawasa and the choosing of the person that is going to look after that legacy. If the legacy is going to be associated with a corrupt leader on 5th September, I want to state that we will not accept that. We don't want Mwanawasa's legacy to be marred with things which he rejected when he was alive. It is us the people who are alive today who should protect that legacy for the interest of our children, our future and the nation and Africa because Mwanawasa set standards not only for Zambia. He set standards for Africa. So we must choose a leader who will be able to articulate what Mwanawasa stood for.
Q: This point brings me to the contradictions the country has witnessed among government ministers. In the last few days, some ministers have said that the President had intimated that he preferred finance minister Ng’andu Magande to be the one to have carried forward his vision for the country after 2011 while others are saying it was not so.
Actually, I have heard some minister(s) saying that the preferred person is the Acting President Rupiah Banda because President Mwanawasa chose him as his number two and left him acting when left the country…
Being a wife to the President, I want to believe that you either knew something about this issue or you discussed the matter or you were told about it. What do you have to say on this issue?
A: It's very important that people must be sincere and put their personal interests aside when discussing such important issues because if I want, I can even tell you that 'Mwanawasa wanted me'. I want to state that Mwanawasa knew my capacity, my strong political capacity to lead the country but he said it would be morally wrong for him to say 'you have my wife as my replacement'.
I can tell you that this man was being led by God. Elections were very far in 2011 but he started preparing, looking at the people in MMD leadership who can take the mantle. There are ministers who can bear witness that he had at least three names which he was studying about a year or so, ago.
He had the name of foreign affairs minister Kabinga Pande, he had the name of finance minister Ng'andu Magande. Those I clearly know that he mentioned them. And after sometime, he had remained with one name as far as I am concerned.
Q: Which name was that?
A: It was the Magande name. The President asked for my opinion. I discussed the name. He knew that he had strengths and weaknesses, but the strengths outweighed the weaknesses.
And the President believed that the weaknesses were too minor, they could be worked on by 2011. He was looking for a manager. He was worried about where we should take this country to.
Of course, by him entertaining a name, he realised we are living in a democratic environment. At the end of the day, that name had to be presented to NEC (national executive committee) and of course we all know that elections are open and people should compete.
So one question we should be asking ourselves is: what would have been at the back of the mind of President Mwanawasa to look at Magande? The President created a team. For you to have a good a financial manager, which attribute is in Magande, and a visionary leader - together they made a very good partnership. Everyone knew that Magande was hard to release money anyhow unjustified.
President Mwanawasa was hard; you must convince him if you are going to spend money, how are you going to spend it.
This is what has brought credibility to Zambia because the President removed corruption, though not hundred percent. But now even my grand mother in the village know that public resources are not personal resources and they should be respected. Therefore, we need a person with a clean slate, a person we know that they are going to guard these resources jealously.
It's difficult to express in words what Mwanawasa would like to see now. He would want to see the continuity of what he started and build on because he has left resources which are there. A lot of things have been discovered in terms of minerals and other things we must put to good use.
But as people decide who becomes a leader after him, they must bear in mind that we need a near Mwanawasa man. He cannot be hundred percent Mwanawasa because God has created us differently. But how near can we go? This is the question we should be asking ourselves.
Q: This Magande name, did you finish telling me what could have been at the back of the President's mind when he settled for it?
A: Obviously, you know that there are some issues we as first ladies are privileged to know by virtue of being wives. Also, as first ladies, we have information. We whisper to the heads of state so that whatever little information we have, they also know.
So someone might say, 'she is just a first lady so she cannot be telling us that these were the wishes of the President'. But right now, I am the next of kin. Therefore, I believe that what I am saying is not a family position. But I have the responsibility to guide the nation on the thoughts of the President who is not with us now to manage the process.
The President always reminded us that he will not ask for a third term. He kept on reminding us the he is retiring in 2011. Everything that he planned was supposed to end. But as nature has it, he has departed from us too early.
Therefore, we should rely on the last thoughts he had. In these thoughts, he didn't want Zambia to be caught be napping. So he started preparing, looking around within and the last name he talked about was Magande as far as I am concerned. And there are ministers, if they are sincere, who can testify to this name. But that does not mean that democracy must be dispensed with. Also it does not mean that us the Mwanawasas are imposing a leader.
That is why there is this structure of the party that they must choose. All we can do is to try to pre-empt the thinking of the President instead of keeping it to us because this is supposed to be public information.
If Mwanawasa was here today and it was time for elections, he was going to present the name at the end of the day. Also, the Cabinet ministers must be sincere. What did the President say in the last Cabinet meeting which he had with them?
After that Cabinet meeting, the President shared with me the discussion he had in Cabinet concerning the issue of succession.
The President did give an indication in Cabinet. He gave an example that Kaunda was succeeded by Chiluba who was younger and that he himself succeeded Chiluba and he was younger than Chiluba. His wish was also that he should be succeeded by a person either younger than him or his age mate because, he said, the job of a President is very demanding. It needs energy for you to deliver because the demands are huge.
Q: When you look back and to the best of your recollection, what were the President's thoughts on leadership?
A: In fact, I can tell you that because our family lawyer has told me that the President has left two wills, which at an appropriate time we will be able to discuss or disclose the contents to both parties. There is a will or wish for the nation and there is a will for the family. But I want to emphasise on the will for the nation.
The lawyer has not disclosed the contents but I believe, knowing and having lived with this President as my husband, I am positively sure that he must have discussed issues regarding the leadership for the country; not necessarily naming a person but giving principles and guidelines on how he would like the nation to be run.
When I heard about this tape, it sent a lot of shivers in me because no one could have thought that a leader like Mwanawasa could have predicted and confronted life as real to show that death is there for all of us.
It doesn't matter who you are, death can come; that we should continue asking ourselves: where are we taking this Mwanawasa legacy? How jealously should we guard it?
Q: Has the lawyer told you when that will for the nation was recorded?
A: He told me it was recorded in 2005.
Q: Did you know about it?
A: I did not.
Q: When is the nation going to be given the opportunity to view this video?
A: I am reliably informed by State House staff that it will be broadcast on 4th of September. Probably, they will give it more days to be shown to the public because soon after burial, some of us might not be in a position to sit in front of televisions. But I am sure it will be given prominence. All of us should take an interest to sit in front of our televisions and hear our President speaking to us while in the grave. It's unprecedented. It's something unimaginable.
And this is what creates what Mwanawasa was. We are calling him great. But I think there are no better words to describe. And for me, I keep on asking myself: 'what kind of a person did I live with?'
He was a person who was so great but never exhibited this greatness. He exhibited kindness, selflessness, loving, high integrity, humble; he displayed humility. These are the things we want to see in our leaders.
If there are things you need to change about yourself to fit the Mwanawasa framework, you just have to do that because Zambians will not accept anything short of that.
Armed with this information, I will be irresponsible to decide to enter the race. I know all of us do not believe in the spiritual realm. We all believe, if you want to be pure Christians, that Mwanawasa has died and it is finished.
But my conscience will trouble me if I do not say what he would have wanted to say if he was here today. My conscience would trouble me if I cheated the nation that Mwanawasa wanted me because I could easily say that.
May I just say that the nation should not misunderstand me; that I am not mourning my husband. For me, even if you gave me six months, it is not enough.
I am going to mourn my husband throughout my life. But I hope future widows, and I don't wish anybody to be in my position, should know that it is very difficult. Even now when I am moving, it's like I am watching a movie about the death of my husband and yet it is real.
I miss him. He was my closest friend. I shared my life with him. My children are still very young, my family still needs him. Therefore, nobody should say I am not mourning. I am going to mourn my husband until I am also called to rest.
So no one can say 'give her two weeks or six months that is when she can open her mouth'. I have been left with this responsibility to say what I am saying today because the world being what it is, there is no time for these things. If I don't say them now but say them after 5th September, for what good will this disclosure be?
This is just to guide that these were the thoughts. I want the people to appreciate that Mwanawasa did not leave us without any thoughts about leadership. And I am repeating, I am not the only one privy to this information. How good it will be to hear it from ministers than from Dipak Patel who is not a Cabinet minister.
When you are searching for a leader, you don't search alone. You search among trusted ministers. The President must have confided in other ministers to say 'this is my thinking'. And if I wanted to be politically expedient, I could take the easiest position so that I flock with those making the loudest noise.
But I am taking this position in national interest by stating what the President's wishes were.
Also, I am trying to avoid losing this legacy whose term is still Mwanawasa's. We should remind ourselves as MMD that the candidate we choose on the 5th is not our party's. We are sending this candidate to the country which is a more vicious environment. Can the person we are going to arrive on withstand the storm?
All of us can campaign in our constituencies, but the people would like to see that person speak to us and convince Zambians that that is the leader. It doesn't matter how much money is going to be thrown about, how many people will be sent in the field. There has to be somebody to carry the vision and that somebody must articulate what Mwanawasa articulated.
We want to know that we have a person who can articulate the Fifth National Development Plan and the Vision 2030. These are not simple things! You need someone who can marry these things to the manifesto of MMD; and also to remind ourselves that leadership is that which can withstand the external environment. These are not internal politics. Technical issues will be raised after we come out of our internal NEC on 5th September to join the national politics.
Mwanawasa was an outstanding man as far as his character was concerned. Issues of character will become an issue. Historical background will become an issue. Are you a disciplinarian in terms of looking after the resources of the country?
So let us weigh the weaknesses and the strengths. If the strengths are more in terms of looking after the nation, that is the way we should go. We can cure the little weaknesses that are there.
Q: In conclusion, what would you like to say?
A: I would like to conclude by saying that the death of the President has hit me and my family very hard and I want to spend time to mourn him properly, spend time to stabilise my family because we have lost a person like him; the head of the family.
I had some political aspirations, I still entertain those aspirations but they are not for now because this is not what I planned for.
So I wish those people who have gone for the race good luck and that they must make a commitment to the country that they are going to be the next Mwanawasas because that is what we are looking for; that they are going to use the resources that are there properly and I ask the MMD that this power is in MMD. Let us be sincere with ourselves. Let us put one candidate whom we know can be a Mwanawasa.
Because of his legacy, some of us will be disappointed if this power shifted to the opposition because of the disunity in the party and personal interest that we are going to put forward. Also, remember that Zambia belongs to all Zambians and these Zambians are going to judge us whether or not we have sincerely mourned Mwanawasa and put in place systems which should continue.
Zambians are not going to allow people whom we know cannot deliver to be in that seat. So the NEC for MMD should not look at the decision they are making as a party programme.
This is a national programme because the power is already with MMD. Therefore, they must focus wider that much as they are just NEC, they are carrying on their shoulders the responsibility of all Zambians at this particular moment. Therefore, their decision is not about party politics, is not about party appeasement.
Mwanawasa stopped the brown envelope, even in party circles. What he did was to ensure that he created an economic environment where anybody can thrive, even if you are a party cadre.
This is what we want to continue. We don't want to eat today and be hungry tomorrow. Mwanawasa gave us the fishing rods and we do not want to lose the fishing rods and go back to beg.
And we want to warn that even those who will be chosen at the end of the day even if they are like Mwanawasa, they must know that Mwanawasa had a light heart, Mwanawasa had programmes, Mwanawasa wanted to spend public resources in the interest of the nation. They must build on and not destroy.
Q: Thank you so much for this opportunity. I know you are mourning but we had to drag you into this interview because I thought there are serious national issues to be discussed and clarified even in the midst of our funeral. Our deepest condolences once again.
Labels: MAGANDE, MAUREEN, MMD, PRESIDENCY
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Lies, deceit and manipulation
By Editor
Saturday August 30, 2008 [04:00]
Choosing a leader should be an easy undertaking in a society where the values and standards are clear to all. But it can be a very difficult exercise if vanity, greed, selfishness and all the negative human traits are allowed to prevail. In an honest political environment, virtue opens a way for itself, and conniving, greed and cheating fail. In an honest political environment, as in no other, only those who are honest – only those with true convictions can be chosen for leadership.
Nobody should be allowed to get into public office to fulfill a personal ambition or pleasure. They should just be fulfilling their duty – to serve the cause of their people.
The same can be said about our process of choosing a leader to replace Levy Mwanawasa. In these selections and elections, methods and tactics that prostitute the process to falsify the will and interests of the people should not be allowed. They should not be used to put into office the most inept and most shrewd, rather than the most competent and the most honest.
As we stated yesterday, every person vying for the office of president should be put on the scale and weighed. All those found wanting should not be considered for that office in any way.
We have heard so many lies over the last week or so from those campaigning for some candidates who want to succeed Levy. Crooked politicians have been able to conjure up a thousand conjectures.
They have tried to spread discord and doubt, even about ourselves, and we have waited patiently because it is necessary to wait. This differentiates honest people from opportunists, mercenaries, manipulators. Honest people know how to wait; they know how to be patient; they never despair. Crooks, manipulators, opportunists live in perpetual despair, in perpetual anguish, in perpetual lying, in the most ridiculous and infantile way.
It is said in Proverbs 28:10: “If you trick an honest person into doing evil, you will fall into your own trap.
The innocent will be well rewarded.”
When you read the things said by some of these politicians in their campaigns, you ask yourself: But how is it possible this gentleman or lady is not in a stable instead of belonging to such high institutions of government and the state? Some of them are coming out with absolute nonsense. And they have a tremendous habit of lying, they cannot live without lying. They live in fear.
If we say one thing, which is what we have been consistently saying, they see fierce, terrible things, a plan behind all this! How ridiculous! What fear they live in! And one wonders: Do they believe this? Do they believe everything they say? Or do they need to believe everything they say? Or can’t they live without believing everything they say? Or do they say everything they don’t believe?
It’s difficult to say. This would be a matter for doctors and psychologists. What do they have in their brains? What fear is it that makes them see everything as a manoeuvre, as a fierce, frightening, terrible plan? They don’t know that there is no better tactic, no better strategy than to fight with clean hands, to fight with the truth. We say this because these are the only weapons that inspire confidence, that inspire faith, that inspire security, dignity and morale.
These are the only weapons honest people use to defeat and crush their enemies.
Lies. Who has ever heard lies from the lips of a truly honest person? Lies are weapons that help no honest person, and no serious honest person ever needs to resort to a lie.
Their weapon is reason, morality, truth, the ability to defend an idea, a proposal, a position. In short, the moral spectacle of some of these people is truly lamentable.
Recalling our past, we believe we have worked and carried out our duty with sufficient honour, integrity and dedication to better our country in all areas of human endeavour.
And no matter how many lies are piled up, one on top of another against honest people, nothing will succeed. No matter how hard its adversary – falsehood – may try to overwhelm it, truth always refuses to yield and triumphs.
We have stated before that manipulators have never deserved anybody’s respect or been successful anywhere.
We have stated that manipulators are like little sailboats that go with the wind and the waves. Manipulation is synonymous with opportunism. Manipulation doesn’t have substance; it doesn’t have roots. We think everything – respect, relationships, serious analysis and understanding – is possible among people who are honest with themselves and with others. We cannot call others to virtues which we ourselves do not make an effort to practice.
We shouldn’t allow our politics to be relegated to trivialities chosen precisely because they salve the consciences of the opportunists, the power-hungry trying to feather their nests and to conceal the plight of the poor and the powerless.
It is the character of growth that we should learn from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.
The problems our people are today facing are such that for anybody with a conscience who can use whatever influence he or she may have to try and move our country forward, it’s difficult to say no.
Let it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness made us fail to live up to Levy’s legacy.
Clearly, what is important, the most important thing, is to give happiness to people. But this is not always easy. It is an endless struggle. After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
The ways in which we achieve our goals seem to be bound by context, changing with circumstances even while remaining steadfast in our commitment to our vision.
The exercise of choosing the MMD candidate in the forth-coming presidential by-election should be a very simple exercise if the leaders of this party have a clear criteria, clear values and standards that their party wants to pursue – and a clear understanding of what constitutes Levy’s legacy. The process appears to be difficult or complicated because these values, these standards are not clear to all and everything has been thrown into a casino to be gambled.
But can a serious politician throw the future of our people into a casino, to be decided upon through the process of gambling? This shows what type of leaders we have whose only preoccupation is what is in it for them, what’s their cut. They seem to be supporting candidates on the basis of who will guarantee them a certain position, a certain presence in his cabinet. This is all that seems to matter to most of them. It is not the abilities, the competency, the honesty and integrity of the candidate, but what is in it for them that really matters.
We believe this explains everything that is going on, the lies we are hearing, the deceit we are witnessing. This is what fell to us to explain. As for the rest, let our enemies worry about it. We have enough tasks, enough things to do in our country, enough duties to fulfill. And we will fulfill them.
Labels: MMD, NEVERS MUMBA, PRESIDENCY
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MMD rejects Nevers' adoption application
By Maluba Jere and Speedwell Mupuchi
Saturday August 30, 2008 [04:00]
MMD deputy national secretary Jeff Kande yesterday said the party secretariat does not know former vice-president pastor Nevers Mumba as a party member. But pastor Mumba said he was not an irresponsible leader who could apply to stand on a ticket of a party he did not belong to. In an interview, Kande said since his expulsion from the party in 2006, pastor Mumba had not been re-admitted.
"As a secretariat, we don't know Nevers Mumba as a member of MMD," Kande said. "But we will sit down to go through all the applications before we finally present them to the National Executive Committee (NEC).
When we present to NEC, that's when we will give them a record of who has been doing what in the party and who hasn't. Since he was expelled from the party, he has never been re-admitted and we have never seen his application letter for re-admission."
Kande also explained that any person who had not been an active member of the party for two years did not qualify to contest the presidency.
However, Kande said the party would not stop anyone from applying for the position of presidential candidate, but that rules would apply when scrutinising the applications.
"An application is an application. You can't stop anyone from applying," Kande said. "So if you consider yourself MMD then you can apply, but the party records will tell whether you are genuine or not."
But pastor Mumba said he would not have written the application had he not known his membership status in the MMD.
Pastor Mumba on Thursday applied to be adopted as MMD candidate for the presidential by-election.
Asked when he rejoined the MMD, pastor Mumba said: "If I was not a member, I would not have applied. I am not out of mind to apply to a party to which I do not belong."
He said anyone wishing to verify his membership in the MMD should ask MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba.
Asked about the Reform Party which was formed after he was expelled from MMD, pastor Mumba said he had not dealt with the party for the past two years.
"The fact that we have not dealt with our process in the media does not mean I am still president of the Reform Party. On 12th January 2006, the Reform Party resolved to go back to the MMD on condition that I personally assured them that I have reconciled with the President with whom I had differed before," pastor Mumba explained.
"Reform Party was basically a protest party formed by members of the MMD who were frustrated and upset that I was not allowed to contest in the convention of 2005. On 12th February 2007, my reconciliation with the President took place at State House. The resolution was made in 2006 and from that day we did not promote the Reform Party."
Pastor Mumba said after his reconciliation with late President Mwanawasa, there was no further reason for the Reform Party to remain outside.
"The rest of the things that followed were administrative challenges that can be explained by the (MMD) national secretary who was given responsibility to handle our issue," said pastor Mumba.
And Kalumba, when contacted for comment, said the question of eligibility had not arisen at the moment.
Kalumba said an expelled member had the right to apply for membership, which was not restricted. He said he would not reject any application at this stage and that the applications being made were not official nomination but mere intentions.
"The point of deciding who is eligible has not arisen. The issue of Mr Mumba being raised at this point is premature and unfair. We have to wait until a committee scrutinises. We should not at this point assume that anybody who has applied is certified until I see their membership cards and their renewals," Kalumba said.
Among the people who have applied to be adopted as MMD presidential candidate in the forthcoming presidential by-election include former Constitutional Review Commission chairman Willa Mung'omba, Zambia-China Business Association chairman Sebastian Kopulande, finance minister Ng'andu Magande, former Republican vice-president Enoch Kavindele and former works and supply minister Ludwig Sondashi.
Meanwhile, Kande said President Mwanawasa had no preferred candidate to take over from him and that the secretariat also had no preferred candidate.
"The President had no preference of anybody. Even us as a secretariat, we always asked him and he always said that that candidate would be known only at the convention.
So no one can claim to be preferred," Kande said. "So even us at the secretariat have no preference of anyone but follow the rules and regulations to elect that person through secret ballot then rally behind him to ensure we win the presidency."
Labels: JEFF KANDE, MMD, NEVERS MUMBA, PRESIDENCY
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Kazala urges NEC to adopt Magande
By Patson Chilemba, Mwala Kalaluka and Lambwe Kachali
Saturday August 30, 2008 [04:01]
FORMER Nchanga MMD member of parliament Richard Kazala yesterday urged the party national executive committee (NEC) to put national interests first by electing finance minister Ng'andu Magande as presidential candidate in the forthcoming presidential by-elections. But the MMD in Western Province resolved to support Vice-President Rupiah Banda as their presidential candidate.
Commenting on the succession debate in the MMD, Kazala said Vice-President Banda, who is also Acting President, wanted to reap where he did not sow.
Kazala said Magande had managerial skills and shared in late President Levy Mwanawasa's 'New deal' vision that had brought about economic development in the country.
"The Vice-President can continue in the same position but if he wishes to hijack the MMD, it's like you are reaping where you never planted seed. I would call that chancing. Let the man who was heavily involved in the formulation of the Fifth National Development Plan FNDP and other economic programmes be elected," Kazala said.
He said most of those campaigning for Vice-President Banda were just jobseekers. Kazala said MMD stood little chance of winning if it elected Vice-President Banda because among all the presidential aspirants in MMD, Magande was the most credible.
He further urged MMD to uphold the party constitution. Kazala said as far as he was concerned, Vice-President Banda had not clocked two years in the party to enable him to contest the presidency.
"People looking for the Vice-President are looking for jobs. Tetamashimba MMD spokesperson wants to become a Cabinet minister. VJ Vernon Mwaanga is retired, he's saying he shall campaign. Is he looking for a job? We don't want job seekers," Kazala said.
"I would urge NEC members not to take into account the petitions from Eastern and other provinces. The party constitution has no clause that they should accept the petitions."
And MMD in Western Province endorsed Vice-President Banda's candidature.
In a statement signed by over 30 leaders of the ruling party in the province, the members confirmed their unequivocal support for the Vice-President.
"We the undersigned members of the MMD National Executive Committee and Western Province's provincial executive committee, district executive committee, members of parliament and local government councilors, as well as committed party members, do hereby, confirm our strong and unequivocal support for the application of Mr. Rupiah B. Banda, as the party presidential candidate," the statement read.
"We reject the notion that the next President should be based on ethnicity or pretentious inter-community 'cousin-ships' or personal self trumpet blowing."
Labels: MAGANDE, MMD, NEC, PRESIDENCY, RICHARD KAZALA
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Struggle for the souls and future of Zambia
By Editor
Friday August 29, 2008 [04:00]
There is a presidential by-election ahead of us. And the ruling MMD is gripped by a campaign for the selection of a candidate to be fielded in this presidential by-election. This selection process is starting to lose its bearings. Tribalism, regionalism and all sorts of vices are starting to creep in. Let us not allow the sympathies of the world which we have won so fast to be equally rapidly lost by becoming entangled in the jungle of skirmishes for power. Let us not allow the desire to serve oneself, to bloom once again under the fair mask of the desire to serve the common good.
As we stated in our editorial comment of yesterday, we should guard against the danger of divisive politics, of regionalism, tribalism as we get deeper into the campaigns for this presidential by-election. We must give up the pernicious habit of supporting and of identifying only with those from the same region as ourselves.
It is really not important now which politician or group will prevail in the MMD selections and the presidential by-election itself. The most important thing is that the winner will be the best of them, in the moral, civic, political and professional sense. The future policies and prestige of our country will depend on the personalities we select and elect.
The campaigns that stretch before us now are a struggle for the souls and the future of Zambia. And we shouldn’t forget that all of us, above everything else, are the trustees of a dream, of a legacy.
We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today; the future will not be built in the future, it will be built on the threshold of today, of the decisions and actions we make today.
We are confronted with a fierce urgency of now, in the unfolding life and history. There is such a thing as being too late. We must work unceasingly to lift this nation to a higher destiny, to a new plateau.
Let us put the unity of our people first and ahead of any divisive politics. So, we would like to ask all our politicians, whatever their personal interests or concerns, to guard against divisiveness and all its ugly consequences.
What we have achieved when all our people united just must not now be lost in suspicion, distrust, selfishness and politics.
No section of the community has all the virtues, neither does any have all the vices. We are quite sure that most people try to do their jobs as best as they can, even if the result is not always entirely successful. He who has never failed to reach perfection has a right to be the harshest critic.
Let us not forget where we are coming from. Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Our lives teach us who we are.
Let us teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the happiness of the community, rather than of a need to cheat or rape the community.
Let us teach ourselves and others that politics can be not only the art of the possible, especially if this means the art of speculation, calculation, intrigue, secret deals, and pragmatic manoeuvering, but that it can even be the art of the impossible, namely, the art of improving ourselves.
If an issue is morally right, it will eventually be political. It may be political and never be right.
The forthcoming presidential by-election is not, and should not be, about Rupiah Banda or Ng’andu Magande, but about what is best for the future of our country.
In deciding which individual to support and select, we should try to look beyond the expediencies of the moment and consider the interests of the country, especially of our young people, our children. When you go home in the evening, look at them, look in their eyes, and ask yourself what type of Zambia will guarantee them a future. Ask yourself which of the people vying for the presidency of our country offers them a bigger promise.
We should ask ourselves the question: If I died today, who among these politicians, between Magande and Banda, would I like to be the administrator of the affairs of my country on behalf of my children?
There is need to look at what Magande and Banda have done in their lives, their records of public service need to be scrutinised. There is need to look at their performance and conduct wherever they have worked and lived.
Their social conduct, levels of honesty, ability, dedication and concern for the welfare of all need to be looked at, analysed and evaluated. Let us look at what Magande has done or not done over the last seven and half years of working as Minister of Finance and National Planning and his contribution to the realisation of the Levy Mwanawasa legacy that we are all saying should be continued.
Let us do the same for Banda and see what his contribution over the last two and half years of working with Levy as Vice-President has been to his legacy – the legacy we all want to continue.
We need to critically look at what constitutes the Levy legacy and how each of these individuals has contributed to it. We are told, and believe that, the Levy legacy is characterised primarily by two factors: honest and prudent economic management and the fight against corruption. The issue again should be to see how these two individuals weigh on these scores.
The one who weighs more is likely to give us a better chance of continuing the Levy legacy. Of course, there are other factors to consider depending on how one looks at things.
But whatever criteria we use, honesty, integrity and incorruptibility should always be fundamental factors to consider in deciding who succeeds Levy. It is important also to consider who between the two or who among all the candidates is more principled.
Each one of them should not want to win because the other is, or others are, despised, but because they are understood, supported and trusted.
There is no choice between being principled and unelectable; and electable and unprincipled. We have tortured ourselves with this foolishness for too long. Magande or Banda should win because of what they believe.
We shouldn’t fear change. Change is an important part of life. But we should not change to forget our principles, and simply because we want to be elected, to win, but to fulfill them. Not to lose our identity but to keep our relevance. Change is an important part of gaining the nation’s trust.
Let us try to show our people that politics is not some byzantine game played out over the screeds of paper but a real and meaningful part of their lives.
Let us try our best to build a nation with pride in itself. A thriving community, rich in economic prosperity, secure in social justice, confident in political change. A land in which our children can bring up their children with a future to look forward to. This should be our hope, our mission or goal in politics, in the selections and elections we make. This should be our criterion in all that we do.
It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Don’t you surrender. Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. In the end faith will not disappoint.
Labels: MAGANDE, MMD, PRESIDENCY, RUPIAH BANDA
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Avoid petty politics, Dipak urges Rupiah's team
By Chansa Kabwela
Friday August 29, 2008 [04:00]
Former commerce minister Dipak Patel yesterday urged Vice-President Rupiah Banda's campaign team to avoid petty politics devoid of real issues because Zambians are looking for serious economic managers to sustain President Levy Mwanawasa's legacy. And former home affairs deputy minister Edwin Hatembo said it was cheap for Vice-President Banda's campaign team manager Benny Tetamashimba to say that finance minister Ng'andu Magande has no support in Southern Province.
Reacting to Tetamashimba's statement yesterday that there was no need for a nationally televised debate for all MMD presidential aspiring candidate, Patel said the difference between Vice-President Banda's campaign team and that of Magande was that the latter's team was dealing with real national issues while the former was dealing with petty politics with no ideas on how to sustain President Mwanawasa's legacy.
Tetamashimba's statement read: “We have read the approved statement from Hon Magande through his campaign team in which he wants the MMD party candidates to appear for a televised debate to the Zambian people to see who is the best candidate for president in the MMD.
“I am the official campaign manager for RB. When NEC elects him as our candidate, and I may be biased in my judgement being in this position. But I am not that kind. Let me be judged by what I stand for, the truth under whatever circumstances.
“Since Mr. Dipak Patel is not MMD but campaigner for Hon Magande, I ask him to get clarifications from the national secretary Hon Dr Katele Kalumba or the chairman for elections Hon Mike Mulongoti whether what he is proposing is the MMD way of NEC choosing a candidate. The constitution of MMD has no clause of how to select a candidate and those who don't know the procedure should ask the national secretary. NEC makes all decisions in between the conventions and Mr Patel is supposed to know this.
“The candidates will, if the national secretary advises, only speak to the NEC on 5th September 2008 who have the power to choose a candidate for this by-election and not for 2011. NEC will not choose a party president or fill vacancies.
“Mr Patel must inform the MMD which region will fully give Hon Magande the vote when his own Southern Province regards Mr Hakainde Hichilema as their preferred son. Hon Magande is not popular in Southern Province and he shouldn't mislead that he can defeat Mr Hakainde Hichilema in Southern where the MMD has no single seat and Mr Magande ran away from standing in Southern Province for fear of losing.
“Let Mr Patel and Hon Magande tell the nation whether MMD must throw away its constitutional advantage in the coming by-election for self-centred people. Genuine people who love MMD have decided to wait for 2011 and the MMD must look to the MMD loving people than those who are greedy and self-centred, as we shall be going to the convention.
“Does Mr Patel think that if Mr Magande was in the sandals of the Acting President Rupiah Banda and was replaced to stand as presidential candidate in the coming by-election by an easterner, Southern Province would have ignored the embarrassment to Hon Magande and vote for RB? If the answer is no, does Hon Magande think that the easterners could vote for Hon Magande when their own who was so close and only needed to complete the term was forced out by selfish people?
“The party leaders in the provinces and their NEC members have stated clearly that they want Acting President R Banda to stand in the by-election to complete the term of office of the late President. Are these people who signed that they want RB going to vote against him in NEC when we know they all have integrity.
“Hon Magande will be honourable with his campaigners to unite the party by supporting the Acting President to stand in the presidential by-election. Ministers should not bring in the issue of betrayal.
Let Hon Magande not mislead the nation and his supporters to bring disunity in MMD by claiming that he was the appointed heir. The appointed heir was the one the President appointed as Vice-President. We have to support His Excellency the Acting President R Banda as MMD presidential candidate for the MMD to easily win the election.”
But in response, Patel - who is member of the Elect Magande Campaign Team - said he was forced, yet again, to respond to Tetamashimba who started this debate about President Mwanawasa's successor although people from Vice-President Banda's campaign team deliberately accuse him (Patel) of having insensitively started the debate.
“I am again forced to react to Tetamashimba, who in-fact began the issue of succession in his comments to Radio QFM, when we were in a period of mourning,” Patel said. “I now refer to Tetamashimba's statement of today (yesterday) with regards to our challenge for a nationally televised debate. If his candidate is serious, he should not have any fear to a debate and let all Zambians see for themselves what his favoured candidate has to offer and let the people of Zambia judge for themselves as to the competencies of all candidates.
“Why does Tetamashimba not lay bare all the accomplishments of his candidate in the MMD? Since Tetamashimba is the official campaign manager of RB and suggests that I am not an MMD member, perhaps he can tell us as to when his candidate became an MMD member. But to ridiculously suggest that Hon Magande has no support from Southern Province is naïve and foolish. “In-fact he has national support. This support is not from “engineered petitions”. He represents national politics, not tribal politics.
He is not soliciting support based on tribal alliances. He is soliciting support based on Mwanawasa's legacy and policies that need to be continued.
“He is soliciting support based on performance, competence, experience. Perhaps Tetamashimba should find out if it is true what Hon Machila has said that, “In our last full Cabinet meeting, there was an indication of who President Mwanawasa did not consider as his successor and all of us know this person by implication”.
“This is pre-eminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, candidly and fearlessly. From all MMD presidential aspiring candidates, if we could first know where we are and where we want to go and why, we could better judge and make informed decisions on what to do and how to do it, and the type of leadership that is required, to not only carry the vision and dreams of our beloved President Levy Mwanawasa but to ensure that, not only is it carried forward but sustained for the long term good of all Zambians.
“We are now into the 17th year since the MMD economic and social policies were initiated with the declared objective and promise of putting an end to poverty and achieve citizens' economic emancipation and economic growth. It is very disheartening to hear in this day and age, when people talk of ‘tribal alliances’, when a son of the soil of Africa, Barrack Obama who had the “Audacity of Hope” is today a presidential candidate in the United States of America.
“Surely, the criterion for selecting leadership has to go beyond one's tribe or race. Are the virtues of honesty, integrity, knowledge, performance and experience among many other attributes not important? Are issues of generational change not important? Is our national motto, One Zambia One Nation, not important? Is, for an elected politician, to aspire to the highest offices of the MMD and a government wrong? Is being an unelected politician to aspire to a high office ethically, morally or politically right?
“What will the people of Zambia; the opposition say if a MMD candidate is an unelected politician in this most unusual circumstance that we face today? Is prudent economic management not important anymore? Or, is obtaining power at any cost with tribal alliances more important? Is passing on the baton to a new generation of Zambians now a taboo? “Magande does not think and believe tribe.
He thinks Zambia and Zambians. He thinks economic growth. He thinks citizens' economic empowerment. He thinks good governance. He thinks end poverty. He thinks women's empowerment. He thinks better sanitation and water for all. He thinks better roads, housing, education, health and infrastructure. He thinks more agricultural production. He thinks good governance. He thinks develop Zambia.
“Unfortunately, in the very recent past, there has been something very crude and heartless and unfeeling in haste by some, elected and non-elected politicians, to succeed President Mwanawasa for the sheer sake of gaining power and hopefully the ultimate office, that of the President.
“We must all remember that we are not the Republic of the Ngoni, the Republic of the Tonga, the Republic of the Bemba, the Republic of the Lozi, or any other one tribe. But we are the one and only Republic of Zambia for any and all the tribes of Zambia, including all the minority races in Zambia.
“An ominous dark cloud is above Zambia, we have lost to God a great son, a leader of Zambia, President Levy Mwanawasa (May His Soul Rest in Peace). The MMD has to now elect a new leader. Magande wants to be President, first because he can lead our country to the required economic standing that will set us apart in Africa.
“He has the capacity and experience to build a better Zambia for all. He has the energy, time, experience and age on his side. For most of his life, he has been employed in service of Zambia. Under President Mwanawasa, like many others in Cabinet, he believes in the ‘New Deal’ for Zambia, and like many others helped begin to deliver the ‘New Deal’.
“Yes, in execution of his very difficult duties as Minister of Finance & National Planning, it has not always been possible to please all the people all the time. And this has sometimes been the reason for perceived differences between him and some of his Cabinet colleagues. It was never personal and never shall be. It was always in the greater good of Zambia and not an individual.
“It was always team work. It was always the shared vision of a ‘New Deal’ for Zambia. Fortunate as we are in our new-found beginning of economic prosperity, we still remain fragile for much of the economic vision and dreams of President Mwanawasa. It still needs to be vigorously carried forward and implemented, in the period, what would have been the remaining term of his office till 2011 and beyond. It is therefore in the interest of every citizen imperative 
