MMD leaders intimidating delegates - Muzyamba
By Sandra Lombe in Livingstone
Tue 18 Jan. 2011, 04:00 CAT
MMD Southern Province chairman Solomon Muzyamba says some senior party and government officials are intimidating and manipulating delegates to the forthcoming provincial conference set for Monze this Thursday.
At a press briefing and answering questions from journalists at his office yesterday, Muzyamba warned the senior government and party officials to desist from intimidating delegates and said they were dividing the party and that might spell doom.
“ I have received reports from districts that identified people in high offices of government and the party are making intimidating calls to some district chairmen and delegates and seeking the influence of district commissioners to sway the delegate as to vote and support particular candidates,” he said.
“They are manipulating certain DCs and using them to influence the voting patterns and support particular candidates. I want to warn these manipulators that history will not judge them kindly.”
Muzyamba said people should be voted for on merit and not because they were the highest bidder.
Muzyamba said people should desist from spending their millions on deceiving delegates and bribery.
“As a ruling party, MMD should lead by example, so selection is based on merit,” he said.
Muzyamba said he could not rule out being disadvantaged due to the alleged intimidation of the delegates.
“I can’t rule out the obvious disadvantage because people will not vote on merit. I rate myself very highly but if the delegates are manipulated I can’t foretell the end result,” he said.
Muzyamba said the entire executive would be challenged at the conference and this shows how popular the party had become.
“ I have received reports that some of my challengers are not only using underhand methods but are also engaging in outright corruption by giving, among others gifts inform of chitenges and buns, bread - scones and cash. These are unacceptable practices,” he said.
Muzyamba said the perpetrators were liable to disciplinary action.
He said he would be making a report to the party and that some candidates were not bonafide members and were not eligible to stand for any position.
Muzyamba said one of his opponents, Captain John Mwamulima, was not a party member as he had been expelled and was not eligible to stand.
He said he was not aware whether Mwamulima had reapplied to join the party.
“It may just be that he has found unalert party officials and bought party membership,” he said.
But Capt Mwamulima in a recent interview said the Muzyamba-led executive had failed and was not vibrant and that there was need for new blood in the executive.
He said it was better Muzyamba retired and if he Muzyamba retained the position, the party would be doomed and dead.
And chairperson of women affairs Eunice Nawa said she would retain her position as she had good conduct and morals.
She said the rejoining to the MMD by Alice Simango did not mean she would contest the elections.
“If she does that, she will just bring back confusion and I will petition,” she said.
Labels: MONZE, SOLOMON MUZYAMBA
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Who are you trying to fix?
By The Post
Tue 11 Jan. 2011, 04:00 CAT
It is among the rights of citizens which found their expression in a democracy to express their points of view concerning the duties and sacrifices which are imposed on them, not to be forced to obey without being heard.
In this regard, the views expressed by Southern Province MMD chairperson Solomon Muzyamba on the necessity for a self-regulating media deserve support.
Solomon says “for those in leadership, I think they should be scrutinised by the public through the information the media gives out but that information should not be malicious and bent on destroying somebody or even targeted at discrediting an individual”.
We should not follow leaders blindly; we should critically examine their true intentions, and the direction in which they are leading us. Is it to a richer, more satisfying life?
To a life in which we are the masters of our own destiny?
Or, is it to new forms of oppression, tyranny, dictatorship and unfulfilled hopes? Let us work to become a single people.
A country is firm and united insofar as its citizens feel that they have a voice in its affairs.
This requires that each citizen be allowed one’s opinion and the right to act with full responsibility and without fear in matters that affect him intimately.
No one person can claim to have a monopoly of truth and wisdom.
No individual – or group of individuals – can pretend to have all the resources needed to guarantee the progress of a nation.
The contribution of the most humble members is often necessary for the good running of a group.
The people must never be reduced to a mass of subjugated beings vis a vis their rulers, but rather be treated as conscious, intelligent and responsible subjects, while those in authority for their part play their role as servants of the people, conscious of the liberating mission which is theirs and which they have to carry out in a spirit of love and justice.
Participation in the life of a country is not only a right; it is also a duty that each citizen should be proud to assume and exercise responsibly.
People in positions of authority, in government and administration, have a particular duty to work for the restoration of a climate of trust and openness.
However, participation will remain a fiction without the existence of adequate channels of expression and action: an independent press, open forums of discussions and the like.
Freedom of the press includes the freedom to hold and express a line of thinking that is distinct from that of the government.
Freedom of the press is basic to any civilised society.
The intentions of Rupiah Banda’s government to introduce statutory regulation of the media have nothing to do with public good.
They have everything to do with selfishness, greed, vanity and political survival. If the spirit of the common good were to animate Rupiah and his minions like Ronnie Shikapwasha and George Kunda, we would not be witnessing the things they are trying to do, their intentions and attempts to introduce statutory regulation of the media.
But it is necessary for them to realise that a free media is for the good of a country, and not for the political survival of any individual or political party.
And as we have pointed out before, few would argue that the news media in our country always carry out their functions responsibly.
They are sometimes sensational, superficial, malicious, intrusive, inaccurate and inflammatory.
This is not desirable. The solution is not to introduce statutory regulation and devise laws that set some arbitrary definition of responsibility or to licence journalists, but to broaden the level of public discourse so that citizens can better sift through the chaff of misinformation and rhetoric to find the kernels of truth.
If Rupiah’s government was truly interested in the common good, they would not think of statutory regulation at all.
What is driving them is selfish and narrow political interests. And this can be seen from the way they are abusing the media under their control and direction.
Look at the irresponsibility, outright lack of professionalism, bias, malice, calumny, lies that we read every day in the two newspapers they control and direct!
Watch the television programmes they produce on the media they control!
Can these people be said to care about truth in any way? Can they be said to be concerned about professionalism in any way?
They are in control of more than 60 per cent of media products in this country.
One can truthfully say that those who are seeking to regulate the media are also media players, controllers of media content.
The regulations they want to bring, can one say they are targeted against themselves? These people have no problems with what they do with the media.
They are already directly regulating a great proportion of the Zambian media. What they seem to have problems with is the small segment of the media that is not under their control and direction and at the head of this is The Post.
This is what they don’t control.
If The Post today started to serve them the way the Times of Zambia and Daily Mail are serving them, this whole subject of media regulation would come to an instant close.
So their intentions to regulate the media have nothing to do with common good but their selfish intentions.
We say this because in all respects, the media outside their control beats the media they control.
It is the media they control that has the highest number of libel cases, including against ourselves.
They have lost more legal suits than the media outside their control put together.
This in itself is a sign of recklessness, irresponsibility, lack of professionalism on their part.
And they have made it clear that they are happy with the way the state-owned media under their control is operating.
So this whole media regulation issue has nothing to do with the media they control, the media they every day abuse to carry their lies, abuses and propaganda.
But evil things have a way of boomeranging.
This statutory media regulation they want to introduce will boomerang in the way the removal of bail from motor vehicle theft did on them.
They will not be in power forever to control and direct things.
The media they want to suppress today, the media whose capacity they want to curtail today may turn out to be their saviour when they are out of power tomorrow. But what will they find?
They will find a media outside government control whose capacity they have undermined. This is all they will have to defend their human rights!
We want to make it very clear to all our people that statutory regulation of the media will certainly affect the operations of our country’s independent media.
But the greatest losers in all this will not be the journalists or the private media owners.
It will be the people of this country in their complexities and diversities.
Yes, the media today is in the forefront of defending press freedom in this country. But the press freedom that is being defended by the media does not belong to the media or the journalists who work for the media.
They are defending something that belongs to the people. And the greatest loss in all this will lie with the people, and not the journalists.
So those who think by the introduction of statutory regulation, they will fix certain journalists, editors, media owners and their organisations, are cheating themselves, are fools who will eventually, and without escape, suffer the consequences of their own deeds.
MLC meets Ronnie over media regulation
By By Mwala Kalaluka
Tue 11 Jan. 2011, 04:01 CAT
THE Media Liaison Committee yesterday held a meeting with information and broadcasting ministers Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikap-washa over the issue of media regulation.
Media Liaison Committee (MLC) spokesperson Daniel Sikazwe said the meeting with Lieutenant General Shikapwasha and other government officials was held to facilitate for the opening of talks and engagement between the government and the MLC over media regulation issues.
Sikazwe, who is also Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Zambia chairperson, said they agreed that it is important for them to start to dialogue.
Labels: MEDIA, PRESS FREEDOM, RONNIE SHIKAPWASHA, SOLOMON MUZYAMBA
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Violence is a product of the UPND - Muzyamba
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Fri 26 Nov. 2010, 04:00 CAT
VIOLENCE is a product of the UPND through the Mapatizya formula, Southern Province MMD chairman Solomon Muzyamba said yesterday. And Muzyamba declared that the MMD does not need an alliance with UPND to win next year’s elections.
Commenting on UPND’s threats to burn and kill Post assistant news editor George Chellah as reported in yesterday’s Post newspaper, Muzyamba expressed surprise that the UPND was now attacking The Post when it was perceived that MMD was the number one enemy of the newspaper.
“The genesis of political violence was in Mapatizya where the UPND used machetes to attack MMD cadres. Now it is The Post being accused,” Muzyamba said. “Violence is the product of the UPND through the Mapatizya formula. As for the MMD, we may have reacted in some instances but that was in self-defence and not through our instigation. We never have provoked violence and we don’t encourage it at all.”
Muzyamba said the MMD did not need an alliance with the UPND to take back the province dominated by the opposition party.
“It is surprising that it is now UPND against The Post and as MMD, we would not want to be dragged in that problem. But I’m confident enough to say that we MMD are intact and we don’t need the alliance as it is being reported in order to govern the country,” he said.
And Livingstone MMD youth chairperson Felix Lyandishya has appealed to Forum for Democratic Process (FODEP) and Anti Voter Apathy Project (AVAP) to call for a youth indaba to discuss political violence and the need for youths to contest next year’s elections.
He said he would love to see youths contest next year’s elections so that their voice could be heard.
Labels: FELIX LYANDISHYA, POLITICAL VIOLENCE, SOLOMON MUZYAMBA, UPND
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Tribalism is most abominable - Rupiah
By Sandra Lombe and Bivan Saluseki in Livingstone
Sat 06 Nov. 2010, 04:00 CAT
PRESIDENT Banda says tribalism is the most abominable thing that any Zambian can commit. And President Banda has said the Zimba-Livingstone Road was a miserable and terrible sore in the daily lives of Zambians.
Speaking upon arrival at Livingstone International Airport yesterday shortly before he commissioned the Zimba-Livingstone Road, President Banda eulogised Livingstone member of parliament Sakwiba Sikota. President Banda told the people that Sikota was a good member of parliament who did not like tribalism.
President Banda said right through his campaign in 2008, Sikota closed his office and was with him throughout.
“And I was very happy that he asked if he could join us today to open this very important road for the people of Livingstone,” he said.
President Banda said Livingstone was very special in the province.
“This is the only place where I defeated the UPND in 2008 and is the only place where our member of parliament is not from UPND. So I think that between the two of us is a winning formula,” said President Banda. “And you have a member of parliament who is above the most abominable thing that a Zambian can commit, that of tribalism. He is above that. And you are above that because you elected him in spite of your various tribes.”
He said the country had many problems and challenges.
“Today is a special day when that road, which made us miserable…that road was a terrible sore in our daily lives but we promised that we will fix it and we have fixed it.
We have problems, many challenges as a country. As people we are ready to overcome them. We have overcome the road,” President Banda said.
He thanked the traditional leaders whom he said had worked with the government.
President Banda said there was need for Zambians to work together in order to overcome the problems the nation was facing.
He said youths in schools and colleges were being told that the MMD does not want them.
He said the government wanted the youths to help them and work together.
President Banda said he selects his ministers very carefully according to the needs of the areas.
And MMD Southern Province chairman Solomon Muzyamba said the opening of the Zimba-Livingstone Road was a milestone development in the country.
Muzyamba congratulated President Banda for his achievements in the past two years.
He said President Banda’s performance had been remarkable.
Muzyamba said the projects were there for all to see, including the blind, because they were tangible.
He said the country had a bumper harvest and saw growth in the construction sector.
Muzyamba thanked President Banda for appointing Elijah Muchima as Southern Province minister.
“It is no secret that Elijah Muchima is a cadre. He is a cadre, friendly cadre,” he said.
Muzyamba said apart from that, Muchima was a tribal cousin and a ‘giant-killer’ who managed to remove UPND vice-president Richard Kapita from Mwinilunga.
Muzyamba said the province wanted to tap into Muchima’s experience.
And Muchima said he was fitting in very well.
He said he was not threatened by tribal politics.
“These tribal groupings have no room in Zambia,” he said.
Muchima said a tribe that could enhance peace was needed.
Sikota said tribal groupings were not good for the country.
“Those politicians who come to appeal to you on the basis of tribe, those should be given a red card. For us, we will receive your blue card,” said Sikota.
Labels: MMD, RUPIAH BANDA, SOLOMON MUZYAMBA, TRIBALISM
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Unwell Rupiah fails to address cadres
Written by Chibaula Silwamba and Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Thursday, July 09, 2009 5:37:30 PM
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda is sick, MMD Southern Province chairperson Solomon Muzyamba announced yesterday. And Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday described the Zambian President as "my Rupiah Banda."
Just before President Banda's departure at Livingstone International Airport, as Muzyamba was about to call upon him to address the people that gathered to see him off, President Banda called Muzyamba and quietly spoke to him.
After that, Muzyamba told the gathering that President Banda was not feeling too well.
"Good morning everybody, His Excellency is not feeling too well, he would want to leave. So he will not say anything besides bidding farewell," announced Muzyamba, as President Banda nodded his head. "It's very good he has shared with us the last four days."
Earlier, upon arrival at the airport, President Banda had an impromptu conversation for over five minutes with MMD spokesperson and local government minister Benny Tetamashimba, communications minister Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa, tourism minister Catherine Namugala, Southern Province minister Daniel Munkombwe, special advisor to the President Akashambatwa Mbikusita Lewanika and Zambia's Ambassador to Zimbabwe Dr Sipula Kabanje.
Tetamashimba was prominently explaining something while President Banda and others were nodding their heads in agreement but what they were discussing was not audible.
Efforts to get an interview with Tetamashimba over defence minister George Mpombo's resignation, proved futile as he angrily declined.
"Why should I talk to you? I can't waste my time on you because those people [ZAF plane] are waiting for me," said Tetamashimba. "I can't waste my time on you...to give you an interview. Don't waste my time. Just go back!"
And officiating at the Lwiindi lo Kuzyola Mukuni Ng'ombe traditional ceremony of the Toka Leya people of Livingstone and Kazungula districts on Tuesday, President Mugabe thanked President Banda for inviting him, on behalf of chief Mukuni, to the traditional ceremony.
"Your Excellency President Rupiah Banda, and my Rupiah Banda," said President Mugabe in the preamble of his speech as people in the VIP tent burst into laughter.
"This is my first visit to this place and therefore a novice and the novices do not always know what to say. But at least there is one thing that has struck me; it is the fact that here is a chief who trekked from Congo to this place sometime ago and by his own initiatives he educated himself and now uses that education and his initiative to establish a place of this nature."
He said if all chiefs were innovative like chief Mukuni, it would be easier for governments to develop their countries.
"Not only has he made this centre of and for tradition, where annually people assemble here from various parts of the country, he has also made it a tourist centre and tourism is not just a matter of building a place and decorating it with ornaments here and there and inviting people to come and admire the ornaments or the beauty of the place. It is indeed to do that for business. So there is that aspect also to use tourism to earn income," he said.
President Mugabe said chief Mukuni was using tourism to bring development to his community and his people.
"He is not a minister, he is not a member of parliament, he is a chief and chiefs are not known in various parts of our country to have this amount of initiatives," President Mugabe observed.
"Surely there are not many chiefs of this calibre and I want to say to chief Mukuni, well done. You are not just a chief and I think I would want to regard you as a chief of chiefs."
He urged other traditional leaders and politicians to learn from developmental initiatives that chief Mukuni had embarked on.
"If you want to know what to do for your people and how to do it, if you want to know how to unite the people and interact with other chiefs, other communities, if you want to know how to cooperate with governments, go to chief Mukuni across the [Zambezi] river there. He has actually written a book on how chiefs should work, how chiefs and their communities should interact, how chiefs and other chiefs should communicate and of course how chiefs and their government should cooperate," President Mugabe said.
"The initiative itself here that has seen this place transformed that is the wonder. How many of us are capable of doing it? If all chiefs were able to do this in their various areas, development would be much easier for governments."
President Mugabe said he did not know anything about chief Mukuni until President Banda telephoned him to forward the chief's request for elephants from Zimbabwe to be used for tourism purposes at his shrine in Livingstone.
"When President Rupiah Banda talked to me over the phone and I think he was in Livingstone here, he said he has been requested by chief Mukuni to submit a further request to me for some elephants to be, I take it, loaned to him or given to him by us from our side of wildlife so that they can be here at this centre and for purposes of tourism," President Mugabe said.
"I then went into the matter and I asked my minister of environment and tourism whether he knew anything about chief Mukuni and I think he has had some contacts from him and he said yes, he did. And I said, 'well there is the matter, if you discussed with him, you are the best person to handle this case.'"
He said subsequently during President Banda's recent state visit to Zimbabwe, the Zambian leader introduced chief Mukuni to him.
"He [chief Mukuni] talked to and he mentioned something about the elephants and I referred him to my minister. So the two met and spoke about the elephants, I think the problem about elephants has been settled between them but I don't see elephants here," President Mugabe said.
"Upon my arrival at this centre, I expected to see one or two of the elephants but perhaps they are yet to be introduced to the scene."
President Mugabe said Zambia and Zimbabwe were Siamese twins.
"The [Zambezi] river is just an artificial division. But we are one people," said President Mugabe.
And President Banda said President Mugabe was a role model for him and other true Africans who fought for independence.
President Banda said enemies of President Mugabe had failed to break the Zimbabwean leader.
"May I take this opportunity to say a few words about President Mugabe; President Mugabe is not only a role model for my colleague the minister for this province, he is a role model to all true Africans, Africans who fought for the independence of this country, Africans who cherished the African nationalism and that Africa must develop itself using the talent that is in its people," President Banda said.
"President Mugabe is such a person that everyone of us know, lesser men would not be standing where he is now. They would have been broken by the intrigues of his enemies and I am very proud that he is my guest and he accepted to come today in order to be our main visitor.
"I have no speech today as I have one of the most distinguished sons of Africa as my guest at this ceremony and I would like to give him an opportunity to speak to you."
President Banda said chief Mukuni was a selfless leader.
"It [Lwiindi lo Kuzyola Mukuni Ng'ombe ceremony] is the uniting factor to our Zambian people. It is uniting us with our neighbouring countries," said President Banda.
"You [Mukuni] you are a great example of a leader who leads by example, a leader who works hard and a leader who is selfless and does everything for his people. This is one of our areas in Zambia which will produce some of the most educated Zambians."
Meanwhile, senior chief Mukuni of the Toka Leya people, through his representative Malumo Siaga, asked the government to divide Southern Province into two provinces - the plateau and the valley area.
"Our humble request to the government is that when the colonial government created regions the sharing of the cake between the people of the valley and plateau was not fair. We request you to divide the province into two parts from Livingstone to Choma being one and the other from Choma so that it is easier to administer. We, however, do not want to secede from the province," said chief Mukuni.
"We are people who believe in self reliance through the Mukuni Development Trust."
Sources here have indicated that chief Mukuni and chief Moonze of the Tonga are competing to be declared paramount chief in Southern Province, which has no paramount chief at the moment.
On Monday, chief Moonze requested President Banda's government to recognize him as paramount chief.
Labels: CEREMONIES, LWIINDI, MUGABE, RUPIAH BANDA, SOLOMON MUZYAMBA
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