Katele Kalumba attacks MMD NEC and defends Wife

By The Public - Tue Nov 22, 12:51 pm

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FORMER MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba has called for the resignation of the entire MMD national executive committee (NEC) to allow an interim committee to undertake an election postmortem, including sourcing funds to hold an extraordinary convention.

But MMD national secretary Richard Kachingwe says the MMD leadership is busy re-organising the party and will not engage in trivialities with Dr Kalumba.

Dr Kalumba said in an interview yesterday that the current NEC cannot have new thinking to conduct an objective postmortem when it failed to provide leadership during campaigns prior to the September 20 tripartite elections.

“The group had no strategy whatsoever, what new ideas will they provide to the party now? They will simply cover their own mistakes. If they have any moral or political sensitivity, they should step aside and allow an interim organising committee to undertake the postmortem,” he said.

Dr Kalumba said the interim committee should also look into campaign financing and how funds were used in the run-up to the tripartite elections, including funding which will be needed for the extraordinary convention.

He said the interim committee should also review the MMD constitution and propose corrective measures to issues like the abolition of the party vice presidency and the undemocratic practice of re-appointing people who have been rejected by the membership to NEC positions because this defeats democracy.

“For the sake of our national chairman Mr Michael Mabenga, he should know that there is a provision for an extraordinary convention in our party constitution,” Dr Kalumba said.

He said there are many funders of the MMD who are sympathetic enough to allow the MMD to go through a renewal of leadership.

“We need a renewed leadership that will allow new leadership to emerge to give hope to our members and not the same old faces like Katele Kalumba and Michael Mabenga. Our debate is not self-interest but how we can salvage MMD from going to the brink of collapse,” Dr Kalumba said.

He said there is a ‘crisis of faith’ in the MMD and the only way this can be addressed is through an extraordinary convention.

“The leadership we have now will pass judgement on former vice president George Kunda ,who was a partner to former President Banda and by all accounts was playing the role of vice president in the party when he was a trustee,” Dr Kalumba said.

He also said it is unfortunate that pressure groups with no constitutional positions like the Die Hard MMD Youth Wing are attacking him and his wife Lumba for speaking out on issues affecting the MMD.

“There is no provision in the MMD constitution for groups like Die Hard MMD Youth Wing and provincial task force chairmen, they are speaking with no locus standi in the party. Fundamentally, MMD was founded on the principles of open, transparent and truthful debate and that is what took us to Garden House motel, every member is protected by the MMD constitution to debate any issue, there is no issue that is sacrosanct.

“Let them know that Katele Kalumba and Lumba are the last of the human species on earth who can succumb to threats. We are least impressed with their threats, I cannot be threatened by political stalk borers,” Dr Kalumba said.

But Major Kachingwe says the MMD leadership is busy re-organising the party and will not engage in trivialities with Dr Kalumba.

“Those are his views and we will not comment on non-issues. Why do you want to turn me against my brother? That is the exact thing I told the Post Newspaper. We are busy organising the party and we don’t want to go into trivial issues,” Maj Kachingwe said.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

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