17 November 2008
MMD spokesperson, Benny Tetamashimba, has said the issue of President Rupiah Banda leading the party should be left to the party national executive committee (NEC).
Mr Tetamashimba also said the MMD would conduct a comprehensive post-mortem to ascertain the causes of its dismal performance in Northern, Luapula, Copperbelt, Lusaka and Southern provinces during the last polls.
Mr Tetamashimba said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that President Banda should now be allowed to perform his duties as Republican president because the general public expected a lot from him.
"I want to urge the MMD members and my fellow leaders that we should leave the issue of President Banda taking over as party leader to our NEC.
"No one has disputed the need for the president to take over and the NEC has heard. Therefore, there is o need for us to continue talking about the matter," he said.
He said that MMD members should continue helping Mr Banda so that he could continue addressing various issues affecting the people of Zambia such as poverty.
"Zambians have very high expectations from President Banda and it is our duty to help him fulfill that," said Mr Tetamashimba, who is the new Local Government and Housing minister.
The MMD has no substantive party president following the death of President Levy Mwanawasa while elections for party vice-president were frozen during the last convention.
Mr Tetamashimba said the MMD would carry out a comprehensive examination of its performance in Northern, Lusaka, Copperbelt, Southern and Luapula provinces with a view to taking some remedial measures.
He said it was common knowledge that the party did not do as expected in the five provinces and, therefore, any party members expected the national leadership to come up with some measures to address the situation.
Mr Tetamashimba said any changes in leadership in the affected provinces could, however, only be effected after ascertaining the causes of the poor performance.
The ruling party lost to the opposition in most of the constituencies in the five provinces during the presidential election.
Meanwhile, Energy and Water Development Deputy Minister, Lameck Chibombamilimo, has called for unity among the various organs if the party is to win future elections.
Giving a post-mortem of the last elections, Mr Chibombamilimo, who until last Friday was Northern Province minister, said the party did not perform as expected in the province owing to differences in various organs.
In a statement in Lusaka yesterday, Mr Chibombamilimo said during campaigns for the presidential election, it was evident that there was no unity in the party.
He said when he was in Mpulungu to campaign, it was clearthat the opposition Patriotic Front (PF) was stronger because the MMD was not working as a united front.
As a result of the sour relationship, as provincial minister, he failed to share Government's programmes with the various organs of the party. He said that he made several attempts for the reorganisation of the provincial executive committee.
He said the party in the province should not hesitate to remove from office those that failed to perform their duties.
Mr Chibombamilimo said out of fear of being hated, there was a tendency to let people continue occupying offices even when it was clear that they were not performing.
He was particularly happy with the support he received from provincial chairperson, Griever Sikasote and President Rupiah Banda during the campaign period.
"In my experience with some senior civil servants in Northern Province, it is clear that some of them are not helpful enough to political leaders in their assignments," Mr Chibombamilimo said.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Times of Zambia. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
