MTONGA

By BRIAN HATYOKA and PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE-
FORMER MMD Lusaka constituency youth chairperson Jacob Mtonga says it is good that National Executive Committee (NEC) members have realised that the party is headed for total collapse under its leader Nevers Mumba.
Mr Mtonga was among the ringleaders when the anti Nevers campaigns started in 2012 along with former party national secretary, Richard Kachingwe.
“It is good that people in the NEC have realised that Dr Mumba is taking the party nowhere. We said this before but no one wanted to listen,” he said.
He said in an interview yesterday that it was sad that they were not heard when they called for Dr Mumba to leave the party.
Mr Mtonga, who had since defected to the United Party for National Development (UPND) and was the acting Lusaka provincial district youth chairperson, said it was now too late for other members to call for a convention because the party had no money.
He said MMD would never recover from its wrangles and financial blues because its leaders were not focused.
Meanwhile, the MMD in Southern Province has rejected calls from some senior party members to hold an extra ordinary national convention to elect new leaders.
Provincial chairperson Oliver Pelete said the position of the party in the province was that calls for the convention were baseless because there was no crisis in the former ruling party.
Mr Pelete said in an interview yesterday that the provincial leadership had already written to the party secretariat in Lusaka that it was not in support of hosting an extra ordinary national convention.
“The reasons that have been advanced by those championing the hosting of the national convention don’t hold any water.
“For instance, you cannot blame one individual such as MMD president Nevers Mumba for our failure to win by-elections,” Mr Pelete said.
He said MMD was not the only party that was losing by-elections but that opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) and the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) were also losing some by-elections.
“We have won some by-elections and lost some and this is the trend with UPND and PF so you can’t blame an individual,” Mr Pelete said.
He said Southern Province was solidly behind the leadership of Dr Mumba as he was the correct leader.
“If MMD has to win the 2016 elections, we need Dr Mumba to remain as party president. Further, Zambia is a Christian nation and we need a man of God if we are to succeed as a party,” Mr Pelete said.
Recently, MMD vice presidents Michael Kaingu and Brian Chituwo, as well as party spokesperson Dora Siliya called for the holding of the extra ordinary national convention to choose new leaders.