
MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba says the ruling party intends to write to the Netherlands Institute for Multi-party Democracy (NIMD) to express its concern about unfolding reports that the institute is allegedly funding the opposition Patriotic Front (PF) to spearhead regime change.
This follows revelations by Committee of Citizens executive director Gregory Chifire that NIMD and the PF have allegedly entered into a working relationship to directly fund the latter contrary to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) which NIMD signed with ZCID.
Dr Kalumba said yesterday in Lusaka that it would be a deceptive act by NIMD to pick on one political party and fund it directly because the MoU it signed with ZCID was done in good faith and it pledged to work with all political parties both outside and inside Parliament.
“My own view about the matter is that ZCID should not be a victim. We should find alternative funding for it. The ZCID concept is to create a good platform for resolving conflicts between political parties,” he said.
Dr Kalumba said ZCID should remain independent because it has seen a number of positive developments with one of them being the National Constitutional Conference which is its brainchild.
He appealed to well-meaning donor communities with no hidden agenda to financially support ZCID as a way of deepening inter-party dialogue and democracy in the country.
Dr Kalumba said there should be no donors to selectively sponsor political parties of their choice in order to advance certain hidden motives because ZCID is there to strengthen various political parties’ capacity.
“Selective funding of one political party by NIMD will defeat the concept upon which ZCID was founded and will mean that NIMD is not an honest partner,” he said.
Dr Kalumba said there is need for various political parties in the country to sit and find alternative ways of funding ZCID either through subscription or engagement of honest co-operating partners.
And in a statement issued on Friday, Mr Chifire alleged that the PF has entered into a working agreement with NIMD and that a separate account has already been opened to sponsor campaigns to spearhead regime change.
“Under the NIMD/ZCID MoU, the parties agreed that the NIMD shall only fund political parties that are members of the ZCID through ZCID itself in equal proportions,” he said.
And according to latest letters of correspondence between ZCID and NIMD, the latter has given the former strict benchmarks on which to access funding, failure to which the donor will suspend the aid.
In a plan of action for the contract for ZCID funding written by NIMD regional director for Africa Jasper Veen and dated April 16, 2010, ZCID has been given the requirement to fulfil before NIMD can sign a contract for this year.
“The ZCID board will ensure that its secretariat has sufficient staff capacity in place, meaning a new executive director and new programme officer are contracted before June 30, 2010.”
“ZCID will closely involve NIMD in its institutional set-up as long as it remains the main financial contributor. This entails that NIMD needs to be involved in the recruitment of new staff members,” one of the conditions reads in part.
Under the same conditions, ZCID will be required to inform NIMD about any external funding acquired and substantial changes in plans as a result of additional funding by others that will require prior approval by NIMD.
And sources said under the staff recruitment conditions given to ZCID, NIMD has already identified persons to fill positions of ZCID spokesperson and executive director and that the people for such positions should be PF sympathisers.
But when contacted for a comment on the matter, PF vice-president Guy Scott said such allegations about his party entering into a working relationship with NIMD are false and being perpetrated by MMD supporters.
Dr Scott said his party is ready to be investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission and other agencies by checking through all PF bank accounts to see if there is any one of them with funds from NIMD.
[Zambia Daily Mail]