The Movement for Multi party Democracy (MMD) would soon table provincial committees’ petitions to have the party’s national convention postponed until after 2011 elections before the National Executive Committee (NEC).

MMD National Chairman Michael Mabenga said the MMD constitution provides that after more than six provincial committees have petitioned for an issue, that petition becomes valid and NEC must table it for discussion and arrive at a decision.

“You are the seventh or eighth province that has petitioned for the need for MMD convention to be deferred to a later date after 2011 elections. The party constitution says when six provinces submit petitions, that petition stands ground and must be discussed by NEC and the conclusion made,” he explained.

Mr. Mabenga said he was going to waste no time and would soon issue instructions to the secretariat to call for a NEC meeting so that the party can make a decision over the matter.

He was speaking yesterday when he addressed MMD district officials from the seven districts in the province who converged and conducted a solidarity march over the acquittal of second republican president, Dr Frederick Chiluba.

Earlier, Luapula province acting chairperson Crispin Musosha presented the petition to Mr. Mabenga demanding for NEC to defer the national convention to a later date after 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections.

And 84 opposition Patriotic Front (PF) members from Mwense district have resigned from the party to join the ruling MMD.

The 84 include PF district youth chairman Samuel Chungu, who led the defectors to announce their resignation.

Mr. Chungu said he was resigning from PF to join MMD which is a party that is governing and bringing development to the country.

In welcoming the defectors, Mr. Mabenga immediately distributed the MMD cards to all the 84 former PF members.

He said the defectors were coming back home and appealed to MMD members to accommodate them as part of the family.

Mr. Mabenga paid tribute to provincial minister Boniface Kawimbe and other well wishers who are helping to organise MMD in the province.

He said he has always worried about Luapula province because people in the area had disowned the party that they had helped to form.

He however said what he saw at the meeting was a testimony of the good work that the provincial minister and well wishers were doing to unify MMD.

He appealed to the people of Luapula to continue supporting MMD because its policies were aimed at developing the country.

Mr. Mabenga further advised the MMD members to be wary of the PF and UPND pact which he said was patched and only bent at peddling untruth that will not help to develop the country but only bring confusion.

“Be wary with the pact that is patched and full of lies. These lies never build, the lies never bring development and lies do not bring peace,” he said.

Before addressing the meeting, Mr. Mabenga was joined by deputy minister of local government Crispin Musosha, Luapula province minister Boniface Kawimbe, MMD deputy national secretary and scores of MMD cadres to observe a moment of silence for the late Local Government and Housing minister Ben Tetamashimba.

Mr. Mabenga told the MMD members that it was particularly difficult for him to stand and address them at the time the party and government were mourning the late Mr. Tetamashimba.

He said he was only compelled to address the cadres because they had already made adequate arrangements for the meeting.

Speaking earlier, MMD deputy national secretary Jeff Kaande warned that Chilanga MP Ng’andu Magande and Kafulafuta MP George Mpombo risk being charged and expelled from the party if the duo continues insulting government leaders.

Mr. Kaande said he has been restrained from acting against Mr. Magande and Mr. Mpombo in order to avoid unnecessary by-elections which he said were costly.

However, he charged that should the two members of parliament continue with their utterances against the MMD leadership, they would be pushing NEC too far and risk being ejected from MMD.

“The two MPs, Magande and Mpombo have been insulting government, but I have resisted to charge them simply to avoid by-elections which are costly. Instead of spending resources on these elections government wants to take the money into developing the country,” Mr. Kaande said.

“But if they want to push me further, I will not tolerate them. They should take this as a timely warning,” he added.

ZANIS

CHIEF Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha has said it is puzzling that former Finance minister, Ng’andu Magande’s can call on Government to state its position on whether it will appeal against former president Frederick Chiluba when he knows the law.

Lieutenant General Shikapwasha said in Lusaka yesterday that as a former Cabinet minister, Mr Magande was aware that the Government was committed to upholding the independence of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and would not interfere with its decisions.

He said in an interview that the Government did not want to comment on former President Frederick Chiluba’s acquittal because it did not want to influence the DPP’s decision.

Gen Shikapwasha was reacting to Mr Magande who asked the Government to tell the nation whether it would appeal against Dr Chiluba’s acquittal or not.

He said the DPP was constitutionally mandated to decide on behalf of the Government on matters of appeal in cases such as that of Dr Chiluba.

“The Government does not come up with positions on matters which have something to do with the DPP. It has nothing to do with the decision on whether to appeal or not. We did not give our position on Dr Chiluba’s acquittal because we did not want to sway the DPP’s mind because we wanted to uphold the independence of the office,” he said.

He said the Government had nothing to do with the decision on whether to appeal against any court verdict or not and urged the public, especially political leaders like Mr Magande to appreciate that fact.

Gen Shikapwasha, who is Information and Broadcasting Services minister, said according to the Republican Constitution, the office of the DPP was an independent entity, whose operation should not be influenced by any other office or individual.

He said it was equally puzzling that Mr Magande, who is a member of Parliament (MP) for the ruling party, could choose to rush to the media to discuss the issue when he had access to all the relevant offices including that of the DPP with whom he could have discussed the matter.

Gen Shikapwasha called on the people to take time and study what the law stipulates on various constitutional offices for them to fully understand their operations.

He said people should not politicise the office of the DPP because it was non-partisan which operated autonomously.

[Times of Zambia]

THE Times of Zambia has maintained its stand on a story published over former first lady Maureen Mwanawasa’s presidential ambitions.

Features editor Janet Ilunga said in Lusaka yesterday that the news story dated Friday September 4, 2009 and headlined “Maureen eyes presidency” was a result of an interview the newspaper had with her in relation to her life, one year after the passing of her husband, the late President Levy Mwanawasa.

Mrs Ilunga explained that the first interview was conducted on Monday August 31, 2009 in which Mrs Mwanawasa said she had a passion to lead the country but she did not have a platform to stand in 2011 because the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) had made a decision on a candidate.

Mrs Mwanawasa also said that she subscribed to the rules and regulations of the MMD, of which she was a member, and the electoral requirement that a presidential aspirant must be sponsored by a political party.[quote]

“At no time did Mrs Mwanawasa complain about any specific portion of the story except that she had been receiving phone calls from people who were threatening her and that she has created enemies that she had no capacity to handle,” Mrs Ilunga said.

She said the newspaper decided to conduct a second interview that was recorded on tape so that she could be given an opportunity to explain herself better and even there she repeated her passion for leading the country.

She said Mrs Mwanawasa reiterated that her political ambition was not new, as people even in the MMD had called on her to stand in 2011 to take over when Dr Mwanawasa was to retire.

“For us as a newspaper, we are surprised that Mrs Mwanawasa is saying we have refused to make a clarification when she did not state what she wanted corrected. She in fact said she had no problem with the feature which was based on the second interview so then where is the misrepresentation?” Mrs Ilunga said.

Mrs Mwanawasa was quoted in The Post newspaper in a story headlined, “Maureen refutes Times story on 2011 presidential ambition” as saying she was misquoted by the Times of Zambia.

Mrs Mwanawasa said she wanted to live a quiet and private life and politics was not part of her daily life.

She said she told the Times of Zambia reporter that she wanted to lead the country but did not know when the opportunity would arise.

[Times of Zambia]

President Rupiah Banda says MMD members are free to debate growing calls to postpone the party convention until after the 2011 tripartite elections.

Mr. Banda says such a debate is within the party’s internal democratic system.

The President says he is not afraid of being challenged by any MMD member particularly former Defence Minister, George Mpombo.

Mr. Banda was speaking to journalists at the Lusaka International Airport on Monday shortly before departure for the DRC to attend a SADC heads of State and government summit.

He said the ruling party will eventually make a final decision over the matter.[quote]

Mr. Banda wondered why people were more interested in issues surrounding the MMD convention leaving out other parties that have never held conventions.

Mr. Banda will only attend Monday’s session of the two day summit and return home later in the day.

And the MMD has warned that the party will expel its Chilanga MP N’gandu Magande and his Kafulafuta counterpart, George Mpombo, if they continue insulting the party.

Deputy National Secretary, Jeff Kaande says the National Executive Committee has resisted taking action on the two because it is avoiding parliamentary by-elections.

He says the two have for a long time been quoted in the media insulting the party and its leadership.

Mr. Kaande has dared Mr. Magande and Mr. Mpombo to challenge his warning saying he will deal with them after the burial of Local Government Minister, Benny Tetamashimba.

He was addressing hundreds of MMD cadres and supporters who staged a solidarity match in support of former President, Frederick Chiluba’s acquittal by the Lusaka magistrate court.

[ZNBC]

Opposition Patriotic Front (PF) in Solwezi district in Northwestern Province is saddened with the untimely death of Local Government and Housing Minister, Benny Tetamashimba.

This is contained in a press statement issued by Northwestern province PF political secretary, Friday Mulefwe in Solwezi today.

Mr. Mulefwe said the late Mr. Tetamashimba, who is also Solwezi Central Member of Parliament, would be missed for the radical decisions he made at Solwezi municipal council.

He said had it not been for the late Mr. Tetamashimba’s radical decisions, most of the projects could not have been undertaken in Solwezi.

Mr. Tetamashimba, 53, died after an illness at Lusaka’s University Teaching Hospital (UTH) on Saturday at around 19:30 hours.

Mr. Mulefwe has since conveyed his party’s heartfelt condolences to the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) and Mr. Tetamashimba’s family.

ZANIS

The Zambia for Empowerment and Development (ZED) has disclosed that it will officially launch its party on October 17, this year where it is also expected to unveil its full team.

ZED Interim President Fred Mutesa disclosed the development in an interview in Lusaka today.

Dr. Mutesa said the date was finally arrived at after consultations with the provincial leaderships in the eight provinces of the country where the party has so far been established.

He said the official launch and the unveiling of the party’s leadership has however delayed because of the provincial tour the party had embarked on after its formation in June this year.

“The Party was supposed to be officially launched this September but we have delayed because we were still conducting provincial tours of which we have so far being established in eight of the nine provinces in the country and are only remaining with Southern Province” he said.

Dr. Mutesa has further disclosed that the party will not take part in any parliamentary and local government by- elections slated for October 15 this year.

He however said the party will only decide if they will contests in future by-elections after the official launch although it has already resolved to contest for the 2011 general polls.

Dr. Mutesa added that the ZED party will hold its convention in the last quarter of next year after putting things in place in readiness for the 2011 general elections.

Dr. Mutesa said the party is also encouraged by the support it has received around the country since announcing its formation in June this year.

Dr. Mutesa said the party will work for the common good of the ordinary citizens in the country.

He said his party remains focused on extending citizens to political, independence and social empowerment.

ZANIS

The Lusaka City Council (LCC) says it will demolish structures built under ZESCO high voltage pylons.

LCC, Public Relations Officer Henry Kapata disclosed in an interview in Lusaka today that the council will in future demolish the structures near ZESCO high voltage pylons.

Mr Kapata said the Council will move in and demolish all structures that have been built under ZESCO pylons in Lusaka because the structures were a danger to property and human life.

He said the council has noted rampart illegal land allocations in Lusaka, by suspected MMD cadres hence the need for the council to move in and stop the act.[quote]

He said it is illegal for anyone to build under ZESCO pylons and the council will not allow the situation to continue.

Mr Kapata said the council has since, issued the residents with notices of demolitions adding that the council will this week visit the illegal structures to asses the situation.

Some residents in Lusaka’s Chawama compound and traders at Soweto market, have continued building permanent structures under ZESCO high voltage pylons despite numerous calls from ZESCO and the council to desist from the vice.

ZANIS