New Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) National Executive Committee (NEC) member, National Youth Treasurer Lengwe Cornelius Bwalya has called for calm among those that seem to be perturbed at the number of MMD NEC members and MPs that have been expelled from the party by using a Bemba adage which says “Pafwa abantu, pashala abantu” (People die, people remain). He said in the life of any organization, time comes when old, tired members have to leave and allow room for new blood to come on the scene to save it from extinction and this is exactly what is happening in the MMD.
Speaking on the UNZA Radio program called “Lusaka Star” on Tuesday 10th January 2015, Mr. Bwalya informed listeners that he is one of the new youthful members on the party’s governing body and is excited to serve the party that he has loved and been passionate about for a long time.
He said he was privileged and honored to have recently been on President Nevers Sekwila Mumba’s campaign team across the country for three weeks running up to the 20th January 2015 Presidential election which gave him a rare opportunity to personally interact with Dr. Mumba and senior members of the party such as National Youth Chairman Hon. Howard Kunda and others. He said the insights he learnt during the entire campaign also gave him a rare opportunity to learn what the situation is like on the ground and appreciate the challenges that the people of Zambia, particularly those in the rural areas, face on a daily basis.
Mr. Bwalya, who is former Copperbelt University President called on his fellow youths countrywide to resist the retrogressive and pointless culture of being exploited and used as tools of violence by selfish politicians who pay them K50 and Chibuku to cause violence. He gave a moving account in which he was recently caught up in an incident involving former MMD Youth Chairman Watson Mtonga who stormed the MMD Secretariat with five other youths hired by old party members opposed to Party President Dr. Mumba. They caused mayhem, roughed up party officials and assaulted Mr. Bwalya and injured him. He said he did not retaliate but simply went to the hospital to be attended to and then later reported the matter to the police.
He lamented at the wasted lives of such young people and explained that these are not the kind of youth Dr. Mumba wants to mentor and raise, but he is looking for visionary young men and women with a desire to be useful citizens of the country, who will not allow themselves to be used by selfish politicians. He called on his fellow youth who would like to join MMD to get to know Dr. Mumba who he said they will find inspirational and who will encourage them to positively contribute to nation-building as young people.
Mr. Bwalya said he is happy that the party gathered the courage to expel some of the old rebellious leadership and called on fellow youth from tertiary institutions such as University of Zambia, Cavendish University, Copperbelt University, and others to organize themselves and become part of the solution by joining parties like the MMD under the visionary leadership of Dr. Mumba.
The usual well-known organized UPND cadres started calling one after another to discourage Mr. Bwalya with their usual ‘song’ that MMD was dead and that they disband and join the UPND. Several callers called in to encourage Mr. Bwalya and urged him to ignore these well-known UPND cadres. Mr. Bwalya said the rebel members had no respect whatsoever for the party leadership and the MMD constitution as they wanted to rule the party based on greed and selfish ambition.
He wondered why these members have opposed a democratically elected president. They should have known that the MMD Constitution does not have any provision for the imposition of a presidential candidate, like they had hoped to do in the Rupiah Banda case, when there is an elected president.