Mon, 22 Jan 2018 12:34:28 +0000
…tribal cliques dominate
By BENNIE MUNDANDO
National Democratic Congress (NDC) has modelled itself on the UPND, whose members are held hostage by a few people who make decisions that can not be questioned and have distinct tribal leanings, former UPND presidential spokesperson Edward Mumbi has charged.
“In its current form, the NDC is a true copycat of the UPND where tribalism, regionalism and lack of intra-party democracy is the order of the day and Zambians are watching what is happening in these parties,” Mr. Mumbi said.
Mr Mumbi said NDC and UPND politically are “birds of the same feather” whose foundation is anchored on tribalism, regionalism, and lack of intra-party democracy.
He maintained that members of the two political parties were held hostage by a few people who made decisions on their behalf and did not have a say in the affairs of the parties.
“The problem we have with some of these opposition political parties is that they believe that they are personal-to-holder entities where the founder members or those at the top cannot be questioned on decisions made whether good or bad thereby defeating the spirit of collective responsibility and therefore intra-party democracy does not thrive and growth suffers,” he observed.
Speaking to the Daily Nation yesterday, Mr. Mumbi maintained that the NDC, just like the UPND, was a tribal clique composed of frustrated politicians from the northern half of the country who had come together with the sole agenda of dislodging the PF from power for thwarting their activities while they were still in the ruling party.
He said contrary to NDC spokesperson Eric Chanda’s assertions that the party executive consisted of people from all parts of the country, information which could not be easily verified, what was clear was that all senior positions were the preserve of people from one region, a trend deep-rooted in the UPND hierarchy.
He said it was not surprising that before the NDC had availed its party manifesto and constitution to the Zambians, it was already promulgating the idea of sole candidacy, a development that was evidence of the party’s lack of intra-party democracy.
“There is no need for the NDC to defend itself over allegations that it is a tribal party because evidence is there for all to see. Look at the so-called senior leaders in the party and you will see that they are all from the same region. To make things worse, they already have a candidate for the 2021 elections yet we have never heard them going for a convention. Isn’t that being tribal? Isn’t that defeating intra-party democracy?
He said as long as it did not change the tribal inclination which has formed its nucleus, the NDC will fall into the same trap that UPND fell into and fail to grow.
“Tribal and regional inclination has very devastating effects and this is the ghost that has haunted the UPND. By now, UPND should have formed Government but because the party has embraced these bad vices, they are still in the doldrums even now and I don’t see them coming into power anytime soon because they do not seem to learn from their mistakes,” Mr Mumbi said.
