MCP supporters to march for Tembo ouster
Police have given permission to a group of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) supporters to march on Wednesday and present a petition to party leadership calling for the resignation of party president John Tembo.
The march has been organized by a group calling for party reform and resignation of Tembo which is led by former spokesman of the party, Ishmael Chafukila.
The group will hold a media conference on Wednesday in Lilongwe and then involve the party supporters in marching to present a petition.
According to the ground for Tembo’s ouster to be included in the petition sourced by Nyasa Times is that Tembo is a leader who knows “only one style of leadership- shout, threaten and silence for good if all fails.”
The movement argues that it has braved the aggressive and uncompromising character of Tembo to call for his resignation as the leader of our party because they strongly believe that contrary to a common belief that Tembo has built MCP, the party survived because of the work of many dedicated Malawians who have hung in there to keep the legacy of Kamuzu Banda going.
“Hon Tembo has in fact been an architect of MCP bad fate for many reasons. Hon Tembo will never be president of Malawi, no matter how long he tries to run for presidency through MCP. This is the reason we will force him to leave our party by resigning. “
The movement accuses Tembo for reducing MCP from a vibrant political party under the Late Ngwazi Dr H Kamuzu Banda into now a party managed from the back room of his house in area 10.
“He sold the Party Headquarters to NICO for K30 million and no one knows what he has done with the money. Aspiring MPs were not funded they had to use their own resources despite Hon Tembo receiving a lot of donations during the campaign,” the group alleges.
“A leader must know when it is time that his political capital has been exhausted. Hon Tembo does not know an end to a road- so he has to be forced out. He does not realise that he is in fact the main reason why we have been losing.”
The group also vehemently support that the opposition block in the National Assembly should be able to elect their leader and that Tembo should not be an automatic holder of the title as stipulated by the standing orders.
However, MCP spokesperson Nancy Tembo said the matter is an internal feud of MCP which she hoped would be resolved.
She said the proposal on electing a leader of the opposition by the whole parliament including government side will be bad for democracy.
“What is being proposed now is that the whole purpose should be electing leader of opposition. This will not enhance democracy,” said Tembo.
“I think the provision should be left as it is. Let’s not attach faces,” she added.
Civil rights activist Justin Dzonzi said the National Assembly can regulate how it should do its business.
The demonstration of MCP supporters will be in Lilongwe with a petition presented at party headquarters.
In Malawi, demonstrations by opposition supporters are normally not allowed by the security forces on “security reasons”.
Tagged with: Chafukila, MCP, parliament, Tembo
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