MCP ‘dissident’ Jumbe says can’t join DPP

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) lawmaker Felix Jumbe has said he is being deemed as party “dissident”, saying despite rank and file plot to to frustrate him, he will not quit for ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Jumbe who was campaign director of MCP has been demoted in recent executive committee shake up by party president Lazarous Chakwera, giving him new role as second deputy director for strategic planning.

“This is a demotion and I will now be reporting to people who even failed to get a constituency,” said Jumbe in an interview published in the Weekend Nation on Saturday.

He also gave an interview to Times Television, saying there is a deliberate move to frustrate him in the MCP.

Jumbe said fellow members from MCP unsuccessfully championed his removal from the chairmanship of the parliamentary committee on agriculture.

“ It’s sad that all of a sudden I have become a dissident and my colleagues have completely forgotten all my contributions and sacrifices to the party. For your own information, I was the only one who was not being financed with fuel during the campaign period,” said Jumbe.

Jumbe described his relationship with the MCP president as “quite normal; that of a junior and his senior.”

He nonetheless said he is not a type of a person who would want to praise somebody.

Jumbe also dismissed speculation that he has joined DPP and described his political flirting with governing party leaders as relationship above petty politics.

“I haven’t joined DPP and I will never be DPP. All my parents were MCP and my father was a senior member of the party and he attended the first MCP convention,” said Jumbe.

“ When you see me with DPP ministers, it’s because I want the government to fix problems in my constituency like roads and hospitals. Most DPP ministers like Goodall Gondwe, Francis Kasaila and Patricia Kaliati speak highly of me because I am beyond party politics and when I am talking to them we discuss issues and policies that can develop this country.

“The problem is that the country is operating on an old operating system like a computer using Windows 95 in 2015. Party issues should not define us.”