By Patson Chilemba
Mwenya Musenge has pointed the finger towards Home Affairs permanent secretary Josephs Akafumba as the one behind his removal as National Democratic Congress (NDC) faction leader.
And Musenge said he is not ashamed to say that he has been embarrassed politically following his removal as leader.
Speaking with Daily Revelation following the decision by the leadership to remove him from his post, Musenge charged that Akafumba was the one sponsoring the confusion.
However, going by Musenge’s argument that Akafumba is still heavily involved in politics, then Akafumba is flouting the civil service regulations which forbid civil servants from engaging in partisan politics.
“There is a hand in all this confusion and it’s unfortunate that everything, there is a lot that is pointing unfortunately to my big brother the PS Home Affairs, Mr Akafumba,” Musenge said, after being pressed to mention the invisible hand he continued mentioning early into the interview, accusing those who removed him of committing an illegality and warning that there will be a break down in the rule of law if individuals just rise up, hold a press briefing to say they did not want “this leader.”
“That is indiscipline and mischievousness of the worst kind. And secondly I suspect that there is a hand involved in whatever those promising young leaders were doing. I know for sure that there has been a bit of difference in opinion and my style of leadership was a bit different to their expectation,” Musenge said. “Probably they thought I was going to be a vuvuzela which they realized that it was not going to work that way.”
Musenge said he regarded Akafumba as his brother “who appointed me as president”, saying he had enjoyed a cordial relationship through and through “but my conviction tells me that there is a hand. There is a hand. There has been some serious interference in our running of the party by external forces, external individuals.”
Asked how he felt that after having fought protracted fights leading to his expulsion from the NDC of Saboi Imboela, he was now in trouble with the faction which emerged from the former NDC also, Musenge said he was convinced to join hands with Akafumba’s faction because he was told by Akafumba that they were a mature group.
“Now the turn of events has clearly indicated and showed to me that we have not attained that level of leadership among ourselves. So how do we progress from here? Not to escalate more confusions in the party, one has to make a decision. Even amidst all this confusion, even where I know that whatever is being done is illegality, it’s not right, it’s total indiscipline and mischievousness by the people who are doing it, you take a step,” Musenge said. “And the step that I have taken is not to be a center of confusion but withdraw and give room to our colleagues and do whatever they want to do.”
He said he has been embarrassed in the manner he was treated.
“So today yes here I am being embarrassed in the manner that I have been embarrassed by my colleagues but that is not the end of the day,” Musenge said. “Yes indeed they have embarrassed me because that is not right to do whatever they did. And I am not ashamed to accept that it is a huge embarrassment to me politically, but I know that whatever I did for the party and whatever I do I do with a very clear conscience of honesty and dignity.”
He said the life of a politician never finished, saying even Nelson Mandela assumed the presidency after having spent 27 years in jail. But asked if his presidential aspirations have been dashed after being dropped from his position, Musenge said: “I have never envisaged such a dream to say I should rule Zambia or become president so all I have strived to do is to contribute to better governance, good politics of this country.”
More @ www.dailyrevelationzambia.com
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