. Mumba

By REBECCA MUSHOTA and CHUSA SICHONE –
THE MMD will make it mandatory for parents to take their children to school, party president Nevers Mumba has said.
Dr Mumba said on a Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation television programme ‘Know Your Candidate’ that if elected on January 20, the MMD would make it mandatory for every parent to take their children to school.
He said Zambia would remain under-developed if the younger generations were not educated.
Dr Mumba said even to attain real democracy, there was need for every citizen to receive basic education.
“We want to give every child an opportunity in education because whatever I am today, was made possible because of education,” he said.
Dr Mumba said education had the power to transform a poor child in the rural area to an independent individual who could help develop the country.
As pioneers of democracy in Zambia, he said, MMD wanted to ensure that Zambia was a proper democratic country which could be an example in the region.
He also said MMD would undertake a massive infrastructure development programme that would include putting down the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and rebuilding it into a modern structure.
Meanwhile, Dr Mumba has reported the party’s Members of Parliament and former President Rupiah Banda to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) for using the party’s name while supporting the United Party for National Development and PF.
Dr Mumba told Journalists in Mansa yesterday that what the “rebel” MPs and Mr Banda were doing under the pretext of representing MMD was tantamount to abrogating the electoral regulations.
“Those MPs that have gone out there to try to masquerade as representing our party, I issue a strong warning to both the people supporting president Banda, who have gone to PF, they should not mention MMD in their campaigns.
“We are reporting to the Electoral Commission of Zambia because it’s the abuse of the electoral regulations, that they are abusing our name,” he said.
Dr Mumba reiterated that the MMD was not in any alliance with the PF and UPND and thus charged that the MMD parliamentarians who had decided to support other parties were doing what he termed as “prostitution of the highest level”.
MMD national secretary Mwansa Mbulakulima said threats by ECZ to ban campaigns owing to violence was retrogressive as the Commission was aware of the parties that were perpetuating violence and wondered why it was not bold enough to sternly deal with them.
Mr Mbulakulima said the situation was very fertile for the MMD to bounce back in power on January 20 as the former ruling party was the strongest, had a clear manifesto, good governance and economic prosperity record.