NDC faction ratifies appointment of Nyirenda, Sensele as president and vice-president respectively
By Edwin Mbulo in Kabwe
WE don’t belong to PF or have a soft spot for Chishimba Kambwili, says NDC faction interim president Sam Nyirenda.
A few months before the August 12, 2021 general election, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) split into two factions after its founder Chishimba Kambwili rejoined the PF.
While the side that had office bearers remained with then cive-president Josephs Akafumba, Kambwili handed over the other side to Saboi Imboela.
The Akafumba led faction went into an Alliance with the UPND ahead of the election while the other one supported PF.
But after being appointed permanent secretary in charge of administration in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security, Akafumba handed over the NDC presidency to Mwenya Musenge.
But Musenge was ‘overthrown’ by George Sichula.
However, about three weeks ago, Sichula also resigned after President Hakainde Hichilema appointed him trade and economic secretary at the Zambian High Commission in Nigeria.
He too handed over to Nyirenda who was his vice-president.
When Nyirenda became president, Paul Sensele who was member of the central committee in charge of tourism took over as vice-president.
The Kabwe meeting was therefore meant to ratify the appointment of the two.
And police in Kabwe on Sunday briefly stopped the NDC faction from holding its national governing council after being missinformed that members were supporters of Chishimba Kambwili.
In a statement after successfully holding the meeting at another venue as the original venue VK Motel was under heavy police surveillance, Nyirenda declared that the NDC will support the UPND so as help develope the nation.
“We have heard from social media accusing us that we have a soft spot for Chishimba Kambwili, but that issue is not there. We have nothing to do with CK, as NDC we have moved on and we have nothing to do with the PF. We only have one alliance and that is the UPND-Alliance,” Nyirenda said.
He thanked President Hakainde Hichilema and his leadership for trying to economically stabilise the nation.
Nyirenda said inflation has greatly impacted on the lives of Zambians but praised the UPND for using the Zambia National Service to stabilise the cost of mealie meal.
“We want the nation to be united and we don’t see why some of our colleagues seem to celebrate when we have not concluded the debt restructuring…we know that with debt burden our fiscal space is limited,” said Nyirenda.
And the party’s deputy secretary general Mutale Chewe said the national governing council meeting was a success and that ground work for a national convention had started as required by the Registrar of Societies.
And heavily armed police in several Toyota Land Cruiser pick ups and an amoured truck as early as after 07:00 hours on Sunday converged at Moldies Lodge where Nyirenda, his deputy Paul Sensele, and other national NDC leaders were lodged.
Sensele said the NDC was a law abiding political party and would corporate with the police.
He explained that confusion started when one disgrantled NDC member missinformed the police that the party was being financed by Chishimba Kambwili.