NEWLY elected Eastern Province UPND chairperson Johabie Mtonga says his main preoccupation is to make party leader Hakainde Hichilema win next year’s elections.
In an interview, Mtonga who replaced Paul Thole said there was no winner and no loser in the just ended intraparty elections.
“I congratulate those people who won together with me and the electorates. The other issue is that in our just ended intraparty elections, there is no winner and no loser because we are all UPND,” he said. “And we have got one goal to achieve and that is to mobilise the party and make Hakainde Hichilema win in 2021. That’s the biggest task that I and the entire UPND have.”
Mtonga said his duty was to bring the party together.
“My duty is to talk to my friends who did not succeed so that we continue working towards achieving our common goal. As a team leader in the Eastern Province I want to work together with those who lost and those who won. We must come together because as UPND, we have got many things to share as a party in the province,” he said.
Mtonga said his immediate task was go to all the districts to harmonise the party members following the elections.
“We have to go into these districts and harmonise our members. You know when you have these intraparty elections, you have people supporting various candidates but we have to bury all the differences and work together,” he said.
Mtonga thanked the previous executive which was led by Thole for keeping the party alive during their tenure.
“It was not an easy thing for us to find the party intact to date. It was not an easy thing for us to find the party that is now very attractive to everybody,” he said. “For this I say thank you to the former committee that they did a great job. The duty of the new team is to start where our colleagues left and move forward because people expect a lot of things from us. We must make sure that we show leadership to the public.”
Mtonga urged those who want to join the UPND to do so because the door was open.
Mike Tembo is the new vice-chairperson, Paul Daka is the secretary and Alex Phiri is the new treasurer.
Godfrey Mapili is the new provincial information and publicity secretary replacing the outspoken Victor Mbuzi who served for 15 years.