Nevers Mumba
And MMD national treasurer Mwansa Mbulakulima says the party is aware of three or four of its members of parliament who have been against Mumba and that these were the ones who were spreading lies.
During a briefing at the party secretariat on Monday, Nyangu said the MMD did not sustain Mumba’s lifestyle but that he fends for himself.
“These people are being malicious; the party does not sustain Dr Mumba, he fends for himself. Many times Dr Mumba has gone out of the country to go and preach and in that way he gets paid and that’s how he looks after his family. He is a pastor and he gets invited to international conferences, churches and so on. So to say that we should explain where he gets the money, I think we are being too petty. He has been a preacher all his life and time and again, he has preached elsewhere and he fends for himself. The party has not been sustaining him. All those stories are just innuendos aimed at character-assassinating Dr Mumba and they feel he is a threat,” said Nyangu.
And Mbulakulima accused some MMD members of parliament of trying to incite the party’s membership across the country to rise against Mumba.
“Mumba’s sources of income are personal issues, Dr Mumba has been around for sometime. Surely do we have to go and find out why he is in that house? We have to determine what kind of house he should occupy and what suit he should wear? Zambians know Dr Mumba and they know where he is coming from. That’s being petty,” he said.
Mbulakulima said the MMD was not the only party whose members of parliament made contributions to the secretariat, saying other political parties such as the UPND even got more than what MMD asked for from its members of parliament.
He said the contributions made by the members of parliament were utilised on the secretariat’s operations.
“The MMD is not the only party that asks its members of parliament to make contributions to the secretariat. If anything, we are the party that contributes less to the secretariat,” said Mbulakulima.
Some MMD members of parliament have accused Mumba of leading a lavish lifestyle and resolved to withhold their respective K2,500 monthly contributions for as long as he remained president.
But Mumba described what was happening in MMD as a fight of politics.
According to senior party sources, the members of parliament who have their K2,500 directly deducted from their salaries by the National Assembly to fund party activities were concerned with Mumba’s lifestyle, which they described as that of a very rich man.
And last year, Mafinga MMD member of parliament Catherine Namugala accused Mumba of asking MMD members of parliament to contribute more money, which she claimed was meant to finance his flamboyant lifestyle.
Mumba, however, dismissed the claim.
Mumba had proposed, among others, a K62,600 monthly expenditure budget for his personal emolument and operations of the MMD president’s office, records revealed.