Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) president Never Mumba says his party’s alliance with the UPND expired after the 2016 elections.

And Mumba says MMD is a viable party worth fighting for and he has since started re-organising the structures in preparation for 2021.

Meanwhile, Mumba says the party has asked the police command and all other government departments to evict the Felix Mutati-led faction from the secretariat.

Addressing the media at a briefing in Lusaka, Thursday, Mumba said MMD had not fallen out favour with the UPND, but that the contract signed two years ago expired.

“Yesterday, the National Executive Committee Of our party met here at Garden House to redefine our path to the future and ended up with several resolutions which will guide our party for the next five years. Today, I wish to announce only two of the many resolutions of yesterday’s meeting. Towards the end of September, I shall give a detailed National Media Address which shall spell out our New Hope vision. I shall outline the new politics and new direction of our Movement. In the meantime, I call upon all our members nationwide, who were discouraged and disappointed by what a few people attempted to do to our party, to start making their way back to the New Hope MMD. United we stand and divided we fall. The days of selfish conflicts are now behind us,” Mumba said.

“In May 2016, ahead of the general elections, our national executive committee passed a resolution to form an electoral pact with the United Party for National Development ahead of the election. A memorandum of understanding was publicly signed at Chinama Hotel to that effect. The pact proved to be a formidable force of energy towards the elections. The nature of the MOU was restricted to the elections of August 2016. We ran a great race together with our colleagues. We ran a good race together, learnt from each other, appreciated each other’s strengths and encouragement, laughed together, cried together campaigned together, hoped together.”

He said the party found it necessary to clear the air on the status of its alliance with the UPND in order to avoid confusion.

“The National Executive Committee at our sitting yesterday took administrative notice that the Alliance MOU expired with the United Party for National Development after the 2016 elections. But we also realised that the nation at large still believes that, that alliance exists, although it exists politically, but that contract that we drew expired immediately after the election in 2016. And it is important for us to know that it is nothing to do with whether we have fallen out with our colleagues or not, what has happened is that that document we signed expired. Efforts to re-do a new contract have not yet materialised or come to fruition. Having said this, I want to reaffirm the position of the MMD that it does not belong to any alliance,” he said.

And Mumba said MMD is a viable party worth fighting for.

“We are now re-organising ourselves for the 2021 election. Every party is re-organising itself, and the MMD is also preparing for the elections in 2021. Some question our sanity when we fight for this party. They say why is Nevers willing to die for a party that is finished? Why is he troubling himself when the party will never bounce back to power? And they this citing UNIP as an example, that since it lost power, it has never bounced back. But that is not scientifically proven. Just because one party failed to bounce back into power does not mean that we will fail as well. We are fighting for the MMD because it is a viable party. The reason we are going through what we have gone through is because anything viable will be fought. And because you were fought, it shows that there is something you can do if you re-organise yourselves. So, this is why today I have come to encourage all of you,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mumba said the party had informed the police command and all other government departments to evict the Mutati-led faction from the secretariat.

“When there is an issue, the first thing I do is tell my team to leave the secretariat and let issues be determined by the courts of law. I don’t want to throw any stone on our building. Now that the courts have spoken, it becomes natural that our collegues leave the secretariat on their own. We have informed the police command, and we have informed all wings of government that they go ahead and ensure that those people are out of that office,” he said.

“Our focus as MMD is to direct all energies on the rebuilding and healing of our party. We wish to thank our colleagues in the UPND for the partnership we have fostered over the past two years. We remain committed to each other on behalf of the Zambian people. Today, we start the second leg of MMD’s journey. Like our forerunners, who gave us hope for freedom and delivered on the promise, we give Zambia 3 New Hope to radically change the nature of our governance style. A new hope where anything and everything that has not worked in the past 28 years shall be abandoned and changed. We shall not religiously hold on to systems that have failed to eradicate corruption, poverty, disease, violence and perennial conflict.”