Banda Says He Is Upset With Mumba And MMD For ABANDONING Him

Andrew Banda says he is upset with Nevers Mumba and the MMD for abandoning him ever since he and MMD cadre Thokozani Banda started appearing in a Katete court on a charge of unlawful wounding.
But Mumba says he cannot abandon Andrew because he is his dearest brother.
In an interview from Katete, where he was scheduled to appear in court yesterday, Andrew said the MMD leadership was aware of his case but the party was not doing anything to support him.
He said Mumba was aware of his court issue but was doing nothing to help him.
“The president is aware about this court case because when I was abducted, he is the one who took me to the hospital and later to the house. Since then, I have never heard from the president to find out whether I have recovered or to find out as to who is representing me in court. I have been coming (to Katete) at my own expense, and it’s very, very expensive and I have other more important things to attend to,” Andrew said.
He said the Katete case was a party matter and not for an individual.
“I and many other people delivered the candidate (Peter Kafunkha Phiri) to Parliament on the MMD ticket but to leave me and my co-accused Thokozani Banda unattended to and to just look at us, I am very, very disappointed. This shows that these people (MMD leadership) don’t care.
They appear and talk very nicely on TV or in newspapers on how they would like to lead the people of this country. If they fail to look after party members who are in situations like myself, can they look after 13 million people?” Andrew asked.
He said his case had been going on for the past one year and yet the MMD leadership had never phoned him to find out what was happening.
But Mumba said Andrew was one of his dearest brothers and that when the Mkaika case happened, he abandoned everything and took him to the hospital and then home.
He said when he left Eastern Province after the Mkaika by-election last year, he instructed the provincial chairperson to periodically update him on Andrew’’s condition.
“I have kept a close tag on the recent developments of all our people that were badly injured during the Mkaika by-election and I have continued taking keen interest in their court cases. My own lawyer who was representing me is the one who was put on that case also and so it’s not true that we don’t get updates on what is going on and I have made several attempts also to call him (Andrew). The number that I have been getting, I have not been getting through but I have ably been briefed about the progress regarding his situation,” Mumba said.
He said when a court case is protracted, very few people go to court to listen to it.
“I think that he (Andrew) just needs to be comforted. It’s true for all of us that are appearing in court, including his father, at the beginning of the case, people are all there for us but as it protracts, it takes long. We just remain with very few people. I am president and sometimes I just find out that I only go with five or seven people but at the beginning I have hundreds of them coming but at the end people are not there, and we should not get discouraged,” Mumba said.
Andrew and Thokozani have since denied the charge and trial is continuing.

Posted by Kunda on October 3, 2014. Filed under POLITICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry