Zambia’s main opposition sacks own leader

Zambia’s largest opposition party, the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD), on Saturday said it had fired its leader Nevers Mumba amid signs of party in-fighting.

Party national secretary Richard Kachingwe announced the expulsion in a statement saying Mumba belonged to another party and could not serve two masters.

“Mumba is a member of another political party, in fact he is president of another party as can be seen from the records at the registrar of societies.

“The constitution of our party does not allow dual membership,” said Kachingwe. The MMD is a former ruling party.

The outspoken and powerful Mumba was previously leader of the National Christian Coalition (NCC) before being appointed vice president in 2003.

This year he took over the reigns of the MMD, a party famed for ending the one-party rule of founding president Kenneth Kaunda in 1991.

The MMD lost power to the Patriotic Front (PF) in last year’s elections. It has since been engulfed by internal wrangling.

Lusaka based political analyst Dante Saunders said the expulsion of Mumba would debilitate the MMD which is battling to regain popularity.

“This is certainly going to weaken the party. The MMD has had problems but what I now see is that these problems are getting worse,” said Saunders.