Nevers Mumba is lying – Nyangu

MMD deputy national secretary Chembe Nyangu has accused party president Nevers Mumba of having been aware of the injunction restraining the convening of the national executive committee (NEC) meeting.

And Mr Nyangu says he will soon leave the MMD to do “something constructive in his life” because he is tired of advising party members who do not heed his counsel.
Mr Nyangu said in an interview yesterday that Dr Mumba was informed about the injunction but he opted to deliberately defy it.
“How can he says he never heard about the court order when I phoned him, including new national secretary Muhabi Lungu, vice national chairman Edgar Keembe and Levy Ngoma [Sinda member of Parliament]?. They knew about the injunction before the meeting started,” he said.
Mr Nyangu said he phoned Mr Lungu to find out why Dr Mumba was not answering his mobile phone and immediately after talking to Mr Lungu, Dr Mumba called him and refused to accept the injunction.
“I called Muhabi informing him that there is an injunction because I don’t want to go to prison. So, I asked Mr Lungu where Dr Mumba was and he told me that he was around,” he said.
Mr Nyangu said he advised Dr Mumba and chairperson for legal affairs Bradford Machila not to proceed with the meeting but the two said there were no court orders issued on Sunday.
“Dr Mumba told me that he did not want to hear anything concerning the injunctions because these were politics and I should not play politics,” he said.
Mr Nyangu said the order was issued in his name as an agent of the party and he duly advised Dr Mumba not to proceed with the meeting.
He said he proceeded to Kapingila House, where the meeting was held to personally show the court order to Mr Keembe, who convened the meeting.
Mr Nyangu said he showed Mr Keembe the court order and left the venue of the meeting because he did not want to be cited for contempt of court.
He said he advised Dr Mumba against using people who are not NEC members to elect the national secretary and going ahead with the meeting because he would be challenged by members who obtained the injunction.
Mr Nyangu said when he walked out of the meeting, Mr Ngoma followed him to find out why he was leaving.
“I told him there is a court order addressed to me stating that this meeting should not go ahead and I did not want to be cited for contempt of court for being part of the gathering,” he said.
When contacted for a comment, Dr Mumba refused to comment on the matter but maintained that he did not see the court order.
“If there was any illegality, the chairman for legal did not see the document and our lawyers were there, they did not see the document. The truth of the matter is that I did not see the order,” Dr Mumba said.
And Mr Keembe said he learnt about the court order from Mr Ngoma who got the information from Mr Nyangu.
And some MMD youths backing NEC members calling for the holding of an extraordinary convention yesterday camped at the MMD secretariat in a bid to block Mr Lungu from entering the office.
The youths, who arrived at the MMD secretariat around 10:00 hours, vowed not to allow Mr Lungu to enter the office claiming that he was illegally elected as national secretary.
On Sunday, Dr Mumba defied an interim injunction restraining the party from convening a NEC meeting to fill the vacant position of national secretary.
In his ruling delivered on Sunday, Lusaka High Court judge Eddie Sikazwe ordered that Mr Nyangu be restrained from convening a NEC meeting to elect the national secretary of MMD until further order of the court or until determination of the matter.