Nevers resigns from position, active politics

MATHEWS MALAZIKA Lusaka NEW Nation Party (NNP) leader Nevers Mumba has resigned from his position and active partisan politics, saying he is redefining his service to Zambia at a time when the country needs greater healing, reconciliation and national unity. Dr Mumba announced…

MATHEWS MALAZIKA

Lusaka

NEW Nation Party (NNP) leader Nevers Mumba has resigned from his position and active partisan politics, saying he is redefining his service to Zambia at a time when the country needs greater healing, reconciliation and national unity.

Dr Mumba announced the decision at a media briefing in Lusaka, saying NNP vice president for administration Reuben Sambo will take over the leadership of the party.

He has also resigned from the United Party for National Development (UPND) Alliance Council of Presidents, with Mr Sambo expected to replace him.

Dr Mumba said his decision does not amount to retirement from public service, but what he described as a “redefinition of service”.

He said President Hakainde Hichilema now faces a responsibility similar to that which confronted former President Kenneth Kaunda, who, like the current Head of State, had no living former president from whom to seek counsel.

Dr Mumba said the responsibility of providing counsel to the President and promoting national unity has consequently assumed greater importance among Zambia’s former vice-presidents.

“It is true that we have five living former vice-presidents at the moment. You may not believe it, I’m the youngest of them all. In Chinsali and African tradition, the younger one carries the bag. So, I accept that responsibility,” he said.

He disclosed that he has already met President Hichilema to explain the role he intends to play and said the President has accepted the decision and offered his support.

Dr Mumba’s decision marks another major transition in a public life that has spanned the church, politics and diplomacy.

Born in 1960, Dr Mumba first rose to national prominence as a Pentecostal pastor and evangelist.

He founded Victory Bible Church and Victory Ministries International in the early 1980s and became widely known as a televangelist, with his preaching reaching audiences in Zambia and beyond.

His transition from religious ministry to politics followed his founding of the National Christian Coalition (NCC), which later became the National Citizens’ Coalition.

The organisation emerged as a Christian political movement before becoming a political party, with Dr Mumba contesting the 2001 presidential election as its candidate.

He subsequently joined the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) and was appointed Vice-President by President Levy Mwanawasa in 2003, serving until 2004.

He later served as Zambia’s High Commissioner to Canada before returning to active party politics.

Dr Mumba eventually became MMD president and remained a prominent opposition figure before the party joined the UPND Alliance.

The MMD was later renamed the New Nation Party last year.

Reflecting on his latest decision, Dr Mumba said Zambia needs leaders capable of putting national interests above partisan politics.

He also said the NNP has been vindicated in its assessment of President Hichilema’s economic agenda, pointing to the ruling alliance’s recent electoral success and describing the economic progress recorded under the President as unprecedented. https://enews.daily-mail.co.zm/welcome/home