Throw Back: Mwanawasa fires overzealous Nevers Mumba!

“I have removed him with immediate effect and revoked his appointment as nominated Member of Parliament also with immediate effect,” – Mwanawasa

Lusaka, Oct. 5, 2004 – Zambia’s President, Mr. Levy Mwanawasa, has fired his vice-president, Nevers Mumba, for making a public statement about a fugitive former Spy Chief without consulting the presidency.

Also Read: The Moral Paradox: Dr. Mumba’s hypocrisy exposed amidst electoral violations.

“I have removed him with immediate effect and revoked his appointment as nominated Member of Parliament also with immediate effect,” Mwanawasa said at a news briefing at State House late on Monday.

As of Tuesday morning, Lupando Mwape, a veteran member of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy, would step in as his deputy.

Former Spy Chief, Xavier Chungu, disappeared in June after being granted bail by a Lusaka court. He stands accused, along with former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, on several charges of fraud amounting to millions of dollars.

◾’I didn’t like it’.

President Mwanawasa said Mumba’s comment that Chungu was hiding out in the Democratic Republic of Congo was highly inappropriate. Congolese ambassador to Zambia, Jean-Marie Dikanga Kazadi, denied that Chungu had fled to his country.

Mwanawasa said the allegations could be true but said Mumba should not have made the comment publicly without consulting the Presidency.

“What is at issue is his subsequent remarks… and that he does not regret having made them,” Mwanawasa said. “I didn’t like it. If he does not regret it then I regret appointing him vice-president of this country,” Mwanawasa declared shortly before announcing Mumba was fired.

Mumba had been a popular figure following his tele-evangelism programme, ‘Zambia Shall be Saved’.

In 2001 he stepped into the political arena and contested presidential elections under the banner of the opposition National Citizens Coalition.

However with his new political role, his Christian support base dwindled and his presidential election campaign ended in failure.

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