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| National |
| UDF says Makhumula requested for meetings |
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by
Aubrey Mchulu, 24 March 2003
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Presidential Affairs Minister Ken Lipenga said on Monday that contrary to what National Democratic Alliance (NDA) national chairman James Makhumula’s statement that President Bakili Muluzi invited him to dinner, it was Makhumula who requested for the meetings.
Reacting to Makhumula’s statement at an NDA rally in Ndirande Township, Blantyre on Saturday that Muluzi asked him to rejoin the UDF, Lipenga said the UDF does not wish to reveal what Makhumula said during the meetings with Muluzi.
“These meetings [dinners] he is talking about were held at his [Makhumula’s] request. Mind you the President meets a lot of people from all walks of life, including opposition leaders,” said Lipenga.
While saying that UDF does not want to engage in a mudslinging match with Makhumula, Lipenga said the public and NDA officials should know that whatever good Makhumula may say in the presence of NDA president Brown Mpinganjira is not the same that he says in his absence.
“Hon. Makhumula’s speech at the rally may have been for Hon. Mpinganjira’s ears just to please him,” said Lipenga.
Muluzi told a rally in Monkey Bay, Mangochi on March 2 that he does not have any problems with Makhumula, who, he said, was misled by NDA pressure group president Brown Mpinganjira to leave UDF.
“He was our treasurer general and I can welcome him back into the party any time he feels like coming back,” Muluzi said, adding Makhumula is a one of the most respectable people in the country.
But Lipenga, who described Makhumula’s revelations as “no big deal”, said it is sad that Muluzi’s positive compliments to Makhumula have provoked negative remarks.
In his one-hour address, Makhumula told the attentive Ndirande rally that recently Muluzi has invited him twice for private dinners at his private house in BCA Hills, Blantyre.
He said after the two separate dinners, Muluzi, in the company of Defence Minister Rodwell Munyenyembe, asked him to rejoin the UDF but he refused because “once beaten twice shy”.
Mpinganjira told the same rally that Muluzi’s praise of Makhumula has hidden motives but said it was pleasing that Muluzi has “set the record straight regarding Hon. Makhumula’s removal from UDF while Hon. Makhumula is still alive.”
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