The People\u2019s Party has suffered another major blow yet as its Vice President for the Southern region Brown Mpinganjira has resigned from his position and from the membership of the party.<\/p>\n
Mpinganjira\u2019s quitting of the party follows those of Sosten Gwengwe who was running mate to President Joyce Banda in the elections last year and of the party\u2019s Vice President for the north, Harry Mkandawire.<\/p>\n
Mpinganijira tendered in his resignation yesterday through the party\u2019s administrator.<\/p>\n
The three resignations have happened in a space of three weeks.<\/p>\n
In an interview yesterday, BJ, as Mpinganjira is popularly known, said he has resigned as he wants to concentrate on a \u201cwriting project\u201d.<\/p>\n
He declined to spell out the details of the project.<\/p>\n
Told that his departure, coming shortly after those of Gwengwe and Mkandawire, could be seen by others as a betrayal to the party at the time it needs its top officials to rebuild it after its humiliating defeat in the tripartite elections last year, Mpinganjira said the party has a functional system in place to thrive even with the departure of some of its senior members.<\/p>\n
\u201cParty business is teamwork. There is no single individual who is more indispensable above the collective membership of any party. In the case of the People\u2019s Party, it has a system, a system that is ticking. No individual member\u2019s departure can shake that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He described his resignation as only coincidental to those of Mkandawire and Gwengwe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a coincidence that we are leaving our positions and the party at the same time. While I was not readily in touch with Honourable Gwengwe, I was in constant touch with Honourable Mkandawire and his resignation surprised me also because I had no prior knowledge of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He dismissed the question that he is leaving the party so that he picks up a post in the administration of President Peter Mutharika.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe objective of every political party is to get into government. But if you do not succeed in that objective, it\u2019s not helpful to busy yourself with obstructing those that have been given the mandate by the people to govern.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving said that, my resignation should not be construed to mean I have been offered anything by the Peter Mutharika administration. I have a personal project to work on. Once that is completed, I may consider rejoining the People\u2019s Party or any other party,\u201d he said, adding his project shouldn\u2019t take too long.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pressed whether he would accept any cabinet appointment from Mutharika now that he is free from any political party strings, Mpinganjira said there are no vacancies in Mutharika\u2019s cabinet.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Mutharika promised to deliver a lean cabinet and he stuck to his word. So there is no space for anyone else in there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am content with the fact that I am a citizen of this country and I am available to render my assistance in whatever cause when given an opportunity to do so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
About his party, he said he appreciated it that its leadership had trusted him to work at its highest ranks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I can say now is that all of us have a responsibility to reduce political tension in the country. The progress of this country depends much on this. We need unity of purpose to move the country forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this country, we play politics every single day from one election to another election. If we had applied that energy we spend in needless politicking into development, this country would not have been in a poverty state it is in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Contacted for their comment, People\u2019s Party Publicity Secretary Ken Msonda said he was not aware of the resignation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if that is true, we have no problem with it. He is a free citizen and he has the right to do what he feels he has to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Msonda also dismissed the argument that the party has been dealt a particularly severe blow losing three senior ranking members within a space of three weeks.<\/p>\n
He said the resignations show that the party genuinely believes in democracy and by no means do the departures weaken the party in any way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The People\u2019s Party has suffered another major blow yet as its Vice President for the Southern region Brown Mpinganjira has resigned from his position and from the membership of the party. Mpinganjira\u2019s quitting of the party follows those of Sosten Gwengwe who was running mate to President Joyce Banda in the elections last year and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2755,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions\/2755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}