Tue, 18 Jul 2017 15:00:18 +0000
By BENNIE MUNDANDO
EDITH Nawakwi and her followers must immediately hand over power to the board of trustees and vacate the secretariat to pave way for arbitration or the party convention which should be done with full consultation and involvement of both parties, Yotam Mtayachalo has demanded.
Mr. Mtayachalo said FDD members were alive to machinations by Ms. Nawakwi and her group to call for a snap convention to disadvantage other members by excluding them from participating but warned that punitive measures would be taken against such schemes.
He said the High Court’s rejection of Ms. Nawakwi’s application to stay its judgment on arbitration meant that there was no functional leadership in the FDD currently and that any discharge of duty by anyone other than the board of trustees amounted to contempt of court and will not be condoned.
“The rejection by the court of Ms. Nawakwi’s application to stay the earlier ruling means that Ms. Nawakwi and the entire national committee ceases to discharge party functions as powers to run the party have effectively been transferred to the board of trustees and our lawyer will be writing to the board of trustees and also the party informing them officially that they must hand over power as quickly as possible.
“Ms. Nawakwi and the entire NCC must vacate the office immediately and if they do not do so, we are going to take radical action because members have the right to ensure that the party constitution is followed to the letter. That secretariat will only be manned by the board of trustees and the workers,” Mr. Mtayachalo said.
He urged the board of trustees to immediately take over the functions of the party until the time when a new executive would be ushered into office and advised them to execute their duties with impartiality.
“We therefore don’t expect the board of trustees to abdicate their responsibilities in line with the court order and the party constitution and so they must take over the running of the party immediately and commence the process of arbitration and should arbitration fails, then, the party’s board of trustees are empowered by the constitution to convene a national convention. This must be in consultation with both parties.
“We are not going to accept a situation where the chairperson of the board takes sides because he will be abdicating his responsibilities and so, that is our advice. We are aware that there are manoeuvres to call a snap convention that will exclude some members of FDD and I want to warn them that such will not happen because that will be tantamount to contempt of court because the court has denied them the stay meaning that the ruling is now in effect,” he said.
He said Ms. Nawakwi had no powers to call for a convention following the court’s decision and that the best she could do under the current circumstances was to appeal to the Supreme Court but noted that she did not have any solid ground to substantiate any claim.
He also advised workers employed by FDD against using their positions to fight political battles in the party as they were supposed to act as civil servants and not to take sides.
“Any member of staff who will be found taking sides and playing politics to disadvantage the other group should know that once we take over, we will ensure that they follow their former leaders. We take them to be non-partisan and not to take sides but we know that some have been actively involved in the wrangles between us and Ms. Nawakwi’s side but this should not be the case,” he said.
