MMD refute claims of party instability in WP
By Mwala Kalaluka
Sun 02 Sep. 2012, 10:25 CAT
ABOUT six MMD members of parliament from the Western Province yesterday said that assertions by party leaders working with convicted Austin Liato that the party in the area is cracking are malicious.
And the members of parliament say President Michael Sata, who promised to restore the Barotseland Agreement should be taken to task over the failure to fulfil his electoral promise.
During a press briefing to comment on activities by Liato, a former chairperson for labour who recently resigned from the party which he said was headed for extinction, the members of parliament said that the party was still intact in the area.
Liato and some four MMD provincial officials, who have since been suspended from the party, have been touring the province to marshal support towards Liato's next political move.
Sources said Liato had joined the UPND but he told The Post during an interaction in Kaoma last week that he had not joined the opposition party.
Mwandi MMD member of parliament Michael Kaingu, who was flanked by Liuwa and Nalikwanda members of parliament Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane and Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa respectively, said their statement was meant to clear the air on the political happenings in the province.
"The others who are in their constituencies have been consulted and they agree with us that this statement must be submitted," Kaingu said. "We the members of parliament from Western Province would like to dispel or dismiss the malicious statements which are being floated in the media by some party officials that MMD in the Western Province has cracked."
Kaingu claimed whilst reading from the statement that the MMD in the province was strong and that all structures were still very strong and sound.
"In fact, the MMD seed in Western Province is on fertile soil after the PF government has lamentably failed to honour all its campaign promises including the restoration of the Barotse Agreement," Kaingu read. "We members of parliament do pledge our total support to the MMD party and work closely together with our party president Dr Nevers Mumba. We are totally committed to the rebranding of the party."
Asked to comment on Liato's excursions to the Western Province to destabilise the MMD, in league with four suspended MMD provincial executive committee officials, the parliamentarians refused to be drawn into the issue.
"We are not here to talk about any party or any individual. We have come to give a statement with regard to the happenings that have been reported in the media," Prof Lungwangwa responded. "MMD strongly believes in the freedom of the individual to associate with any organisation of their choice. Those who have taken the decision to leave and to associate with any organisation that is their choice."
Dr Musokotwane said some people in Liuwa attempted to defect to the ruling PF but that they changed their minds when they realised that it was not 'friendly' to the people of Western Province after it failed to honour most of its campaign promises.
And Kaingu said when the PF came to power, it gave a lot of hope and promise, especially to the people of the Western Province on the issue of the Barotseland Agreement.
"Naturally people were excited. They thought they would get benefits. The people of Western Province want that agreement to be restored. Now that the PF has failed to do that, naturally our people are disappointed with the government. They are disappointed with the President," Kaingu said.
When pushed to categorically state whether they were in support of the Barotseland Agreement or not, the members of parliament said the MMD never made any promise on the issue like the PF did whilst in opposition.
However, Kaingu said the Barotseland Agreement was the basis of the country's unity which he said could also have been used in the decentralisation process.
Labels: BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, MMD, WESTERN PROVINCE
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No records on Barotse Native Authority treasury - Scott
By Mwala Kalaluka and Mukosha Funga
Fri 29 June 2012, 13:23 CAT
THE government says it has no records indicating how much money in British pounds was held in the Barotse Native Authority treasury and later transferred to the government treasury at Independence in 1964. And Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Patrick Matibini says he will consistently deflect point of orders that are not compelling or urgent.
During questions for oral answer in the House on Wednesday, Luena ADD member of parliament Mwambwa Imenda asked the Minister of Finance and National Planning to respond to this issue. Imenda also wanted to know how much money was held in the treasuries of other native authorities province by province.
Responding to the question, Vice-President Dr Guy Scott said the government's past and present records do not contain the information requested by Imenda.
"We are making efforts to obtain information from other government institutions such as the National Archives," Vice-President Scott said.
Kalabo Central UPND member of parliament Chinga Miyutu in a follow-up question asked how possible it was that such information could not be found by the current government and wondered whether governments had not been functioning since 1964.
In response, Vice-President Scott said: "There seems to be two distinct problems. Information is not kept indefinitely or forever. A few years is all that records are kept in government institutions. I will personally check for the answer to this because I am interested in it."
And ruling on a point of order raised by Mazabuka UPND member of parliament Garry Nkombo concerning a story from a newspaper whose name he did not mention, Speaker Matibini said if such point of orders were not deflected, there would be no end to the problem.
Nkombo wanted to know whether the government was in order to keep quiet in view of revelations by a newspaper that he laid on the table of the House without mentioning its name, about an oil scandal about to explode.
"Point of orders of this nature will be consistently deflected in this fashion. I will only permit them when they are compelling and urgent.
Unless the matter is extremely compelling, I will not respond to these point of orders in the fashion anticipated by those who raise them," Speaker Matibini said.
Meanwhile, Public Accounts Committee chairperson Vincent Mwale says there were clear cases of theft in the report of the Auditor General for 2009 on the accounts of parastatal bodies.
Presenting the committee's report to the House on Wednesday, Mwale, who is also Chipangali MMD member of parliament, said PAC had recommended that government investigative wings move in and probe the cited cases of theft and misappropriation.
He said there were sixteen public institutions that had been cited in the report and that out of this, there were those like the Local Authority Superannuation Fund which are experiencing declining membership.
Mwale said even the Public Service Pensions Fund was also faced with the same predicament.
He also said the State Lotteries Board was also another institution that was almost insolvent to a point that it had even failed to employ a chief executive officer.
Mwale said there was also another issue of high staff-related costs at Zesco, which were occurring at a time when the company was operating without an approved staff establishment.
Labels: BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, GUY SCOTT
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Barotse issue can only be dealt with through constitution - Scott
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Sun 22 Apr. 2012, 13:29 CAT
VICE-President Dr Guy Scott says the Barotseland Agreement can only be dealt with through the constitution whose draft is under review. Featuring on a special radio programme on Zambezi FM yesterday, Vice-President Scott said devolution of powers was another way out to solve the Barotseland Agreement that was abrogated by a constitutional amendment.
"To re-instate it Barotseland Agreement will need an involvement to repeal the constitution and… best we have to reaffix the constitution is the process underway of redoing the constitution," said Vice-President Dr Scott.
He said the other way out of the Barotseland Agreement saga was the issue of devolution which ultimately affected all provinces as there was dire need of developmental decisions to be taken at grass root levels.
"The Barotseland Agreement was all about independence and through the devolution of powers. We will have that next year and I hope they will not turn the clock against themselves. Secession is not worth discussing," he said.
Meanwhile, Vice-President Dr Scott on Friday held a private meeting with former British prime minister John Major with whom he joked about African burial rites.
"It takes over eight hours to bury somebody in Africa. I remember how some 30 years ago I had to bury my mother in about 30 minutes," Vice-President Dr Scott said.
Vice-President Scott, Major and other high ranking officials were in Livingstone on invitation of Standard Chartered Bank's Creative Connections 2012 meeting.
Meanwhile, PF officials have threatened to make government officials at the provincial administration feel their wrath if they continue hiding programmes of ministers and other high ranking dignitaries when on tour.
In an interview, PF provincial women's chairperson Ann Nyirenda Tischer said it was embarrassing to the PF that high ranking government officials had been spotted in the province without the knowledge of the ruling party.
"The MMD sympathisers at Cabinet Office should realise that the MMD is no longer in power. We have respected them more than they were treated by the MMD but they need to now realise that PF is in power and we deserve to know who is coming in the province," Tischer said.
Southern Province PF vice information and publicity secretary Brighton Luhila said the ruling party would be tempted to petition the President to transfer some civil servants out of the province if they were still drunk with the MMD mentality.
"As a ruling party we need to be informed about various government programmes and visits. Only then will we be seen to be in government. The opposite of it only goes to confirm that the province is domicile to the UPND," Luhila said.
Aaron Mwiinga, PF provincial treasurer, said: "Unless they start meeting us, they will never know the challenges and developmental needs of the province."
Labels: BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, CONSTITUTION, GUY SCOTT
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Loopholes revealed by the Barotse National Council (BNC)
TIME PUBLISHED - Saturday, April 7, 2012, 11:29 am
Who governs and represents the people, traditional leaders or elected officials?
By Maurice Makalu
Like all Zambians, I received the reported decision by the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) to resort to dialogue to address the issues surrounding the BA 1964 with joy in my heart. Even now as the Ngambela has refuted that he ever made any statements to suggest rescission of agitation for secession in preference for dialogue, we remain positive and trusting in the wisdom of the leadership in Western Province and government to ensure that the peace, calm and unity that we have always known as a nation endures.
And dialogue is the only way. As such it should become the rule and cease to be seen merely as an option. Even if it has to begin with extremist positions or the highest of tempers, mistrust and acrimony between the parties, there is no problem too big we cannot talk it over.
But aside from the secession resolutions, the BNC has crystallized two governance challenges that we need to address urgently as a multiparty democracy: parallel leadership structures and tribal integration.
a. Parallel Leadership Structures
The BNC was a gathering of around 2,000 chiefs and indunas or headmen. These considered themselves as representing Western Province ahead of 17 MPs and around 146 ward councilors who were elected by 188,519 people out of 394,660 registered voters there. The chiefs felt so representative that they even asked the elected MPs (and Minister) to resign.
Recently, Chief Nkole of Kapiri Mposhi was reported to have ordered the Kapiri Mposhi District Council not to displace his subjects from their farmlands in his chiefdom, denying ever giving HIS land to the state. The chief warned the Council to stop interfering into land issues in his chiefdom and not to undertake any land development works in the area without his permission. The chief said, “I have never signed anywhere that I have given land to the state so do not displace my people from their farms on this land because those are their permanent farms given to them with permits.”
The question is: Who governs and represents the people, traditional leaders or elected officials?
Obviously the answer is both. Zambia therefore must draw clear boundaries between the two. Nyerere in Tanzania opted to ban chiefs altogether to avoid tribalism, farm land squabbles and such. We have decided to retain them. Let us define their role very clearly and sensitise and contientise them so that they do not overstep their boundaries and start unnecessary frictions with elected leadership. It is anti-democracy to place inherited leadership ahead of elected leadership for by its very nature, inheritance is undemocratic. It perpetuates hegemony and marginalization and knows nothing about equality and human rights for all.
It is anti-democracy to place inherited leadership ahead of elected leadership for by its very nature, inheritance is undemocratic. It perpetuates hegemony and marginalization and knows nothing about equality and human rights for all.
In the modern era, when we speak of “self-determination,” like the BNC is seeking, it does not mean being ruled by a local instead of a foreigner, instead it means being ruled by an elected official. Election, regular popular election, not nationality, defines self-determination (democracy). The Arab Spring is a good example, where rulers ‘for life’ are being shown the exit door. Chief rulership is not self-determination.
So even as we devolve power from the centre to the regions, we must not allow inherited power to interfere with elected power other than through the ballot. It is a recipe for disaster. There is a reason developed democratic countries have confined their chiefs and kings to ceremonial roles only. We too can make our traditional leaders ceremonial leaders; let us have constitutional chieftaincy. Let’s put ‘spanners’ in our governance and development processes all in the name of respecting tradition. Democracy and development are the ‘tradition’ of the future and chiefs must not interfere or be seen to interfere with their traditions of the past.
b. Tribal Integration
The wider Zambian population received calls for secession with trepidation because we have all grown up under One Zambia One Nation, thanks to KK’s one party state and its strong nationalism drive. We have lived and shared together as one people, as brothers and sisters of one family. This however, is slowly being threatened with the emergency of multiparty democracy, where some people see tribalism, a form of hate speech, as part of their freedom of expression and association. Tribalism is raising its ugly head to an extent where some politicians are using it as their strategy in seeking political office.
Furthermore, as the BNC showed, chiefs rule over tribes. Despite assertions that Lozi is the ligua-franca of western province, Nkoyas disassociated themselves from what they perceived as a “Lozi” move. They are now also organizing a Nkoya council. God knows which other tribes will organise theirs as well. Mbundas on the other hand attended and presented a long list of complaints of “Lozi” marginalisation of Mbundas, and appealed for Mbunda chiefs to be recognized as senior chiefs as well.
How do we uphold our One Zambia One Nation as a multiparty democracy? We need deliberate government driven and sponsored tribal integration.
This should go beyond tribal balancing in political appointments where it is really hard to have real balance. Rather it should involve having a “National Population (or Tribal) Integration Policy” whose objective should be to integrate the 73 tribes, by deepening our appreciation of the “Ubuntu” that makes us bantu-speaking peoples; the humanity that makes us human.
Having Paramount Chief Chiti Mukulu as guest of honour at the Kuomboka Ceremony, or chief Mukuni at Ukusefya Pang’wena, would go a very long way in bringing Bembas, Lozis and Tongas together
.
Among other things, the policy must encourage and facilitate for chiefs, especially paramount and senior chiefs, to attend traditional ceremonies of other chiefs. The policy must prescribe what I can describe as chiefs ‘diplomatic’ relations, where our chiefs can pay each other courtesy calls; the Litunga going on a kingdom visit to Paramount Chief Gawa-Undi just like Presidents go on state visits; with lots of media coverage. On these visits, they should exchange gifts as souvenirs to be displayed in palaces back home so as to be reminded of “my visit to Chief Mukuni of the Tonga people.” This will build a rich tradition of friendship and cultural exchange between tribes, which will cement national unity.
Almost every province now has a community radio station. Let these stations broadcast cultural programmes about Zambian tribes. How about “Imitundu Yesu (Our Tribes)” programme on Radio Ichengelo on the Copperbelt, to discuss cultures of different tribes; or “Your Lozi, Lunda, etc Neighbour” on Radio Lundazi in Eastern Province. These community radio stations can allocate just 30 minutes a week to each of the 7 major tribes, where people of these tribes from within the communities can share their cultures, music, etc and just speak their language on air. After all they are in Zambia; therefore, at home.
Whatever we have to do to integrate and make our One Zambia One Nation more one, let us do it. Let not the Ministry of Traditional Affairs be only about looking after chiefs, their salaries and livelihood, but also bringing our rich tribal diversity closer together. When we sing: “One land and one nation is our cry… All one, strong and free,” we must remember it is an eternal cry, perpetual work in progress.
Labels: BAROTSE ROYAL ESTABLISHMENT, BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT
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KK speaks on Barotseland
By Bright Mukwasa and Mwala Kalaluka
Tue 03 Apr. 2012, 12:59 CAT
DR KENNETH Kaunda yesterday called for genuine consultations among all parties involved in the Barotseland Agreement of 1964. According to a statement issued by the Office of the First President chief of staff Godwin Mfula, Dr Kaunda said the question of Barotseland Agreement 1964 needed the collective rational interaction and wisdom of the people of Zambia as a whole.
"In view of the imperative need for a purposeful and peaceful interaction with all stakeholders relating to the question of the Barotseland Agreement of 1964, His Excellence Dr Kenneth Kaunda, first president of the Republic of Zambia wishes to appeal for deep reflection, understanding, magnanimity and co-operation in keeping with the letter and spirit that characterised the resolve and the determination of the founding leaders of our beloved country, Zambia. He recalled that in the quest and resolution to achieve national unity, harmony and cohesion, they exhibited a rare sense of nationalism and patriotism to all common cause for the attainment of our cherished goal of One Zambia One Nation," Mfula stated.
He stated that as was reflected in the national anthem, they were inspired by a deep sense of unity and patriotism to their land, hence one land and one nation was their cry.
"He remains in constant prayer that the Lord God Almighty, will continue to bless Zambia abundantly and that the Lord will forever be our guide as we seek just and lasting solution to this issue. He has in this regard stressed the need for genuine consultations among all parties in order to ensure continued peace and harmony in our nation, " he stated.
He stated that Dr Kaunda sincerely believed that the people of Zambia had the capacity, will and the rationale to achieve a harmonious and peaceful resolution of the Barotseland Agreement of 1964.
Separately, police yesterday summoned managers at Mongu's Radio Lyambai Community Station and cautioned them that their broadcasts of the just-ended Barotse National Council amounted to treason.
Radio Lyambai station manager Mukeya Liwena said in an interview from Mongu yesterday that he was asked to avail himself before the police at Mongu Central Police Station yesterday morning together with his assistant manager, Joseph Namakando.
Liwena, who did not physically cover the BNC in Limulunga last week due to an illness, said he appeared at Mongu Police Station at around 09:00 hours.
Liwena said they were met by the Division Criminal Investigations Officer DCIO a Mr Mpande and Western Province deputy police commissioner Lombe Kamukoshi.
"They told us that what we were broadcasting from the BNC was treason and that we should desist from that," Liwena said. "They said 'what we are trying to do is to promote dialogue and peace but you guys continue broadcasting'."
Liwena said when Namakando said Radio Lyambai was not the only media institution that covered the BNC meeting, they were told that the other media institutions would be dealt with later.
The media institutions that covered the BNC include, The Post, Zambia Daily Mail, Times of Zambia, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation, Muvi TV, Oblate Radio Liseli and the Zambia News and Information Services ZANIS, which even provided the public address system.
"They said 'even those media institutions we shall deal with them later but for now we are dealing with you'," Liwena narrated. "They said 'next time we will not talk to you seated like this, in the comfort of where you are sitting'."
Liwena said they were warned further that should they broadcast such material again they would not be called like the way they had been called.
Liwena, whose radio station was off air for the better part of last year following its broadcast of Barotse activists' sentiments ahead of the fatal January 14, 2011 Barotseland Agreement-related Mongu incident, expressed concern that the police could do anything to them following the caution.
"It is our responsibility, that is why government allows us to inform the people," said Liwena.
Mpande at 10:16 yesterday morning also called this reporter (Mwala Kalaluka), who covered the BNC, and told him, after asking his whereabouts, that there was something that he wanted to discuss with him but not on the phone.
Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, KENNETH KAUNDA
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Dialogue over Barotseland is not a choice; it's a must
By The Post
Fri 30 Mar. 2012, 13:00 CAT
IT was difficult to imagine that things could move and degenerate so fast.Everyone now seems to realise that we have a big problem, a big challenge which requires very good leadership skills to address. The problem that has arisen over the Barotse Agreement 1964 is not a small one, it is a big and complicated one.
When people in a certain part of the country call for self-determination invoking the African Charter on Human and People's Rights Article 20 which states that "all peoples have the right to existence.
They shall have unquestionable and inalienable right to self-determination", we have a challenge, we have a problem. This right to self-determination was affirmed with a purpose of promoting a quick end to colonialism.
Colonialism entailed an oppression and exploitation of one group by an alien group. Such an oppression and exploitation was pursued at two levels: the level of politics and the level of economics.
The alien group had the monopoly of the political power and the economic power, resulting in exploitation, manipulation, suppression and oppression of the original owners of the land. The right to self-determination therefore entailed political liberation and economic liberation.
Such a two-fold liberation implied the right to political independence and the right to economic independence. These two rights formed the backbone of the right to self-determination and were often enshrined in the pursuit of nationalism.
When a country assumed political independence and became self-governing, there was a need for the participation of all the people in the governance of the country. Hence, the citizens of an independent nation had the right to participate in the decision-making process of a country directly or through their representatives.
This called for democratic structures and democratic spirit in the independent nations. In such a democratic climate, the freely expressed will of the peoples was supposed to be a major determinant in the decision-making process.
The right to self-determination has been a subject of controversy all over the continent. This occurs when an independent nation is confronted by separatists, secessionists.
After attaining independence from colonial rule, the sectional groupings in a country, defined along regional or ethnic lines, can assume a nationalistic stance and call for independence and autonomy from the sovereign state.
This right has both external and internal dimensions; and, as we can see in our own case here over the Barotseland issue, has been the subject of some controversy in recent years, as it is increasingly asserted by groups within countries, as distinct from ex-colonies and occupied territories.
But the authentic journey towards the realisation of self-determination as a nation requires the acknowledgement of the centrality of the place of God in such a journey. A human being is, through family, born in a clan, tribe, nation or state.
In the distant past, families grouped themselves into these larger communities to defend themselves and their goods against hostile persons and also to provide better and more abundant food; in other words, to raise their standard of living. The state is, therefore, a community of families.
And just as the family exists to help the members who compose the family, so the state exists to help the families which compose the state. And like in the family, problems and differences will always be there in a state, in a nation requiring dialogue at all times.
Dialogue, listening to others and sharing our own beliefs with others, is not a choice for us. It is a must. Dialogue is an essential path for the promotion of peace and unity among all our people.
And dialogue is rooted in the nature and dignity of human beings because in dialogue, one can compare different points of view and examine disagreements. We are reminded in Galatians 3:28 that "there is neither Jew nor Greek…for you are all one".
Yes, there are differences, there are disagreements - gigantic ones for that matter. But they must be pursued with civility and respect for each other. We have heard the leadership of the Barotse Royal Establishment commit itself to a peaceful approach in the pursuance of their objectives.
We have also heard the Zambian government express its desire to pursue this issue in a peaceful manner. And this calls for talking, for discussions, for negotiations whichever way things go. But it's not possible to have meaningful negotiations among people denouncing each other, calling each other names and all sorts of things.
If you want to talk or negotiate with someone, you have to accept the integrity of the other. If you are not prepared to respect and listen to your opponents in any issue and you are not prepared to compromise, then you are also not prepared to negotiate.
We say this because respect, ability and willingness to listen and concessions are inherent in any serious talks or negotiations. And negotiations only deliver positive results when people are willing to listen and respect each other, when they are concerned and seem to be keen to resolve their differences peacefully or amicably.
Even parting, undesirable as it may be, should be carried out in peace and in a dignified manner. And as we have stated before, negotiated solutions can be found even to conflicts that have come to seem intractable and solutions emerge when those who have been divided reach out to find a common ground.
If you are not prepared to compromise, then you must not enter into or think about the process of negotiating at all. That is the nature of compromising: you can compromise on fundamental issues. Insignificant things, peripheral issues, don't need any compromise at all. But of course, compromise must not undermine your own position.
There is no need for tough talk. Where things have reached, they are high enough for all to see and admit that there is a big problem that needs a different approach. All that tough talking that was there before things got to where they are now should be put aside because this is no time for posturing.
We have a people that have to live together in peace whether they stay in the same country or they go separate ways - they still have to live together in peace. This is a people that has been bound together by destiny and no border that is drawn by anyone can separate them.
But there is a problem between them or among them that needs to be addressed and a solution found without a single soul being lost, without a single limb being lost. Fumes and smoke appear before flames do; insults come before violence.
If you stick something in your eye, tears will flow; and if you hurt a person deeply, you will discover his true feelings. If you throw rocks at birds, you will scare them away; and if you insult a friend, you will break up the friendship.
Whichever way, this problem can be resolved peacefully and it must be resolved peacefully. And we therefore urge both the Barotse Royal Establishment and the political leadership in Lusaka to respect each other and quickly open dialogue.
We say this because whichever way things may go, they can only do so peacefully if there is meaningful dialogue. Mistakes have been made. Who doesn't make mistakes? Who has never made mistakes?
Who has never offended anyone? Let us accept our mistakes and realise truthfully where things stand and move to make amends, to correct that which is wrong. That's the reality of life - it's about making mistakes and correcting them; and the quicker and more thorough, the better.
There is need to pay attention to sentiments. For as long as legitimate bodies of opinion feel stifled, vile minds will take advantage of justifiable grievances to destroy, to kill and to maim.
For as long as some people feel their grievances are being ignored, are being belittled, there will always be tension and conflict. Social and political problems don't just change because you have made a law - it takes a great deal of effort and time.
And whatever initiatives are taken to deal with this difference, with this problem, they have to be underpinned by the uplifting of the most downtrodden sections of our population and all-round transformation of our society. What this is showing us is that our nation is not well organised and managed and it needs to redeem and reconstruct itself. And reconstruction goes hand in hand with reconciliation.
And as we have stated before, the hallmark of great leaders is the ability to understand the context in which they are operating and act accordingly. A leader who relies on authority to solve problems is bound to come to grief. The important thing is to give happiness to people.
It is the dictate of history to bring to the fore the kind of leaders who seize the moment, who cohere the wishes and aspirations of the people. And more often than not, an epoch creates and nurtures the individuals who are associated with his twists and turns.
The problem before us needs no single genius. It calls for the collective wisdom of all our people. Those who are ready to join hands can overcome the greatest challenges. In the situation we are in, our strongest weapon is not an AK47; it is dialogue.
And no meaningful dialogue can take place on the shifting sands of evasions, illusions, lies, half-truths, cheap propaganda and opportunism. A tragedy of unprecedented proportion is unfolding in our country.
The challenge is to move from rhetoric to dialogue, and dialogue at an unprecedented intensity and scale, trusting in the belief that no man is an island, and those dealing with this issue are not men of stone who are unmoved by the noble passions of love, friendship and human compassion.
This conflict, this disagreement threatens not only the gains we have collectively made so far but also our collective future. And we should treat the question of peace and stability in our country as a common challenge for all our people.
Labels: BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT
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Government, Scott fuelling tension - Ngambela
By Staff Reporters
Fri 30 Mar. 2012, 13:00 CAT
BAROTSELAND'S administrative head Ngambela prime minister Wainyae Sinyinda has accused the government and Vice-President Guy Scott of fuelling tension by calling its resolutions irresponsible and unacceptable. And Sinyinda says he is ready to die or go to jail in defence of his people's expressed desire to separate from Zambia.
Vice-President Guy Scott, however, says the Brotseland Agreement of 1964 was a document drawn to give comfort to the Lozi-speaking people, and not to advocate secession.
Meanwhile, Western Province police commissioner Fanwell Siandenge says no arrests or incidents of violence were recorded during the two-day sitting of the Barotse National Council in Limulunga.
Responding to Vice-President Guy Scott's statement in Parliament on Wednesday that the resolutions by the Barotse National Council (BNC) to break away from Zambia were irresponsible and unacceptable, Sinyinda said it was the government that was being irresponsible.
He said Barotseland had the most democratic system of governance involving all its citizens.
"I can assure you that all the people that attended the meeting werefor this thing we are talking about. In fact, I want to appeal to the Zambian government to be as realistic as possible so that we don't promote tension in the country and I don't want to be among the people promoting tension. I am an adult and I want peace. We are not going to use any other means apart from peaceful means. They are the ones that are irresponsible," Sinyinda said.
"I remember that they called me fake. You can't use such words when you are talking to another territory. I think it's being unfair and I call upon the Zambian government to be selective when it comes to words. Let them not be emotional because we will end up rising tempers of the whole country, which won't be good."
In a statement in Parliament on the situation in Western Province, Vice-President Scott said the resolutions made in Mongu were irresponsible and unacceptable.
He said the government won't abdicate its responsibility as custodians of the interests of its people living in Zambia.
But Sinyinda said the road to freedom was not easy.
"You don't expect in any country where people are fighting for freedom that everybody will agree with you. I have information that the majority of them (Nkoyas) are supportive of this cause. In every struggle, you get some resistance. Nowhere in this world, even Namibia, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique when people were fighting for freedom at no time did they have 100 per cent (support) but the majority will prevail over the minority. When I talk about minority, I am not talking about a tribe here, I am talking about majority of people including everybody. I want to emphasise that the majority of our brothers and sisters in Kaoma are supportive, so I can only say it's a struggle and what's good is that the majority is going to prevail," he said.
Asked to categorically state the boundary of Barotseland, Sinyinda said there were people trying to divide Lozis and other tribes.
He said if they wanted to take parts of Botswana, Namibia and Angola, they would have invited people from those countries to attend the BNC.
"We are not claiming any other piece of land; ours is Kaoma, Lukulu, Kalabo, Shangombo, Senanga, Mongu, Sesheke. We are not making any claim of any territory. I want to make that one clear. I know where that propaganda is coming from. They want to divide us so that you people (Southerners) can get annoyed with us," he said.
And reacting to home affairs minister Kennedy Sakeni's assertions that those advocating the independence of Barotseland from Zambia should stop because it was an act of treason, Sinyinda said in an interview at the Litunga's palace in Limulunga on Wednesday that Barotseland was determined.
"I would like to thank the security forces for being so professional. They have been very professional. They handled the meeting very professionally and that is how it should be because we avoided any spilling of blood," he said.
"Regarding what Sakeni said, I would like to appeal to the Zambian government to handle the whole thing in a very sober manner, without threatening anybody. He should remember that we are not the ones at fault."
Sinyinda said the Barotse people had put up a battle over the Zambian government's abuse of the Barotseland Agreement but that at every stage of resistance, they were arrested.
"In 2011 people resisted and they were even killed; 19 people were killed. It is not us who abrogated the 1964 agreement, it is the Zambian government," Sinyinda said.
"The people of Barotseland have met to make resolutions. The people of Barotseland have met from all the seven districts and because of that the Kuta BRE, particularly the Ngambela, I am ready to defend the position of the people even if it means going to jail."
He further vowed that he would defend what the people of Barotseland had aspired for even to the point of being killed.
Sinyinda reminded the government that threats of treason cannot and have never worked over the Barotseland issue.
"People are alive to the fact that their children, brothers and sisters were killed on 19th January, 2011, barely a year later they have arrived at the position which they have directed that the BRE must follow," Sinyinda said.
He said the advocates for Barotseland's self-determination were fully aware of the strength of the Zambian security forces but that they were just exercising their human rights.
"The Zambian government must own up for the mistakes committed against the people of Barotseland for the past 47 years," he said.
"Under normal circumstances, the people that have committed crimes against humanity must be indicted to the International Court of Justice, instead they continue to threaten the innocent because they have the backing of the security forces, which they want to misuse against our people."
Sinyinda reminded Sakeni that if might was right, South Africa would not have managed to shake itself from the brutal apartheid system and Southern Rhodesia's Ian Smith's statement that there would be no black rule in Zimbabwe for a thousand years would have been realised.
"South Africa had even reached a stage of having nuclear weapons but they never succeeded in suppressing what the people wanted, but we are determined," Sinyinda said with a tinge of emotion.
"Ian Smith where is he? We are determined even if the Zambian government continues to kill a number of us. We are determined to ensure that what belongs to us must be given to us."
He said henceforth, any statement from the government would be rebutted and that no more will the BRE be quiet against malicious and demeaning statements.
"I will be answering back even if I am in prison because I have been given the mandate of the people of Barotseland," he said.
"We believe in peace. We have always been standing for peace and my prayer is that the government must not take advantage of us."
And Siandenge told journalists in Mongu on Wednesday that although there were celebrations in certain areas after the Barotse National Council read out its final resolution, the delegates went back to their homes peacefully.
"The current situation is very normal," Siandenge said. "You can't even know that there was a BNC meeting. It hasn't changed the mood .The people that went for the BNC, their conduct was exemplary."
He said after the final resolutions, the state security profile expected a lot of commotion but that things proceeded smoothly.
"It was like people coming from a football match," Siandenge said."The same spirit should continue. People shouldn't be excited over anything because there is nothing that has changed at the moment."
Close to 2,000 delegates attended the BNC meeting in Limulunga held on March 26 and 27, 2012 at St Lawrence Catholic Church grounds where it was resolved that Barotseland should secede from Zambia following the nullification of the Barotseland Agreement.
Three foreign missions in Zambia, among them the US and Angolan embassies, were represented at the convocation.
And in an interview during BBC's Africa Network yesterday morning, Sinyinda said the move made by Western Province to break-away from the rest of the country does not amount to treason because it is provided for under International Law.
Sinyinda said the Barotse Agreement signed between the Northern Rhodesia and Barotseland in 1964, gave right to either party to revert to its original state if the other party abrogated it's terms.
"We know that under International Law, it cannot be treason because weentered into a treaty and if one of the parties that are involved inan agreement violates that agreement, it means the party has got aright to revert to the original status," Sinyinda said.
When further asked if he knew he was breaking the law by calling on the people of Western Province to secede, Sinyinda said: "I am not calling on my people to secede. It is the people that have actually mandated me to implement their resolutions."
The following is the verbatim report of Vice-President Scott's address to Parliament on Wednesday and the debate by members of parliament that accompanied it:
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, I rise to address the nation through this August House on the resolutions of the 2012 Barotse National Council held at Limulunga from 26th to 27th March, 2012, that were announced in Mongu on matters which have a profound bearing on the integrity and harmony of our peaceful country. Those resolutions have severe consequences and ramifications.
Sir, as a country made of several ethnic groups, we are fused and have established strong bonds of fraternity and a unique fellowship built on a
foundation of "One Zambia One Nation" ever since the attainment of independence.
This has sustained us making our country an oasis of peace, stability and harmony. In diversity, we have held together, without free occupation and obsession with regard to colour, creed or language.
People who visit our country are touched and impressed to see a place where people have endless smiles and extend a hand of friendship to foreigners.
This is a country where there is no xenophobia or ingrained ill feelings towards those who are not our clan, colour or religious persuasion, and I can particularly testify to that.
Government members: Hear, hear!
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, we have various challenges, as a country, principally a large number of our people living in poverty. This is morally unacceptable and undesirable.
Our agenda and thrust, in unison, should be to address this challenge. Our policy as the Patriotic Front (PF) government is for devolution as an approach to decentralisation driven by poverty reduction and elimination and is anchored on the issue of getting development to the grassroots across the country as the most effective way of tackling the poverty that we are in.
This was stressed by His Excellency the President in the official opening speech to this august House.
Mr Speaker, in the 2013 Budget, the government will start the process ofrevenue sharing with the local authorities and it will be significant revenue sharing in order to enhance development in all the parts of the country.
In addition, the government has many programmes and projects, some of which will take off in the next two to three months, which will have a big impact, especially in terms of reducing unemployment.
The route we will take, for instance, to construct roads in all our towns in both urban and rural areas will be labour intensive while maintaining quality, sustainability and durability.
Sir, let me now address the grave issue of secession of the Western Province from Zambia. These resolutions have been taken by a group of people who arrogated to themselves an exclusive preserve to speak for all the people of the Western Province.
The resolutions from the districts were a stage-managed and orchestrated affair, with no proof of adequate consultation. We insist, as a government, that the resolutions by the Barotse National Council to break away from the rest of Zambia would have to be considered by all the people of Zambia through a process that involves elaborate and credible consultation.
The resolutions announced in Mongu, yesterday, are irresponsible and unacceptable. The government will not abdicate its responsibility as custodian of the interest of all our people who live in the territorial space called Zambia.
Government members: Hear, hear!
Up to now, the government security and law enforcement wings have maintained a low profile and visibility. Level headedness and circumspection will continue to be our guideline.
Mr Speaker, as a government, we will rise to the challenge of protecting the lives of people and property. It is our inescapable duty, obligation and responsibility to do so. I want to counsel our people to desist from pointing fingers at each other. We must all guard against explosive statements which can only compound the situation.
Sir, various edifices and structures ranging from schools, hospitals and related facilities to offices in the Western Province have been provided, courtesy of Zambian tax payers, of all persuasions, tribes, races and creeds. The government will protect all the properties.
The Western Province is inhibited by a number of ethnic groupings who may be as numerous as the Lozis and who are averse to breaking away from Zambia. Most likely more Lozis live in the rest of Zambia than those who live in the Western Province. They have families and a chain of properties.
They have fused with fellow Zambians through marriages and other forms of social interaction. Generally, all of us Zambians, wherever we may live in our large country, have an ultimate attachment to each other and our country. Any separation entails anguish and rupture in our sentimental connections. It would be a big emotional upheaval.
My advice to the country, Mr Speaker, is that we stay calm and take note of the pronouncements in Mongu and continue to dialogue with the Barotse Royal Establishment. Zambia's harmony will continue to be premised on democratic principles and values and benchmarks of tolerance, accommodation and fellowship.
Finally, it is my hope that the House will unite in safeguarding our peace, unity and the integrity of our country through our purposeful togetherness and response conduct.
Mr Speaker, I thank you.
National Assembly Speaker Dr Patrick Matibini: Hon members are now free to ask questions on points of clarification on the statement issued by His Honour the Vice-President.
Michael Kaingu (Mwandi MMD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, is the Vice-President aware that the Barotse Agreement is a document that unites the two territories and in its absence, there is no relationship?
Dr Scott: Mr Speaker that is the legal situation taken to extremes and twisted. In practice, the Western Province has been part of Zambia and has been governed as part of Zambia since well before 1964.
I have friends who came out here in the colonial times to be colonial officers and they moved into the Western Province and the other provinces without any distinction as to where they were. In practice, the Western Province or the so-called Barotseland has been part of Zambia for a very long time or over 100 years.
I thank you, Sir.
Jack Mwiimbu (Monze UPND member of parliament): Mr Speaker, arising from the ministerial statement given by His Honour the Vice-President in which he has indicated that the Western Province was part of Zambia prior to 1964, what is the genesis of the 1964 Barotse Agreement?
Vice-President: Mr Speaker, I think the intimate connection that exists in some people's minds between the Barotseland Agreement on the one hand and the possibilities of secession on the other is misconceived.
The Barotseland Agreement was a document drawn up to give comfort to the Barotse Royal Establishment that it would not be disadvantaged by being a part of Zambia having gone from being a protectorate within a protectorate. It has nothing to do with this secession resolutions that have been made in Mongu this week.
I thank you, Sir.
Gabriel Namulambe (Mpongwe MMD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, issues like the resolutions that have been passed by the Barotse National Council can cause conflicts in the nation.
Has the Government taken steps to investigate the real matters that have exhumed the issue of the Barotseland Agreement?
Vice-President: Mr Speaker, yes, we are taking steps to examine both the immediate and deep causes of this set of resolutions.
I thank you, Sir.
Dr Eustakio Kazonga (Vubwi MMD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, in his ministerial statement, His Honour the Vice- President referred to decentralisation by devolution as one of the ways in which the PF government plans to reduce poverty.
I would like to know what else the government plans to do for the people of Zambia in general and the Western Province, in particular, to reduce the level of poverty.
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, we are getting too off track for me to give a convincing answer. I can talk on that subject for an hour, but it is not relevant to the immediate issue that this statement was about.
I thank you, Sir.
Greyford Monde (Itezhi-tezhi UPND member of parliament): Mr Speaker, in 1991, when Dr Kaunda realised that he had not done well as regards the welfare of the people of the Western Province, he campaigned on the line of restoring the Barotseland Agreement. Unfortunately, he could not win that election.
In 2011, last year, the PF mentioned that it would restore the Barotse Agreement. Could His Honour the Vice-President explain to the House what the PF was going to restore and what it meant when it said that it would restore the Barotseland Agreement?
Sports minister Chishimba Kambwili: Mukapange chalo chenu (Create your own country).
Speaker Matibini: Order! Let us have order.
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, senior members of the PF, as I recall, were never so careless as to say they would restore the Barotseland Agreement.
I remember several campaign speeches that I and His Excellency the President made, for example, where we discussed the concept of decentralisation and heavier involvement of traditional rulers and traditional establishments in the management of the country and we used a sound analogy for this principle of indirect rule.
In the Eastern Province, when a translator is translating what I am talking about into Ngoni, he says indirectly rule because the concept is known. In the Western Province, the Barotseland Agreement or the royal establishment's powers as guaranteed by that were used as examples. So, the literal promise was never made and the promise was for decentralisation and that will be kept.
I thank you, Sir.
Charles Kakoma (Zambezi West UPND member of parliament): Mr Speaker, in my layman understanding, Barotseland came together with the Northern Rhodesia to form one unitary State called Zambia.
Along the way, that agreement was abrogated by the United National Independence Party (UNIP) government.
Therefore, that agreement fell apart. What would be the meaning of restoring it? Would that mean that we will unite the two nations into one unitary State of Zambia or restoring it means that there will be secession?
Vice-President Scott: As I said earlier, my layman understanding also is that the Barotseland Agreement was put in place to give comfort and reassurance to the Lozi people and the Barotse Royal Establishment, in particular, that they would not be disadvantaged by the coming fusion with the rest of Zambia.
So, I do not think it is the Barotseland Agreement that makes the Western Province part of Zambia. The Western Province is the Western Province of Zambia.
I thank you, Sir.
Kapembwa Simbao (Senga Hill MMD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, every community has a right of association. If they want to associate, they make that decision. The Lozis have decided not to associate with the rest of
Zambia. Suppose they stand their ground, what will the government do about it?
Laughter
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, I would take issue with the statement that the Lozis have decided not to associate with the rest of Zambia. Some individuals,
in the Western Province, politicians, in fact, of the Movement for
Restoration of Barotseland in particular who signed those resolutions, have engineered that these resolutions be produced.
I made it very clear in the statement that there is no evidence whatsoever of adequate consultation of some sort of referendum or anything having taken place even among the Lozi tribe let alone the Western Province and Zambia as a whole.
As regards the question of freedom of association, tell that to the people of Western Sahara, Biafra, South Sudan, Eritrea and so on and so forth. This is very dangerous territory, Mr Simbao. It really is. I think we should steer clear of it and be unified as one nation in this House.
Levy Ngoma (Sinda MMD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, can the Vice-President be very categorical on whether the PF government will restore the Barotseland Agreement.
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, the report that contains, as one of its recommendations, the restoration of the Barotseland Agreement is currently under consideration by Cabinet and there is no categorical answer until
Cabinet has decided.
Government members: Boma!
Vice-President Scott: The issue of secession is not restoration or failure to restore the Barotseland Agreement. Secession is a much more serious business and one which should not be connected because logically, it is not connected to the Barotseland Agreement.
I thank you, Sir.
Request Muntanga (Kalomo UPND member of parliament): Mr Speaker, His Honour the Vice-President has said that the Barotseland Agreement was basically meant to provide comfort to the Barotse Royal Establishment. The Republican President said he would find it difficult to restore the Barotseland Agreement. What is so difficult in the Barotseland Agreement?
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, the topic is the passage of various unconstitutional resolutions by a group of secessionists in Western Province. That is what we are making a Statement about. The Barotseland Agreement and what our President thinks about it, personally, and what remarks he might have made off-the-cuff and so forth, I cannot expand on.
It is under the active consideration of this Government. The House will be advised in due course.
I thank you, Sir.
Stephen Kampyongo (Shiwang'andu PF member of parliament): Mr Speaker, I would like to find out whether the government is considering engaging people's representatives from Western Province, especially the honourable members of parliament who were in this House before, and those who were in Cabinet and are in this House today, to find out what role they played then and now, to guide our people of Western Province.
This is because they cannot be here comfortably debating with us whilst people there are making different decisions.
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, let me be very clear that the questioner wants to know whether we are considering engaging hon. Members of Parliament andothers. We will engage with anyone who is serious and has good intentions.
We have an open-door policy.
The mere fact that this council was allowed to take place peacefully without any interruptions for two days, is evidence of our attitude towards freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of association. There were other Governments in the not-so-distant past who could have stopped that council very quickly. In fact, it would never have been able to convene.
Government members: Hear, hear!
Vice-President Scott: So, we are prepared to talk to anybody and engage them. I implore honourable Members of Parliament, especially those from Western Province who see this as an opportunity to embarrass the Government, to desist from doing so. It is a very serious matter and we should take a constructive and humble attitude towards it.
Mwendaweli Imenda (Luena ADD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, the Vice-President says that he only has a layman's understanding of the issues. May I know from his layman's understanding what happens if a marriage certificate is torn by one of the parties. Can he tell me the meaning of that?
Speaker Matibini: Hon Members, let us maintain calm. I know that this is a very emotive and sensitive issue, but we must remain calm. We should deliberate with utmost calm.
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, from a layman's perspective, the tearing up of a marriage certificate merely results in the necessity to obtain a duplicate.
Government members: Hear, hear! Boma!
Vice-President Scott: Sir, to actually obtain a divorce requires decree nisi, decree absolute and all those fancy things that lawyers know about. If I was making a public statement about marriage and divorce, I would answer at greater length, but I am not prepared.
I thank you, Sir.
Government members: Hear, hear!
Allan Mbewe (Chadiza MMD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, my question has been overtaken.
Mr Mutelo (Lukulu West): Mr Speaker, in 1964, Western Province had the highest number of the educated ones in Zambia, if my statistics are correct.
Hon. Government Members: Aah!
Interruptions
Misheck Mutelo (Lukulu West MMD member of parliament): Today, Western Province is the poorest in Zambia. Could this be the reason they would be arriving at such resolutions?
Interruptions
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, we have, on this side of the House, …
Interruptions
Speaker Matibini: Order!
Vice-President Scott: … considerable sympathy with the sufferings of the people in Western Province.
Government members: Hear, hear!
Vice-President Scott: We are not blind to that. We also have considerable sympathy with the other nine provinces that also suffer from poverty and all kinds of unpleasant things.
Government members: Hear, hear!
Vice-President Scott: If one wanted to know why Western Province is coming out as the poorest, on the basis of the statistics, I suggest that the questioner or anybody else who is curious to know asks the previous Government, …
Government members: Hear, hear!
Vice-President Scott: … which spent 20 years struggling or pretended to be struggling with various issues, such as animal disease, that were a curseto Western Province.
I thank you, Sir.
Lucky Mulusa (Solwezi Central MMD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, thecurrent grouping that has come up with the decision that we secedeconsists of seven districts. Now, Barotseland included Southern Province,Western Province, parts of Lusaka Province, the Copperbelt and North Western Province …
Government members: Awe! (no!)
Interruptions
Mulusa: Hon Members, I am actually right. May I know from …
Speaker Matibini: Order!
Hon Members, we will not progress smoothly and efficiently if we constantly interject. This is a serious issue and we must demonstrate the seriousness by maintaining discipline. The discipline should be manifested by hon. Members of the House. This business is not limited to theprecincts of the National Assembly. It goes beyond.
So, we need to reflect the discipline of the House and let each hon. Member debate and give His Honour the Vice-President an opportunity to respond. There is no point in proceeding with the debate if we cannot conduct ourselves in a disciplined manner. There is really no point.
Namulambe: Send Kambwili out!
Speaker Matibini: May the honourable member for Solwezi Central continue.
Mulusa: Mr Speaker, if they will have an engagement with this grouping, would they also include us, who are legally and technically part of Barotseland so that we do not start another secession discussion after agreeing with only seven districts?
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, if there is going to be a dialogue that is serious, one can include much, but one cannot, from this recent batch of resolutions passesd yesterday, be very clear what is meant by Barotseland.
Sir, the questioner said that seven districts were represented. I think one has dissociated itself and it is dubious how any of them is actually representative of the people in that district. It is open to question.
The honourable member of parliament, when he says, "Include us', presumably means the honourable members of parliament. My response is that honourable members of parliament always have an open door in this Government and with this State House. They have never had anything else under the PF dispensation.
I thank you, Sir.
Dr Christopher Kalila (Lukulu East MMD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to add my voice on this very important issue.
Mr Speaker, one of the reasons cited for secession by our people in
Western Province is the abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement of 1964 by successive Governments which therefore, means that to avoid secession is to restore the Barotseland Agreement. Why then are you not considering this path to avoid all this?
Speaker Matibini: Order! Before His Honour the Vice-President responds, please, bear in mind that earlier on, he said that the Government hasreceived a report.
They are studying it and there is a recommendation to that effect. Cabinet will deliberate and the position will be taken. You are free to ask questions of all sorts but certainly not repetition.
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, I am absorbed from having to give it to myself.
I thank you, Sir.
Harry Kalaba (Bahati PF member of parliament): Mr Speaker, arising fromthat very unifying statement that His Honour the Vice-President has givento this House, what is the position of the three major opposition political parties such as the United Party for National Development (UPND), the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) as well as United Liberal Party (ULP)? In today's paper, the leaders of these opposition parties have been quoted as declining to comment on this issue.
Are the three leaders helping Government in looking at this issue from a positiveperspective?
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, it is PF that is in the whole seat because we are in Government. It is up to us to do a good job or to make mistakes in theprocess. If the other parties want to watch the final games, that is their prerogative.
We have not consulted. I think it would be actually at some point, we may not do this in future. A good idea is that if all the main parties, the ones at least in Western Province which I think are about four where to say yes, we are on the same page and we are standing on the same ground.
We are playing with fire here and we do not want anything to happen to our country that comes and cannot be got rid of in decades.
I thank you, Sir.
Chinga Miyutu (Kalabo Central member of parliament): Mr Speaker, sometime back I said in this House that once beaten twice shine and there was laughter in this House.
Laughter
Miyutu: Mr Speaker, we do not see fire when it just starts. We only see fire sticks. We have a government in place and it received a report of the Barotseland Commission of Inquiry about four weeks ago but nothing has been done. The difference makes what it is.
Laughter
Speaker Matibini: I hope you will now proceed to the question.
Miyutu: Mr Speaker, I would like to urge the House that a question behaves like a house because it has a cornerstone.
Now that the Cabinet or the Government has not yet come up with the answer to the resolutions of the Barotseland Commission of Inquiry and now that there is a resolution from Western Province, what immediate action has the Government put in place for the current situation?
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, the immediate action includes monitoring and analysing but in terms of more proactive things or more active things than those, I do not think the House could reasonably expect me to preannounce any actions that may be coming to contain the situation.
I am not saying they are coming and not coming at the same time. That is a prerogative of Government to allow various arms of Government to do their job.
I thank you, Sir.
Patrick Mucheleka (Lubasenshi Independent member of parliament): Mr Speaker, given that in Western Province, there is no consensus with regards to the succession that is being claimed and given that some ethnic groupings such as the Nkoyas in Kaoma District have seriously and consistently disassociated themselves from the secession that is being talked about, will the Government, perhaps even as they study the report consider providing a mechanism for carrying out a referendum for the people in Western Province so that they can indicate in terms of whether or not they would like to secede?
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, if we were minded that way, we would be minded to have a referendum of the whole of Zambia and that is a constitutional issue.
If you break a country into half, you are effectively changing the constitution of the very fundamental level. I take the point about various ethnic groups having different views in Western Province but I am not even sure what the majority those are.
How do we know? Are we to take the movement for the restoration of Barotseland as being the yardstick of Lozi political fight? We do not know. That is why I made the point very forcibly in the statement that the process of consultation that had gone on behind these resolutions is not clear at all.
I thank you, Sir.
Moses Chishimba (Kanfinsa PF member of parliament): Mr Speaker, would it be far-fetched to think that this agenda is being driven by people who either have failed to achieve political power through normal means…
Government members: Hear, hear!
Chishimba:…and are working behind the remote control and were part of the fallen MMD Government? May the Vice-President clarify that.
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, that is feeling in the dark. We have police forces and other investigative wings who will in due course can may be come to some conclusion but otherwise, it is simply speculation.
I thank you, Sir.
Interruptions
Mtolo Phiri (Chipata Central MMD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, would the Vice-President indicate what immediate measures the government is putting in place so that current investors and would be investors are not scared because of this impasse?
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, first of all, there is no impasse. There is a bunch of resolutions from some sort of organisation that maybe has legitimacy but not necessarily representativity. Even if there were, we would be explaining it.
In fact, we are explaining it to our co-operating partners, diplomatic members and to the investors themselves. I have had several phone calls about what is going on and I have reassured the people calling that everything is well.
I thank you, Sir.
Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane (Liuwa MMD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, …
Interruptions
Speaker Matibini: Order!
Dr Musokotwane: … His Excellency the President made an off-the-cuff remark on the date of receiving the commission of inquiry report to the extent that he would not honour the Barotseland Agreement. Right now, Sir, in the press, there is a report coming out of Botswana that the Government is being urged there to ask for an apology because of some of off-the-cuff remarks made by the President while he was in Botswana. One of which was that Botswana only had five shops …
MMD Members: Aah!
Dr Musokotwane: … and therefore, there it did not need people in the field of accountancy.
Laughter
Dr Musokotwane: Would you agree that for the sake of the security and honour of our country, the President must be dissuaded very strongly from making off-the-cuff remarks because they are embarrassing this country?
Opposition members: Hear, hear!
Mbewe: Zoona!
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, I think we are well off the track now. In general, the President's off-the-cuff remarks have nothing to do with this debate whatsoever.
Government members: Hear, hear!
Vice-President Scott: I must say that I am also having problems stopping some of my officers from making off-the-cuff remarks. In English, they say, "You cannot teach an old dog new tricks."
Laughter
Vice-President Scott: So, may be Michael …
Opposition members: Oh, oh!
Laughter
Mr Speaker: Order! Order!
Vice-President Scott: Maybe that is what I am also suffering from anyway.
I thank you, Sir.
Interruptions
Opposition members: Hear, hear! The VP!
Moses Muteteka (Chisamba MMD member of parliament): Mr Speaker, the matter which is on the Floor of the House has attracted a lot of political expressions. Taking into account the resolutions which have just been made by the Barotseland National Council, …
Interruptions.
Muteteka: … is the Government willing to accommodate all the chiefs in Zambia if they asked for a conference to deliberate on this issue taking into account the fact that the matter affects a number of chiefs in Zambia who have not spoken to about it?
What will be your position as PF, if all the chiefs asked for a conference so that they can be allowed to deliberate on this issue in the interest of making peace?
Vice-President Scott: Mr Speaker, I think the only undertaking I could give at this point is that we will cross that bridge when we get to it. I cannot answer a question like that on the Floor without consultation.
I thank you, Mr Speaker.
Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, GUY SCOTT, WESTERN PROVINCE
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Barotse Council opts to secede
By Mwala Kalaluka and Nyambe Muyumbana in Mongu
Wed 28 Mar. 2012, 13:00 CAT
THE Barotse Royal Establishment's district courts have unanimously called for total independence of Barotseland from Zambia in view of the unilateral abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement by Dr Kenneth Kaunda's government.
And some delegates to the Barotse National Council on Monday 'jeered' former labour minister Austin Liato when he was introduced to the convocation by a Barotse Royal Establishment induna.
Submitting their resolutions from the consultative meetings that took place in all the seven district traditional courts over the Barotseland Agreement issue before the Barotse National Council that closed in Limulunga yesterday, the representatives said their position on the matter was in unison.
The BRE's Induna Inete, Tawila Silumbu, in presenting the Mongu district resolutions on Monday afternoon said the people of Barotseland wanted to determine their political, cultural, social and economic development.
"That the Barotseland Protectorate and Northern Rhodesia that became Zambia shall revert to their original status," Induna Inete said.
"That Barotseland shall be secured as an independent sovereign state, come what may. Touch one, touch all."
In his submissions on behalf of the BRE in Senanga district, Induna Mukwaka, Sitali Mukubesa, said on Tuesday morning that whereas Zambia was a Republic, Barotseland was a kingdom.
"The Barotse did not surrender their sovereignty and territory to any state at all," he said. "The people of Senanga have no choice but to call for self-determination."
Induna Mukwakwa said the process of Barotseland's separation from Zambia should start now.
Sesheke BRE representative, Induna Amukutehile said in his submission that all the 21 sub-districts under Senior Chief Inyambo Yeta in Mwandi were for total independence.
Induna Amukutehile said Lozis owed no one any apology for being who they were and he expressed surprise as to why the Zambian government had assumed a role of spokespersons for some paramount chiefs over the Barotseland issue.
"Our patience as Lozis is like an elastic rubber. There is a limit to which you can stretch an elastic rubber. Beyond that the elastic will snap. Enough is enough," said Induna Amukutehile.
"They Zambian governments passed a lot of pronouncements , one of them being that there is no provision for secession in the Barotseland Agreement 1964, by the same token, it is worth noting that there is no provision for unilateral abrogation of the agreement."
A representative from the BRE in Kalabo district also echoed sentiments of his colleagues from the other districts by calling for Barotseland's separation from Zambia.
The BRE in Kalabo challenged serving members of parliament and councillors to resign their positions immediately in view of the separation of Barotseland from Zambia.
Induna Yutanga from the BRE in Kaoma district, Namushi Nyambe, who is also Barotseland Freedom Movement national chairperson, said the people of Barotseland will seek international intervention in its conflict with the Zambian government.
Induna Yutanga said an all-inclusive interim committee should be set up just after the BNC to manage the period of transition towards Barotseland's independence from the Zambian government.
He called on the international community to stop treating the Barotseland issue as an internal matter but that they should get involved now to avoid the situation from spiraling into an unpleasant conflict resolution issue.
A representative from the BRE in Lukulu also said from the few meetings they held in the sub-districts the people of Lukulu were desirous for total independence from Zambia because they felt marginalised.
And when Liato who was in the company of Nalikwanda MMD member of parliament Prof Geoffrey Lungwangwa was introduced to the BNC by Batuke Imenda, who is Induna Mukulwakashiko, on Monday, the audience broke into mocking 'jeers'.
Some of the youth were heard describing Liato, a former MMD member of parliament for Kaoma Central but originally from Muyumbana area in Kalabo, as a man who knew how to bury money.
Liato, who was not seen at the BNC the follwing day (yesterday), together with Prof Lungwangwa and the MMD's acting president Michael Mabenga, just smiled at the reaction his introduction had triggered.
And Barotseland prime minister Ngambela Wainyae Sinyinda said change is a necessity when every other way becomes impossible.
Cautioning people that he said were scheming to divide the people of Barotseland on ethnic lines, Sinyinda said in an address to delegates to the Barotse National Council in Limulunga on Monday that such ethno-inclined schemers should stop their activities immediately.
"We wonder why some people should go to an extent of trying to divide us," said Sinyinda during his oratory punctuated by wild applause.
"Some people are trying to divide us because they know that in disunity they will thrive."
He said most of the over 30 ethnic groupings in Barotseland had co-existed peacefully for hundreds of years.
"We are aware that some people are scheming to divide us. I am appealing to all those who are scheming to divide us, please don't divide us. We are one people," Sinyinda told the gathering attended by Western Province minister John Kufuna and other government officials.
"Some people are circulating a speech purporting that it was my speech, as if we are causing violence, never shall we do that."
Sinyinda said such manoevres could explain the presence of a lot of security forces in Mongu ahead and during the Barotse National Council, which closed yesterday.
He said the people of Barotseland were peace-loving and that if they were not, the opposite of peace should have happened a long time ago.
"What we are going to resolve at this Barotse National Council, it will be the way forward," said Sinyinda as more wild applause and ear-piercing whistling continued.
"When I undertook to take up the position of Ngambela of Barotseland at such a volatile and precarious time as this one, it was with no illusion that it was ever going to be an easy assignment because I fully realise the challenges and almost insurmountable obstacles that are facing our people and our land."
He said he has faith in the Barotse people's capacity to unite and rally behind a genuine and legitimate cause, because history had shown that whenever they, as a people, allowed disunity to prevail among them, they have tended to take a downward curve.
Sinyinda said the current quagmire the people of Barotseland were faced with was largely because of the disunity that existed at the time the wind of change against colonialism was sweeping across the African continent.
"The Barotseland Agreement 1964 was therefore a compromised position between the two warring factions. Disunity which was a consequence of lack of vision on the part of the so-called freedom fighters has brought us where we are today; signing an agreement with people who have no regard for the rule of law," said Sinyinda.
"I propose that we re-introduce the checks and balances model in the Barotse Royal Establishment governance system which was terminated prematurely."
Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, KENNETH KAUNDA
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COMMENT - It is time for serious decentralisation to the local government level.
BNC's resolution to secede irresponsible - Scott
By Ernest Chanda and Bright Mukwasa
Wed 28 Mar. 2012, 15:59 CAT
VICE-PRESIDENT Guy Scott says the Barotse National Council's resolution to secede from Zambia is irresponsible and unacceptable. Giving a ministerial statement in the National Assembly today on the resolutions of the Barotse National Council to have Barotseland seceded from the rest of Zambia, Vice-President Scott said the government had a responsibility to protect people and property. He said there were more Lozis in the rest of Zambia than in Western Province.
"The resolutions announced in Mongu yesterday are irresponsible and unacceptable. Government will not abdicate its responsibility as custodian of the interest of all our people who live in the territorial space called Zambia," he said yesterday.
And asked by Mwandi MMD member of parliament Michael Kaingu if he was aware that the Brotseland Agreement of 1964 united two territories of Northern Rhodesia and Zambia and that in its absence, there would be no relationship between the two, Vice-President Scott said:
"That is the legal situation taken to extremes and twisted. In practice, the Western Province has been part of Zambia and has been governed as part of Zambia since way before 1964."
Asked by Monze UPND member of parliament Jack Mwiimbu if he knew the genesis of the document, Dr Scott said the Brotseland Agreement was a document drawn to give comfort to the Lozi speaking people, and not to advocate for secession.
On Tuesday, the Barotse Royal Establishment's district courts unanimously called for total independence of Barotseland from Zambia in view of the unilateral abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement by Dr Kenneth Kaunda's government.
Submitting their resolutions from the consultative meetings that took place in all the seven district traditional courts over the Barotseland Agreement issue before the Barotse National Council that closed in Limulunga on Tuesday, the representatives said their position on the matter was in unison.
Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, GUY SCOTT, JACK MWIIMBU, MONGU, UPND
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Barotseland is at crossroads
By Mwala Kalaluka and Nyambe Muyumbana in Mongu
Tue 27 Mar. 2012, 13:00 CAT
BAROTSE Royal Establishment Ngambela (prime minister) Wainyae Sinyinda says things will never be the same after the watershed Barotse National Council (BNC) that opened in Limulunga yesterday. And the BRE says prophets of doom that painted a picture that the Barotse National Council could not proceed in a peaceful manner had been shamed.
Officially opening the BNC, which attracted traditional leaders from within Barotseland, three chiefs from the Southern Province, politicians across the political divide, prominent and ordinary citizens, at Limulunga's St Lawrence Catholic Church grounds, Sinyinda said the Barotse people's peaceful nature should not be mistaken for lack of courage.
Sinyinda, who kept attracting applause from the red-beret and traditional attire-clad audience inside and outside a big white marquee pitched in the church grounds, thanked the delegates for making personal sacrifices to attend the meeting.
"This expression of personal sacrifice on your part and that of all those that have made it possible for you to be here is a demonstration of the fact that we all realise Barotseland is at the crossroads," Sinyinda said.
"Consequently, difficult choices have to be made and crucial decisions have to be reached. We are the ones to make choices and decisions and this is the time to do so. We can no longer wait for other people or another time. To every generation is given a cause to either fulfill or betray."
Sinyinda said today's generation was given the awesome responsibility to resolve the Barotseland crisis, which he described as a consequence of an impasse and a resultant failure from the non-implementation and unilateral abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement 1964.
"It is up to us to either fulfill or betray this cause," Sinyinda said.
"For a long time now, the BRE has been under immense pressure to call for the BNC. We were accused of mishandling the thorny issue of the Barotseland Agreement 1964. You are called for this moment to give us direction. The ever loving God preserved this day for all of us to assemble here to congregate and find a way forward. To you all, I say, this is your historic moment."
Sinyinda said in the Barotse people's pursuit to resolve the Barotse question, they have passed through turbulent times as throughout the 47 years, successive governments applied the undemocratic principle of might is right.
"We paid with our blood for simply requesting to consolidate our integration with Zambia. Intimidation became the order of the day," Sinyinda said.
At this point, Sinyinda asked the gathering to observe a minute of silence in honour of those that lost their lives, shed their blood and were inconvenienced in one way or another as a result of state brutality in January last year.
"I have faith in our peace-loving nature and I am confident that we shall forever remain committed to finding a peaceful settlement to the Barotseland question. We are committed to non-violent means of conflict resolution. Though our blood has been spilt, we will spill no innocent blood. Though we have been shot, we will not throw a pebble at our aggressors. Though some among us have been killed, we will endeavour to destroy no life. Though we have been tortured and persecuted, we will treat all persons with human dignity," Sinyinda said.
Sinyinda said the Barotse people were now saying 'here we stand, we can do no other'.
"Things will never be the same again after this watershed BNC. We have been insulted enough, ridiculed enough, teased enough, mocked enough, sidelined enough, victimised enough, neglected enough, tossed back and forth enough, subjugated enough, segregated enough, mistreated enough, and we must put an end to it," Sinyinda said as the crowd broke into applause and ululations.
"May I conclude by challenging all the delegates here present to participate freely as we deliberate on the decisions and resolutions that have come from different corners and angles of our society and as we struggle to harmonise these different, diverse and at times competing views to come up with a cohesive and focused position to present to the world at large."
Earlier, Sinyinda said during the meeting, attended by Western Province minister John Kufuna and other senior government and security officials, that there was no need for the Zambian government to ever arrest anybody over the Barotseland Agreement because the people of Barotseland do not intend to be violent over the matter.
And BRE's Induna Mukulwakashiko, Batuke Imenda, said some individuals had been circulating a false and malicious document purporting to be a speech that Ngambela Sinyinda was scheduled to deliver at the traditional convocation.
Imenda said the security personnel had dealt with the situation.
Imenda said the meeting was about discussing the issue of the Barotseland Agreement which had dogged the people of the area for over 47 years.
"This meeting is driven by the people of Barotseland considering all the tiers of our traditional system," said Imenda in his opening remarks.
"I would like to make it clear here that the people of Barotseland considering all these tiers felt that the time is now to give direction to the BRE in the manner in which this matter should be handled."
Among the chiefs that attended from the Southern Province include, chief Mukuni of the Toka-Leya people in Kazungula, chief Chikanta of Kalomo and chief Sinazongwe.
All the chiefs from the districts of Western Province, except chief Lukama of Shangombo, Mwene Mutondo and Mwene Kahare of Kaoma, were present.
Barotse activists took charge of security and protocol during the event but plain clothed police officers and intelligence personnel formed part of the crowd.
Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT
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Greetings to the Barotse National Council
By The Post
Mon 26 Mar. 2012, 12:00 CAT
TODAY the ears and eyes of Zambia are focused on Limulunga. Zambians are eagerly waiting to hear what comes out of the Barotse National Council in Limulunga. Although the full agenda of this council is not well known to most Zambians, there is one issue which most people think will be on this agenda and probably take the centre stage - the Barotse Agreement of 1964.
There has been so much discussion and comments on this issue. Some of the comments have been very mature, sober and intelligent. Others have been reckless, shallow and sometimes even senseless. They are all welcome. We need to hear all views, wise and unwise.
But rarely has a leadership of a people demonstrated so much calm, so much reasonableness, so much maturity as the Litunga and the Barotse Royal Establishment has done on this issue. They have remained quiet and listened to all the views of the Zambian people, including that of President Michael Sata and of the secretary general of the ruling Patriotic Front Wynter Kabimba.
They have not responded publicly to any views expressed on this issue. Not that they have no view. They have also listened to those with extreme views advocating for Barotseland to break away from the Republic of Zambia. But still they have remained silent.
Again, not because they don't have a view or something to say on this issue. People have the right to express themselves and the leadership of a people has a duty to listen to all views, palatable or unpalatable, acceptable or unacceptable.
Zambia has something to learn from the way the Litunga and the Barotse Royal Establishment have dealt with this issue. They have shown exemplary tolerance of divergent views. And we have no doubt this will be the spirit and approach at today's Barotse National Council. Everyone will be heard, should be heard, must be heard. But the right to be heard does not mean the right to be taken seriously.
All this said, we wish the Litunga and the Barotse National Council all the best and we urge them to remain what they have been so far - a dignified leadership and a dignified people, a peaceful leadership and a peaceful people, a tolerant leadership and a tolerant people.
And at this point, we beg them also to consider our humble view as a newspaper on this council and on the issue of the Barotse Agreement which, like most Zambians, we believe is likely to be on the agenda.
We are of the view that no amount of irritation, frustration, disappointment with the deficiencies and inadequacies of our governance system under the Republic of Zambia should tempt them, even for a second, to contemplate breaking away.
Doing so will lead to a very deformed form of nationalism which is bound to encounter serious problems, some which may be difficult to foresee today. Ethnocentrism is a deformed form of nationalism.
The claim to the right to self-determination based on ethnic ideology is destructive. A sense of nationalism that is built upon ethnic intolerance is destructive. Nationalism based on excessive exaltation of one's own tribe is a deformed one.
We say it is a deformed one because such nationalism seeks to assert its superiority over the others. All through history, tribalism has been the cause of innumerable conflicts. Among the tribes, as among individuals, dignity is a virtue and pride vice.
Tribes, like countries, are not closed groups. They are but a small part of a wider society. It is not by segregating ourselves from those who are different that we shall preserve our own particular achievements. It is by sharing them that we become richer.
We should open our minds and hearts to the human values to be found in the language, customs and culture of people who are about us.
Excessive emphasis on the uniqueness of Barotseland and its people can lead to a deformed and distorted form of nationalism.
This fact should put us on guard against those dangers which weaken national unity. The first form of deformation is to be found in the narrowing of the scope of true nationalism, when it is reduced to fostering the interests of only one section or group of the inhabitants of the country.
No single sector has a monopoly on what true national interests are. Nationalism should be expressed in actions, in daily works and tasks, in justice and in solidarity. We should cultivate a loyal spirit of patriotism, but without narrow-mindedness.
Zambia has many deficiencies and inadequacies in the way it is governed. But this shouldn't be the basis of us thinking of . We should be mindful that there may not be an end to breaking up. How far are we going to break up? We have been governed as one territory and as one people for a very long time.
Even when Barotseland was a protectorate in its own right, it was still governed closely to and with the rest of the territory that today constitutes the Republic of Zambia. We have our problems, we have our differences but we are one people and one nation.
There are problems with the Barotse Agreement. Let those problems be addressed in a manner that leaves our nation, our country more united, better governed and stronger.
Yes, the Barotse Agreement is a hot issue. But the Litunga and the Barotse Royal Establishment has dealt with hotter and more complex issues than this throughout its history; they have come up with solutions to many issues and conflicts that might have seemed intractable.
Let them come up with solutions to these new problems, in a new way and in a new time. A lot of things have changed over the last 47 years and the mark of great leaders is to understand the context in which they are operating and act accordingly.
The ways in which we will achieve our goals are bound by context, changing with circumstances even while remaining steadfast in our commitment to our vision. The reality can no longer be ignored that we live in an inter-dependent country, world which is bound together to a common destiny.
Let it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness made us fail to live up to these ideals. We have no doubt the Litunga and the Barotse Royal Establishment will live up to these ideals.
This is an institution with a long history of experience and wisdom, it has gone through some very difficult trials of all kinds throughout its history. But throughout history this institution has demonstrated its experience, its wisdom, and its capacity to adapt to reality.
It has had some very difficult trials. But its leadership, its thinkers always came up with new solutions, and steps were taken to adapt the institution to the major political, economic and social changes that were taking place around it, in the country and in the world.
Now, too, they are going through some very difficult trials and must make some important changes. And without promoting ideas or standards that depart from the traditions of this institution, we do feel that it's necessary to approach the important problems of our time realistically.
And as to the rest of us, when the voice of the Litunga and the Barotse Royal Establishment is invoked on behalf of those who have no voice, it's time to listen. But when its name is used to benefit the interests of those who are speaking, it's time to be very careful.
By saying what we are saying, we are not in any way attempting to give a lecture to this very important and wise gathering at Limulunga. We are merely expressing an opinion, our opinion.
And we conclude this by wishing the Barotse National Council God's blessings, guidance and wisdom in its deliberations.
Labels: BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT
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People should be free to air views at Barotse meeting - Akende
By Roy Habaalu
Mon 26 Mar. 2012, 11:59 CAT
PEOPLE should not be intimidated when submitting their views regarding the Barotseland Agreement of 1964 during the Barotse National Council, says a former civic leader.
In an interview from Mongu ahead of today's Barotse National Council meeting to discuss the way forward regarding the Barotseland Agreement, former Mongu mayor Charles Akende said everyone must be listened to.
He said the meeting should provide an opportunity for all parties involved in finding a lasting solution.
"People will talk and if anything, they must be listened to and these are people who feel this issue has been there for a long time. Whether you agree or not with the submissions, listen to what people want and what comes out of what people wanted. I think as an individual, people that would have wanted this thing (BNC) not to happen. We may say it's an opportunity to listen to what people want," said Akende.
"There is nothing like violence and if others think people will come out of that meeting annoyed, there is nothing like that because these are issues that we need to discuss," he said.
Akende said the presence of police officers and soldiers may raise speculations.
Akende said he expected good results from the two-day meeting because people were free and seemed to be happy.
Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, CHARLES AKENDE, WESTERN PROVINCE
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Politicians have opportunity to unite Zambia - Fr Chikoya
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Sun 25 Mar. 2012, 12:59 CAT
OUR political leaders have a very good opportunity to unite the country, says Fr Emmanuel Chikoya. Commenting on the deployment of soldiers and police officers in Mongu, Fr Chikoya who is the priest in-charge of the St Andrews Anglican Church in Livingstone said unnecessary heroes were being given room to rise.
"Why take soldiers for operations now in view of the Barotse National Council (BNC)? It should have been done some other time. Leadership is about dealing with issues in a wise manner. Leaders that have made it in life such as Jesus Christ made sober decisions. Our political leaders have a very good opportunity to unite our country, resolve the Barotseland Agreement and not rush to deploying soldiers," Fr Chikoya said.
Fr Chikoya said opposing views could never be eliminated by the use of a gun and this had been proven in many countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries in the Middle East.
Fr Chikoya said life was a very taxing commodity which needed to be treasured and made best value of.
He however said some people were taking advantage of the Barotseland Agreement of 1964 and were misleading people.
"Understandably, the whole issue is about underdevelopment and people are being misled in the process. Let us deal with this in a wise manner. Look at Libya, Gaddafi is out but what is happening? Look at Iraq. It is only peace that can bring peace. However, at the moment we seem to be losing that prospect," Fr Chikoya said.
The Barotse Royal Establishment Ngambela prime minister Wainyae Sinyinda on Thursday told The Post that the BRE was concerned that the government had sent a huge number of soldiers and police officers to police unarmed people that will attend the Barotse National Council in Mongu next week.
"We are concerned because what is surprising is that not even a single (one) of us is armed, except (with) our walking sticks," said Sinyinda.
Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT
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