BAROTSELAND ISSUE IS VERY SENSITIVE, HH MUST STICK TO WRITTEN TEXT – CHANGALA
By Thomas Ngala
THE Barotseland Agreement has been used by many politicians while in opposition to lure the Lozi vote by promising them to do
what others have not done, and Mr Hakainde Hichilema is no exception, says Brebner Changala.
Changala, the human rights defender, advised President Hichilema to always
learn to stick to the written text and not to digress into saying things off-the-cuff.
He warned that President Hichilema willone day plunge the country in chaos.
“The Barotseland issue is a very sensitive issue which has seen almost six presidents failing to make a clear statement or direction on how
that matter should be resolved. The reason is simple,” he told
The Mast. “Zambia is a unitary state and the Barotseland Agreement was abrogated
somewhere in 1965/69, when the Barotseland was turned into Western Province and they were meant to rejoin the local government system of the entire republic of Zambia without the full consultation of the participants in the agreement.”
He said the reason the matter lasted close to 60 years, without much acrimony, had been
because of steady statesmanship by those who were in power before President Hichilema.
Changala said President Hichilema has arrogantly forgotten those promises regarding the matter without considering the repercussions.
“Because he thinks and is fully convinced that he is wielding state power which can crush anybody…forgetting that the seat has enormous
responsibilities other than power and the responsibilities are to maintain peace, unity and national development in diversity,” he said. “As to
whether Mr Hakainde Hichilema must apologize, that is neither here nor there. And he is playing a mickey mouse
game.
The information I have is that he first sent the director general of intelligence to go and see the Litunga, but it failed. Then only last week, he sent a delegation headed by honourable Situmbeko Musokotwane and it failed. And it failed in a manner where it is
now very clear that they have no trust for him. They have asked the government, the new dawn administration, Mr Hakainde Hichilema, that all communications to the Barotseland must be written, not verbal.”
He added that “they (government) must put whatever they want to discuss
with the Indunas, with the Litunga and with the Kuta in writing because they want to keep their record because
verbal promises are always
broken as it were”.
“So, my advice to this new dawn administration is to take stock of what the President said and the reaction from Western
Province,” said Changala.
On Monday, former prime minister of Barotseland Clement Sinyinda resigned as a member of the Teaching Service Commission over the
President’s statement.
In a letter to President Hichilema, Sinyinda said he found the latter’s statement that
“there is no country called Barotseland” disrespectful to the Litunga, Kuta and the people of Barotseland.
“Following your statement which you issued when you were addressing the permanent secretaries for the republic of Zambia on the 18th January at Mulungushi Conference Centre in which you said and I quote, PS Akapelwa there is no country called Western
Province or Barotseland’ I had to ponder and wait to hear whether you would be remorseful enough to apologise to the Litunga, Kuta and indeed the people of Barotseland but alas I haven’t heard anything. To that effect I consider this as
being disrespectful to Litunga, Kuta and the people of Barotseland,” stated Sinyinda.
“As a result of this I have decided to resign from your government as a commissioner from the Teaching Service Commission and go back to my people and country Barotseland with Immediate effect. I, Clement W. Sinyinda would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve as a member of the Teaching Service Commission.”