PRESIDENT HH, UPND SHOULD DIALOGUE WITH THE LEADING CATHOLIC VOICES.
Issued: 29|05|23
I urge President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND leadership to immediately engage and dialogue with the leading voices from the catholic church. The continued political grand standing is not good for the entire country.
Historical Context
Having being part of negotiating team of the failed dialogue process of 2018 and 2019 between then Republican President Lungu and UPND’s President Hichilema, such political postures achieve nothing except fuel toxicity and increase political tension in the country.
It is worth noting that the current political grand standing is the same exact replica of what existed in 2018 to 2021 between the leading voices from the catholic church and the PF government. The PF members and political parties affiliated to them took a militant state just as President Hichilema and UPND have done now.
In the aftermath of the failed dialogue process, in late 2020, then I was chairperson for all the political parties under the Zambia Center for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID), when the Commonwealth (supported by the UNDP) called on me to chair a peace process before the 2021 general elections. I made it very clear to all my political colleagues on the ZCID board and outside that we needed the church to co-chair the entire process.
Although suspicion between the politicians and the Church was at its highest at that time, we still engaged directly with the leaders from the three main church mother bodies (EFZ, CCZ, ZCCB), held several meetings and consequently agreed to work together for the good of our country.
Together with the Church and other stakeholders such as the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) we managed to put up the biggest coalition of political parties and civil societies organisations (CSO’s) and compelled the political parties participating in the general election to sign a peace pledge at mulungushi conference center. The process was a huge success.
My Humble Advise and Call
President Hichilema needs the church thus he should engage the leading church voices across the church spectrum. The President should further instruct all the structures in UPND below him to stop commenting and responding on the sentiments expressed by the clergy to avoid undesirable comments in public that may make dialogue impossible.
If both parties are willing to dialogue, I humbly make myself available based on my little experience in these matters to make it (dialogue) a reality for the sake of our Nation.
Silavwe Jackson
President
Golden Party Zambia
(GPZ).
