PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu and 26 Royal Highnesses in Southern Province have held a constructive, honest, frank and successful meeting in Livingstone on the tribal remarks attributed to Patriotic Front (PF) Secretary General Davies Chama.
And President Lungu has agreed to launch three developmental projects in Southern Province in August and September this year namely the ground breaking for the tarring of the Bottom Road in Sinazongwe, the strategic plan for Chief Macha’s chiefdom and the Mbeza project of revamping the cooperatives movement in Chief Nalubamba’s area.
Presidential Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda said the Head of State and his delegation of Ministers held a constructive, honest, frank and successful meeting with Southern Province Royal Highnesses.
Mr Chanda said the President met their Royal Highness concerning the controversial remarks that were attributed to Mr Chama.
He was addressing a media briefing outside Chrismar Hotel in Livingstone yesterday after a closed-door meeting between President Lungu, his delegation and 26 chiefs and chieftainesses of Southern Province.
[pullquote]“Our message to the President was loud and clear and the President does not feel offended nor do we feel offended,” he said.[/pullquote]
Mr Chanda said the meeting was had been very fruitful and cordial between the two parties and the President requested their Roya Highnesses to come up with a concrete position paper for him to make a consideration.
“The conclusion of the meeting is that their Royal Highnesses will support the President in his bid to unite the country and have encouraged him to continue pushing the agenda of One Zambia One Nation theme.
“They also agreed to consolidate dialogue across all areas of life such as politics, religion, traditional affairs,” Mr Chanda said.
And speaking on behalf of all chiefs and chieftainesses in Southern Province during the closing ceremony, Chief Hamusonde said his team had a successful meeting with the Republican President.
“The chiefs of Southern Province have talked quite at large with the President and our message was quite clear. The President feels that he has not been offended in any way; neither do we feel we have been offended in any way. The President has taken everything we talked to him and we have left to him to think for himself and act for himself and he will come back to us quickly,” Chief Hamusonde said.
In his closing prayer after the meeting, Chief Chipepo shamed critics who thought the meeting would not take place as planned.
Chief Chipepo, who also quoted the Bible from Romans 13:1-7, said it was important for citizens to respect their leaders as they were chosen by God.
He also prayed that the people of Southern Province and Zambia at large should have a spirit of forgiving one another.
“We have to respect our President because whatever we say against him, we will be saying to the Zambian people. Those who thought this meeting would be a failure are ashamed,” he prayed.
“Thank you Mr President for the breakthrough of unity under One Zambia One Nation and I bless you as our leader and pray that you will find favour in the eyes of Zambians. We are proud to belong to the leadership of our humble President. We pray for other leaders to be humble too,” Chief Chipepo said in his prayer.
Meanwhile, Mr Chanda said President Lungu would undertake various developmental projects in Southern Province during the months of August and September this year.
He said Mr Lungu would be officiating at the ground breaking ceremony for the tarring of Bottom road in Sinazongwe and in the valley area.
“The contractor has since been paid part of the money and we will be instructing Secretary to the Treasury to release the remaining money so that Bottom Road is tarred.
[pullquote]We have to respect our President because whatever we say against him, we will be saying to the Zambian people.[/pullquote]
“This is in addition to the improvement of power projects within the valley area,” Mr Chanda said.
He also said Mr Lungu accepted to launch two special projects in August and September 2015 namely the strategic plan for the chiefdom of Macha and the Mbeza project of revamping the cooperatives movement in Chief Nalubamba’s area.
“Chief Macha has invited Lungu to officiate at the lunch of the strategic plan and the President accepted to officiate.
“The plan is the modern way of managing the chiefdoms and villages.
The chief has devised a mechanism to improve governance at a village level. The chief will later on launch the project on sanitation and how to improve sanitation and household hygiene in October this year but all these will be encompassed under the strategic plan by Chief Macha,” he said.
Mr Chanda said the President found the project as a noble new way of looking at governance in chiefdoms and increasing the participation of chiefs.
He said the President also found the Mbeza Project of relaunching cooperatives in Chief Nalubamba’s area as a brilliant one as it fits well in the Government programme of regenerating the cooperative movement.
“Within that plan, the President has launched a presidential initiative to try and bring down the prices of mealie meal and the roll out of solar milling plants will start very soon. Part of these initiatives is what Chief Nalubamba will be doing,” Mr Chanda said.
He urged the provincial administration in Southern Province and other stakeholders to begin preparing for the various projects in readiness for President Lungu’s visitation in August and September this year.
Now thats a progressive way of resolving issues,not ati Chundu Chaitwa,malabishi.
Jamasoni, enough of these fake promises. These people you are trying tohoodwink are still hurting.
Lungu you did not address the irresponsible remarks made by your I disciplined Chama
Can you imagine HH going to a PF stronghold and saying all those disrespectful things Edgar said about UPND? It just shows his poor judgement , just as he did with the release of Kanene and consequently pointing him GBV Ambassador .I am sure you all now believe he has no vision
Bitterness, hatred, envy, covetousness, lies, and insolence these vices are not synonymous with leadership material. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth because they will wreck and deny your blessing in life. You cannot win people by building your character on these vices. Its sad that ECL’s opponents have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder of character, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips. Unless the turn away from their perversity, they are bound for a disastrous end.
During the funeral of President Sata and consistently today we are still saying, humility, inclusiveness and a temperate spirit of ECL are unparalleled assets of ECL.
They must have received kata mulomo. However, let us wait and see how the President thinks through and reacts to the Chiefs demands.
However, it is refreshing to note that Chama’s tribal remarks have born fruit in terms of promised development which was not on the government agenda; if it was not for this forced meeting.
Edgar Lungu your excellence keep it we will support you.Zambia belongs to all Zambians irrespective of tribe.We have no where to run to if war broke out.Our mother is Zambia. Viva Viva honourable Edgar Changwa Lungu. God bless you in your health and the way you running our affairs. Once again glory be to God
I support any form of peaceful resolutions. However, I still want to know what will happen to Chama. If I were Chama I would have apologized by now.
Maybe its because it was a closed door meeting that is why some of the details are not disclosed.
I think Mr Lungu did a good move here by meeting the Chiefs of Southern Province. Since the chiefs (our leaders) seem to be happy with the outcome of the meeting, then I think everyone should let go and move on. Have faith in the chiefs’ judgement.
Tonga people are the sweetest, I think. Had it been other provinces, I am sure Lungu would have been blocked or there would be riots outside the meeting area or something dramatic.
Here is what I think will happen, Chama will dropped or moved to another position.
Read the Post to find out what was discussed in that closed door meeting. This stuff they have told us was censored for public consumption. For instance, Lungu was told straight out that they would not accept anything short of Chama being fired and that they did not need the brown bags of money that had been sent ahead of Lungu arriving because they had their own money. Mukuni was one of the few chiefs who did not utter a word.
I can see my uncle in grey hair. Chief sipatunyana.
LT did not disclose what was discussed about Chama in the meeting.The Agenda of the meeting was about Chama.This cosmetic type of reporting is killing the country.The chiefs did not go to the meeting to discuss projects which we know wont even take place in southern as they are just carrots dangled in front of a Donkey.We in southern through our chiefs are clear Chama should go to set an axample to those that fan tribalism.Zambia is for all Zambians.The meeting was not conclusive as the ball was left in the hands of president Lungu.
These are sell-out chiefs and chancers. Now Lungu chap is bribing them. They should do a donchi Kubeba on him. Accept his projects but vote for someone else. Hats off to the chancer chiefs.
This LT report is hollow. It has not addressed issues the Tongas wanted addressed.
Chama, Kambwili and Mumba Phiri must go.
The truth is Lungu just promised to do something to these people to calm the tensions forgetting that promising and not fulfilling the promise is dangerous course of action any one can dare follow. When it back fires, it does so big time.
One of the chiefs is my relative and has told me that they gave Lungu ultimatums and they are eagerly waiting to see if Lungu stands by his word.
As for voting PF in 2016, that will be wish full thinking as tongas and many Zambians across Zambia have not seen any good results for having PF in power.
PF has failed dismally.
Only UPND and HH will save Zambia from this turmoil .
Viva UPND and HH’s leadership.
Snr Citizen, I implore you to view things like the senior citizen you claim to be. Can you honestly call someone who proclaims himself “unifier”, humble?? Can you refer to someone who remains tight lipped on the chap whose remarks prompted the fracas and yet goes to meet subjects of the remarks for a solution, serious? If Lungu were unifying and serious, he should have dealt with Chama first, and used the disciplinary steps to show regret for the incident and therefore commitment to his unifying efforts. The way things are, Lungu went to pour more insult on the people of Southern Province, not just their Chiefs!
@ Senior Citizen there is some bitterness your president Lungu harbors against the people of southern province. That he would arrive at the airport and start disparaging UPND is indicative that he is still hurt by the drubbing that was handed to him by UPND! The meeting he had with the chiefs had a straight forward agenda concerning Davies Chama but it seems from the report the matter took a detour of deception. Chiefs must know respect is not an entitlement and they earn it from their subjects.
Lungu does a number on UPND
Lungu is a pathological liar who uses other people to do his dirty work. All what he said in Livingstone are LIES , LIES, LIES. All he wants is to be President of Zambia, at any cost, for a long time. Lungu only cares for Lungu.
These meetings will make Lungu more popular than ever before and all the tongas will cry foul ati the government has corrupted them
If the meeting was “successful”, why not issuing joint statement?
Even in a family,you will tell a spoiled child by the attention they cry for.these guys are a classic example of SPOILED.
Surprising nothing is talked on the core subject matter instead diverted to other things. Well you were better of leaving at “closed door meeting” but your excitement got you tempted to disclose peace meal info. Give us detail on the subject matter thus Chama and team issue.
Tonga chiefs are wise leaders. They know Lungu hold power as leader of government while the chiefs hold real power by being the leaders of the people. They did not show him how they felt but a decision has already been made never to support him. They would not show anger in public but I know they are pissed off with him. Thus the reason they sent representatives at the chuundu chaitwa meeting. Lungu is a wayward child to them who can never be trusted. They will keep on pretending everything is forgiven BUT not forgotten. THAT IS WISDOM. Time will soon catch up with Jameson Lungu
You are a dreamer
Never to support him? Did those vermin and their dirt subjects support him?
Now who is perpetuating tribalism in this case, you or Chama? Please imwe, learn to be above petty issues. The elders have met and resolved to move on period. To you everything is political.
Is Tonga the only tribe in Zambia that it can try and shout the loudest on each and every item? Why is it that this so thing called tribal has just been amplified with HH being ka leader of UPND? Is this what Mazoka stood for, I dont think so.
My humble advise to the remaining UPND members is to take the bull by its horn and have guts to change the top leadership of HH, otherwise I see them going under every successive elections till another yet reasonable party springs on board.
2016, 2012 its for PF and thats for sure, who comes thereafter is not yet on the scene. This is this the truth…
@ISO, Chiefs are not a factor in voting. Maybe in Southern Province. Where I come from (Muchinga),Chiefs have no powers to persuade voters, even if they receive brown envelopes from political parties. That is the way to go all over the country. Most of these chiefs are selfish and will not do anything to change their subjects’ status quo.
In desperation men will do all sorts of things. Inciting tribal sentiments just because your chances are getting slim is treason. If you were not meant to become president, you will never be and the best thing is to quit.
The only people who incite the public based on tribal utterances are the PF. If i challenged you to quote any tribal sentiment in the last year from any UPND official and what they said you will fail. I will give you an example mu PF. Lungu = Wako ni wako. Chama – we all know what that twat said, Mumbi Phiri – Ba Kachema.
Now you give me three examples from the UPND recently.
Since when did chief Chipepo start blessing people. Feck blessings.
Chipepo is a just another wicked and polygamous man with immense desire for women and power.
I have never heard of a prayer which goes: those who though thought this meeting would not take place are ashamed.
And reading a prayer for that matter means not coming from the bottom of the heart. Fake prayer indeed.
well done Mr President. You swallowed you pride and followed these Chiefs. that is the spirit of mutual respect. one day I foresee HH being summoned by his own people because they have set a trap for themselves. calling leaders to resign is not a mature way of handling differences. look at Obama, he made a very difficult decision which can cause assassination on him by Israel. that decision is strange to the American way of diplomacy but defends it as bombing iran is not a solution.
Mr Lungu you have lost nothing but gained something. the same must happen with other areas where tension is perceived.
Malambo the fake lawyer must tell the nation whether it is the same chiefs who said the trio must be fired.
This world is funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please God let your Kingdom come quickly before we perish.
Tongas please improve your dressing.
@Mwiinga.. I think their dressing is perfect. Please preach to the rappers in the US and the wannabes in Zambia and other African countries. Have respect for our leaders. Please send us your photo so we can all judge you.
Dressing ya chi Tonga with bright Ties…………….
How does Mpezeni or chief Chimbuka dress?for to question Tonga chiefs.
You are a tribal bigot.
Closed door meeting to the Journalist hahahaaa????? Information has emerged that this meeting was a floop and nothing concrete was resolved. Chiefs were not happy and are still NOT happy. Shame to you Chanda for issuing fake statements.
Edgar Lungu is a very useless president. I wish him ill healthy.
All you want is trouble. I am sure you are not even in Zambia.
So what honesty and frankness is this? So says his Press assistant who in the selfsame breath talks about Gov’t launching some development projects…the media can be so gullible!!
The Post says they were deadlocked, who is telling the truth here??
Continue reading the Past News paper, a one man opinion of Mmembe the devil.
A one man Past News paper! Reports Negatives day in day out. Me i stopped buying it several years ago because of their negativity in reporting. A paper that has never reported anything positive atasee
It was a closed door meeting – so where does your Post Newspaper get a scoop on what was discussed? There is no way the chiefs can adopt an uncompromising stance. Remember ECL won the elections without Southern Province – so the chiefs as at now lack what we call “leverage”.
How do you shame someone in a prayer? You ask God to forgive them. What sort of prayer is this?
How do you question a prayer? Are you God? A prayer is always directed to God and not you who is listening to it….
The meeting had terms of reference but the statement issued fails to tackle how those terms of reference were met! I fail to understand how the meeting was successful. Either there was no openness and agreement on way forward or something is amiss. For example, how was the tribal issue arising from Chama’s statement dealt with and what was resolved? Short of this is total rubbish as the meeting was organised to deal with Chama’s careless mouth. I do not see how the issue of launching (ground breaking ceremonies for) new projects fit in – were they by the way issues or what? Until we become more analytical, we will always flow with the current and that is dangerous.
The deal was probably struck by keeping Chama intact in his position in exchange for tarring the bottom road !
When you put your Trust in Mmembe, and all his Farting, just know that you will end up more embarassed. Mmembe is finished as all Zambians can see through him. The Chuundu Chaitwa meeting , the illogical resolutions , and the continued divisive farting by Mmembe wont take the UPND anywhere. Since when did Chiefs start agitating for the Dissolution of a Political Party ‘s Secretariat? What a useless strategy. President Lungu is an Intelligent person. He can see through this useless strategy.
If you look at the Bye elections from January to date , the writing is clearly on the wall. The record is unmatched in the history of Zambian politics. Come 2016 ECL will win by a landslide.
@monkey in a whatever, your comment is nonsense. Must have taken some jameson.
CONGRATES PF. ANOTHER 10 – 0 HH IF I WERE YOU I WOULD JUST GO TO MY VILLAGE AND CONTINUE MILKING MY COWS
Sorry! I have not seen the pick of the President. How valid is this information we are getting? Why should the President hide his presence at such a very important meeting?
@easymann,
Remember that some of these chiefs had never been on a photo for a long time. Some of them for the first time in their history.
Lungu has got many pictures, so the camera man was right not to include Lungu’s picture.
If this is a lie the chiefs will say so themselves. So lets not speculate. Some people were expecting fire works and are disappointed on the outcome.
“Chief Chipepo, who also quoted the Bible from Romans 13:1-7, said it was important for citizens to respect their leaders as they were chosen by God.” This is highly debatable especially when it comes to African politics and more specifically Zambian politics where leaders are always almost “elected” via rigging. Now if a president ascends to power through rigging is that a God chosen president, like in the case of Edgar Lungu?
Irony my friend!
So there are still some people who believe in Headlines by the Post in the name of freedom of expression ?
unfortunately that is the case. Even power cuts somebody brings up a story that Lungu is selling power to Zimbabwe and it becomes the talk in all pubs without facts.
It is very disappointing to watch how Zambia is being ruled and the people through their tribal inclination continue saying fintu ni Lungu.Almost all services are erratic talk of ATM machines cant work because of ZESCO load sheding ,We loosing a lot of time and profits in many industries due ZESCO load shedding,Due corruption we have started receiving contaminated oil,tax on vehicles is too high,Food prices are going up every month ,The Education curriculum is also I Shambles,Higher learning institution are being closed and lecturers on strike ie CBU.Government is not buying Maize and maize is being sold outside the country by briefcase businessmen when we have less maize in our strategic reserves.The kwacha is devaluating and interest rates in Banks are high.Foreign and domestic debt is
Soring soon we will reach the stage of Greece.I am afraid with state of reasoning by most Zambians.Every one including the educated have started reasoning like Kaponyas due to tribal glasses they are wearing.They can not see what is going wrong as long its wako wako or my Mbuya ruling is enough.These PF chaps are busy stealing and storing for their children by the time we start paying back the debt in 2022 they will out of power but smilling,while are children will be slaves to other people who borrowed as the Euro Bonds.Its sad state of affair.We have been reduced to think poverty is normal and no one can change things in Zambia.People with answers to this Economy are being bitten and intimidated by illiterate Kaponyas who are bought by few bottles of beer.Cry our beloved country.
Problem with us Zambians is that we like criticizing without offering solutions. Nigeria is now the biggest economy in Africa, surpassing South Africa, and credit goes to Nigerians themselves. What of you, what are you doing for mother Zambia.
I applaud our Zambian Chiefs. They are smart, intelligent, and wise.
May the Lord God continue to give them good health and clear guidance.
Lungu just humbled himself because he knew there was fire. I m told he started by apologising for the mistakes his pf made. Thats what the meeting was about. Check also The Post.
LT, you must do proper reporting. I had to get the other part of the story from the Post. Here I am praising the outcome of the meeting when its just a fraction of the full meeting that you presented to us.
Quotes from the post:
TWENTY-SIX Southern Province chiefs who yesterday attended President Edgar Lungu’s meeting to discuss Davies Chama’s tribal remarks have refused to compromise on their demand for the PF secretary general’s dismissal.
And President Lungu has told the chiefs that he will look into the demands to have Chama fired at a later stage.
According to sources who attended the meeting, chief Chipepo wanted to know why President Lungu never acted against Chama when he made the tribal remarks.
contd…. From Post News
“So they have maintained their position and have made it very clear to His Excellency that they are not willing to negotiate anything until he fires Chama, [Chishimba] Kambwili and Mumbi Phiri,” the sources disclosed.
“But His Excellency has expressed a concern that if he agrees to fire the three, he will set a bad precedent. So the President asked the chiefs to say, ‘Give me another chance’. He said ‘If I fire them, then every time you have a problem [with someone I work with], you will expect that I fire them. Every time you find a fault with my people, you will ask me to fire them, so you need to give me time to consider [your demand]’.”
contd…
“Chief Chipepo asked him, ‘Why didn’t you react the first time Chama said this statement? That is why we feel you are also part of it. Why did you keep quiet?’ They told His Excellency that they are aware of the remarks that were also attributed to tourism minister Jean Kapata where she said, ‘Even if we don’t reconcile with those chiefs, what do we get from there because they still don’t vote for us’,” the sources narrated. One chief even said ‘the brown bag that you sent won’t work with us, we have our own money’.”
Chief Hamusonde said: “The President feels that he has not been offended in any way, neither do we feel that we were offended in any way. But all in all, we have talked to him and the President has taken the matter with interest. We leave it to the President..
Now readers can make their own decisions properly. LT, you can do better than what you wrote. You left out all the important parts of the meeting. Stop being biased.
The Post will never report anything in favour of Lungu. Sata made so many blunders such as borrowing excessively, but because mmembe and Sata shared the same bed, the Post kept on praising all the time: Michael this, Michael that…But today even the borrowing is being blamed on Lungu. These are facts.
Lungu is a Zambian and current President and leader of the PF.
He and the PF has responsibility for good and progressive governance of Zambia. Lungu and the PF do NOT have any money but extract this money by force (taxation) from ALL residents (individuals and corporates/organistaions). Theirs is hopefully prudent stewardship.
I have a few questions for Lungu and company:
persistent power cuts
massive borrowings leading a Highly Indebted Poor Country which Mwanawasa had liberated us from
increasing fuel prices
failing to control free fall of the Kwacha
increase of price of bus fares, mealie meal, groceries
road block collection by police officers to fund your party
tyrannical rule through violence by PF cadres thus preventing democratic discourse especially in urban…
The Govt should also introduce poll tax for every individual above 18 yrs (colonial style). We have so many youth in Zambia who have stopped thinking to create wealth for themselves, but always blame Govt even for not owning a spoon ! Laziness.
@Ndaje Kahks, Fair enough. The Post does have some biases sometimes, but everyone can see that this story, as reported by LT, is not complete. The main topic was about Chama yet LT decided to completely mislead people that everything was okay and everyone was happy. That is why people decided to check for other sources.
Just remember that the Post always digs deeper.
Fair enough, they dig deeper but they also exceed the truth in order to finish you off. Remember what happened to Alexander Chikwanda, soon as he talked about the money the Post owes ZRA, he became an enemy. They even started to record all his conversations even in his home. During his budget presentation the Post never mentioned other things except that Chikwanda was booed etc.
A good leader does not take sides. He listens to both sides. Favouritism is no good if one zambia one nation slogan is true indeed.
@Ndaje Kahks – Thanks for the tip. Can we all then preach peach and harmony?
Yes we need to have harmony. Just remember we have become very cosmopolitan in Zambia that a civil strife will be very confusing. In Luapula one of our chiefs is Tonga so what would happen if the unthinkable happened?
Guys,
I was an expat in Ndola Rural from 1981 to 1992. My wife Bana Simbuleta is from there. I studied the power wielded by chiefs like Mwinuna, Kalumkumya, Lesa, Ndubeni, Machiya, Lumpuma and chieftainess Malembeka.
I’m convinced that they can motivate, and influence, their people, more than any Lusaka-based politician. I mentioned this to Hon Kashita, Lupunga, Mwale, N’songo and Mpombo (all ministers) when I met with them. I was advocating that developmental aid be challenged through those chiefs. The government could have provided a skeletal staff, comprising an accountant, an economist and a project manager to work with the chiefs.
I visited Milenge, Sanfya, Chembe and Milambo in Luapula and found that the same model can be successfully replicated there
Lungu is a politician. he is doing better than HH when it comes to conflict resolution. He is no pompous like HH.
EL is winning 2016 because he knows how to handle national issues.
UPND, you are in trouble. Your HH is no politician.
This quote summarizes everything, “…have talked quite at large with the President and our message was quite clear. The President feels that he has not been offended in any way; neither do we feel we have been offended in any way. The President has taken everything we talked to him and we have left to him to think for himself and act for himself and he will come back to us quickly”
Is it only the chiefs who are offended? What do the kids of mixed Tonga and Bemba think of Mr. Chama? Mr. Chama has brought more pain to me although I am Bemba. I have my nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, in-laws and friends who are Tongas who I appreciate, love, cherish and value. The president needs to address the nation so that we who are offended can tell him what we think? If I was Mr. Chama I would have resigned long time. Taming of a tongue is very important esp. if you are a leader.
Just look at places where the three developmental projects have been taken. Chief Macha and Chief Nalubamba are the most vocal chiefs, so ECL wants to silence them with developments. Sinazongwe, thats Richwell Siamunene’s area. He wants to show people that the UPND MP serving in the PF government has taken development.
Can’t there be any unconditional development to aall areas regardless of party affiliation? The president runs a government, the government is different from the ruling party, thats why all citizens must benefit from the government. But with Zambia, the government and the ruling party are one and the same.
How long will the Zambians be living in this ‘Donchi Kubeba’ way of governance? Its like a bush mouse which will fuzilila after biting you in your sleep to…