Friday, March 29, 2024

Government is open to Dialogue, Catholic Bishops must engage UPND on recognizing President Lungu

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Information and Broadcasting Minister Kampamba Mulenga
Information and Broadcasting Minister Kampamba Mulenga

Government has maintained that it remains open to dialogue on various issues affecting the country. Chief Government spokesperson Kampamba Mulenga said that despite remaining open to dialogue, political parties like the opposition UPND has not been forthcoming.

Ms. Mulenga was reacting to a statement by the Zambia Council for Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) who have called for national reconciliation saying this is the only way to promote peace in the country.

ZCCB President Lusaka Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu, in a statement on Sunday called on the government to drive the agenda of promoting peace and reconciliation in the country.

Archbishop Mpundu also called on the ruling PF and UPND to iron out perceived political differences in order to reduce tension existing between their supporters.

But Ms Mulenga has advised the Zambia Council for Catholic Bishops to also engage the opposition UPND on its activities. Ms. Mulenga said that the opposition party has on several occasions refused to recognize President Edgar Lungu being a legitimately elected head of State.

She said that government has however ignored all this because it is focusing on serving the interests of citizens instead of politicking.

82 COMMENTS

    • Which petition? There is no petition in court anywhere in Zambia. If you don’t believe me, travel to Zambia and do a search at our courts. You won’t find any petition from your party.

    • The petition was not heard, hello in the same constitution there’s the right to be heard.

    • Petition must be heard so we know the truth Lungu won the election or massively rigged it. Let the truth come out under an impartial hearing. I would even suggest foreign judges paid by the UN so there is no bribery given that the Zambian judiciary is almost 100% filled with corrupt judges or judges who are carders and cannot reason independently.

    • I have consistently said it on these LT threads that frictional politics has zero dividends to both parties. On many positions taken, UPND has demonstrated a lack of good political mojo in its ranks and files. As such, I have serious doubts about the political Science education of HH’s 2 principal advisors Daglous Siakalima and Dr. Bene who are even lecturing at UNZA. Zambia has a Government and Chagwa is the President. Dragging UPND into acrimonious politics of saying HH is President when Chagwa has all instruments of power and the constitution is reckless utopia. Time for reality and some behind the scenes negotiations now.
      On the other hand, Chagwa has some serious house cleaning work to do on ‘Some” of his lieutenants. He owes no one an apology to fire some. No time for…

    • No time for babysitting bad resources. President Lungu is a compleat leader, an excellent steward of our collective national interest. But he risks losing goodwill of the masses should he continue to retain some bad chaps. Time and again, we are seeing some poor decisions and dangerous misconduct in the ranks. Its time to clean up. Never forget that even in our liberal system of party divisions, acrimonious as they are, cease at the water’s edge.
      Should all you politicians harden your hearts shutting off reason, God may have to raise a stone to serve his people. Remember, in the absence of Moses, God can raise Joshua to serve his people. Blessings to mother Zambia and may President Lungu serve our country to the Glory of God. May he learn to ignore obstructionists and relieve in…

    • No petition to be heard. If you engage lawyers who cannot interpret the constitution those are the results. 2016 constitution has not been repealed or amended, so it is wishful thinking to dream that one day judges would sit to deliberate on the closed case. Right to be heard is not election petition.

    • The trouble is neither PF nor UPND! The trouble is RB’s MMD which has come to destroy PF! How have we gone back to our vomit? With KK also in the mix, do we expect anything good? What has made things worse is the lawyer himself. He has a serious allergy to opposition and criticism and that is what is making things worse! Let him emulate LPM who got too serious fixing the economy! You need a thick skin to achieve that. When you get too pre-occupied with fixing your political opponents, it is your downfall which becomes more certain. The Bishops and the Chiefs have spoken! Take heed!

    • Well said, Mulenga Kampamba!!! The political problems we have in the country today which must be better appreciated even by my Catholic Bishops is that of UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema having vowed prior to the 2016 elections that he was not going to accept loss of the Presidential election. Therefore, it is not surprising that HH and his party do not recognize President Lungu as the legitimately elected President even after the petition was thrown out by the courts and Mr. Lungu was sworn in. We have witnessed the belittling of the Presidency by HH which culminated in the Mongu incident where the UPND motorcade could not give way to the Presidential one. All this has been happening and yet our Bishops cannot point to all this as the source of political problems forgetting even the…

    • By all true account this Kampamba Mulenga must be the biggest Moron of all PF Ministers. The Catholic Bishops are talking about justice and reconciliation and she comes up with ridiculous conditions. The issue about Edgar’s presidents is before the courts of law and you have to give credit to UPND for seeking redress through legal channels.

  1. The mistake the PF govt made was to criticize the UPND for taking matters to court. It’s not a crime for anyone to take a matter to court. But shockingly, UPND have been criticized, insulted, ridiculed for engaging the court to interpret the matter surrounding the petition. Such criticism which is being interpreted in certain quarters as a cover-up by PF. Why criticize UPND as though they are using taxpayers money.

    • This Mulenga biatch is not listening to her own President. Lungu in the last week has asserted that he does not want to talk to anybody and is very willing to implement a State of Emergency. It is now too late for dialogue. Let Lungu declare his state of emergency so that we suffer the consequences of Lungu’s overblown ego.

  2. There should be no conditionalites to dialogue. We can only talk if….Nobody wins with conditionalities.

    • DIALOGUE CANNOT BE THERE WHEN ONE SIDE IS MAKING CONDITIONS. THIS YOUNG LADY AND HER PARTY CANNOT FORCE UPND TO AKNOWLEDGE LUNGU UNTIL THE PETITION IS HEARD AND LUNGU DECLARED WINNER BY THE COURT OF LAW.

  3. This Minister does not get it. The 2016 Election was Disputed and Petitioned and that Petition has not been heard so we don’t know who won that Election. Zambians want to know who won the Election and that Person can then be declared the Winner of the Election and Duly Elected. Lungu was not Democratically,Legally and Constitutionally elected and therefore is illegitimate. The Petitioners have no Reason to Recognize Lungu as President becoz they have Petitioned against his Election. Lungu has been accused of stealing the Election Victory from the Petitioners and its up to Lungu to exonerate himself in Court and prove how he won in Court. Why is Lungu afraid to do so? The guilty are very very afraid. The Onus is on Lungu to prove in Court that he won the 2016 Election. The general…

    • @ Zulu, sometime it is wise and less painful to acknowledge defeat. You know who won the elections PERIOD. On the issue of election results petition I see no wrong in UPND going that route. However, to deliberately, willingly and dearly ignore that ECL is Zambia’s president that in itself is recipe for confusion. Petitions can go side by side with peace and dialogue among parties. Now, how does that sound?

    • @Zambia 1. Let him prove it in court. The way Lungu behaved during the petition speaks volumes and posibility he has a lot to hide.

    • Lungu did not even follow his constitution that he signed: He did not step down the whole time the petition was to be heard, the petition was not heard, and the courts did not declared the winner.

    • Lungu should be tried for the 3 counts of treason before dialogue can start. 1. Disclosing Cabinet proceedings to Newton Ng’uni in Lungu’s fight against Guy Scott for the Acting President role. 2. Lungu keeping his Cabinet on after dissolution of Parliament. 3. Lungu not handing over power to the Speaker when the Presidential petition was started at the Constitutional Court. Lungu is personally responsible for these treasonable offences. These wrongs have to be corrected in courts of law.

    • Buck Teeth Lungu – That is why it is not possible to dialogue with your camp – because there are more people who are like you?

  4. WHY IS PF SO AFRAID TO HEARING THE PETTITION? HOW WILL YOU DECLARED CLEAN IN THE LAST ELECTIONS AS PF 100 % WON IF YOU CAN NOT HEAR THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN? TRUTH PAINS AND THAT IS WHAT IS MAKING YOU FEAR BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT LAW ABIDES .
    THE WAY PF FEELS WON THE ELECTION IS THE WAY UPND FEELS WON ELECTIONS OF 2016. THERE WERE SO MANY FRAUDS BY THE SO CALLED LUNG. HE INTIMIDATED THE WEAK SPEAKER OF THE ASSEMBLY WHO COULD NOT SPEAK FOR MANY ZAMBIANS. PRE-MARKED BALLOT PAPERS WERE FOUND ALL OVER THE SHOW IN LUSAKA , CAN COUNT A LIST ON …

  5. You are a silly woman because lungu your illegal boss said he was not open to dialogue with the upnd . However we still maintain that we cannot engage an illegal government. So why not prove us wrong and have the petition heard and closed once and for all. What is lungu scared of if he won. No pf member has answered that question for me

  6. My bemba cousins say ‘umulandu taubola’; a court matter never falls away no matter how long it takes to hear it. This Petition issue is here to stay until……, any way, Judge Mwila Chitabo had been asked to recluse himself from hearing the ‘right to be heard in the Concourt’ and ruling comes up tomorrow. Keep us posted on it LT

  7. It is total stupidity for anyone to claim the Petition was not heard. The constitution provides 14 days within which a Presidential petition should be heard, but the upnd f00ls spent the entire 14 days with preliminaries without a single evidence presented. If anything happened after 14 days, that would have been a serious violation of the constitution. Assuming madness reigns and the petition is allowed to be heard (believe me will never happen) what evidence does upnd have. Can they share it with us because we might assist them. Otherwise shut your mouths and begin to plan for 2021 or we shall consider you useless and ignore all your ranting.

    • I think the only stupidity displayed is your. Please don’t defend illegality. Let your lungu go and prove to all Zambia’s that he did indeed win. The whole election was manipulated and a lot of things did not add up or make sense. That is why he is running away from it. A true winner would have even been very happy to defend his win through evidence not faulty technicalities like 14 days.

    • And you think by Lungu refusing to step down during the petition period was not a serious violation of the constitution? Actually, what is total stupidity is one ignoring the very constitution that he bragged he enacted (signed)…

    • If there is a dull person in the country who does not know what the law means is the PF stooges. They bend the law and read only fragments and then interprets their shame to those who have no ideas so that they can feel they are safe. Go back to school of thought and you will understand what it is.

    • Cos you never heard of Mandela? A law can send a person to jail for something common sense doesn’t agree with. Interpretation can be biased for a reason, eg, racism (in case of old South Africa).

    • @ Nkhata bay

      Well said (LOL).
      According to your comparison, current Zambian Government its equivalent to South African apartheid regime and HH to Mandela?
      By any chance you are member of PF “intellectual” leadership?

    • The current situation in Zambia is going the apartheid South Africa route. About 58 people who used to work at State House have recently been fired on grounds of being Tongas, Lozis, Luvales, Kaondes and Lundas. There’s absolutely no other justification. At least the Boors used to discriminate on an obvious basis, skin colour, not ethnic origin. Zambia is headed on the way to Hell.

    • Buck Teeth Lungu – Out of how many workers? This sounds like too large a number from one region – could that be the reason why leakages of confidential documents have ended and someone does not get security briefings?

  8. Surprising that PF has been dragged into this critic. If you want to heal something, you must look at the illness with investigative eyes seeking to identify the cause. Only then can you heal it.

    UPND ARE THE PROBLEM.

    I think this is to do with dominance and power of influence between Catholics and the evangelical church. After all the Ministry of Faith is not headed by a Catholic, is it?

    • The problem is neither red nor green. The problem is having a lawyer president who does not understand the ways of Justice. Those who want to occupy leadership positions must be ready to be criticized. When every critic is now labeled red (UPND), that becomes a problem. There are many of us original PF members who are not happy with the way PF is doing things and each time we try to advise, ati you are UPND? Really? Zambians should never be taken for granted. They will vote the very party you dispise into government just to get back at the oppressive regime. What will you do then when you are made to taste your own medicine?

  9. Amazing how UPND supporters have been deceived by that petition was not heard. Don’t people read? HH had 14 days window but produced no evidence. Why can’t rigging evidence be put online?

  10. ECL was inaugurated by an office orderly! An office orderly takes care of files or he is a custodian of information in an organisations! Chief justice or deputy are the ones constitutionally competent to inaugurate a winning candidate!

  11. Why forcing someone to recognize you? Let the people who voted you do that! Even myself lungu is not my president, why? The answer is because i didn’t vote for him. Lungu is the president of his pf party we shall recognize him after the petition is heard that is if!

    • 12 Vodgar..while I DON’T AGREE with the Statement of the Minister as it over emphasizes the recognition Lungu over the need to respect other requirements of LAW AND ORDER, your Statement that Lungu is not the President of Zambia IS VOID. As at now, even the Catholic Bishops with THEIR LACK OF OBJECTIVITY ARE TALKING ABOUT LUNGU and PF to do something to change the state affairs- b’coz they KNOW and BELIEVE that he is in-charge. WHY THEN ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT SOME ONE WHO IS NOT A PRESIDENT and YET YOUR SO CALLED “president” is behind bars,arrested by the police he is supposed to be commanding?? LUNGU is PRESIDENT OF ZAMBIA, just like MWANAWASA’s win was CONTESTED, NO BODY DARED TO REFUSE TO ACCEPT HIS AUTHORITY- THAT IS THE REALITY!!

    • Who disputed the results, the electorates or the loser?Besides is he the only one who took part in the elections?Let’s be serious mwe bantu,the majority people of Zambia voted for ECL, and decided through that.The voting of a leader in Zambia is the mandate of the voters, not courts or the losers like our chief moron.Most of the comments here lack merit as they are full of irrelevancies, such insults.These catholic bishops, most of the times lose direction, which most of their members don’t agree with.Surely a national leader aspiring for presidency behaving like lunatic, blocking the presidential motorcade and call the reaction of the law as undemocratic.Democracy goes hand in hand with responsibilities.What if he was in power, he won’t have respect for the ordinary Zambia,but for…

  12. This woman does not get it. Its not only UPND that doubt Lungu won. Gen Miyanda mentioned and many others believe Lungu’s legitmacy is questionable.

    • And it shows in Lungu’s determination that HH and UPND must crawl through mud acknowledging him as President. Why so much desire to be recognised if he is legitimate?

  13. Definition of preliminary :

    preceding or done in preparation for something fuller or more important.

    The big question you should ask yourself is why did the concourt do all preparations for main trial?

    What would you call an invigilator, who opens, distributes and asks you to go through the instructions on your exam papers, he tells you the exam is for 2 hours, before he says start, he requests you to stop, would you say the time for the exam elapsed?

    • And if their 14 days were correct, why did not the judges manage the court process so that they could reach their verdict in the same period? Do lawyers from opposing sides run the court while the judges sit on the sidelines merely observing and keeping time? The judges never worked overnight or over the weekends. The judges behaved as if they had all the time in the world, not 14 days.

  14. you see how these people quickly turn on anyone tat criticizes them? Now they are going after Catholics, brace yourselves. Shame on you Kampamba.

  15. You woman leave the Bishops alone; you play around with your bishops for Lungu who have been bought by brown envelops; you have become use-le-ss for the love of money; no need to recognize Lungu until the petition is concluded

    • That’s the problem we have in Zambia, too many contradiction.When government answers, it is undemocratic, but when others criticize the government, it is democracy.Your bishops lost their direction in the mid-90s.In fact, their pope is regarded as a president and recognized as such in all countries where there is a roman catholic church.By the way, these are ROMAN catholic bishops not just catholic.Most of the denominations are catholics.To distinguish these from other Catholics, they have Roman as a qualifying word.So how can this woman leave them alone.They paused a question.They have lamentably failed to organize a reconciliatory INSAKA.The moron they ae supporting has categorically refused to attend such a meeting by the way.Since they are supporting him let them talk to him.If…

  16. Instead of”stating that “…Government has maintained that it remains open to dialogue…” which is highly misleading, more appropriate its “…Government maintains its divisive and illegal ultimatum…”

  17. Crying for recognition every day only raises more questions about the legitimacy of your administration. Many of us are now convinced that PF did not achieve the 50 + 1! Why should a mother be worried about paternity of the child when the court orders DNA proof? It means the mother is telling lies! The election petition is the DNA test whose results must be published. Let Justice be done and there will be harmony again!

  18. Catholic bishops are like mafias, you cant take what they say innocently, they are politically inclined and always have a hidden agenda. Forget about the bishops advice, its one sided and hypocritical. Just keep pressing on HH throat until he recognises you and begin to behave as a responsible opposition member. We need credible checks and balances to move forward as a country.

  19. The Minister and PF Bloggers don’t get it. Hearing the Petition means the Petitioners and Respondents giving their evidence in Court and the Court after due consideration making a Judgment. This Concourt did not do. The High Court (HC) is hesitant to Rule whether of not the Petitioners have a Right to be heard and whether Concourt heard the Petitioners. The Bill of Rights administered by the HC clearly enshrines the Right to be heard in Court. If the HC confirms that Petitioners have a Right to be heard then the Petitioners must be heard in Court. Every Right has a Remedy. Mulandu tauboli! The Petition has to be heard in an impartial Court without fail!

  20. @ Real Request. The children are doubtful if Lungu is their Biological Father and have asked the Father to do a DNA TEST to confirm paternity. The Father is adamant that the Children should Recognize him as their Biological Father without a DNA Test. The Mother is mute. That is the Dilemma. Lungu knows that the Petition DNA Test Results will show that he lost the Election and is clinging to Power illegally. To bring peace to our Land let the Petition be heard in an Independent and impartial Court without further delay. Mulandu taubola!

    • Hehehehe the father gave been humble as he is them a chance to do a DNA test but the doctors representing the kids were so disorganized that they did not correctly file in their documents within the stipulated time therefore, the father has to assume there are his kids. The main kid also failed to produce a clear parallel DNA result to support his argument so he went crazy with his determination for a DNA test so much that he went to every hospital known including pharmacies that are not within scope.

  21. Surely how can you tell Pastors to force someone to recognise Lazy…is this a big issue for dull cadres like this silly minister?

  22. Hehehehe the father been humble as he is gave them a chance to do a DNA test but the doctors representing the kids were so disorganized that they did not correctly file in their documents within the stipulated time therefore, the father has to assume there are his kids. The main kid also failed to produce a clear parallel DNA result to support his argument so he went crazy with his determination for a DNA test so much that he went to every hospital known including pharmacies that are not within scope.

  23. Zambia is divided and we will remain so. If you HATE A Tonga, then stop singing One Zambia One Nation.

  24. Madam minister, the Bishops have no business in advising H. H. to recognize bwana Lungu. If H.H. believes he is president, allow him to live his dream. What I desire is a just Zambia. Once justice is on top of things everyone will acceede to who is the top dog in the country. Love your country.

  25. I’ve a suggestion, how about coming up with a clause that will only allow political parties to field a candidate from the three provinces of N/western, Western and/or Southern in 2021? Trust every party has membership from these provinces and that a couple of them are capable to lead this great nation.

    Note that power sharing has somewhat helped easy tension temporally in a number of African countries but if properly done can be a permanent solution. What do u think?

  26. WHEN HH STORMED MULUNGUSHI CONFERENCE DURING THE ELECTIONS,HE TOLD EVERYBODY THAT HE HAS GOT EVIDENCE THAT PF HAS STOLE THE ELECTION.
    WHEN THE MATTER WENT TO COURT,HE HAD 14 DAYS TO PROOF HIS CLAIM BUT BECAUSE HE DIDN’T HAVE EVIDENCE,HIS LAWYERS KEPT BOMBARDING THE COURTS WITH VERY IRRELEVANT ISSUES WHILST THE DAYS WERE GOING.
    UPND SAID EVEN BEFORE THE ELECTIONS THAT THEY WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY LOSE AND THIS IS WHAT THEY HAVE DONE.
    THE BEST WAY IS TO LEAVE THEM AND LET US MOVE ON.UPND IS NO LONGER A POLITICAL PARTY.IT IS A REBEL GROUP.
    WHEN PF WAS IN OPPOSITION NEVER BURN MARKETS AND THEIR LEADER MCS,MHSRIP CONDEMNED VIOLENCE WHILST HH IS DOING THE OPPOSITE.THEY ARE TERRORIST FELLOWS.

  27. Kampamba Mulenga or whatever she’s called must know that the Catholic Bishops have nothing to do with the recognition of Edgar who went through a flawed electoral process. The only solution to this is the court process to hear the evidence regarding the alleged rigging of the election by the PF and Edgar. Unless the petition is heard, it is hard for anyone to be cowed into admitting that Edgar was genuinely elected. The Con Court fraudulently discharged the case without hearing any evidence and hence could not declare Edgar as duly elected. So there is a big void; no one declared Edgar as duly elected after the ECZ results were disputed. And if Edgar had nothing to fear and that he did not rig the elections, he could have handed over to the Speaker when the petition was lodged in. He…

  28. …….Ctnd
    He could not handover to the Speaker because he knew he was guilty of rigging. This matter will only be brought to rest if the petition is heard in full by impartial judges. It futile for Edgar and his PF to force people to recognise them when they manipulated the court system to prevent the due process of the law to be fully discharged. He is not a legitimate president by a musquarader(sp).

  29. @ Mwansa the same constitution you are referring to also stipulated that the President can only step down if the disputed results where for the second elections, e.g if either PF or UPND did not get 50 +1% then we go for elections then PF wins but UPND disputes that is when the sitting president is supposed to step down. If you don’t believe go through the constitution or ask any of your lawyers. ECL is a lawyer he knew that he was not supposed to step down, even UPND lawyers knows have you ever heard them disputing that? No it is only you and me who does not know law keeps on saying that he did not step down. If it was so the concourt were going to tell him to step down.

  30. You want the petition to be heard on which constitution are you going to use? USA, UK, or may Chines? The Zambian constitution stipulates that the presidential petition should be heard within 14 days after that it is null and void. So friends are you a law abiding citizens or not? Should we change the constitution just because to suit HH’s ambitions? And you catholic priests why don’t you start with HH to stop his nonsense before you attack the president who own the elections clearly who you yourselves and other monitors declared that he has won. What has changed now for you to change? It that you have received brown envelopes from the loser? You should be ashamed of yourselves is it that you don’t know what win means for you turn now.

  31. LEMBA,
    YOU ARE COLLECT ON THIS ONE.THE ZCCB-ZAMBIA CONFERENCE OF CATHOLICS BISHOPS DID THEIR OWN PVT WHICH SHOWED THAT ECL HAS WON ELECTIONS.THEY WERE SO INDEPENDENT AND SOME US TRUSTED THEIR RESULTS.
    UP TO NOW UPND HAS NEVER PRODUCED THEIR PVT SHOWING HOW THEY WON ELECTIONS.LET US BE FAIR PLEASE.HH IS RECORD SO MANY TIMES BEFORE THE ELECTIONS THAT HE WILL NOT ACCEPT RESULTS IF LOOSES AND THAT IS WHAT HE HAS DONE.
    WE APPEAL TO THE THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS TO SIT DOWN WITH UPND AND TELL THEM TO MOVE ON.
    ELECTIONS WILL BE HELD IN 2021.LET UPND START ORGANIZING THEM SELVES TO AVOID ANOTHER DISASTER.
    NO SENSIBLE PERSON CAN SUPPORT HH’S BEHAVIOUR UNLESS IS MAD.HE HAD 14 DAYS TO PRESENT THE EVIDENCE IN COURT BUT HE FAILED.THAT IS NOT LUNG’S PROBLEM.I DON’T EVEN UNDERSTAND WHY UPND CADRES…

  32. Ba upnd,please accept defeat and move on the only way to avoid these arrests.ecl is the the president no pertition to be heard unless you are dreaming.

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