Acting minister of Foreign Affairs Godfridah Sumaili said Zambia is eagerly waiting to host the ECOSOCC secretariat because it is committed to advancing the AU agenda.
Reverend Sumaili, whose substantive portfolio is Minister of National Guidance and Religious Affairs, was speaking at Charter House yesterday when a delegation from the AU commission paid a courtesy call on her.
A 14-member delegation from the AU commission is in the country to evaluate Zambia’s preparedness to host the ECOSOCC secretariat.
Rev Sumaili said Government will fully cooperate with the delegation as it assesses Zambia’s preparedness.
“The Government of the Republic of Zambia is committed to working closely with the AU. We want a flawless relocation, and we have already identified land where the secretariat will be built,” Rev Sumaili said.
She said Government has also committed finances towards the relocation of the secretariat, and interim office accommodation has also already been found.
And head of the delegation Jalel Chelba said the relocation of ECOSOCC from Addis Ababa to Lusaka will not change the nature of the advisory body of the AU.
Mr Chelba said ECOSOCC will help deepen the integration of Africa.
“This relocation is merely geographical. ECOSSOC will continue to perform its functions,” Mr Chelba said.
ECOSOCC is an advisory body of the AU designed to give civil society organisations (CSOs) a voice within the AU institutions and decision-making processes.
ECOSOCC is made up of CSOs from a wide range of sectors including labour, business, and professional groups, service providers, and policy think tanks, both from within Africa and the African diaspora.
We were saying the other day that we have plenty of land in Zambia, its only UPND who are thinking of grabbing land from foreigners. Good job PF, whole Zambia is behind you.
WHERE IS ZAYELO FOR THIS HYPOCRITE TO BE ACTING MOFA? PLEASE WHEREVER U ARE LUBINDA COME BACK QUICKLY BEFORE THIS WOMAN MAKES SENSELESS STATEMENTS ABOUT ZAMBIA POSITION ON HH AND PETITION TO BE HEARD NONSENSE
This is a Pan-African project. It benefits all Africans, and not individual foreigners. Trouble is that most of our citizens in Zambia are happy to be with the status quo while other nations in Africa are consolidating the grip of their citizens over all their national natural resources. Due to our poor education and the current population of intellectually deficient citizens as journalists in all our media, they are unable to present the real current and future danger facing our country from empty neo-liberal economic policies as embraced by the MMD/PF regimes. They are so simplistic that they think that foreigners coming into Zambia and setting up Shopping Malls is development for Zambia, when in actual fact these are centres of economic entrapment as seen by the fact that nothing local…
So if ECOSOCC is made up of CSOs from a wide range of sectors including labour, business, and professional groups, service providers, and policy think tanks, both from within Africa and the African diaspora, why have we not heard from them regarding Human Rights abuse in Zambia??
Go to the eastern Congo and see how humans are abused then come back to Zambia.