Minister for National Guidance and Religious Affairs Hon. Rev. Godfridah Sumaili yesterday visited the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) Secretariat where she held a meeting with both the UNPD’s National Chairperson Mutale Nalumango and the party Secretary General Stephen Katuka.
During the meeting, Rev. Sumaili took the opportunity to explain the great importance placed on national values and ethics being actively inculcated by the PF government as emphasised in President Lungu’s address to parliament on March 17, 2018.
Rev. Sumaili said that she was reaching out to various stakeholders including the UPND because the ruling party respects national values and ethics.
According to reports, Ms Nalumango praised the Cabinet Minister for visiting the UPND Secretariat to promote dialogue because the PF and UPND relationship looks hostile from the outside.
Ms Nalumango said that the gesture by the Minister was unprecedented and must be encouraged because there is only one Zambia
Meanwhile, the PF media team has released the following statement in regards to the meeting that too place yesterday.
Leadership of the dialogue process with the Church as an integral part of it must be a product of consensus, says PF
Lusaka, 26th May 2018 – The Patriotic Front has noted the cordial meeting held between Minister for Religious Affairs and National Guidance Hon Godfredah Sumaili and the UPND leadership which included its National Chairperson Mrs Mutale Nalumango and Secretary General Stephen Katuka respectively.
Patriotic Front still holds the position that the leadership of the process with the *Church as an integral part* of it must be a product of consensus for a locally-driven process open to any necessary external support especially in capacity-building and other areas that require the intervention of our cooperating partners. That is the position of the Patriotic Front and Hon Sumaili maintained this position when she made remarks to the media during a jointly addressed briefing with Mrs Nalumango. She did not depart from the Party’s position.
As observed by the Head of State and Party President His Excellency Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu a fortnight ago, the space of disagreement over the national dialogue process is now narrowing following the main Opposition’s agreement that the process must be locally driven.
Following today’s important meeting at the UPND Secretariat, the position of the Patriotic Front has not changed with regard to participation of the Church in national dialogue. This is consistent with the repeated calls by President Edgar Lungu to the Church to join the Dialogue process.
Patriotic Front has maintained its stance that it has noted that the UPND which had previously been against a locally-driven process, is now in agreement that the Church which is the conscience of the nation, must be at the Centre of all efforts of consensus building and envisaged broader national dialogue. This change of position by the UPND which had previously been opposed to any locally driven process especially if the all-political parties body, the Zambia Centre for InterParty Dialogue (ZCID) is involved, insisting then that only the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat was to lead the process.
The Patriotic Front continues to respect the place held by the Church since times immemorial in pushing for consensus and achieving admirable results out of previous processes of political dialogue. PF’s confidence in the church has therefore remained unquestionable. It was in that spirit that President Lungu and the entire Patriotic Front welcomed UPND’s affirmation that a locally-driven process with the Church at the Centre of it, was the way to go.
The Patriotic Front believes that this process must be all-embracing and should not exclude any shareholders from national dialogue. We stand for a broad-based coalition of the willing that must arrive at a consensual position.
Lastly, we wish to warn that any attempts to distort the spirit and outcome of today’s meeting will make it increasingly hard for PF leaders to engage UPND.
Issued by:
Sunday Chanda
PF Media Director
Party Headquarters
The hypocrisy in Zambia is remarkable! At ‘national values and ethics’… which ones are these? Values of corruption and plundering of national resources? Please spare us the bullcr@p propaganda!
Be careful UPND. Throughout history we have seen people using religion to enter your head and start controlling you. The white man arrived with a bible then proceeded to make us slaves. so did the Arab with his Koran. This minister wants to control you using the Bible. Lungu even calls her ministry religious affairs. Religious implies there are other religions but has she ever attempted to embrace any other religion except Christianity? That just shows you how narrow minded we were left by the European invader who arrived with a bible in one hand and a??
…..And a gun in the other hand. Some Christians don’t even know that David Livingston was sent here to prepare for the invasion of Africa
THE MINISTER MUST BE COMMENDED. EVEN MADAM NALUMANGO MUST BE COMMENDED. IT IS JUST UNFORTUNATE THAT IT IS DIFFICULT TO TRUST UPND. EVEN WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR IN THIS DIALOGUE IS NOT CLEAR. WHAT ARE THE AREAS OF DISAGREEMENT? AND ARE THEY VALID OR JUST BASED ON UNSUBSTANTIATED PERCEPTIONS? I THINK THE MAJOR DIALOGUE MUST BE HELD BY UPND TO DIALOGUE WITH ITSELF AND INTROSPECTIVELY SCREEN THEIR MOTIVES, WHAT CAUSES THEM TO CONTINUE LOSING RLECTIONS? OTHERWISE THIS DIALOGUE IS A WASTE OF TIME AND RESOURCES.
PF rigging and use of state brutality to clamp down on the opposition is what causes them to lose elections…..
What about 100% scores by Upnd in Southern Province? Please the know the word rigging. Intimidation of PF members and elections officials is in itself rigging. Of course you will deny this. I saw the episode on TVZ, the look on Katuka’s face was like one looking at faeces. Nalumango completely failed to address the violence perpetrated by her party. Instead she just went on with polemics.
Ndanji
If there was intimidation and rigging in UPND areas that is why electral reforms are needed. The status quo can not be tolerated. Why are PF ant calling for those reforms seeing your observation of rigging by upnd ?
“……because the ruling party respects national values and ethics….”
Musomali, get a grip , lungu has zero morals and integrity…..has lungu said anything of the very public allegations of corruption levelled against him ? Not a word…..by his silence we deduce he is indeed a corrupt theif.
What national values can she champion? I do not think Godfridah Sumaili means well. She sees no evil in the way the PF are running the country. What’s her stand on corruption, tribalism, arrogance in the conduct of public affairs? I doubt it Sumaili ever asks herself what has caused violence in other parts of Africa such as Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia etc.
Sunday Chanda does not mean a word of what he says in the statement. The UPND have to be fools to believe him.
All lungus stealing are nothing compared to the cardinal sin lungu committed , against 50 years of Zambias excellent one Zambia one nation motto……lungu allowed a senior minister in his government , CK, to go on national tv and radio to attack Tongas in a very tribal and dirty way…….not once but on several occasions.
To me this was the worst time of my life as a zambiaian hearing a senior minister issuing tribal disparaging remarks on another tribe on air. On tv.
Lungu as president listened and enjoyed.
I am not Tonga but a proud Zambian.
Lungu…..you are not fit to lead Zambia. You are destroying everything.
Anybody who despises another Zambian based on tribe is not fit to be a leader in Zambia and cannot get my respect no matter what position held.
Daissy
That is very true…..attcking another people based on tribe is the worst crime against your country. Sfter looting state coffers. You may think you have scored today but tomorrow your country will pay.
Bauze bauze Spaka bauzeeee bamvesese lelo
I hear you Spaka, you make me shade tears.
Kanshi what dialog does this country want. To me fyonse fili che. PF is governing (under the moto “ubomba mwibala), the opposition on the other hand are angry & frustrated because they have left out of the mwibala (after all they got their starter mwibala). People like HH, Kambwili, even GBM all of them got their capital mwibala or like gbm added to their capital mwibala. So what is this dialog about? Is it about replacing those who are currently working in the libala with those who had previously worked the bala?
I’m also wondering what is there to discuss.
You don’t seem to know what you are talking about so why don’t you just shut up?
#3 Spaka lilo, if The President were to answer anything and everything, there are so many that it would become his full time job, and that is nit what we elected him for.
As I stated yesterday, you guys have yapped so much since 2006 and especially since August 2016. During this period the upnd, its leaders and cadres have condemned and rejected anything and everything, making it impossible to identify good things from bad things, or sense from nonsense. It’s like upnd deliberately mixing sugar and mealie meal in water and asking us to separate the two if we want to use the sugar.
Even if the president answered, Spaka would still say it’s a lie. The truth itself will reveal who’s wrong and who’s right. And why should Mr Spaka remind us all the time that he’s not umuTonga?
Nobody wants the President to answer to everything said. What is required is for him to respond to serious issues. I don’t expect my President to be labeled a thief and he is just cool about it if he didn’t have anything to hide.
Daissy
Thank you, all it takes is for lungu to say I am not a theif……we are not asking him to answer every allegation but the allegations of him being a corrupt theif are central to the moral fabric of our beautiful country.
How can you purporte to be against corruption and looting when you don’t deny being a corrupt theif ?
That silence defeats any effort or logic against corruption and looting.
Coming to the clearly cordial meeting between the two parties, they must be commended for such civility. Zambia needs more of that. It was absolutely beautiful!!!
Coming to the statement by Sunday Chanda the so called PF media director, I must say that it is in bad taste and absolutely AWFUL! Did the brat have to say anything on top of what the three children of God Reverend Godfridah Sumaili, Hon Mutale Nalumango and Hon Stephen Katuka had discussed? PF REIGN IN THAT IDO.IT, in fact for such vile language the name Sunday is a misnomer, the brat should be renamed ‘Ido.it’ Chanda. For good measure, if any upnd cadre comes up with similar language on this “meeting made in heaven” give them the same name, ‘Idoit’.
OMG what a waste ati “minister for religious affair ” ?? Did Zambia become a religious fundamentalist state like Saudi Arabia or Iran?
#5 Spaka lilo, “Lungu as president listened and enjoyed”.
No Spaka lilo. The President acted and fired Kambwili at an appropriate time. You know that Kambwili was fired don’t you?
Did you expect the President to consult you on state affairs and decisions? No bwana, state craft is not conducted according to the whims and desires of one Spaka lilo.
“To me this was the worst time of my life as a zambiaian hearing a senior minister issuing tribal disparaging remarks on another tribe on air. On tv”.
Now Spaka, hold your fire, what you are saying is NOT and CANNOT be true. Are you not the same upnd people who cordially received Kambwili after he was fired by the President for that same tribalism? Even your chiefs did. Your leader h.h no less accompanied by his running mate GBM no…
Cader , if lungu has any moral fiber in him CK should have been dismissed or given a dressingdown as soon after he went on tv and radio to stock tribal tensions….but he was not.
He was used to continue harassing the opposition and was only dismissed after he made his presidential ambitions clear.
Allowing any one to go on tv and radio to fuel tribal tensions is a ugly episode in our proud united history and the blame lies squarely with lungu as president.
The problem is the UPND supporters do not listen to ZNBC radio and TV nor read government papers which report on Lungu and government and so cannot remember when Lungu said he was not corrupt and he was not a thief. Do they expect the President to write to LT or ZWD? Or is it enough to say he is not a thief?
wawadodi
ZNBC is a PF mouth piece , let lungu hold a press conference with open invites to any reputable jurnos …..not those airport runway journalists we see on tv with lungu..
…….are you not the same upnd people who cordially received Kambwili after he was fired by the President for that same tribalism? Even your chiefs did. Your leader h.h no less accompanied by his running mate GBM no less, even scrambled from their offices to go and “give solidarity” to Kambwili at court, you deny that? Obviously h.h seeking cheap publicity, attention and votes. In total contradiction as we know him now, the very same h.h acted immorally, cruelly and punitively on his MP Keith Mukata merely for not boycotting parliament. I am talking about your president, Spaka lilo!!
Directionless party, to quote EIU.
Ck has deservedly appologised for being used to fuel tribal tensions in Zambia. He is on record.
After one admits their crimes and appologised it is time to move on…..
,,,if today Kambwili joined your party upnd, no problem. The upnd will accommodate all sorts of tenderpreneurs, corruption tainted, fraudsters, thieves and even encourage its senior civil servants to engage in rampant corruption and tenders. And then the very same upnd will stand at the pulpit, yes in church, accusing their opponents of the same vices and pledging to fight corruption. I am thoroughly confused, exactly what does upnd stand. Directionless indeed, thank you EIU!
“….and even encourage its senior civil servants to engage in rampant corruption and tenders. …”
You are such a lier. Be serious. No one will take any notice of you.
Tell us one instance where UPND did that ?
Dear Ba Sumaili,
What ‘national values and ethics’ is PF Govt really inculcating’ in our motherland? What moral ethics are our youth learning from Fugitive Lungu’s deeds whilst in public office which they should carry forward and apply when they grow up and hold public office????
Ba Sumaili, you are an ordained Reverend for God’s sake. Where is your Breastplate of truth? Where is your full Armour of God?. You should know better, or else you can kiss this locally Church-lead dialogue goodbye before it even starts.
Do not play dice with God.
Having a religious affairs minister in Zambia is unwise and totally wasteful.
The meeting went well because some people were not there, bring in these zealots: Hichilema, Mwiimbu, Nkombo, Mushipe, Syakalima, Mweetwa, Lubezhi, etc and see the chaos that will prevail. What will happen when she visits the NDC and ZD and finds PF members Kambwili and Kalaba in charge? Anyway congregations for the initiative
Ayatola what ever u call yourself be real with your friends upnd were very clear on the dialogue , the comwealth started thedialogue and pf became suspicious that it may side with upnd then said we are not going to allow foreigners to lead the dialogue they must go to where there is war not here in Zambia they even said the dialogue will be led by zcid and upnd were not comfortable and said if this process needs to be led local institution let the Church do so pf were adamant and insisted on zcid which held first meeting which exposed them big time.remember upnd refused to attend zcid led process bcoz it had no capacity thanks to pf who later agreed that the process be led by Church with the help of stake holders including Commonwealth
Ayatola what ever u call yourself be real with your friends upnd were very clear on the dialogue , the comwealth started thedialogue and pf became suspicious that it may side with upnd then said we are not going to allow foreigners to lead the dialogue they must go to where there is war not here in Zambia they even said the dialogue will be led by zcid and upnd were not comfortable and said if this process needs to be led local institution let the Church do so pf were adamant and insisted on zcid which held first meeting which exposed them big time.remember upnd refused to attend zcid led process bcoz it had no capacity thanks to pf who later agreed that the process be led by Church with the help of stake holders including Commonwealth