ZDDM petitions for withdrawal of Commonwealth team from Lusaka
By SANDRA MACHIMA THE opposition ZDDM has petitioned President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema and Her Majesty the Queen Mother of England through the British High Commissioner in Lusaka asking her to recall the Commonwealth team from Lusaka which is trying to create a political crisis in Zambia.
ZDDM leader Edwin Sakala charged that the ‘loud’ retrogressive Zambian politics could not be allowed to compromise and endanger the future of Zambia.
In this, ZDDM has marked the launch of its campaign “We say no to the Commonwealth attempt to drag Zambia into a Kenya/SA like regime change attempt.”
“As seasoned political party we have a good understanding of what the Commonwealth is trying to do in Zambia and we will not allow their mission to succeed because it will only compromise the future of our country,” he said.
Mr Sakala said he was optimistic that many Zambians who really followed politics in the country were able to see that the foreign political interference coming from the Commonwealth and the South African regime change “Hired gun” calling themselves opposition parties were a danger to the future of Zambia.
He charged that Zambia as a sovereign state with its own well established inter-party dialogue platform and did not need the Commonwealth to come and create another dialogue podium to serve the interest of one political party.
Mr Sakala said in the petition to the Queen, ZDDM was asking as Head of the Commonwealth to recall the team her organization (Commonwealth) has sent to Zambia.
He said that was because Zambia had a well-established platform for dialogue called the Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) through which all political parties in Zambia had solved their differences.
“We want her to know that there is really no need for the presence of the Commonwealth which is already creating misunderstanding,” he said
He wondered what had suddenly changed for it to start a fault finding mission.
Mr Sakala further appealed to UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema, in his petition that he must concentrate on rebranding his party’s image and start preparing for the next elections instead of putting his energy on challenging the last one.
Mr Sakala said he had petitioned President Lungu to urgently facilitate a very serious interparty dialogue meeting through the Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue to review the cobwebs in the draft constitution and address the concerns of UPND.