Church meets to map out dialogue process

THE three main church mother bodies will today hold an extra ordinary meeting at which they will deliberate on the road map for the much anticipated national dialogue, an inside source has revealed.

The nation has been waiting impatiently for the national dialogue following an agreement by stakeholders that it would be facilitated by the Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue and chaired by the church.

The process which was supposed to formally commence in January has gone through a lot of hiccups as stakeholders failed to agree on a number of issues.

The national dialogue is anticipated to reconcile the two biggest political parties, the PF and UPND that have for a long time being at loggerheads.

An impeccable source told the Daily Nation yesterday that the long wait was over as the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB), Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) and Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) would today sit to deliberate on the roadmap for the national dialogue.

The source said that a comprehensive statement would be issued after the meeting to inform the nation on the way forward.

The main aim of this process is to promote an inclusive nationally owned, forward looking political dialogue process that would address issues of concern to political stakeholders, reduce political tension and violence.

The dialogue also aims at upholding tolerance and civility, facilitate a roadmap on governance reforms and enhance political and social cohesion in the country ahead of future elections.

The dialogue process which is envisaged to bring UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema and President Edgar Lungu to the table will be firmed up on issues which include constitutional and institutional reforms.