HH IS UNFORGIVING - TAYALI
HAKAINDE Hichilema is a vengeful man who does not believe in reconciliation because after a cosmetic withdrawal of some cases, he is now sponsoring proxies to drag me to court, Economic and Equity Party leader Chilufya Tayali has alleged.
In an interview with the Daily Nation yesterday, Mr Tayali accused the UPND president of sponsoring people to fight him in and outside court despite having apologised to him.
Mr Tayali said since Mr Hichilema seemed not to be interested in reconciliation, he has challenged him to take the stand on all the cases he has taken to court and face him squarely.
“I think there is no reconciliation here. I mean what reconciliation is he talking about when he withdraws his cases and on the other hand pushes a proxy against me in court?
“He (Mr Hichilema) is sponsoring Edward Sichali to drag me to court with 7 criminal charges.
He is wasting my time. “He is playing politics and if HH wants us to continue on the same trajectory let him keep all the cases in court, I am ready to run all the course because I know, I never defamed anyone,” Mr Tayali said.
He however reiterated that his apology was not an admission of guilt but rather an effort to reconcile with Mr Hichilema.
Asked how sure he was that Mr Hichilema was the one sponsoring Edward Sichali to drag him to court, Mr Tayali responded, “I was talking to him (Edward) and the poor guy told me that he was employed by the UPND.”
“He (Edward) came to me apologising that Tayali, there is nothing I can do to withdraw the cases because I have no powers.
It is not me behind these cases,” Mr Tayali claimed.
Meanwhile, Mr Tayali has expressed concern that there seemed to be a departure from some of the communicated positions and deliverables of the national dialogue and reconciliation process.
He disclosed that his party would seek for a meeting with the Church mother bodies (CMBs) to get clarification on a number of issues, especially relating to the impasse that had beset the CBMs and Zambia Centre for Inter-Party Dialogue (ZCID).
“While we appreciate the last consultative meeting of political party leaders that took place on 28th December, 2018, we noted some unsettlements in the way invitations were done, the time for the meeting, who was to attend, the agenda, among other issues, which came out during the deliberations.
As part of ZCID, we find it difficult to be part of national reconciliation launch slated for 18th January 2019, if the CMBs insists that ZCID is not part of the process.
As far as we are concerned, there is no dialogue initiated by the Church, but one started by Commonwealth and later taken over by ZCID,” he said.