HAKAINDE HICHILEMA READY FOR DIALOGUE

By SILUMESI MALUMO

WE are ready to dialogue but this must be accompanied by genuine and honest desire for talks, UPND President Hakainde Hichilema has said.

“Records are there for all to see. We have always been ready to meet our colleagues to better the living standards of our people and change the direction of our country.

“Indeed we have always called that this dialogue be facilitated by an independent entity such as a respected church mother body, but our colleagues have always dragged their feet with cosmetic pledges for talks,” Mr Hichilema said in a statement.

Mr Hichilema said the UPND was ready to dialogue now as much as it was ready on many occasions but that there must be a genuine and honest desire on the part of other players for talks.

“Events of the last few hours where we were denied our rights to associate, assemble and even carry out the solemn rite of burying the dead, underscores the lip service and lack of good will with which dialogue is given, despite colourful expressions by Mr Lungu to the nation only yesterday,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Hichilema said the revelations by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) about Honeybee supplying expired drugs worth US$17 million, was just a tip of the iceberg.

 “We call upon the law enforcement agencies to institute immediate investigations and take the perpetrators of these criminal acts to justice and there should not be any sacred cows,” Mr Hichilema said.

On Wednesday, President Lungu said he was ready to dialogue with the church and political opponents on matters of national importance.

President Lungu said dialogue was important to resolve misunderstandings among the people, but indicated that such dialogue should not be merely for politicking.

Mr Lungu said this when he met a delegation from the Reformed Church in Zambia who paid a courtesy call on him at State House in Lusaka.