Thu, 04 May 2017 09:28:47 +0000
By BENNIE MUNDANDO
THERE is no paramount chief in Southern Province who makes decisions on behalf of other traditional leaders and those who are muscling themselves to coerce their counterparts to shun meetings with President Edgar Lungu are misplaced and wasting their time, the PF in the province has charged.
Provincial information and publicity secretary Leonard Siachona told the Daily Nation that the party in the province was worried that while traditional leaders were supposed to be non-partisan, some chiefs were peddling a divisive and partisan agenda by resenting the leadership of President Lungu over UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema’s predicament.
Mr. Siachona said all chiefs in the province were equal and that those who were trying to exert their authority by luring other traditional leaders to bow down to their politically-inclined demands were mistaken and should not be given chance to use the traditional leadership as a ladder to achieving their motives.
He said while chiefs’ responsibility ended at chiefdom level, President Lungu was a national leader whose responsibility went beyond territorial borders and therefore should be given chance to roll out his developmental agenda even in areas where people did not support him because that was his mandate.
He said it was sad that the same chiefs who were in the forefront demonising Government over its perceived inefficiencies were shunning dialogue with national leaders who determined the affairs of the country and wondered what other platform they were going to use for them to be heard.
“We want to make it clear that there is no paramount chief in this province where other chiefs are supposed to pay homage to because all of them their mandate ends within their territorial borders and so, we find it very unusual for some traditional leaders to be forcing their counterparts to be shunning meetings with President Lungu as if they have the power to speak for other chiefdoms.
“Honestly speaking, how do these traditional leaders expect development in their areas if they continue to shun such important engagements with the President? These chiefs should understand that their role is to remain non-partisan because they preside over people with different political affiliations and cannot force their subjects or fellow chiefs to bow down to their demands,” Mr. Siachona said.
He said there was need for traditional leaders to take deep introspection so that they were not caught up in the political fracas which they did not understand by siding with those who were perceived to be victims.
He said the incarceration of Mr Hichilema should not be used to divide the country even further because beyond politics all citizens were Zambians, hence the need to live with one another in harmony.
He stressed the need for dialogue between those in power and traditional leaders if the country was to attain meaningful development.
He said President Lungu had an open-door policy and that if there were chiefs who felt offended on a number of issues they were free to liaise with him so that they could find a common ground rather than excluding themselves from those in power.
