Sat, 27 May 2017 11:14:01 +0000
By SIABANA KELVIN
THE Green Party says it is extremely depressed and saddened by the Government decision to deny leading South African opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane entry into the country at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport on Thursday this week.
GP president Peter Sinkamba said there was ‘‘absolutely no breach’’ of Zambia’s immigration and other laws that Mr Maimane committed to warrant his ‘‘physical persecution’’ and subsequent denial of entry.
Mr Sinkamba said the diplomatic row that the Zambian government has started with South Africa was extremely regrettable and ‘‘as the Green Party, we shudder to see the row escalating further because Zambia stands to lose the most economically and socially if South Africa decides to invoke political, economic and social sanctions against us’’.
‘‘We therefore solemnly appeal to President Edgar Lungu to reconsider Government’s stance,” Mr Sinkamba said.
Mr Sinkamba said there was nothing wrong for Mr Maimane to visit incarcerated UPND president Hakainde Hichilema. ‘‘Not only did Zambia host the ANC leadership but Mukhonto We Sizwe (the ANC armed wing during the freedom struggle) combatants as well,’’ he said.
He said Zambian and South African politicians have always had reciprocal political visitations before and after the independence of South Africa. The first republican president Dr Kenneth Kaunda used to have meetings with pre-independence prime ministers of South Africa John Vorster and P.W. Botha long before independence of that country.
Mr Sinkamba said when Dr Kaunda was arrested over trumped up charges of treason by the late second republican president Fredrick Chiluba, Dr Kaunda was provided refugee by the South African government under President Nelson Mandela.
“Speaking for myself as an opposition leader, in 1991, at the climax of apartheid in South Africa, together with late John Sakulanda, I did travel to meet former Prime Minister P.W. de Klerk and his cabinet on the issue of black-on-black violence.
‘‘Prime Minister de Klerk facilitated our meetings with all main opposition parties including the ANC, National Party, Democratic Party (as DA was known then), Inkhata Freedom Party, Pan Africanist Congress and others,” said Mr Sinkamba.
He said what the Zambian government has done to opposition Democratic Alliance president Maimane was therefore ‘‘utterly wrong’’.
