Leadership Movement (LM) president Dr Richard Silumbe has called for a national indaba on reconciliation, saying Zambia’s healing must begin with its leaders and cannot be put off. Dr Silumbe said the country has lost its identity as One Zambia One Nation because of the issues…

Leadership Movement (LM) president Dr Richard Silumbe has called for a national indaba on reconciliation, saying Zambia’s healing must begin with its leaders and cannot be put off.

Dr Silumbe said the country has lost its identity as One Zambia One Nation because of the issues surrounding the outcome of the August 13 general election. He said Zambians are living through politics of hate and division, which should not be allowed in a Christian nation.

“We need to heal this nation and we must do it now, not any other day,” he said. “And this healing must start with us leaders. Let us open our hearts to the current situation in the country.”

He warned that delay carries a price. “We need a genuine national indaba for reconciliation because if we don’t do it now, we are building a fertile land for a national crisis,” Dr Silumbe said.

The LM, he said, is ready to push for genuine and earnest reconciliation, but the country cannot move forward while it stays bitter and vengeful. “We cannot move forward if we are still bitter, if we are still a nation of vengeance, if we are vindictive, if we cannot forgive and forget,” he said. The only ground on which healing can take place, he added, is respect for the rule of law.

The LM leader then turned to party cadres, and to the leaders who have kept quiet about them. He said supporters are insulting one another and promoting hatred while those in leadership say nothing.

“We need to call for order; we need to call out these cadres to stop, while we promote unity, national reconciliation, forgiveness and national healing,” he said. “This is very important for this nation.”

His appeal to President Hakainde Hichilema was tied to the Government’s own targets. Dr Silumbe urged the Head of State to look beyond the election and face reality if he wants the Grow Zambia Agenda to yield results and benefit the nation.

He said he has seen Mr Hichilema working towards that agenda, but it cannot be achieved while the nation is polarised. “We cannot achieve the three million metric tonnes of copper production; we shall not achieve the 10 million metric tonnes of maize; we shall not grow the economy,” he said. “We will achieve nothing in that Grow Zambia Agenda in the current state of the nation.”

Dr Silumbe’s request to the President was direct: embrace dialogue and call for reconciliation towards national healing.

He also said the United Party for National Development (UPND) government has exposed itself to many battlefronts against its own citizens, and he pointed first to its relationship with the Church. “We have a government that is not in good books with the Church. For me, this is dangerous,” he said.

He went on to say that the Government is in power while people are still challenging its legitimacy, which he called an eye-opener for reconciliation. He said he accepts that Mr Hichilema is President, but the Head of State should extend an olive branch to a grieving society.

“Let him extend a hand to the Church and talk,” Dr Silumbe said. “Let him do that to civil society and political stakeholders.”

The healing he is asking for, he stressed, is not about a few individuals but the entire nation. The opposition still claims it won the election.

The LM says it is ready to lead the push for reconciliation once the call for an indaba is taken up.