President Edgar Lungu has urged Traditional rulers in Southern province to sit down with him to iron out the alleged remarks by PF Secretary General Davies Chama’s recent remarks alleging that the province intends to secede from rest of Zambia.
Mr. Lungu says since two wrongs cannot make a right, all those who are grieved by Mr. Chama’s sentiments must approach him so that the issue at hand could be ironed out.
And Mr. Lungu who was visibly disappointed said the alleged rumour by Mr Chama for the people of Southern province to secede from Zambia is ridiculous and unacceptable.
Zambia today is able to celebrate Heroes and Unity day because the lone gone national heroes observed the motto of one Zambia one Nation, the President said.
He wonders where those people calling for seceding would go if they left Zambia.
Mr. Lungu said without unity there would no advancement in anyway and that Heroes day cannot be celebrated without unity.
“ Zambia must move as one regardless of any political affiliation and no one can become President of the county by dividing the nation, “ he said.
Mr. Lungu said traditional ceremonies such as the Lwiindi, N’cwala and many others are meant to unite Zambia than dividing the country.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lungu has said the independence celebrations he attended in Malawi was successful and pleasant one although Zambia and Malawi shared common social-economic problems.
He said although Malawi celebrated 51 years of independence the country was still poor in certain areas.
He said the visit to the neighbouring country was also an economic solidarity with that country.
The presidential plane touched ground at 15:15 hrs. The president was in the company of first lady Esther, Kaiser Zulu, and Special Assistant to the Press Amos Chanda.
Vice president Inonge Wina led armed chiefs, government and party officials to welcome the president.
Didn’t he (EL) at one point also say those that cannot stand him as President should leave Zambia? And did he have to take this long to react? Then I wonder when he is going to comment on load shedding….
Why doesn’t he fire chama?
Thanks
Bb2014
Mr President, you have failed to provide leadership over the energy crisis and now you are failing lamentably over your thug, Chama.
Oh free man of Blantyre aka Edgar Kaminamisa Jamasoni Lungu, you have failed to discipline Chama for his tribal remarks. This is a clear display of your weakness as a leader and your tolerance for indiscipline, a clear trait the PF is known for.
The appeal for dialogue was going to make sense if chama had shown remorse and apologized.but since he remains stubborn and proud no need of dialogue. Lungu is a weakest president ever leaved on earth.
Lungu as President is a joke. So he thinks that Chama’s comments are normal and anybody who is aggrieved should complain to him so that Lungu can explain what Chama meant! It is not for Tongas to complain. It is for Chama to apologise and Lungu to discipline his sidekick.
Chama MUST apologise first, no apology no dialogue. Even saying ati 2 wrongs dont make a right let the 1st one to err take the 1st step. Otherwise this logic dictates that Chama’s comments have your FULL blessings
Tonga’s are publicly insulted then when it comes time to vote you ask why they vote en mass against you the very same guys insulting them, you even top it up to say its because they are tribal. Check your history and examine the words towards Tonga’s in the last 3 years.
It is more respectful and cheaper for Edgar to fire Davies Chama, than put chiefs and their wives on helicopters to state house.
Why start interrogating chiefs?
Ine I stopped taking Lungu seriously a very long time ago. Kapuba ka president kenu aka. No balls, no strategy, no direction and that is a president of a country. Yaba.
But he also said Wako ni Wako. He is exactly like Davies. This issue is going nowhere because Davies is just a mouth piece and the whole concept of insulting other tribes came from ECL. If you believe in respect, you would not say all those who feel offended MUST request for a meeting with me to iron out the differences. There was no difference except that Chama thought that was the best form of campaign if he we on tribal lines. There is no leadership in Chama Ba President. If you are able to show some measure of punishment to Davies, I can assure you, your ratings as a President will go up. Be a man of your own sir. Are you not tired of people pulling your nose??? This is a straight disciplinary issue that is in your hands.I have no doubt you can be our President for all.
Sit down to iron out what? This guy really has time for unnecessary things. Just fire Chama!!!!! period and use some of that time to fire Chikwanda and then focus on reviving the economy. Finally, start packing your bags because you are leaving office in 2016.
Why did you not comment till you heard the “rumour” that SP wants to secede? Why have you not fired Chama? Talk of hypocrisy….
What’s so special about this Devils Chaanga or whatever his name that the president cannot just fire him? First it was the remarks about Southerners having to have 100 wives, to which on lady, her honour the vice president promised a comprehensive statement from government. That statement is still being awaited. I am sure it so comprehensive that it has taken so many weeks to draft. Hopefully, by September 2016 the statement will be ready.
And now this cessation issue. How much more bluntantly tribal should he get before action is taken? Is HE ECL still enjoying the attention that these disparaging remarks are drawing? Or is he the one sending his loose canon to cause anarchy?
why do u want him to comment on load sheding? And then what if does that? Wil the power stop cuting? Come on haven’t the ministers commented enough?
Its the duty of the President to comment on such serious issues of national interest. It gives the President an opportunity to spell out long and short term policy measures that would be put in place to address the problem. The President is the head of the PF as the party in Government, and therefore all issues affecting the nation are on his table. Do you only want him to comment when everything is smooth going? Look, if the issue was about commissioning a hydro power plant, you would have seen the screaming headlines like “Lungu Ends Loadshedding” and Lungu this Lungu that. Be objective man!
Have you not seen the levels of water at in the dam on TV? explanation of what is being done by the energy minister? what more do you need to know?
There cant be dialogue over what are obviously unacceptable and irresponsible statements, and the SG is representing himself in those statements. He must take responsibility and get the cane. President must repudiate those statements without equivocation instead of calling for dialogue.
He must just say I have no idea about Zesco and I will leave it in the hands of God as and when he sends the rains to Zambia……lol….leadership at its waste!!!!
“He wonders where those people calling for seceding would go if they left Zambia.”….
He doesn’t seem to know what the word “secession” means
Mr president pls show some leadership.a lot of things are going wrong
When he told us he had no vision, he meant a lot of things, but we never listened
CHIEFS IN SOUTHERN PROVINCE TO SIT DOWN WITH THAT ***** CALLED DAVIS CHAMA,,CRY MY BELOVED COUNTRY. THAT’S ALL THE PRESIDENT CAN SAY? THIS COUNTRY HAS REALLY SERIOUS LEADERSHIP VACUUM. THIS ISSUE CAN NO LONGER AT THE LEVEL OF MR CHAMA TO HANDLE IF THE PRESIDENT WANTS UNITY AND PEACE IN THIS COUNTRY. CHAMA HAS INSULTED SOUTHERNERS AND AM SURE HE CANNOT ADDRESS SOUTHERNERS AT ANY FORUM. CHAMA WILL NOT EVEN CAMPAIGN IN SOUTHERN PROV. NEXT YEAR. HE HAS INSULTED PIPO OF S.PROVINCE AND SO IS EDGAR CHAGWA LUNGU
Wisdom at its best. Dialogue with the people who are injured than pass comments that are adding pain. This man is indeed called to be a leader. Even the bible says that. …… long live ecl
Wisdom my foot. Dialogue without condemning the injurious statement is futile! And the number of bad statements attributed to this hooligan are growing. So, biblical wisdom are seeing which we can’t see?
A man of wisdom sits down to analyse an issue before opening his mouth. Over power a study of the quantity of waters zambia receives is under way I bet. Ways of developing the networks to the water sources should be analysed. This is what I expect from opposition parties. But insults n day dreaming is the order. El keep quiet until you have the solution. Not uku bwata bwata
You once said those that did not agree with you should leave Zambia. Now that we want to do just that, you want to seat and talk about what? Are you still wondering where we will go if we leave Zambia? We will remain Ku Cuundu- we’ve been abandoned by many governments too long anyway. If being part of Zambia is not working for us anymore, then the logical thing is to separate. What a wonderful union we once had, we will still always be friends but we can’t live together anymore.
Southern Province is one of the most developed in the country so how can you say “We have been abandoned by many governments for too long”?. It doesn’t make sense. However Chama must be fired for disrespecting other tribes.
Lungu doing what Zambia does best -politicking bcoz he has no other idea on where to lead Zambia to.
Its all a masking gimmick to hide shortcomings.
Outspoken Chama has failed his party and seniors lamentably. He does not represent what PF (purportedly) stands for by words and deeds. He is a public letdown and Lungu should not address this issue (secession) casually this time round. Why tolerate such loose talk and actions for a person entrusted to potray the real image of the (duly) ruling party? Pathetic!
Unfortunately for you, he delivered a 3-0 last week.
President Lungu must provide leadership both in PF and in the nation so far he has shown a lot of weakness. All Chama needs to do is apologize for his statement.
The one insulted must kneel down to the boss for consideration of chama s upgrading . Where on earth you people ? Failed leadership.
I wonder why PF cadres like to comment even on things that they do not understand. Its not the first time that we have had such low levels of water in both the Zambezi and Kafue rivers. And this guy Kungwe. Can you please define the term dam.
This man alred tod u dat he hs no vision,,so wat more do u xpct frm hm apart frm failing,,,de bst presidnt dat zambia eva produced z Dr levy patrick mwanawasa SC, MHSRIP sir,,nd frm de day u left motha de clouds were dark,de sign dat a gr8 leder hs left de world,,,,,,,,,
There is so much hate and bitterness in some of you that you will blame Lungu even for a day that us very cold or cry hot. Pls tone down and strategies.
What Chama said is personal just like what Monkombwe had said. Do not drag everybody into this.
Wanting to succeed just because you own person has failed to convince Zambians as to why they should vote for him. You call your friends Chakolwa, kaponyas and all sorts of names but they dont get frustrated. They call you something and you get frustrated
Addressing yoself as Jesus,is insultive and a blasphemy to a name held sacred.EL lacks a spirit of unity in him.leadership is not for two headed snakes.today u preach unity,next day u preach hatred.
@Jesus. Kindly use other names and NOT the most sacred name of our saviour JESUS.
This is not good and the president must not take people for granted. I will not give a dame because its like the Northern Region and Eastern power so called are one. If the president can say Wako ni Wako, what will he do to our traditional chiefs if he is on record of tribal?
Zambia is no longer one. There is too much visible segregation and divide and rule is on high record in our mother country today.
This is proper failure of leadership. What is so complicated about understanding that Chama has committed political suicide by dividing the nation through his tribal statements on the Tonga people. How does he surely expect Tonga chiefs to dialogue with him on a straight forward matter? No leader worth his salt can allow the chief executive of his party in the likes of Chama to continue. Its high time president Lungu started to provide leadership to this nation as opposed to his global trotting. No past president would has kept Chama.
I think the President is losing it here, he wants to look too big, to feel sorry for the statement of his SG, and feels that, if anyone was offended, then he must see the President about it. You don’t even need to find out if there is anyone offended by such statement, for you to take action, sir, it is just not a good statement, of and in itself – whether it offends any chief or not; unless it is PF’s position!
This whole story is not true. whoever came up with this story its very unfortunate and cheap politicing. They just want to dent the image of SP but unfortunately you will not succeed you fools.
These UPND guys are hypocritical.They have called Lungu many names and he has never reacted negatively.The truth is that their voting is regional and indeed they are polygamous.Why should Chama apologize ? Why should Chama be fired in all fairness ? Stop politicizing the issue which is neither here nor there.
The problem is that this statement does not only offend the UPND but even those Tongas that belong to other parties. This is a very divisive statement that MUST be taken seriously. If there is a good example of weak leadership, this is the one. National Leadership goes beyond party affiliations. ECL is proving to be a leader for the PF only and not for all the people of Zambia. Do not give room to anyone stepping on tribal issues to down grade one or two tribes in the country. I am disappointed for sure!!!!!
This is issue is straight forward my President. This Chama MUST be removed forthwith because this has already dented the image of the party amidst the one Zambia One Nation motto. You are the first one to shout the motto that you rightly reintroduced from the KK period. Yes Tongas are polygamous but to go on to say they MUST continue producing a lot of children for them to assume power is a divisive statement that works against the motto we are all trying to promote. If you can not see that this is divisive then it is unfortunate. I do not want to say birds of the same feathers fly together. Ba President you are really distancing yourself from your potential voters. This Chama is not ministerial standard. Kabimba was arrogant quite already but to sink so low to Chama’s levels is sad!!
There was a time, not too long ago, when the word “secession” in Zambia was associated with the Barotseland Agreement. That was the time when “only” the Lozi felt excluded from the national cake. Now the Tonga are beginning to feel not only excluded, but pushed aside in the sharing of the national cake. I wonder how long it is going to be before we awaken to the reality that the national cake is only a “preserve of a few greedy individuals”, not whole tribes or ethnicities.
To secede because some one has said you are polygamous ! Who doesn’t know that Tongas are polygamous ? If govt is giving you development and you can not appreciate……you keep on using the nega nega formula.When other regions decide to use the same formula indeed it can take long for you to be voted
“If you say Tongas are polygamous is ok” but the challenge is to marry this statement with a political and divisive statement is a challenge. If you said that Tongas are polygamous and must work very hard to manufacture children before they assume political power is a very big level of political mis- judgement. Do not end at saying Tongas are polygamous but you must complete what Davies said. Davies needs to consult his brains before he says something just like Mumbi and Sunday. What you are practicing in not politics but 18th century civilization. There is no dispute to settle here…….it is just bad manners from Davies.You can not insult the whole tribe because some if not a lot of the Tongas support PF.
Let Chama visit Rwanda genocide archives and witness the consequences of irresponsible utterances before unleashing his fire-blazing tongue. Meanwhile Lungu should fire him before he utters another satement throwing the country to the dogs if he ( Lungu) really means well for the people.
Bringing in Rwanda genocide is silly. It is Chama who has offended so kill him if you so wish but don’t talk about genocide.
Stop using Chiefs to gain your parochial political ambitions.Who doesn’t know that a leader of some political party is behind this scheme of exaggerating the so called Chama remarks ? What is really offensive about it ? Now i understand…the truth pains ! Firing chama just for that ! it is not in order.Traditional ceremonies should not be politicized no wonder some people fear attending to avoid being embarrassed.
Last year Dr Guy Scott was embarrassed over a similar small issue ! UPND should foster unity and love among our people during these traditional ceremonies.You may have also at one time said worse things about others and no one has vilified you.The Rwanda example here is out of context.
The problem in the statement by Davies is not attacking UPND but the entire Tonga tribe. This is the problem when you have nothing to write and you are a cadre and you want to change Blue into White. Ikalafye Iwe if you have nothing to contribute to a peaceful nation.
Dialogue for what.? Nonsense.! This Lungu thing can go dialogue with his fellow thug Chama.
The Chiefs have spoken and so the entire Southern Province.
Edgar cannot talk about uniting Zambia when all his political talk is in itself very divisive. I mean, we just need to recall what he was saying recently as he campaigned in Eastern Province. How can people unite when the president is the one at the forefront practicing and promoting divisions? Chagwa is being very hypocritical by pointing fingers at the southerners who are still waiting for his comments as president on what his *****ic SG Davis Chama said. The chiefs are angered by government’s silence on the matter. It shows that the PF are the ones in the forefront promoting regionalism. People of Zambia are not dull; they are following these issues very keenly and will make a decision at an appropriate time. Wina azalila.
I just see stereotyping and insults in Chama’s statement. I do not see how a person who has been insulted can beg for dialogue when it is supposed to be the other way round. H.E. E.C.L went to Zambezi to discuss with the two chiefs over the use of a language in that district. This is even worse because H.E. E.C.L’s colleague provoked a people who did not harass Chama in anyway.
Chama has not committed any offence to warrant an opposition party want to gain political mileage out it.I come from Luapula and if some one says i am a fisherman even if i am a Director in a certain organization,i should not feel offended.
Iwe ….Davies did not end at saying Tongas are polygamous!!!!! The problem is that he continued to insult them so that they can produce enough children to assume political power. Is UPND = Tongas. Davies targeted the Tongas and not UPND. A lot of my Tonga friends are PF and MMD. It is very easy to be a F00L……..Ba Davies Kuwayawaya.
The UPND and their bloggers need fuel to keep their hatred and insults aimed at ECL going and the comments from Chama have provided just that. And going by the type of blogs coming through again this strategy will only backfire at UPND itself. It is very clear that should HH win any election in Zambia provinces like Eastern and Northern will be a target of retribution never seenn before in this country. It is for this reason Zambians will not vote for UPND and HH unless the Party rebrands itself with new leadership and new strategy. Right now given the kind of criticism and comments from the party and its cadre hired bloggers it is certainly not an attractive alternative. Presidency should always be by popular choice and not based on sympathy and/or balancing the 72 tribes.
Who said Wako ni Wako in public? Do not just support useless issues when you know the one who is at fault here. You want to project your weakness onto others?
Southern Province chiefs should ignore Lungu’s call for dialogue.Lungu should first discipline Davis Chama and Mumbi Phiri for insulting Tongas.
Look out whats taking place.
This all about imminent independence of barotseland.
When the bre held its national council meeting, the post reported that tongas wanted to move with barotseland. Its coming up again.
Lungu must act wisely and wuickly and ensure that north western does not start the same plan.
But looking at things, history is aboutnto revisit us
UP and DOWN are very desperate for power and they want to capitalise on any opportunity to gain cheap political mileage.How many times have these hypocrites insulted or given Lungu names.In my view Chama has not committed any crime.Leave him alone.You have used newspapers and online media to humiliate him.Plz stop this hypocrisy !
Analyser AKA Mwiya AKA whatever, the people who insult your useless president are us the bloggers and not senior officials of our opposition parties you brainless cadre. me calling Lungu an ***** which he is has no impact unless HH or Canisius Banda said it. Are we together you empty tin? OK now sit down.
But look my friend, politics aside, Davies targeted a tribe instead of shooting the UPND. I am PF but no doubt Davies was wrong. Is it very hard to say sorry if you are really an honest person?………..Ba Davies kuwayawaya fye………
I think what would be sad is for any one leader to leave a legacy of ethnic hatred and civil strife after 5 others maintained peace for over 50 yrs.
Please southerners do not worry you will always be part of the greater Barotseland. Tou aimelwi manaka ayona.
It’s gratifying to see Zambians unanimously condemn a president who has failed to show leadership when it matters most!
So our President was asleep all this time and just woken up from his slumber to realize that what Chama said was an insult to the Tongas and all peace loving Zambians. Late reaction baaba that is why Zambia is sliding backwards.
This is not news anymore. Time for people to move on