Dialogue

On Monday the Lozi Prime Minister (Ngambela), Clement Sinyinda, was reported by ZNBC to have said that the Barotse leadership has opted for dialogue with the Zambian Government in the interest of peace and unity. He hinted that a surprising but amicable settlement was in store.

Barotseland had been declared an independent State last week by the Barotse National Council (BNC). This had followed claims of the continuing abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement of 1964 by successive Zambian governments with ensuing neglect and underdevelopment. The BA of 1964 was the Agreement that brought Barotseland and Northern Rhodesia together to form independent Zambia.

The Zambian Justice Minister Sebastian Zulu also interviewed said the Zambian Government is keen to resolve this matter and to keep searching for a peaceful solution.
The First Zambian President, Kenneth Kaunda, who originally signed the Barotseland Agreement of 1964 on behalf of the Zambian Government, appealed to all involved to cooperate and safeguard peace and harmony in the country.

Three church bodies, the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) and the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) have also called on the Government to create conditions that would facilitate meaningful dialogue and reconciliation among the people of Western Province.

They suggest using the recently-published Chongwe Commission of Inquiry’s Report as a basis for the dialogue. The Church leaders said Government had vacillated and skirted around the issue of the Barotseland Agreement for far too long and it was a problem that would not go away. The Government should engage the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) in serious and sincere dialogue on the issues surrounding the Barotseland Agreement of 1964.

With goodwill on both sides, a win-win solution is possible but labelling people as traitors, anarchists or secessionists would only lead to further radicalization and fail to create the necessary conditions for reconciliation. People should use a language which would build up and not destroy.The Government certainly had a duty to maintain law and order and to protect life and property but this duty should be exercised using judgement, sensitivity and due diligence.

The Churches also appealed to Barotse activist groups, particularly the Linyungandambo, Barotse Freedom Movement (BFM), Movement for the Restoration of the Barotseland Agreement (MOREBA) to consider giving dialogue a chance. There was no political issue that could not be resolved through dialogue, so the Church was appealing to all involved to support initiatives which would lead to unity, peace and reconciliation in the country.The Church offered itself as a go-between as it had done previously with the constitutional impasse which eventually led to multi-party democracy in 1991.
Finally they commended the people of Western Province for holding the recent BNC meeting in a transparent and peaceful atmosphere