BAN REGIONAL GROUPINGS – SUNDAY CHANDA

GOVERNMENT must ban regional groupings to preserve national unity in Zambia and anything that threatens the One Zambia, One Nation Motto must not be allowed to exist, Kanchibiya Constituency Member of Parliament (MP) Sunday Chanda has said.

Speaking to The Scoop, Mr. Chanda noted the importance for positive forces in the political space including the media preach “the death of tribalism to all”.

Mr. Chanda said political parties in Zambia should mobilize as nationalists and not regionalists adding that if Zambia had to exist as one nation, it had to be mobilized as such not on regions and tribes.

He appealed to Zambians of good conscience to instead come together as one and make tribalists as insignificant as possible.

“The church and other religious leaders in the nation should categorically condemn tribalism including any semblance of it thereof. Zambia has never experienced the ghastly consequences of tribalism. We must therefore constantly remind ourselves of the single most important cause of civil wars, secessions, genocide – tribalism and regionalism.

“Politicians and political parties must also realize that the answer to any alleged tribalism is not more tribalism and regionalism just like the answer to racism is not more racism but unity. Let us remind ourselves that in Rwanda, the Hutu tribalism against Tutsis which led to the genocide was schemed, promoted and funded by politicians and other elites, but executed by common people, young boys with pangas,” Mr. Chanda said.

He added: “When the country exploded, the same politicians and elites were the first ones to flee, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of common Hutus to be arrested and paraded in traditional courts and prisons. The few politicians and elites held accountable were arrested under pseudo names in Belgium, France, Cape Town but some will never be arrested,” he noted.

He said there was a need to achieve the spirit of One Zambia One nation in the midst of racist and ethnic challenges.

“Just like the late President Kenneth Kaunda achieved this, let it also inspire us because that is also what President Julius Nyerere did in Tanzania. Most African countries utterly failed to fight tribalism and regionalism and millions of their people perished, their countries broke up and are still very unstable till today,” he said.