The politicking around the Indaba went on throughout last week. On April 2 the Times of Zambia reported that more people and groups were in support of the Indaba.
The newspaper on April fools day interview a number of stakeholders mainly in the economic sector who told the newspaper that the Government should be commended for the initiative, which they hoped would also contribute towards fostering national unity.
The Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) commended the Government for initiating the idea saying it was through dialogue that the country’s numerous problems could be solved. EAZ president Mwilola Imakando said in Lusaka that the association would be attending the national conference because through dialogue, the country’s numerous problems particularly in the face of the economic crisis would be resolved.
Zambia Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Zacci) chief executive officer Justin Chisulo said that the organisation would participate. Mr Chisulo said the gathering was a positive move but emphasised that the Government and other stakeholders should ensure that the resolutions from the meeting were fully implemented.
The Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (Zica) president Chintu Mulendema said that the idea to call for an indaba was welcome. He said that he was confident that through dialogue, Zambia would be able to resolve problems.
Zambia Consumer Association (Zaca) executive secretary Muyunda Ililonga said his association welcomed Government’s move to call for an indaba because the economy was facing difficulties. Mr Ililonga said that the indaba should find ways of seeing how Zambia could come out of the global economic recession.
By the time registration of delegates to the national indaba started on April 2 the United Party for National Development (UPND) and Patriotic Front declared that they would boycott the gathering set for April 4 and 5, 2009.
Speaking at a Press briefing in Lusaka, UPND president Hakainde Hichilema said his party had in December 2008 made suggestions and recommendations of dealing with the crisis but all of them were allegedly ignored. Mr Hichilema further said that even during his meeting with President Banda at State House on March 12 this year, the opposition party made several proposals, among them the need to maintain the windfall tax and the Mines and Minerals Development Act, the two pieces of legislation which Parliament amended in the last sitting. Mr Hichilema said that if the Government was serious about the indaba, it could have held the meeting way before the national Budget was presented in Parliament. That way, he said, the Budget could have incorporated what the indaba discussed. He, however, said the Government was at liberty to circulate at the indaba the UPND submissions that the party made in 2008 as well as the party’s Budget critique. He said that even members of Parliament going to the conference would be doing so against the party’s directives. The opposition leader also advised the Government to find lasting solutions to the soaring food prices, fight against corruption within the Government and ensure that the proposed 66 per cent electricity tariff hike by Zesco was shot down.
And the PF said it would not attend the indaba claiming that the Government was not ready to listen from ordinary MPs. In an interview in Lusaka, PF spokesperson Given Lubinda said the Government had on several occasions shown unwillingness to listen to divergent views. He said when Parliament was debating the Mines and Minerals Development Act as well as the amendments to the mining tax regime, the UPND leader Mr Hichilema had met President Banda and made recommendations that the two pieces of legislation should not be amended. Mr Lubinda said that, surprisingly, the Government made the amendments and the opposition lost the bid in Parliament.
But Matero MP Faustina Sinyangwe (PF) who was found accrediting herself at Longacres Lodge said she would attend the indaba as an ordinary MP as well as chairperson of the education committee in the party.
And a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth International Union of Socialists Youth, Frank Musonda, said that the decision by the Government to initiate the indaba was a step in the right direction.
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