A ZAMBIAN minister has revealed that his country will soon approach the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) over allegations that Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu PF party is working with Zambia’s opposition to kill President Hakainde Hichilema.
Copperbelt minister Elisha Matambo said the Zambian
government would petition international and regional bodies to look into the
threats on Hichilema’s life.
Addressing people who had gathered to protest over
Zimbabwe’s alleged meddling in Zambia’s affairs, Matambo claimed that Zanu PF’s
secretary for finance Patrick Chinamasa had admitted to having a hand in the
death of Zambia’s third President Levy Mwanawasa.
“I have received the petitions on the threats on the life
of President Hichilema by Chinamasa and Rutendo Matinyanyire. I will deliver
your petition to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs so that it can be taken to
Sadc, AU and UN. Chinamasa has confessed that he killed president Mwanawasa and
is now planning to tamper with the life of President Hichilema,” he said.
Matambo said some people in the opposition in Zambia were
allegedly working with Chinamasa to destabilise Zambia.
Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa referred
questions to Chinamasa who has repeatedly not been answering his mobile phone.
Hichilema’s United Party for National Development
supporters denounced Zanu PF at the reopening of the Kongola copper mines in
Chingola and Chililabombwe in the Copperbelt province.
The supporters, according to videos circulating on social
media, accused Zanu PF functionaries, including Chinamasa, of trying to
destabilise Zimbabwe’s northern neighbour.
Hichilema, who is the Sadc Troika on Politics, Defence and
Security chairperson, deployed former Zambian Vice-President Nevers Mumba to
head the region’s observer mission for Zimbabwe’s elections last month.
The Sadc Troika is a group established to respond swiftly
to political emergencies in the region.
Mumba’s Sadc election observer mission released a damning
report stating that the Zimbabwean elections did not meet democratic standards
set by the region and the international community.
Hichilema boycotted Mnangagwa’s inauguration held at the
National Sports Stadium in Harare on Monday last week.
Mnangagwa, instead, invited Hichilema’s predecessor and
foe, Edgar Lungu, to his inauguration.
Since the damning report, officials in Harare have launched
a spirited campaign to discredit Hichilema and Mumba, who they have described
as “Western puppets”, which has soured relations between the two nations
formerly joined at the hip in the colonial era as Southern and Northern
Rhodesia. Newsday
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