Include us in dialogue, student union asks govt
By staff Reporter
Zambian Open University Students Union (ZAOUSU) has called for a time – bound and all-inclusive dialogue that will address cases of increased political violence.
Information and publicity secretary Ackim Banda said the recent calls of eye for an eye, panga for panga as regards electoral violence would leave the very citizens our political parties want to serve without an eye or with broken limbs.
Banda said ZAOUSU was extremely concerned that the talk of national dialogue had been reduced to an affair between the ruling Patriotic Front and the opposition United Party for National Development.
“In view of the common fact that our current political parties are fragile as they are centred on individuals and our country continues to be hobbled by Big Man politics, the all-wise Father-Knows-Best, it is more worrying to us as students that this so-called national dialogue is driven by oral pronouncements by leaders of these two major political parties, namely, Republican and PF President, Mr. Edgar Lungu and the UPND President, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema,” said Banda
“ZAOUSU believes in an all-inclusive approach where no stakeholder is above another. We therefore call for a National Dialogue that includes the student movement, political parties, religious groupings, civil society, youth organisations, professional bodies, traditional leaders, the media, Trade Unions, leaders in Parliament and Councils, among others. We believe that all have the same interest in this process, so that each one represents the interests of a section of the citizens, whose expectations and concerns should be put at the centre of all this.”
