By JAMES KUNDA and STEPHANIE KUNDA
.Siliya
GOVERNMENT has called for an end to debate surrounding President Edgar Lungu’s nationality as such talk is unproductive in the greater Zambian public.
Chief Government spokesperson Dora Siliya said it was wearisome for some isolated individuals and institutions to question the President’s nationality yet he stood for elections on two previous separate
occasions.
“One of the requirements for a person to stand for president is that they must be Zambian, so this debate about President Lungu’s nationality is unproductive. Infact, some of us are quite privileged to
know the village where the President hails from in Petauke (Eastern Province),” Ms Siliya said.
Ms Siliya, who is also Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, said this to journalists at a media briefing in Lusaka yesterday.
She said the criticism of President Lungu and Government for requesting the recall of Cuban Ambassador to Zambia Nelson Pages Vilas on professional grounds, was unsubstantiated.
Ms Siliya said it was against diplomatic etiquette in Zambia for Mr Vilas to conduct himself in a manner that favoured a specific political party.
“So our High Commissioner in Canada has been in-touch with the Cuban minister of foreign affairs and we will be getting a new ambassador soon. Relations between Zambia and Cuba remain resolute because the problem we had was with an ambassador and not Cuba itself,” she said.
Meanwhile, Ms Siliya said the allocation of land to the almost 4,000 ex-miners on the Copperbelt Province would be done in batches of 500 beneficiaries each, commencing soon.
She said 1,066 of the beneficiaries would be settled in Lufwanyama District, 1,000 in Chingola, another 1,000 in Mufulira and 500 in Solwezi.
And Housing and Infrastructure Minister Ronald Chitotela described as a clear sign of desperation of the opposition to allege that Mr Lungu was not Zambia.
Mr Chitotela said this on the Copperbelt when he called on provincial Minister Japhen Mwakalombe in Ndola yesterday.
“How can the President who was born and bred on the Copperbelt be a foreigner? It is a clear act of desperation by Opposition wanting to attract attention of people. Even previous Presidents have had such allegations pointed at them like Dr Kenneth Kaunda, the late Chiluba and Mwanawasa and even Rupiah Banda,” he said.
