. Mwimbu

By DAVID KANDUZA –
THE United Party for National Development (UPND) plans to meet soon to look at the overtures being made by Catholic bishops to help initiate dialogue between its incarcerated leader, Hakainde Hichilema and President Edgar Lungu.
In a terse response to a query from the Sunday Times about the UPND’s position on Friday’s decision by Mr Lungu to allow the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) to meet Mr Hichilema in efforts to help defuse levels of political tension in the country, the party’s legal affairs chairperson Jack Mwiimbu said yesterday a meeting was being planned to discuss the matter.
“We will meet soon as a party,” he said.
A 14-man delegation of the ZCCB met with President Lungu on Friday to discuss a wide range of issues and underscored their commitments to working with the Government for the good of the nation.
They offered to mediate between Mr Lungu and Mr Hichilema and encouraged the President to seriously consider engaging in a genuine face-to-face dialogue with the UPND leader and asked the Head of State to help facilitate their meeting with the opposition leader, which request was granted.
Mr Hichilema has been in prison since April this year having been charged with treason arising out of an incident that happened in Mongu when the UPND leader’s convoy taking him to the Kuomboka ceremony was deemed to have obstructed the presidential cavalcade which was heading in the same direction.