National Democratic Congress Party (NDC) has pledged to work with Zambia Centre for Inter-Party Dialogue (ZCID) to foster dialogue and unity among politicians in the country.
NDC President, Chishimba Kambwili, says his party is willing to work with ZCID for the sake of the love that the party has for Zambia and also to bring unity in politics.
NDC was a full-time member of the Centre but pulled out due to some concerns especially over the National Dialogue process, which his party felt were not being done right.
He said the NDC decided to pull out of ZCID in order to mentain their political stance by not working with an entity they felt was not representing his party’s interests.
He however said now that the matter was discussed and sorted out, the NDC has chosen to work with ZCID again.
This came to light when ZCID Board led by its Chairperson, Jackson Silavwe, paid a courtesy call on the NDC President and his party officials.
“We felt that we need to come and meet properly and talk about these issues, restructure ourselves and move forward. Otherwise without that, we were not prepared to be part of ZCID. But we do realize that a platform like ZCID is extremely important to try and iron out too much of what I may call political tension in the country as a result of Political differences,” he said.
The opposition leader continued “And for me, your coming to visit us and visiting other political parties one-by-one should be the beginning point. And it was a very good initiative so that every political party airs out their views”.
Dr. Kambwili who was in the company of other officials that included the Party Spokesperson, Saboi Imboela, said he was convinced that now matters between the two entities, ZCID and NDC, were resolved, a new page was open for a fresh start.
“On behalf of my Team, we are very much ready to support ZCID. Want to see the ZCID that we are talking to here. A ZCID that is very understanding, you know. A give and take situation like we have had in this meeting. Then we will have no problem,” assured Dr. Kambwili.
During the meeting, NDC through its Spokesperson, Saboi Imboela, wondered if ZCID was not going to be seen to be driven by a single political party, but all parties having their voice.
She said as a party they decided to put off their affiliation to ZCID because they felt one party wanted to spearhead the Centre when in fact all parties were supposed to have an equal say and authority in ZCID.
And Mr. Silavwe said the Board was working to revive its working relations with all parties so that those that left could come on board as well as strethening the already existing relations with those parties that have still been on board.
He said ZCID was ment for political parties and assured that no party shall assume to be superior over others.
“You bring the perspective of your political party. We don’t give you the agenda to say this is what we have discussed or this is what we think,” he said.
“So we need to get that one very clear that ZCID are political parties. Secretariat follows the instructions of the board. If there are no instructions that are coming from the Baord, Secretariat will not do anything” the ZCID Board Chairperson clarified.
Mr. Silavwe assured that “Perhaps what has happened in the past, where maybe may be certain voices have been very vocal within ZCID in terms of political parties, that has made other stakeholders to feel maybe they are not part of the institution. And as part of my chairmanship that is the perception I want to correct”.