Kamwala shopping mall plunged into chaos
Lusaka Central business district plunged into chaos With only a few months before Zambia goes to the general polls, the country's peace is been threatened by the increasing levels of violence the nation has started recording. Zambia's capital Lusaka on Thursday March 31 had business in the central district brought to a stand still by violence allegedly iginited by some cadres from the PF and the ruling MMD. One entering Zambia's capital city's central district will wonder why all shops from the Kamwala shopping Centre spreading into town centre going as far as Lusaka's biggest trading centre the City Market to Lumumba bus station. One wonders whether the police will manage to contain the violence which cadres from both political parties are accusing each other. The cadres crushed as all want to take charge of the trading place. The violence by political cadres in Lusaka is quite the opposite of what President Rupiah Banda is talking at the SADC Troika summit currently underway in Zambia's tourist capital Livingstone. President Banda has appealed to his fellow presidents in the region not to take citizens for granted and to learn from the North African upheavals. But with Thursday's confusion were one just wakes up and demands that he or she takes over the control of a market just because they belong to the ruling or the opposition political party is quit unfortunate. This of course calls for serious political leadership intervention as letting it go uncondemned is creating a very fertile ground for violence. And once Zambia's peace is broken it will be very difficult to be restored. Zambia has seventy three tribes all of them have since the country's independence enjoyed peace and all the tribes have lived in harmony and considered each other as brothers and sisters, however the urgly face of political hooliganism is slowly plunging the country into chaos. Political cadres in an effort to please their superiors have gone out of their way to outclass each other by sizing each other with anything they can lay their hands on. President Banda urges SADC member states to learn from North African nations. President Rupiah Banda has urged the SADC member states not to take the legitimate expectations of citizens fro granted and learn from the upheavals that are taking place in North Africa. President Banda urged the member states to continue consolidating democracy through establishing institutions that uphold international laws. He said this at the SADC Troika summit in Livingstone today. President Banda says SADC has come of age and should help bring about home-grown solutions towards electoral disputes. He called upon the SADC TROIKA to bring to life mechanisms such as the SADC Electoral Advisory Council, the SADC mediation reference group and the panel of elders, whose establishment was approved at the Windhoek summit in August last year. Present at the summit includes Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, South African President Jacob Zuma and Mozambican President Armando Guebuza. Also present are SADC ambassadors and high commissioners and the SADC executive secretary, DR. Tomáz Salomão. Ends---dry….