Defence Minister Geoffrey Mwamba is in Kasama as President Michael Sata’s special envoy to ease tensions which are currently ensuing between the government and the Bemba Traditional Council.
Mwamba, the Kasama Central Member of Parliament is holding a meeting with the Bemba Chiefs, elders and other traditionalists after a standoff, which was started by Sata after he de-gazetted Senior Chief Mwamba alleging that the traditional ruler was not properly installed.
After a bitter standoff, Senior Chief Mwamba announced during the week that he was going to step down from the throne because he did not want to be viewed as an enemy of the state.
According to a source from from within the Bemba Traditional Council in Kasama, Sata is under pressure from the Bembas, who considered his decision to stop recognizing Senior Chief Mwamba as an act of betrayal after the Bembas overwhelmingly supported his 2011 presidential candidature.
The source from Kasama said Mwamba, who is fondly referred to as GBM was sent to dialogue with the Bemba chiefs because their confrontation with Sata was making the government unpopular.
“The minister has come with a very humble stance to engage the chiefs in quiet diplomacy. The government realized that the president was wrong to take a dictatorial and confrontational stance against the Shilubemba (Bemba Traditional Council) and the government now wants to dialogue with the chefs because this is a very sensitive matter for the Patrotic Front,” the source sad.
The source said that the Bemba chiefs were going to demand for an audience with Sata not at State House, but that the president must travel to Kasama where he should also explain why he had never gone to mourn the late paramount Chief Chitimukulu of the Bemba people.
“Since Mr Sata won the elections, he has never sent a message or traveled to Kasama to mourn the Paramount Chief. He considers himself a Bemba, but his silence on this funeral has left many people surprised because Mr Sata used the Northern Province to get votes and he has continued to maintain this place as his stronghold in politics,” the source said
Last week, the Bemba traditionalists convened in Kasama and resolved to ignore Sata’s stance to de-register Senior Chief Mwamba.
The argued that Sata had no mandate to stop recognizing the traditional ruler because the Bemba had a special way of installing chiefs and this process was not for public consumption.
Spokesperson for the Bemba traditional council Kabilo Masemba said Sata had suspended government allowances to both the acting Paramount Chief Chitimukulu and Senior Chief Mwamba for unknown reasons. However, the Bemba traditional Council asked Sata to keep the freeze on the government allowances because the traditional rulers had alternative sources of income.
Mwamba arrived in Kasama on Thursday and by Friday morning, he had gone into a closed door meeting with the Bemba traditionalists in a bid to ease the tension with the Bemba chiefs.
By press time, the meeting between Mwamba and the Bemba chefs was still going in Kasama.
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