By Agencies
RELATIONS between Zimbabwe and Zambia turned icy yesterday after President Hichilema Hakainde’s United Party for National Development (UPND) supporters denounced the ruling Zanu PF at the re-opening of the Kongola copper mines in Chingola and Chililabombwe in the Copperbelt province.
The supporters, according to videos circulating on social media, accused Zanu PF functionaries, including secretary for finance Patrick Chinamasa, of trying to destabilise its northern neighbour.
Hichilema, who is the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Troika on Politics, Defence and Security chairperson, deployed former Zambian Vice-President Nevers Mumba to head the region’s observer mission to Zimbabwe’s elections last month.
The Sadc Troika is a group established to respond swiftly to political emergencies in the region.
Mumba’s Sadc election observer mission released a damning report stating that the Zimbabwean elections did not meet democratic standards set by the region and the international community.
Hichilema boycotted Mnangagwa’s inauguration held at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on Monday last week.
Mnangagwa, instead, invited Hichilema’s predecessor and foe, Edgar Lungu, to his inauguration.
Since the damning report, officials in Harare have gone on overdrive trying to discredit Hichilema and Mumba, who they have described as “Western puppets”, which has soured relations between the two nations formerly joined at the hip in the colonial era as Southern and Northern Rhodesia.
UPND secretary-general Batuke Imenda confirmed the protests to NewsDay in a telephone interview saying: “Yes, there were some protests, but I am very sick, I am admitted to a hospital in the Eastern province.”
-NewsDay
