FORMER president Edgar Lungu says there is a lot of hypocrisy because people are saying a lot good things and yet they are doing bad things.
Meanwhile, President Hakainde Hichilema says leadership must be used to bring people together.
Speaking to journalists after late former president Rupiah Banda’s burial, Friday, Lungu said it was time to reflect on Banda’s life.
He said genuine dialogue was needed with one another for the country to move forward.
“This is time to reflect on the life of president Rupiah Bwezani Banda. All the statements have been made, obviously, he was not an angel, he had his own failings just like all of us. But if we learn to dialogue honestly with one another as we have experienced during the days of mourning, probably we can get somewhere as a country. Genuine dialogue between all of us, those who were in government before and those who are in now. But what we are seeing is hypocrisy, where people say good things and they do bad things. If we can expunge the hypocrisy from our lives and just say as it is between now and going into the future, that is the lesson that we are learning from Rupiah Banda’s legacy. People have said a lot of good things, may those good things become part of us,” said Lungu.
Meanwhile, when asked what was the biggest takeaway from Banda’s life, President Hichilema said unity and peace.
“Unity, peace, stability and then we can drive development, as always. I think leadership must be used to bring people together rather than to scatter them. Once you bring them together they must feel that they are wanted, they are included. Once that is done, then we can focus on the social and economic development as one, whatever the challenge. Only God decides who goes when, so we can’t say soon. We can say humanely that God decides when to keep somebody alive, when to let them go. So we can only thank president Banda for what he has done for us and thank the people of Zambia for mourning him in dignity, in unity as we asked the people, so thank you to the people of Zambia,” said President Hichilema.
