President Edgar Lungu has urged the Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) and the three church mother bodies to put their house in order to ensure a smooth national dialogue process. Speaking at City Airport yesterday before departure for the Copperbelt, the President said he is ready for dialogue. “Over the dialogue, we are ready to go and we will go when they are ready.

ZCID and the three church mother bodies need to put their house in order,’’ he said. The Head of State said as a stakeholder, the Patriotic Front (PF) is ready for dialogue once the house is put in order. ZCID has differed with the three church mother bodies on the consultative meeting held yesterday at Kapingila House.

Spokesperson Jackson Silavwe said in a statement that yesterday’s consultative meeting had been postponed. Mr Silavwe said the meeting was supposed to be preceded by a preparatory one held on Thursday to agree on the agenda, memorandum of understanding and structure of the national dialogue. But the church mother bodies said in a separate statement that yesterday’s meeting would go ahead.

The statement was issued by Council of Churches in Zambia president Sydney Sichilima, Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia board chairperson Paul Mususu and Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops president George Lungu. And on calls to constitute a commission of inquiry into the sale of State enterprises during the privatisation process in the 1990s, the President said it is Zambians urging him to do so.

“But if I am convinced that is the way to go, we will go that route. There is no position yet but some people in Government feel we must go that way because I have been implicated [in the sale of State assets],’’ he said. Mr Lungu said he is very clean and is ready to testify in the matter. Meanwhile, President Lungu says no mine will be allowed to retrench workers because of the taxes Government intends to implement next year.

Mr Lungu also said Government will not succumb to intimidation by mines to lay off workers but that mine owners are free to approach Government for negotiations. “We will not allow the mines to lay off people with impunity,” he said when he addressed hundreds of Copperbelt residents at South Down Airport in Kalulushi yesterday. “The minerals are ours.

If there are issues, let’s negotiate, we govern this country, so don’t intimidate us. “I’m here [Copperbelt] and investors are free to come and discuss but not intimidate. Threats won’t be allowed,” he said. Government has proposed to replace value added tax (VAT) with sales tax starting next year, but the mines have threatened to lay off about 21,000 miners.

But President Lungu said the same mines extracting minerals in Zambia for export operate in other countries around the world where they remit similar taxes the Zambian government intends to implement. “We know these mines can handle the tax, they pay the same tax elsewhere,” he said. And Mr Lungu has commended the Mineworkers Union of Zambia for speaking against job losses among miners. He said it is the responsibility of mine unions to stand and speak for miners.