Cosmo says ZCID board chair Silavwe is UPND mole

By OLIVER SAMBOKOTHE Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue (ZCID) has been compromised and being used as a surrogate to groom other political parties into supporting UPND in next year’s polls, National Revolution Party (NRP) leader Cosmo Mumba has claimed.Dr Mumba has since called for the immediate resignation of ZCID board chairperson Jackson Silavwe, who is leader of the Golden Party (GP). He said he was being used for regime change by a known political party leader.He said Mr Silavwe was illegally serving as board chair of ZCID as his mandate already expired and called on ZCID funders to halt funding to the organisation until a legitimate board was put in place.Dr Mumba revealed that he has been holding meetings with Mr Silavwe and the ZCID director and that their language suggest that they have been bought by UPND president Hakainde Hichilema.He said Mr Silavwe has been compromised and the best thing he should do is to resign as board chairman of ZCID.He warned that should he fail to do so on his own, the consortium of political parties will take legal action against him.Dr Mumba also distanced himself from sentiments by Mr Silavwe at the ECZ Presidents’ summit held at Mulungushi International Conference Centre, saying it did not reflect the views of other political party members of the ZCID.He said instead of calling for a meeting to discuss the position the ZCID was going to take at the meeting, Mr Silavwe went ahead to attend the meeting and spoke on behalf of ZCID without the blessing of member parties.“From now onwards, Mr Silavwe should not speak on behalf of ZCID but speak for his political party,” he said.Dr Mumba said it was sad that after Mr Silavwe failed to sell his party to Movement for Democratic Change leader Felix Mutati, he was now grooming other political parties in the ZCID to push the agenda of the opposition UPND ahead of next year’s general election.Efforts to get Mr Silavwe proved futile as his phone went unanswered.