'Healing must start with us leaders': Silumbe calls for a national indaba — and tells the President the Grow Zambia Agenda cannot grow in polarised soil

The call came from a man who stood for the presidency and lost, and it was addressed to the man who won. Dr Richard Silumbe, president of the Leadership Movement, has called for a national indaba on reconciliation, saying Zambia's healing must begin with its leaders and cannot be postponed. The country, he said, has lost its identity as One Zambia One Nation over the issues surrounding the outcome of the 13 August general election, and is living through a politics of hate and division that should not be allowed in a Christian nation.

"We need to heal this nation and we must do it now, not any other day," Dr Silumbe said. "And this healing must start with us leaders. Let us open our hearts to the current situation in the country." Delay, he warned, carries a price: "We need a genuine national indaba for reconciliation because if we don't do it now, we are building a fertile land for a national crisis." The only ground on which healing can take place, he added, is respect for the rule of law — and he turned on the cadres, and the leaders who keep quiet about them: "We need to call for order; we need to call out these cadres to stop, while we promote unity, national reconciliation, forgiveness and national healing."

The argument then moved from the pulpit register to the planning ministry's. Dr Silumbe urged President Hichilema to look beyond the election and face reality if the Grow Zambia Agenda is to yield results: "We cannot achieve the three million metric tonnes of copper production; we shall not achieve the 10 million metric tonnes of maize; we shall not grow the economy. We will achieve nothing in that Grow Zambia Agenda in the current state of the nation." It is the sharpest version yet of an argument others have made in softer language — that the Government's production targets and its political temperature are now the same conversation.

His diagnosis of the Government's relationships was blunt. The UPND administration, he said, has exposed itself to many battlefronts against its own citizens, starting with the Church: "We have a government that is not in good books with the Church. For me, this is dangerous." He noted that the Government governs while its legitimacy is still being challenged — "an eye-opener for reconciliation" — and, while accepting that Mr Hichilema is President, asked him to extend an olive branch to a grieving society: "Let him extend a hand to the Church and talk. Let him do that to civil society and political stakeholders." The Leadership Movement, he said, is ready to lead the push once the call is taken up. The call joins a crowded shelf — the Catholic bishops' extraordinary plenary, the regional communiqués, the Law Association's statements — all asking, in different vocabularies, for the same room.

Sources: Lusaka Times, "'Healing Must Start With Us Leaders': Silumbe Calls For National Indaba And Urges Hichilema To Embrace Dialogue" (5 Oct 2026); IFES/Electoral records on the Leadership Movement's 2026 presidential candidacy; Lusaka Brief archive on the ZCCB plenary and regional bishops' statements.