Zambian Opposition Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata has said he and President Levy Mwanawasa are set to change how politics between the ruling party and the opposition is practiced in Africa.
Sata said in an exclusive interview in Lusaka that he was determined to help Mwanawasa leave an outstanding legacy for the people of Zambia and Africa, Times of Zambia reported Monday.
He said that political stakeholders should always ensure that they preserved nationalism while avoiding anything that would divide the people and he would do just that in his work with Mwanawasa. "We have to change the Zambian, as well as, African politics. We need a culture where leaders put nationalism and the people first and work together."
"But the situation in Africa, Zambia included, has been that the opposition has always been attacking while the government, even when it knows it is wrong, spends all its time just defending," he said.
Sata said that Zambian politics needed to change to ensure that nationalism became paramount before personal preservation.
African opposition leaders do not help the outgoing leaders to leave a good legacy because of incessant attacks and he had seen it imperative to help change that in Zambia, he said.
"President Mwanawasa has remained with about three years to go and we should all of us, therefore, give him an honorable exit and ensure a safe take over for whoever will succeed him," said the leader of the biggest opposition party in the country.
Before he reconciled with Mwanawasa earlier this year, Sata recalled that the people of Zambia were losing out but now they stood to benefit directly from the combined wisdom of the two leaders.
"When we say we are stakeholders, the commodity we have is Zambia and all of us are stakeholders. But you see out of all of us there is only one custodian, who is the current President," he said.
He said political leaders, both from opposition and the ruling party, should help government address various specific needs of the people.
Source:Xinhua
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