Barotse inquiry: mixed reaction for Sata

True to his pre-election promises, Zambian President Michael Sata appointed a commission of inquiry into the January 14 2011 disturbance in Mongu, the Western Province capital.

But the president's rejection this week of the inquiry's main recommendation - to restore the Barotseland Agreement of 1964, which fused the old kingdom of Barotseland into Zambia and assigned the local government function to the traditional authorities of the area - has put him on the defensive. More unsettling, it has brought secessionist sentiments out into the open.

"It is a pity that the President has responded negatively to the report ... But whatever the case, whether the President wants to restore the agreement or not, we are determined to see the independence of Barotseland," said an official of one of the bodies spearheading the push for restoration.

Handing in the inquiry report on February 23, the commission chairman, former legal affairs minister Roger Chongwe, said the disturbance was out of frustration arising from the 1969 abrogation of the agreement by the government.

It was his commission's recommendation that it be restored. But Sata baulked.

"We can investigate the brutality, the torture, but I will be very reluctant to advise my government to reinstate the Barotse Agreement because that will be opening a Pandora's Box. All the provinces will come ... those are the difficulties we have to bear in mind ... you have not told me what benefits the Barotse Agreement gave to the Barotse people," Sata said.

But proponents were quick to point out that Sata's fears were groundless since the agreement was one of a kind. Sata's fears were therefore without a basis. Many wondered how he could dismiss the recommendation before even reading the report.

The ruling Patriotic Front (PF) scrambled to limit the damage. In the National Assembly government had to contend with a barrage of hostile questions from the opposition and people from the area described Sata as the ultimate "let-down", while others branded him a liar.

The PF secretary-general Wynter Kabimba, in a paid-for television interview, sought to discredit the commission. He said it had exceeded its terms of reference as they were not to inquire into the agreement but into the disturbance.

It had been an oversight to appoint Chongwe chairman as he was "emotionally attached" to the issue, having been the lawyer of those charged after the disturbance. Vice-President Guy Scott ran the gauntlet.

Opposition MPs wanted to know whether the Attorney-General would be surcharged since the commission was a still-born; if Kabimba was right to pre-empt the report and why the government wasted money on a commission Kakimba said was incompetent. Some still sought confirmation from Scott that the agreement would be restored in line with the PF's pre-election promises.

But there was also support for Sata. Some commended him for taking a second look at the agreement. He was praised for putting Zambia's interests first.