RESPONSE TO MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON’S MEDIA BRIEFING OF FRIDAY 6th OCTOBER 2023
7th October 2023
We are disappointed with Minister of Information and Government Spokesman Cornelius Mweetwa’s response to the Opposition Political Parties Open Letter to the Republican President.
We expected that the open letter, raising some very serious national issues of concern, would receive an equally sober response.
Instead, we see the Minister of Information veer off into ranting and attacking the persons of individual Opposition Party Presidents.
The response by the Honourable Minister falls far short of the decorum expected of his office. The matters raised by the Opposition leaders are not partisan, but rather, are national in nature and hence deserve to be treated with sobriety. When we engage the Republican President as we have done, we are not speaking for ourselves, but rather, speaking on behalf of the many Zambians that we represent.
We ought to be understood that no machinations at trying to divide us shall work. We stand together as Opposition Political Parties, not as an alliance nor a consortium as the minister has put it, but as individual Political Parties who the Zambians are reaching out to with their grievances.
Having said that, there are some points to note:
- Our letter, as Opposition Political Parties, was calling for a National Indaba and not a meeting to be held between the Republican President and the Opposition. However, should the Republican President prefer to meet with us, as opposed to the National Indaba, then kindly indicate so.
- Contrary to the assertion by the Minister of Information, the President has not made any prior effort to meet with us as Opposition Political Parties. We do understand the UPND’s penchant of being economic with the truth.
- We have previously formally written to the Republican President on matters relating to the nation, as individual Political Parties. None of us have ever received a response to those letters – not even acknowledgments of receipt of the same. We are therefore requesting for a formal and befitting response from the office that our letter was addressed to.
On behalf of many Zambians, we await the formal response from the Republican President.
We remain in service to the Zambian people.
All People’s Congress Party (APC)
CITIZENS FIRST (CF)
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)
Economic Front (EF)
Golden Party Zambia (GPZ)
National Democratic Congress (NDC)
New Heritage Party (NHP)
Patriots for Economic Progress (PEP)
Patriotic Front (PF)
Socialist Party (SP)
Zambia Must Prosper (ZMP)
Which zambians please are Sean Tembo, Saboi, Silavwe, kabimba, KBF and Kalaba speaking for? No one just their families. Pease give us a break. At least Lubinda and Chishala we see their following but tgese others are armchair parties
These opposition parties making too much noise every day only, and always attacking the president the president was chosen by the people so when you always attack the president you are attacking the people the people are still with the president and the president is with people.