By Ephraim Shakafuswa
WAKE UP CALL TO THE OPPOSITION: MOBILIZE OR PERISH
These imprisonments, harassments, and acts of political persecution? They are not mistakes. They are not isolated. They are not stopping. From the beginning, this government declared they would govern using mingalato — and that is exactly what they’re doing.
Look around you: President Edgar Lungu not eligible. Bowman Lusambo dragged through the mud.
Kawambwa, Pambashe, Munir Zulu, Jay Jay and now Mabonga — all targeted, isolated, and harassed.
This is a systematic strategy to weaken and destroy the opposition before 2026. And yet, what do we see in response? Tears, tweets, tired alliances, and empty speeches. Let it be known:
You will not win power by begging for fairness from those who fear accountability.
REALITY CHECK: IF YOU THINK THEY’LL HAND OVER POWER, JUST JOIN THEM
Let’s speak truth: If you are expecting these people to simply hand over power in 2026 — then stop wasting our time and just join them. Because that’s not going to happen. This is not a government preparing for a free and fair election. This is a regime preparing for total control, for political cleansing, and for a post-election crackdown like you’ve never seen before. If you’re not going to organize, educate, and mobilize the people, then step aside for those who will.
THE VOTERS ARE NOT ON FACEBOOK — THEY’RE IN PAIN
You keep posting, tweeting, and holding press conferences — but the real Zambia isn’t online. The voters are not on Facebook. They’re in: The compounds, struggling with power cuts and mealie meal prices. The villages, forgotten by both government and opposition. The markets, trying to survive another day of economic hardship. Some don’t even have smartphones. Some can’t afford bundles. Others have no voice, and they’re suffering alone.
What are you doing to mobilize them?
Where is your message in the language they understand?
Where are your structures?
Social media doesn’t win elections. Mobilization does. Groundwork does. Unity does.
TO PRESIDENT EDGAR LUNGU: ZAMBIA IS WAITING
President Lungu, this is your moment. The nation is bleeding, and your people are under siege. Your silence is beginning to echo as indifference. We urge you — not as supporters, but as citizens — rise. Speak. Act. You are one of the few remaining voices with the moral authority to unite, stabilize, and inspire a resistance to this creeping dictatorship. Whether you plan to run or not, your presence and leadership are needed. The people are waiting. Not for politics — but for leadership.
TO THE OPPOSITION: WAKE UP OR DISAPPEAR
Here’s what we must do — now:
✅ Unite. Enough of ego-driven alliances that yield nothing. People are tired.
✅ Mobilize. Go to the people. House to house. Market to market. Compound to village.
✅ Train your structures. Empower youth, women, churches, and civil groups.
✅ Stop being petty. Petty fights are luxuries for those not in a struggle.
✅ Inspire hope. Give people a reason to believe again.
✅ Protect your own. Set up legal and crisis response teams.
✅ Build real strategy. This is not business as usual. This is survival politics.
This is your final warning: If the opposition doesn’t grow up, stand up, and speak with one voice — 2026 won’t be an election. It’ll be a burial. And not just of parties — but of democracy itself. Because when people lose faith in elections, they stop voting. And when people stop voting, they start breaking.
Courage is no longer optional. It is required.
The era of lawlessness where people broke the law with impunity is over. Any law breaker must face the wrath of the law and due process at Courts.
Tell me who amongst those convicts has been persecuted? Tell me is Munir didn’t commit a crime, or Chilangwa or Lusambo, OR JJ Banda, or Chitotela, or Mabonga or Malanji very soon? These are proper law breakers. My only disappointment with UPND is that these are the only convicts from the previous Mafia Party. More need to be incarcerated. We need Chilufya Tayali, Given Lubinda, Nakachida, Mumbi Phiri, Tasila, Dalitso and Ester Lungu, Kaizer Zulu, Antonio Mwanza, Chanoda Ngwira, The man who faked his death in Lundazi, Jean Kapata inside. We need these criminals inside Chimbokaila or at least incarcerated to help with investigations. These are all law breakers from the past
I don’t understand why these people are writing like they are the only ones in Zambia or they are the only ones seeing why things are happening this way or yonly ones hearing.
The problem I have observed is the opposition are not advising each other when one is deliberately straying and fully aware of the consequences.
Surely, didn’t they see the Honourables that are arrested straying? Videos are there, Audio recordings are there, confirmed reports are there etc. All pointing to disregard of the laws which they make in the Parliament. Should they be ignored?
No when you break the laws you are penalized.
When arrested it becomes persecution because it’s the frustrated Opposition MPs that are breaking the laws with impunity.
Those offering mature political checks and balances are never in conflict with the law and have never appeared in any court.
You can name them.
It is simply arrogance and anxiety that is making them appear before the law enforcement more often.
An audio recording on good old Radio Phoenix is available where Bowman Lusambo is saying that ” when you steal, you do so in order to live well” or words to that effect. Ephraim Shakafuswa has, of course, heard the audio with his own ears. Lusambo uttered the words as Lusaka Province minister in Edgar Lungu’s government. It didn’t even earn him a rebuke for saying them. That’s the goold old past Shakafuswa wants Zambia to go back to.