ZAMBIA MUST PROSPER (ZMP) STATEMENT ON THE TONSe ALLIANCE GOVERNANCE CRISIS

ZAMBIA MUST PROSPER (ZMP) STATEMENT ON THE TONSe ALLIANCE GOVERNANCE CRISIS

Zambia Must Prosper (ZMP) issues this statement to set the public record straight and to respond decisively to deliberate misrepresentations, innuendo, and institutional bad faith surrounding the ongoing governance crisis within the Tonse Alliance.

This statement follows the failure of the Tonse Alliance Acting Chairperson to respond to a formal written communication from Zambia Must Prosper, and the expiry of the good-faith engagement window extended by ZMP.

I. CHRONOLOGICAL STATEMENT OF FACTS
1. Participation Does Not Amount to Endorsement of Procedural Abuse
It is an uncontested fact that Mr. Kelvin Fube Bwalya (KBF), in his capacity at the time, participated in Tonse Alliance meetings, including deliberations relating to constitutional reform.
This fact is now being selectively weaponised to falsely suggest that he endorsed or legitimised a constitution that was never concluded, never properly circulated, and never ratified by the competent authority—the Council of Leaders.

Participation in deliberations cannot, in law or logic, be equated to consent to procedural shortcuts, particularly where the final instrument remained incomplete and selectively applied.

2. The Constitution Was Circulated Prior to Institutional Adoption
Contrary to the insinuations being advanced, the revised Tonse Alliance Constitution was shared publicly and operationalised before:

Full consideration and approval by the Council of Leaders;
Resolution of representation and membership formulas;

Agreement on delegate composition to the General Congress.
This sequencing alone renders the entire process procedurally defective. No amount of retroactive justification can cure a process that violated its own governance hierarchy from inception.

3. Signing a Draft Does Not Constitute Ratification
The claim that Mr. KBF “signed and ratified” the Constitution is a deliberate conflation of form with substance.
A draft instrument—lacking agreed representation structures, containing unresolved governance questions, and enforced selectively—cannot be deemed ratified, regardless of ceremonial optics at a press briefing.

Ratification is a legal and institutional act, not a performative exercise.
4. Internal Mechanisms Were Exhausted and Ignored
Zambia Must Prosper formally wrote to the Tonse Alliance Acting Chairperson raising grave institutional and governance concerns. That correspondence remains unanswered to date.

It is therefore dishonest to accuse ZMP or its President of bypassing internal mechanisms when the Alliance leadership itself refused to engage.
Silence, in this context, is not neutrality; it is complicity.

II. SELECTIVE FACTS AND THE POLITICS OF DISTRACTION
The Tonse Alliance statement issued on Wednesday relies on half-truths and tactical omissions designed to manufacture a misleading narrative:

It highlights attendance while ignoring recorded objections;
It celebrates committees while ignoring incomplete and unresolved outputs;
It invokes legality while practising selective enforcement.

This is not governance. It is narrative management.
The real issue is not Mr. KBF’s presence in meetings. The real issue is why an unfinished constitution is being enforced, why factional readmissions are being sanitised, and why elections are being rushed on a broken foundation.

III. THE ELECTIONS COMMITTEE FALLACY
ZMP notes the claim that the Elections Committee was properly appointed and composed of respected legal practitioners.
However, legitimacy does not flow from professional titles alone. It flows from:
A finalised and ratified Constitution;
Clear and uniformly applied eligibility criteria;

Equal and agreed representation of member entities.
An Elections Committee operating atop an unfinished constitutional framework is administering process without legitimacy.
No legal pedigree can cure that defect.

IV. THE TARGETING OF KBF: A CALCULATED POLITICAL TACTIC
The recent attempt to publicly associate Mr. KBF with alleged procedural impropriety is not accidental.

It is a calculated effort to:
Deflect attention from systemic governance failures;
Personalise institutional dissent;
Intimidate principled actors into silence.
Zambia Must Prosper rejects this tactic outright.

Mr. KBF’s position has been consistent, principled, and documented:
No elections without a finalised Constitution.
No unity without fairness.
No leadership without legitimacy.

V. ZMP’S POSITION
Let it be stated without ambiguity:
The ultimatum issued by Zambia Must Prosper has now lapsed.
The failure by the Tonse Alliance Acting Chairperson to respond constitutes:
Institutional contempt;
Confirmation of bad faith;
Deliberate avoidance of accountability.

Accordingly, Zambia Must Prosper is finalising its next political and constitutional steps, which shall be communicated to the nation in the coming days.
These steps will be firm, lawful, and irreversible.

VI. FINAL WORD
Zambia Must Prosper will not participate in laundering disorder under the language of unity, nor will it allow its President to be scapegoated for failures he consistently warned against.

Unity cannot be coerced.
Legitimacy cannot be stage-managed.
Leadership cannot be improvised.
#KBF