OPPOSITION UNITE AGAINST TYRANNY
Mr Sikota said the formation of an alliance had been prompted by the challenges facing the country which required immediate alternative plans through an opposition alliance.
He said challenges for which the opposition political parties have formed the alliance included shrinking democratic space, corruption, shortage of mealie meal, high cost of fuel, unprecedented rise in the cost of living, chaotic management of the health sector and failure to manage the cholera outbreak since October last year.
“It is clear that the Zambian people are disillusioned by the political governance of our country, they are displeased by the shrinking democratic space leading to the loss of the political democratic space for the political parties and citizens alike. Zambians are stifled by the gagging of citizens through legislation like the Cyber Security and Cybercrimes Act and the laws on criminal defamation,” Mr Sikota said.
“Zambians regret that in foreign policy, the country has taken a negative trajectory at regional as well as at continental and international levels putting us unnecessarily at odds with even some of our neighbours,” he said.
Mr Sikota said the political parties did not come together to call for an indaba again because the government failed to respond to the first one, the gathering they were forging was about the Zambians from all sectors of life coming together to find solutions to the problems that the country is facing.
“We are thus calling upon the good people of Zambia to insist that we all, (that is not only political parties (including the ruling party) but also CSOs, Church mother bodies, Law Association of Zambia, professional bodies and the general citizenry) meet under a neutral chair,” Mr Sikota said.
“We need to make Zambians satisfied, contented, pleased, happy, joyful, gratified, delighted, blissful, jubilant, triumphant and elated,” he said.
He said the problems and challenges Zambia faces require all people to work together, no one person or group have the monopoly of knowledge.
The national alliance will then give birth to the people’s alliance that will challenge the UPND in 2026.
Meanwhile, Mr Sikota said there was a growing sense of despair and disillusionment and majority of people feel that the country needs to heal and come together.
He said Zambians have expressed a feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that things are not as good as they believed they would be and a general sense of disillusionment with the politics, economics and governance of our nation. He said Zambians were despondent with the overcrowding in schools, leading to an increased pupil/teacher ratio, that was already high and the over working of teachers leading to their reduced effectiveness.
Mr Sikota said discontent with the disruption of supply chains for medical supplies as a result of well-established supply chains being sidelined, distressed that there was political interference in matters that should have been left to technocrats.
He said there was no doubt that the challenges the nation was facing had left Zambians deluded, duped, misrepresented, misinformed