By 
Eleven opposition political parties have expressed disappointment with Chief Government Spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa, over his response to their open letter written to President Hakainde Hichilema.
Responding to the political parties complaints during a media briefing on Friday, Mweetwa questioned the composition of the opposition who had levelled allegations against Hichilema’s administration, describing them as unholy alliance with no integrity.
Speaking on behalf of the eleven political parties in a statement issued in Lusaka on Saturday, New Heritage Party president, Chishala Kateka, said the group expected that the open letter, raising 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,” Kateka said.
She said the response by Mweetwa fell 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,” Kateka said.
She said when the opposition engaged the President, as they had done, they were not speaking for themselves but rather speaking on behalf of the many Zambians.
Kateka said that no machinations at trying to divide the opposition 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,” she said.
Kateka clarified that the letter from the opposition political parties was calling for a national indaba and not a meeting to be held between the President and them.
“However, should the Republican President prefer to meet with us, as opposed to the national indaba, then kindly indicate so,” she said.
Kateka noted that contrary to the assertion by the Minister of Information, the President had not made any prior effort to meet with the opposition political parties.
She said that the opposition had previously formally written to the President on matters relating to the nation, as individual political parties.
“None of us has 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,” Kateka said.
The 11 opposition parties include, All People’s Congress Party (APC), Citizens First, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Economic Front (EF), Golden Party (GP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Heritage Party (NHP), Patriots for Economic Progress (PEP), Patriotic Front (PF), Socialist Party (SP) and Zambia Must Prosper (ZMP).
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