 I am sure that most of you have seen the headlines in the papers today. The headlines are about the letter which Osida has written to the American ambassador, calling for selective targeted sanctions against certain individuals in this government. It is the very first time this has ever happened and we thought that we need to make a statement with regards to this very important issue. More so that all the three heads of government that is the head of the executive, the head of the legislature, the head of the judiciary have all been named in the Osida letter. That makes it extremely important and something that we cannot just look at lightly. It is extremely important. And if we are to be fair, we have to call upon every single Zambian to take time to actually read the letter that Osida have given to the American ambassador. It has got details of the various infringements that this government and those individuals who are named have been doing and which are affecting the democracy of our country. So as United Quarcha Alliance, we have taken note of the letter by Osida to the American ambassador to Zambia, His Excellency Michael Gonzalez, in which they have stepped up to take up the challenge of defending our country. The Osida letter is calling for targeted sanctions against certain individuals. Who can deny that Osida plays an important role in giving the nation a conscience? Osida has been touted by even the UPND themselves as a credible organization. Indeed, prior to 2021, Osida were clearly in President Akainde's corner. Osida therefore has no axe to grind and cannot therefore be accused of being bitter. The Osida statement in paragraph two states that they are deeply alarmed by the continued abuse of institutions of governance and the erosion of democracy in Zambia today under the leadership of President Akainde and his ruling UPND. Of particular concern to Osida and many others such as the violations of democratic rights such as the right to public assembly, free speech, freedom of association, and the right to a speedy trial. These are also the concerns of several other organizations such as the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Law Association of Zambia, Chapter One Foundation, and ourselves, UKAM. All of these have called on the Zambian government to respect and enable the expression of these fundamental democratic rights. Even diplomats such as the British, American, Swedish, and others have been making statements that they have concerns regarding the shrinking democratic space. Individuals who are seen as leaders in terms of the fight for rights and freedoms. Individuals such as Dr. Sishua Sishua, Professor Munan Durum, State Council John Sangua, State Council Linda Cassonde, activist Brebna Changala, and many others have pointed out areas and incidents when officials in this government have clearly strayed offside. There is no doubt that many individuals and organizations will be sending supplemental petitions and letters to the American Embassy and they will be providing additional evidence in particular areas they agree with in the Osida letter. Indeed, some may even point out new and further areas and institutions of concern. We as the United Quarcha Alliance will certainly be sending in a supplemental petition to the one that Osida has given. Osida points out that combined calls for reform and reversal of these undemocratic practices have fallen on deaf ears. Osida notes that we have instead witnessed over the last several months further restrictions on the rights of citizens. Osida in its letter observes that and I will quote what they say. Public rallies by opposition parties continue to be banned by the Zambia Police Service. The judiciary continues to engage in what appears to be willful delay of the resolution of urgent political matters affecting the main opposition party. The executive arm of government continues to interfere in the operations of other institutions. The leadership of the National Assembly continues to undermine democracy in parliament. Critics of the government continue to face intimidation and threats from state institutions and public officials and leaders of the opposition continue to face arrest from the police based on what appears to be politically motivated charges. End of quote. I do not think that any true and fair Zambian will deny this statement by Osida. This indeed is the biggest news item and should be headline in all media. This is the very first time in Zambia's history that sanctions have been called for against any Zambia. Let alone the very top heads of the three arms of government. That is a very serious issue and if we do not take this seriously we will be the only ones to blame. All state-controlled media however seem to have been instructed to treat the letter as if it does not exist or it's not important. It is like a child covering his eyes with his fingers and thinking that because he's hiding behind his fingers you cannot see him. That is the attitude President Hakainde and the UPND have. The news is however already gone worldwide. It is being reported outside this country. It is gone viral so trying to pretend that it is not there will not help this government. So it's very surprising that the government's response so far is to stick their head in the sand like an ostrich which has nowhere to hide. We can still see the featherless legs of that ostrich. We can still see that large mound of the body of the ostrich. They cannot hide. People are seeing and they must know that the matter will not just disappear and go away. Tomorrow President Hakainde is supposed to address the National Assembly. He is supposed to address the National Assembly on the application of national values and principles and what steps have been done in order to arrive at that. The national principles and values according to the constitution include the issue of good governance. Include the issue of ensuring that the rights of Zambians are respected. Include all the matters which are in the Ossida letter. Those are the issues that are supposed to be addressed in the address to parliament tomorrow. Everybody therefore is going to be waiting for that address. Zambians are keenly looking to see how President Hakainde will respond to the serious allegations in the Ossida letter. The Americans are going to be wide awake to see if President Hakainde has credible and believable answers to the questions raised in the Ossida letter. International and local investors will make decisions as to whether or not to invest in Zambia, depending on how President Hakainde will be able to provide proof that there should be no worries concerning continued abuse of state institutions like the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Independent Broadcasting Authority, the Zambia Police Service, the National Assembly of Zambia and the judiciary. Investors will not be willing to come if he does not provide clear evidence and answers to the Ossida letter. We therefore call upon President Hakainde to ask his presidential team to tear up the speech they have prepared for him to deliver to parliament on the progress made, if any, in the application of national values and principles tomorrow. Instead, the president's team should burn the midnight oil tonight and into the early dawn and come up with a new address to parliament that will address the issues raised in Ossida's letter, point by point. If they find it difficult to respond to the issues raised in the Ossida letter by tomorrow, President Hakainde should postpone his parliamentary presidential address to next week Friday. There is already a precedent set of postponing this address, as you remember President Hakainde had postponed the address from last Friday to tomorrow. So let him postpone it again if he's not ready to answer the Ossida letter in his address tomorrow. And should he, even after postponement, not be ready to address the issues raised in the Ossida letter, then we'll call upon him to resign and to call for early elections, because clearly a sugar-coating address tomorrow to parliament will not do. Let us save Zambia and make it great again. God bless and save our great land. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Shaman, President Satyawas Kota for that power, for message to the Zambians. I'm sure they are listening where they are and Zambia is really suffering. And I would want to invite the media house if we have questions, would be taking them into three. When you ask a question, you tell us where you are directing your question to which president you are directing the question. So we'll be taking questions into three starting now. Introduce yourself. I'm Alfonso, a freelancer journalist. My question is directly to the chairperson of the Alliance. I just want to get your clear view on how far you've gone in terms of registration of the Alliance as a political party, because should last week there was some that was recreating regarding the registration of the Alliance. Kindly advise how far it has gone. Thank you. My name is Indanthi Duncan-Sumanza from Diamond Media. My question goes to the chairman. Your voice, Sat. Can you raise your voice? My name is Indanthi Duncan-Sumanza. I'm coming from Diamond TV. My question goes to the chairman. And I think one of the things I want to refer to is the Varate Democracy Institute. They did issue out the report ranking Zambia as third democratic country out of the nine countries. Now with regards to Ocida later, how do you make all this into one solid conclusion or something? Good morning, president. Good morning, panelist. My name is Mishek Nyurongo from Central Voice TV. My question is directly to the chairperson as well as the newly appointed SD. SD, in your statement, you made an allegation that the UPND government is saving the interest over the imperialists as well as the foreign agents. And the chairperson delivering his presentation, he said that they'll be making a supplementary later to Ocida, which is seeking audience from the Americans. And from my understanding, America should be one of the imperialists if I'm not mistaken. So the question that I have is is what is Oka's stance on the imperialist? And because from the SG, he's accusing the UPND government of saving the interest of the imperialist. So what's your stance? Because you are also seeking direction from the very imperialist. Yeah. I invite upon the chairperson to attend to the three questions. The first one, the registration of the alliance. The second one, where Zambia is being ranked as state in democracy and yet Ocida is writing a letter contrary to what has been written. And then the last one, which has been directed to and the SD is about the imperialism. So you can attend to those questions. Thank you very much. I do know that the issue of registration is something which is upmost in people's minds. I'm happy to be able to let you know that last week I had interaction with the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, PS Akafumba. And also with his colleague, there's two PS's at home affairs, PS Matimba. Very cordial interaction that we had, mutual respect, and one which helped to move things along. As a result of the meeting, the Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Umiyambango, was also hooked into those discussions. And I went to see him following the direction from PS Akafumba. And he too received us very well. And he also stated that he does not see why there should be a problem with having the fingerprints of the proposed office holders to be processed. And as a result, he said he himself would be taking in those forms for them to start processing. He even stamped on the form, as you can see there's the stamp there, indicating that they have taken in the forms. He did indicate that it's not a procedure that takes one day and that they would work on them as quickly as possible. And that once that is done, then they will give us the clearances, or if some of the people do not have clearances, would have to submit different fingerprints for a different set of people to ensure that the full set of 10 have no criminal records. Once that is done, those cleared fingerprints would then be attached to the form and then taken to the station which dealt with taking the fingerprints, which is Woodlands Police Station for the officer in charge to endorse their stating that they also have no problems and also looking at the comments that will be put by those who are doing the clearance of the fingerprints. There's also a step needed of then getting also the council secretary to also sign on the same form. At that stage, when that is being done, that is when the registrar of society will again come back into the picture and deal with that. So that is the current stage where we are at and we'll keep you informed as we go ahead. And if we meet any hurdles, we shall let you know. So at least that is one good news story. I think that there was a second question from Mr. Simwanza, there on the TV, about a variety democracy institute and how that sits with the Ossida letter. I'm very, very confident and sure that for all of you who are here, if not practically all of you, this was the very, very first time you were ever hearing about variety democracy. I'm looking around and I don't see anybody sort of saying no, no, no, no, I knew about them. It's the very first time that we've heard about them. It's not like somebody like, for example, if we said human rights watch, a lot of, yes, I can see their faces, they are nodding, they are an institution who are known, they are not just out of the blue. So as a result, when I saw that, I had to do a thorough search and investigation as to who VDM are. And what I found is that it's an academic NGO that produces rankings that not many people take seriously. And their reputation is that they fall short of meeting the standard of doing thorough reports in that they lack empirical justification and almost entirely rest on assumptions which are themselves either false or dated. It can only be taken seriously by politicians who are being praised by them and their supporters. So it's clear that this institution that none of you have ever heard of before is not an institution upon which you should place a lot of, I'm even surprised it made headlines, such an institution. Whereas with Ocida, all of you know of Ocida. All of you know of the works Ocida has done in the past. It is not something new. It is an organization which has got a lot of credibility. It is an organization we all listen to once they speak. So to answer you, Mr. Smonza, that is how I will juxtapose VDM and Ocida. The third question which was brought up is by Misha Nirongo of Central Voice on the allegation that UPND is more concerned with serving imperialist interests. We strongly feel so, and that is the position we take, that that is what they are doing. I think that as writing or if we are going to be seen to write to the American embassy, that does not mean that we are supporting imperialists. The American embassy are not imperialists. The imperialists are certain multinationals who come and they loot our countries, take our minerals. That is not being done by the American ambassador. So we must differentiate between who is the imperialist and who are diplomats. So we see no harm or contradiction in us going to have audience with the American ambassador or any other diplomats. That is something that we shall be undertaking and doing. I don't know whether it's necessary for the SD. I believe that I've covered what he too would have liked to say. So take that message that UKA is out here and the focus is to ensure that we put this country back on track. I'm sure those questions have been answered well. And before we take another set of questions, I'm coming back. Before we take another set of questions, I would want to acknowledge the presence of Mr. Benba, who is here with us. Good morning, everybody. My name is Brebna. As I sit here, I have a phone in my hand and I'm being removed from OCDA elsewhere. This is a dynamic nation, but we must remain firm, preserved and focused. We face a mammoth task and that task is how we reorganize ourselves to face colleagues that were once colleagues who have decided to patch away for various selfish reasons and mount a new administrative approach to the destruction of our national unity. I stand before you. We change the government. Time has come to tell you people to tell us how you changed the government in 1991 so that we can change the government of Misrata in the HDMA, which has taught the Zambian people. I want to say thank you. You are here. We are not going to allow you that the Zambian people are going to live in poverty. When you are here, tell us how you changed the government in 1991 so that Misrata in the HDMA and this government, they can pack their bags before 2026. Because the Zambian people are living in poverty. When you, the leaders, were there and you are still alive, the reason why God gave you life is to make a difference in the Zambian people's life. That's why here, before I end up my contribution, I want to thank Mr. Edgar Chagualumu, the former president. We are not going to thank him when he's dead. Edgar is a man of infrastructure. When are you going to honor that man? Are we going to honor him when he dies? He is still alive. It is to the people who should organize an award for Edgar Chagualumu, who is still alive. His friends are dead. What have we achieved but to honor a big man who works for the Zambian people? Time has come for the Zambian people to rise up. Fear is the beginning of the downfall of every country. Why should we fear one individual? I can't get you to understand that this country is for the Zambian people. We are not going to allow him. It is better of us to go to jail for the benefit of the future and the imagination. Time has come for you, the people in the Uka to rise up. Like an igoo, that's why we have got that igoo there, is to rise up together to fight for Mother Zambia. When they fail the leadership, in conclusion, can you tell us when you are going for the election? What a special exercise I've never received. That should never be ignored. Outside this, my nephew, Ponizu, who is 16 years old, next year to Oshingu, what? Now, do you remember your issue? The second issue is my request. Glad our SG for Uka has been pronounced. This is our request for mobilization. Great share one. Our request is to give our SG please speed up the process of all the motorities so that we begin moving. We need to move. We don't have time. Thank you very much. The last question, last time. Your name is? Moine. Just a few questions. Currently, we have bloodshedding. It's a very disturbing issue, especially that businesses are no longer running as they should, especially small businesses. What are some of the long term measures that you various leaders have? Because this is not the first time we are experiencing bloodshedding. We have experienced bloodshedding even in the previous government. As leaders, should the people of Zambia trust you with power to lead Zambia in the future? What plans or how are you intending to make sure that to get rid of bloodshedding so that in case we do not have rains, because climate change is a very serious matter that we cannot ignore. We do not know how the pattern is going to be in the nearest future. How are we intending to make sure that this would be an issue for the past? We also have the drought issue and there's little and no put in the country. What are some of the short term measures that you are putting in place because you are here to serve the people even in opposition? How do you intend to serve the people of Zambia to make sure that they do not pay with hunger? And also the last question on the matter of democracy. Oka has been saying democracy is shrinking in the country and the chair made a very remarkable comment in line with registration. He says the process is going on very well and they will keep updating the people of Zambia. Isn't that a sign of democracy in the country that opposition political parties are able to thrive in the process of registration and going on Thank you so much. Thank you very much. We have three one from the grassroot media. They want to find out that most of the leaders we have here that were there in 1991 and they he's asking that you tell us how you change the government so that 2026 will be easy for us to change the government. Another hand there Mr. Maplanga talked about water registration which has never rested. How are we going to handle it? Then Mr. Mwene is asking you to give a leakage to the government how they should resolve large shading and the drought issues. So and also he asked the question about shrinking democracy. Mr. Chairman you can attend to those questions. Thank you very much. Mr. Chishimba. Oh sorry I written it as a Chishimba. My apologies. Mr. Chishimba your words are very inspiring. They also give us strength. They also help us to remain focused. You asked about 1991 and how that was achieved. 1991 was achieved because of people like you. People who stood up and were not afraid to speak. It was not about the leaders of the movement for multi-party democracy. It was the people. The people are the ones who drove the whole journey into multi-partism. It was the people's movement. Today what we see is very similar to what we had in 1991. You heard my colleague President Imboela talking about how the people were ahead of us and we were running to catch up to them. That is because what United Quarcha Alliance stands for is something that every Zambian stands for. People such as yourself. And that is why this movement, the United Quarcha Alliance, is going to succeed. It has got all the hallmarks of 1991. There is a wind of change that the UPND will not be able to stop. That is how we are going to make sure that Quarcha is coming to Zambia. Turning to the second question from Mr George Mapulanga, thank you again for your questions. Indeed, water registration is very, very important and it is an exercise that we cannot ignore. And even speeding up mobilization is something we need to do. It is for that very reason that we have put in place Secretary General who is going to be tasked with actually following up on these very issues and others that you have mentioned. He is going to be putting together a team of very competent people as competent as he is. He will even have some who are even more competent than himself. That is how good the team will be and it is going to ensure that these issues are dealt with. Mr Mwene had three questions. The first one he had was with regard to load shedding and that was disturbing small businesses and not only small businesses by the way. It is also disturbing medium and even big businesses. It is disturbing all business. That is what the load shedding is doing. It is sad that government does not seem to be serious about tackling this problem. It is a very serious problem. I was deeply disturbed to see the response from the chief government spokesperson, Mr Cornelius Moetwa. He said, if there is load shedding, what you should do is turn on your inverters. I am sure you heard him say that. I just want to do a little survey here. Amongst you, those who have got inverters at their house or at their business, can you put up your hands? Those who have got inverters, solar inverters, is there anyone in this whole crowd? Please, if you have put up your hand, I do not see a single hand. Then it means that UPND and Larry Moetwa has got no solution for you because he is asking you to do something that you obviously cannot do. That is how I am serious, the UPNDR. How many of you have got ginsets?