OUR Civic Duty Association (OCiDA) spokesperson Robert Sichinga has called for the immediate dismissal of Information and Broadcasting Minister Dora Siliya for issuing “appalling remarks against late President Michael Sata” and preaching tribal hatred.

And Sichinga has urged all well-meaning citizens not to be complacent and remain vigilant against the tactics of the PF following the failure of Bill 10.

In an interview, Sichinga wondered why President Lungu always stood by ministers like Siliya and Bowman Lusambo.

“The likes of Mr Lusambo, including Dora Siliya, have made statements to the effect that Mr Sata left a mess in this country. Every member of Mr Sata’s cabinet must be up in arms, anybody that served under Mr Sata, the question that we must ask Mr Lusambo and madam Siliya is what mess did Mr Sata leave behind? Madam Dora Siliya has talked about people of Eastern Province only now being able to do agriculture. What nonsense is this? 2013 to 2014 season, I was minister of agriculture. For the very first time we had achieved 2.5 million metric tonnes of crop harvest for maize. And the bulk of that particular output…came from Eastern Province. How was that possible without the support from President Sata? Now you talk ill of his legacy then you go and parade in his own party without any sense of shame? This is awful,” Sichinga said.

“Then you go about telling people on how to defraud the government. Yes, the people in the rural areas deserve to assisted but not in the manner which you are depicting. A minister of government telling people how to defraud, how to do this, that and the next. How to hate others, how to hate other tribes, this is against the law, this is against the Constitution. We expect the president to remove her from office otherwise he is supporting what she has said. This cannot be allowed to go on. This malicious behaviour, this abhorrent behaviour should be stopped. We are appalled by this kind of leadership. Ministers of government to make statements like have just been made about president Sata who started the party on which they now ride, Mr Lusambo says he was a hard core MMD, so was Dora, what has changed? Why are they in PF at this time and the people within PF think that they must be removed while Dora and the others can go in, how abhorrent.”

And Sichinga urged citizens to maintain their guard and continue mobilising to reject the PF.

“Be mindful of the lawyers that hold out as learned individuals but are going out and literally are instigating violence against their fellow citizens. We cannot afford to relent at this time dear friends, we cannot. We need to maintain our guard, we need to maintain the mobilisation of the people of Zambia to reject the selfishness and greed of many of the PF leaders, the vigilantes, the so called cadres. Those that want to usurp power by forceful means. This is all without any doubt in my mind have the blessings of the President himself. No minister can make the statements that have been made by some of the ministers of PF without reprimand from the head of state if he does not agree with it. They can afford to say this because the Head of State, they know will endorse what they are saying,” he said.

Sichinga said after the failure of Bill 10, the PF could do anything to ensure their stay in power.

“I want to caution all of us, all the citizens of this country, all the citizens that mean well for the country not to relent. The PF are a crafty group of individuals, they will do anything in their power to stay in power including all the illegalities that you can think of. This particular failure to get Bill 10 through, they are going to look for other ways by which they can try to do the same and therefore, let us not be complacent. We must remain vigilant, you can see the tactics and the methods that are being used, including by the likes of Dora Siliya, minister of government that used to insult Mr Sata on PF, who now claim to be spokespersons for the PF, without any sense of shame,” said Sichinga.