Dr Chris Zumani Zimba, founder of Tonse Alliance, has resigned from the opposition coalition, saying he is leaving in peace to avoid unhealthy conflicts and what he called “evil schemes from rival camps”. The exit takes the man who built the alliance out of it while its President, Brian Mundubile, remains in custody.

He announced the resignation in a first-person note on his Facebook page. Dr Zumani said he created Tonse in good faith “as God’s vessel” and pushed its agenda this far, and the note ended on a farewell to the people he is leaving behind.

“I hereby resign from Tonse alliance in peace,” he wrote. “I wish everyone God’s grace. It is well with my soul!”

The break goes back to the presidential election. When the Electoral Commission of Zambia declared President Hakainde Hichilema the winner, Dr Zumani said the contest was over for him, and that anyone still disputing the outcome was fighting a battle already lost. He put it in his own words.

“The moment ECZ declared HH as the winner regardless of how he won, everything became academic for anyone who opposed or disputed that election,” he wrote.

He called at once for dialogue and reconciliation between Mr Hichilema and Mr Mundubile. In his view, a political ceasefire was the best option for the Tonse leader above all else, and Zambia would not heal politically while the two men stayed hostile rivals.

In August 2026, Dr Zumani publicly withdrew from any association with a presidential petition, and said he was stating the alliance’s own position when he did so. He said a virtual Council of Leaders, chaired by First Vice President Chifumu Banda, SC, had resolved that Mr Mundubile and running mate Makebi Zulu could petition in their individual capacity without involving Tonse. The alliance chose not to petition because tensions were too high, he said, and that position was never made public in honest terms.

A few days later, a suspension letter reached Dr Zumani through social media, allegedly signed by Mr Mundubile. He said it came because he was urging dialogue, recognition of Mr Hichilema as the winner and a political deal for reconciliation. He declined to comment, both to the media and inside the alliance, and has now explained why in a 12-point statement.

His first reason was prayer. Dr Zumani said he wanted God’s guidance before trading words in public, and he quoted Proverbs 3:5-6. His second was personal: he was imprisoned in 2023 for political reasons, he said, and he knows what confinement does to a person, so he would not fight a leader and comrade who is now in prison.

His third was loyalty. He said that when PF humiliated Mr Mundubile and his supporters were being suspended and expelled, he gave him a platform in Tonse. When others dismissed the Tonse leader as “a UPND project”, Dr Zumani said, he stood with him and put him on the ballot.

“A wise king like BM can never fight one of his true and key makers,” he wrote.

He said he still respects Mr Mundubile as the legal President of the alliance. At the January 2026 General Congress, which he said he engineered, only four people were elected: Mr Mundubile, Mr Banda, Second Vice President Ms Exilder Mwenya, and Dr Zumani as Secretary General.

He then rejected the case against him. The suspension, he said, was “baked in a fake pot and unfounded claims” that he issued statements without consulting the alliance or its President. He said he has written about Tonse on his own Facebook page since 2024 and appeared on radio and television programmes about it, all without consulting anyone, while the alliance’s spokesperson, deputy spokesperson and Presidential Affairs Chairman issue statements every week in the same way.

He asked why only he had been singled out.

“Why are they not suspended?” he said. “Why did things suddenly change in August 2026 against me?”

Dr Zumani does not blame Mr Mundubile. He said the Tonse leader is not his enemy and that he believes he was made to sign a letter others wrote. He pointed instead at “desperate ghost politicians” inside the alliance, whom he did not name, and said they are using Mr Mundubile’s detention to take top positions from the true owners of Tonse.

He said some forces in WOZA, PF Pamodzi and Tonse itself are running the same scheme, staging false support for Mr Mundubile while covertly wanting him “legally fixed overnight”. He said he has seen it before, in the days of the late Edgar Lungu. During the Constitutional Court eligibility case, he said, ambitious politicians in PF, UKA and Tonse showed false loyalty to Mr Lungu to win proximity and a chance at succession, while speaking ill of possible successors, Mr Mundubile among them.

“We have watched this movie before!” he wrote.

A founder who is “politically too tall” in the alliance, he said, becomes a threat to such people, and that is why he believes he was suspended. His statement closed with scripture. Dr Zumani cited Hebrews 12:14 and Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”, and said he applies that teaching “passionately and religiously”.

He leaves Tonse Alliance still convinced that peace and reconciliation with Mr Hichilema is the best path for Mr Mundubile.

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