Mundubile moves, others panic: When action exposes political paralysis

Mundubile moves, others panic: When action exposes political paralysis
By Dr Mwelwa
Rebuttal to Michael Zephaniah Phiri, Political Activist

Dreaming, Mr. Phiri, is not a crime. Fortunately, Zambia no longer imprisons citizens for imagination. Your recent commentary reads less like political reasoning and more like an anxious reaction to Brian Mundubile’s decision to act in a political environment long immobilised by indecision.

Attempting to cloak fear in constitutional language does not transform it into principle. Alliances are political instruments, not metaphysical puzzles. Suggesting that Zambians cannot comprehend coalition politics insults public intelligence while disguising discomfort behind elaborate legal phrasing.

Mundubile’s so-called “floating leadership” is simply leadership in motion. It represents movement in a system that has normalised postponement. Leadership does not disappear because it refuses to wait endlessly in a holding pattern labelled “convention coming soon.”

Since 2022, PF members have been promised a convention with ritual certainty. Each cycle follows a familiar script: mobilisation, preparation, expectation, then last-minute postponement. Repeated deferrals weaken confidence. At some point, loyalty yields to practicality, and patience demands an alternative direction.

Claiming Mundubile has betrayed trust assumes that trust in the existing process remains intact. In reality, he is responding to a vacuum created by prolonged indecision. Vacuums do not stay empty for long. Politics fills them quickly, often without sympathy.

The suggestion that his actions are designed to undermine Given Lubinda exaggerates Lubinda’s political authority. Leaders who lead cannot be sidelined. Leaders who delay, hesitate, and avoid decisive action often sideline themselves through inaction.

What you describe as calculated choreography, others recognise as momentum. Competition unsettles only those accustomed to uncontested dominance. When new options emerge, those who postponed decisions often react by alleging ambush rather than confronting their own inertia.

Your sudden concern about alliances is curious. Zambia’s political history is built on mergers, coalitions, realignments, and pragmatic partnerships. Discovering political purity only when one figure gains traction appears less like principle and more like panic.

Across the country, PF members are not confused. They are energised. They are responding to visible movement in a landscape previously dominated by circular statements, postponed resolutions, and prolonged stagnation. Action inspires confidence where hesitation breeds fatigue.

Mundubile has not insulted Lubinda, expelled members, or dismantled structures. His perceived transgression appears to be refusing to wait indefinitely. That restraint, not recklessness, explains why his move resonates beyond Lusaka’s commentary circles.

History rarely punishes those who act. It forgets those who procrastinate. Political extinction seldom results from boldness; it more often follows delay, denial, and the illusion that tomorrow will always be more convenient than today.

This response follows recent commentary published under the headline “Mundubile Faces Political Extinction” and the opinion piece “Tonse Alliance or Political Ambush? The Calculated Plot to Sideline Given Lubinda and Deceive Zambians” by Michael Zephaniah Phiri. Readers may find value in revisiting those claims alongside this counterview when forming their own conclusions.

MUNDUBILE FACES POLITICAL EXTINCTION

“…those who betray trust and play games with the people’s trust eventually face political extinction…”

TONSE ALLIANCE OR POLITICAL AMBUSH? THE CALCULATED PLOT TO SIDELINE GIVEN LUBINDA AND DECEIVE ZAMBIANS

By Michael Zephaniah Phiri, Political Activist

Zambians are not blind, and neither are they forgetful. What is unfolding under the banner of the so-called Tonse Alliance is not unity of purpose, but a carefully engineered political ambush whose objective appears to be the marginalisation of legitimate leadership and the manipulation of public hope.

At the centre of this controversy lies a question its architects have carefully avoided: which political party does Hon. Brian Mundubile represent within the Tonse Alliance? In a constitutional democracy, leadership cannot exist in political limbo. It must be anchored in a political organisation with a clear mandate. Yet citizens are being asked to embrace a presidential project with no transparent political ownership.

This raises an even more troubling concern: can a person be elected President of the Republic under the vague identity of “Tonse Alliance” without a defined party structure or constitutional grounding? Persisting with such an arrangement signals either political recklessness or calculated deception.

Equally concerning is the determination by certain alliance members to impose leadership whose credibility to unite the nation remains contested. Unity cannot flourish where legitimacy is uncertain, and democracy weakens where ambition overrides procedure.

The public has also taken note of the sudden alignment of individuals who were previously outspoken critics of PF President Given Lubinda. These figures now appear to have regrouped not to heal divisions, but to execute a plan aimed at erasing him from Zambia’s political equation. The question remains: are principles being traded for personal advancement?

The involvement of State Counsel Chifumu Banda and President Danny Pule has deepened suspicion. Their association with a process widely viewed as flawed has raised concerns about whether experienced political figures are being used as instruments in a predetermined strategy.

Signs of orchestration appear evident in the alliance’s internal structuring. Dr. Chifumu Banda’s acceptance of the position of Second Vice President has effectively neutralised Danny Pule as a viable contender, reinforcing perceptions that the pathway has already been cleared for Hon. Brian Mundubile. This resembles choreography rather than genuine competition.

Instead of building a transparent and inclusive opposition movement, the alliance appears preoccupied with sidelining President Given Lubinda, a leader who, alongside Hon. Chishimba Kambwili and Hon. Miles Sampa, resisted UPND pressure when others hesitated. Today, some of those same figures stand accused of political double-dealing and historical revisionism.

Attempts to portray President Lubinda as irrelevant are not only misleading; they underestimate the memory and intelligence of Zambians. Politics stripped of integrity inevitably collapses under its own contradictions.

Zambia deserves principled leadership, not political traps.
Unity built on deception is not unity.
And history shows that those who gamble with the people’s trust eventually face political extinction.