Political Commentary | 9 January 2026
By Brian Matambo
Brian Mundubile’s withdrawal from the Patriotic Front conclave has been presented as an act of principle. In truth, it reads more like a calculated attempt to hold the process hostage.
Zambia’s politics has suffered enough from leaders who confuse personal ambition with party survival. At this delicate moment in PF’s history, what is required is maturity, courage, and openness. What Mundubile has offered instead is strategic sulking disguised as constitutional loyalty.
His statement is carefully written to offend no one while unsettling everyone. He praises the elders yet undermines their process. He condemns misconduct yet refuses to name those responsible. He claims commitment to unity while walking away from the very platform designed to restore it. This is not leadership. It is political hedging.
If Mundubile truly believes the conclave has been corrupted, then honesty demands that he says by whom and how. Zambians are tired of leaders who speak in shadows. Vague references to “some underhand methods” only protect wrongdoing and weaken accountability. Silence in the face of alleged injustice is not dignity. It is complicity.
More troubling is the political intention behind the withdrawal. Mundubile knows that a conclave without him appears incomplete. He knows his absence creates uncertainty. He knows others will now be forced to negotiate around him. That is not sacrifice. That is leverage.
In Zambia, we must stop celebrating this behaviour as clever politics. It is precisely this style of leadership that has kept political parties in permanent conflict and citizens in permanent disappointment. Mature leaders do not walk away to be begged back. They stay, confront, argue, persuade, and build.
Mundubile wants to be seen as a constitutionalist, yet he destabilises the very process meant to enforce constitutional order. He wants to be seen as a unifier, yet he weakens unity at its most fragile moment. He wants to be seen as principled, yet his actions serve his positioning more than the party’s healing.
PF does not need hostages. It needs adults.
If Mundubile believes he is wronged, he must fight his case openly within the process. If he believes the conclave is compromised, he must expose the compromise with evidence. If he believes he is essential to PF’s future, he must prove it by leadership, not by absence.
Zambia is watching. PF members are watching. And history will not be impressed by political cleverness dressed as restraint.
This is a moment for Brian Mundubile to rise above tactics and step into responsibility. Not as a contender protecting his relevance, but as a leader protecting his party.
Until he does so, his withdrawal will not be remembered as principled. It will be remembered as political hostage-taking at a time when PF could least afford it.
Ambition must have limits, this could be another missed call like Kalaba of CF, where one even boasts of coming third in the last elections with 0.00000 % of the votes and even beaten by rejected ballots. Be serious guys, you risk becoming jokers like Nevers
Be serious guys, Zambia requires redemption. Just see how UPND has destroyed the country. But Kaunda warned us
@Lesident…Research the Kaunda again because he and UNIP are responsible for the economic malaise that continues to afflict Zambia to this day. The Matero and Mulungushi Economic Reforms of 1968 and 69 were the genesis of Zambia’s economic meltdown.
Go and read Kaunda again. He did nothing wrong. Had he stuck to the plan, like China did with a few knocks here and there, we would be talking another story.
In any case stop looking for excuses you removed him 40 years ago. Isn’t that enough time to correct things?
It took China just 50 years to establish itself as a world player. 70 or so years later it’s the World’s number one economy! Africa is still at the bottom of the pile.
Focus, focus. Don’t be fooled by criminal politicians who devop nothing but only their pockets.
Go and read Kaunda again. He did nothing wrong. Had he stuck to the plan, like China did with a few knocks here and there, we would be talking another story.
In any case stop looking for excuses you removed him 40 years ago. Isn’t that enough time to correct things?
It took China just 50 years to establish itself as a world player. 70 or so years later it’s the World’s number one economy! Africa is still at the bottom of the pile.
Focus, focus. Don’t be fooled by criminal politicians who devop nothing but only their pockets.