MUNDUBILE–MAKEBI: A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE WITH A DIVORCE DATE ALREADY PRINTED
The Candidates’ Editorial
You do not need a PhD in political science — or even extraordinary intelligence — to see that the so-called alliance between Brian Mundubile and Makebi Zulu resembles less a political union and more a desperate roadside wedding between two passengers who missed the same bus.
This arrangement is stitched together with convenience, wishful thinking and political panic. Calling it an alliance is generous. Calling it a strategy is comedy.
Political alliances are formed to consolidate strength, pool resources and march under one banner. Yet here we have a fascinating new invention in Zambian politics: people announcing unity while simultaneously competing against one another. It is like two men opening a restaurant together and then standing at the same entrance shouting, “Don’t eat there — come to mine!”
Brilliant.
We have seen this movie before. The Tonse–Socialist experiment already demonstrated how confusion masquerading as strategy ends: everybody loses except the people watching from the sidelines with popcorn. Apparently, someone looked at that disaster and said, “Excellent idea. Let’s repeat it.”
But this is what happens when political marriages are based on convenience rather than principles. Strip away the slogans and the noise, and one uncomfortable question remains:
What exactly binds Brian and Makebi together?
Shared economic beliefs? Silence.
Shared political vision? Crickets.
Shared social agenda? Missing in action.
The entire arrangement appears to rest on one sacred principle: remove Hakainde Hichilema and figure out the rest later.
That is not a vision. That is a group project where nobody read the assignment.
Even if one argues that Hakainde no longer enjoys the same momentum of 2021, political arithmetic still requires discipline and strategy. Instead, this alliance has mastered the art of stepping on its own shoelaces before the race even begins.
How does an alliance unite at the top and divide at the bottom? How do people ride the same wagon while kicking each other off the seats? How do leaders fail to harmonize candidates, supporters and aspirations before asking citizens to trust them with an entire nation?
If they cannot organize themselves for an election, by what miracle are they expected to organize a government?
This is not a show of strength.
It is not even controlled chaos.
It is two drivers fighting over the steering wheel while the bus heads directly toward a ditch.
And somewhere, Hakainde is probably watching all this unfold with the relaxed smile of a man who received an unexpected campaign donation from his opponents.
© The Candidates
United States of America
Washington DC