EDITORIAL | Kalaba and Makebi Want an Alliance, Who Will Bow?
Harry Kalaba and Makebi Zulu have announced that they intend to “work closely together” to defeat President Hakainde Hichilema in 2026. It is the latest attempt at stitching together an opposition front that has spent four years fighting each other while accusing the ruling party of division. The statement carries the voice of desperation and ambition in equal measure. It also reopens a familiar question in Zambian politics.
Who leads when two men who both want power stand on the same stage?
Kalaba left the Patriotic Front after years of frustration under Edgar Lungu’s leadership. He built Citizens First as a personal vehicle for 2026 after finishing third on the DP platform in 2021. His reading of that election has always been self-serving. He insists that since Lungu came second and is now dead, he must inherit the second position by default.
Kalaba told podcast audiences that “Hichilema’s shoe is mine” and that he is positioned to take over the State House corridors next year. His political logic has never been shy. It has only been bold and convenient.
Makebi Zulu, on the other hand, is fully PF. He has campaigned for PF structures while insisting he is the natural successor to Lungu. He is still fighting for the PF presidency at a suspended convention. The Lubinda-bloc is split into three blocs: Mundubile’s base, Lubinda’s wing and Makebi’s loyalists who believe he can revive PF’s brand. Even now, his alliance talks with Kalaba sit awkwardly beside his presidential ambition inside PF.
The two roads cannot run parallel for long.
History is unforgiving. PF has never produced a leader who shared power. When Lungu rose in 2015, everyone who contested him was shoved aside or punished. Before that, Sata’s party culture was defined by a single centre of power that tolerated no internal rival. PF’s DNA has never allowed dual leadership.
Every ambitious figure imagines himself as the one chosen by cadres, the one ordained by the spirit of the Copperbelt, the one destined to stand at the Supreme Court steps on inauguration day. This is the same party culture Kalaba came from and the same party culture Makebi still fights to command.
The statement released today tries to present unity as strategy. It quotes the late Edgar Lungu as the inspiration for a united opposition and claims that Zambia needs “stronger together” politics. It sounds noble. It reads like a clean script. But the question remains untouched. Who will lead this alliance? Who will withdraw his ambition for the other? Who will kneel so that the other stands? In politics, ego is not a footnote. Ego is the engine.
Kalaba and Makebi both believe they are presidential material. They both believe they can push Hichilema out next year. They both believe they can command the Bemba-speaking belt. They both believe they can tap into PF’s wounded base. They both believe the current government has created enough electoral anger to open the door for change. None of them is prepared to be a running mate. None of them is prepared to sit quietly in the back seat.
Their alliance is built on a shared grievance, not a shared ideology. They are bonded by their hostility to Hichilema and their nostalgia for Lungu. They are energised by the burial dispute, by the mobilisation around Bill 7, and by the emotional momentum that PF leaders have tried to harness since June. But a movement cannot rely on anger alone. It needs structure, command lines and clarity. Right now, this alliance has none.
The political truth is simple. If these two men work together, only one of them will appear on the ballot. Kalaba wants the presidency through Citizens First. Makebi wants it through PF. Both paths cannot lead to State House at the same time. Someone will have to lower his ego. Someone will have to step aside. Someone will have to admit that ambition without numbers is noise.
Until that happens, this alliance is not strength. It is theatre. A negotiation between two men who want the same throne. A partnership of rivals hoping to look united long enough to survive the next news cycle.
We have seen this before. It rarely ends well. For now, the only certainty is that both men want to lead. The question is whether either one is prepared to follow.
© The People’s Brief
Next I’m voting for hhhhhhhhhhhhhh no need of wasting my time these two men did nothing at his constituency no wonder they lost election.
Hon Chishimba Kambwili is back..
You will see how he will shake the ground when he hits the campaign road.
Even today if he decided to hold a public rally, multitudes will turn up. He has the Charisma of Michael Sata..
If he has a good team around him, some one can be “mince meat” on 13th August, 2026.
They will try to play the Tribal Card..But we know them…and who they are.
It won’t work.
Ba Nkuku, I am amazed you have so much confidence in a man who cannot discipline his mouth. He will just sink into the very ground he will shake.
A good leader measures his words. A loud mouth is not a sign of a charismatic leader. But then, it depends on the audience he is talking to. For some, noise matters more than substance.
Very soon he will start faking his illness with oral diarrhoea. Tribalist blood bourne
Coupled with early dementia, forgets all recent events. Kufipa pamunyelo this why otangazya poyenda
OMG! God help us!