Inside Tonse Alliance’s Reset: Zumani Explains the Post-Lungu Power Struggle

🇿🇲 EXCLUSIVE | Inside Tonse Alliance’s Reset: Zumani Explains the Post-Lungu Power Struggle

The Tonse Alliance is navigating its most consequential moment since its formation, following the death of former president Edgar Chagwa Lungu. Appearing on Diamond TV on Sunday evening, Tonse Alliance lead consultant and chief architect Chris Zumani Zimba offered the clearest public account yet of how the coalition was designed, why it has fractured, and what comes next as Zambia edges closer to the 2026 general election.

An Alliance Built Around One Man

Zimba was explicit that Tonse was never conceived as a broad, open-ended coalition.
“The Tonse Alliance was designed around the comeback of Edgar Lungu into politics and to allow him to contest for 2026,” he said, adding that the alliance constitution “specifically enshrined Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu by name as the alliance chairman and 2026 presidential candidate.”

According to Zimba, the architecture was deliberate. He said Tonse was crafted to guarantee Lungu a clear presidential path without internal competition, after his fallout with the United Kwacha Alliance. “We wanted an alliance which doesn’t bring competition to him but guarantees him as the candidate and main stakeholder,” he explained.

The Vacuum After June

That personalised structure, Zimba acknowledged, became the alliance’s biggest weakness after Lungu’s death.
“The moment he died in June last year, we had a leadership crisis because everything crumbled. It was centred around his presidency and candidature,” he said, describing the period since then as one of “political darkness and leadership crisis.”

Members, he noted, began demanding constitutional amendments to open the path for a new flag bearer. “They joined Tonse not because of PF, but because they believed in the leadership of Edgar Lungu,” Zimba said, arguing that change became unavoidable once that leadership was gone.

Why PF Became the Fault Line

The sharpest point in Zimba’s remarks concerned the Patriotic Front. He insisted that PF, as a legal party entity, was never formally part of Tonse.
“PF as a party has never been part of Tonse,” he said. “We never wanted to transfer the drama by bringing PF because they would have been petitioning the alliance through the courts.”

Zimba framed the decision to remove PF from its status as “anchor party” as a risk-management move, not a political purge. “That faction brings political liabilities. It makes us to be held at ransom because they want us to delay for them to fight legal battles,” he said.

Movement Versus Party

In place of PF as a party, Tonse has retained what Zimba called the ECL-PF movement. He described it as a pressure group made up of MPs, councillors and grassroots supporters personally loyal to Lungu.
“Edgar Lungu went to Tonse with his own followers,” Zimba said. “Those that believed in him. That movement still has structures and membership countrywide loyal to ECL.”

He stressed that this distinction explains why PF MPs remain active within Tonse’s parliamentary structures, even as the party itself has been sidelined.

Leadership Wrangles and Trust Deficits

Zimba also shed light on internal tensions involving senior PF figures. He said disputes escalated when Given Lubinda declined to hand over authority after Dan Pule returned from medical treatment abroad.
“That refusal is what triggered the wrangles,” he said, portraying the conflict as institutional rather than personal.

Searching for a Flag Bearer

With August 2026 approaching, Zimba acknowledged urgency.
“We are now under panic because of indecisions and delays,” he said, adding that Tonse must quickly elect “a legitimate chairman and a legitimate presidential candidate” to restore direction.

He confirmed that the Forum for Democracy and Development is currently being used as a provisional special purpose vehicle, pending a full Tonse congress that will determine the final electoral platform.

Mundubile and the Unspoken Calculations

While Zimba did not mention names directly, his remarks land amid growing speculation that PF presidential aspirant Brian Mundubile is positioning himself for a larger Tonse role. Analysts note that as PF’s legal and organisational crisis deepens, Tonse’s restructuring creates potential entry points for figures seeking an alternative national platform.

A Coalition at a Crossroads

Zimba closed by insisting Tonse remains a viable alternative to the ruling United Party for National Development, citing public frustration with economic conditions.
“Very soon we shall have a new chairman and a presidential candidate,” he said. “From there, political direction and political hope shall be restored.”

For now, Tonse stands at a crossroads: reconstituting itself after being built around a single personality, while racing against time to present a coherent challenge in 2026. The coming months will determine whether its reset produces clarity—or simply deepens the uncertainty already gripping Zambia’s opposition landscape.

© The People’s Brief | Editorial Desk