ANALYSIS | Is PF Under Hichilema’s Capture?
The Patriotic Front base loves the story that Hakainde Hichilema “captured” their party through Robert Chabinga and the courts. It is a useful story. It explains away defeat. It shifts blame to State House. It turns every internal quarrel into a conspiracy. But the record in court, at the Registrar of Societies, and inside PF itself points to a simpler truth. PF is consuming itself. The party’s biggest threat is not UPND. It is PF’s own culture of power without rules
The current mess did not begin with Chabinga. It is the product of ten years of personalised rule that never built a disciplined opposition structure after 2021. Edgar Lungu lost the presidency but held on to PF leadership, even after his eligibility was rejected and after he publicly “retired” and returned. Instead of allowing a clean transition, he remained the sun around which every faction rotated, including the so-called “Plan B” project that kept PF in permanent succession mode. That is not democratic virtue. That is greed dressed as loyalty.
When Miles Sampa convened his own PF convention in 2023 and installed himself as party president, it was not an accident from nowhere. It was PF logic pushed to the extreme. A party that tolerated informal power and weak internal procedure suddenly discovered that anyone who could gather delegates, a hall, some lawyers and a choir could claim the mantle.
Court documents in Morgan Ng’ona v Miles Bwalya Sampa show how deeply that confusion runs. The case is not about UPND. It is about who has the right to dissolve PF’s Central Committee, appoint a secretary general, and reverse expulsions without following the party’s own constitution.
Justice CC Zulu’s ruling in that matter confirmed what PF supporters now pretend not to see. There is no single uncontested centre of authority in PF. The president, the secretary general, and the “intended defendants” have all used the courts to fight internal battles instead of resolving them through party organs.
The affidavits tell a story of presidents appointing and expelling officials unilaterally, secretaries general refusing instructions, leaders of opposition being removed and reinstated, and rival factions each claiming to be the lawful guardians of the constitution. None of that involves Hichilema. It is PF against PF.
Robert Chabinga’s rise fits this pattern. As leader of the opposition in Parliament, and as one of the names lodged with the Registrar of Societies, he has leveraged legal recognition into political leverage. He has expelled Edgar Lungu on paper, rejected the Lubinda-engineered convention, and now wields “lugwalo” as his weapon of choice. PF youths and rival factions call him a UPND agent who has “sold the party,” but the same accusation was used on Sampa, Ng’ona and others before him. That is how PF treats every internal rival.
Today Chabinga is branded a traitor. Yesterday Sampa was. Tomorrow someone else will be.
If UPND is benefiting, it is because PF created a wide open door. A divided party that drags its own leaders to court, defies its own injunctions, and runs parallel conventions does not need to be “captured.” It is already unstable.
Former Lungu insiders like Amos Chanda and Frank Bwalya did not move because of hypnosis from State House. They crossed because PF had lost power, lost patronage and lost direction. In a party where money once flowed like tap water, very few people are ready to suffer in opposition. Almost everyone has a price. That is not an external plot. It is a structural weakness.
Miles Sampa’s latest statements prove the point. He now celebrates a Lusaka High Court ruling that undercuts Ng’ona’s authority and vows to drag rival lawyers to the Law Association of Zambia for contempt. On the other side, Chabinga is in Kabwe High Court pulling an injunction against the Lubinda convention. Each faction waves one court order and treats every other as illegitimate.
This is not ideological conflict. It is a legalised civil war for access to symbols, property and the PF name. Whoever wins will inherit a party whose main experience since 2021 has been litigation, not organisation.
The claim that “Hichilema seized PF” tries to hide this reality. If Chabinga truly is an ally of UPND, that only proves that PF did not build internal firewalls strong enough to prevent infiltration. A party with coherent structures, audited membership rolls and respected internal discipline is hard to hijack. PF is none of those things. Its own constitution has been used selectively, its presidents have ruled by decree, and every serious disagreement has ended up before a judge. UPND is not the architect of that culture. It is simply operating in a landscape that PF destroyed through its own choices.
What does this mean for Zambians who want a credible alternative in 2026? It means the current PF, in all its factions, has not yet shown the discipline required to govern again. A party that cannot run a clean convention cannot run a complex economy.
A movement whose leaders accuse each other of fraud, contempt and betrayal in open court has little moral ground to stand on when it calls others corrupt. Until PF confronts its own history of internal greed, personalised rule, and hunger for power without responsibility, blaming Hichilema will remain a convenient story. It will not be the truth.
© The People’s Brief | Analysis
The UPND brief masquerading as a People ‘s brief , asking a question, when they even know the answer. Okay, let’s go semantics.
It’s not Hakainde who has captured the PF, it’s the PF which has Captured Hakainde. The man is so Obsessed with the Patriotic Front, and can abuse all state Institutions just to Obliterate the Patriotic Front.. Obsession of Maniac Proportions.
I doubt whether he even sleeps at the thought of the Patriotic Front..
Hakainde’s survival in 2026 is now hanging on a very thin thread on which Chabinga is hanging. If this Thread snaps , Hakainde is history in 2026.
But the danger of putting all your eggs in one basket is that you open your self for a Sucker Punch … Just when you think the deal is done, and that in 2026 you will compete against yourself, that Tanzania model, and
Paku….and you are defeated by a “frog” .
Zambians are not fools
The more the Abuse of the Patriotic Front continues, the more the Zambians drift from Hakainde. If he thinks he is adding any value to Zambia, or to himself through what is playing out in our Courts and other Institutions of governance over the Patriotic Front, he is very miskaken. Many people are watching with Disgust.
Ofcourse the Praise Zealots will give a Rosy picture, they always do, living an illusion….but when ” Kwenu Confetti” falls on the Great one, that’s when reality catches up and they start demonstrating in the rain!
Some one will weep bitterly in 2026.
The Capturer or the Captured ? He is both to me..and will weep waters to even end his load shedding on 13th August, 2026.
Did HH need Chabinga to defeat ECL?
@coax
In 2021 Hakainde didn’t need Chabinga to defeat ECL..but now he needs him desperately to defeat a ” frog”. For Zambians are resolved to vote for a ” frog ” come 2026.
If the major opposition Political Party in Zambia, the Patriotic Front with over 600 councilors, Mayors and Council Chair persons, and 60 Members of Parliament, and national wide party structures is given space in Zambia, Hakainde goes..and he knows it.
The only life line Hakainde has for 2026, is Chabinga..as long as Chabinga plays ball , coupled with his abuse of State Institutions, then the Patriotic Front is kept in check.
If there is such a person that has captured PF or any other political party to shrink democracy, then that person is a stup1d idiot. That person is a child of a dog. But since no one has claimed that they have done that, no one should get offended, and cyber laws can not be applied to anyone that insults a non existent person.
REJECT TRIBALISM, CORRUPTION AND OPPRESSION.
VOTE FOR CHANGE IN 2026.
@100 and HaaIndingoTyrol…..! The author is 100% right. NONE FORCED LUNGU TO HOLD ON to PF, thus confusing the PF and Miles SAMPA.
If he was A MAN ENOUGH HE WOULD HAVE HANDED over PF to the person he DRIBBLED IN 2014 and that person is Miles or even anointing Mundubile or Lubinda.
If at ALL UPND are involved. We are just using weaker ‘chains’ of the opponent. Please don’t feel sad.
KBF thought he can high jack PF ONLY to notice that there’s a lot of CONFUSION IN PF AND HE HAS HIBERNATED
HaaIndingoTyrol and your group mukose guys. Reality is that Chabinga is a TRUE 100% PF PRESIDENT.!! You can even use international law/lawyers and will NEVER WIN the case.
So blame ECL for delay and CONFUSION
As long as the scattered PF factions remain allergic to the simple truths that destroyed the party, recovery will remain elusive.
You have idiots like Indigo fimo fimo very busy in denial of a very clear and accurate history of self destructive behaviour by the PF misleadership. ECL has truly lived up to his middle name.
CHAGWA.
The fallen.
Who fell with a gang of fools.