KBF OFFERS HIS PARTY AS ‘SPECIAL PURPOSE VEHICLE ’ FOR TONSE  ALLIANCE

KBF OFFERS HIS PARTY AS ‘SPECIAL PURPOSE VEHICLE ’ FOR TONSE

ZAMBIA Must Prosper leader Kelvin Fube Bwalya has proposed that the Tonse Alliance must use his party as a special purpose vehicle because the PF has been “politically knocked out”.

Bwalya says although he was expelled from the Patriotic Front, he is not bitter and wants to help them.

Since the passing of its flag bearer, Edgar Lungu, the Tonse Alliance has been entangled in a web of internal disputes emanating from the Patriotic Front. According to their resolutions, it was agreed that once the PF picks its leader and presidential candidate for the 2026 general election, the alliance would then move to pick a special purpose vehicle within the alliance.

In February, NCP leader Peter Chanda disclosed that the Tonse Alliance Council of Leaders had collectively agreed that his party would serve as the vehicle for all alliance candidates until the 2026 elections. But due to internal wrangles and disagreements within the alliance, Chanda later announced the NCP’s withdrawal from the alliance.

Meanwhile, the PF recently announced that the convention it was supposed to hold on November 29, 2025, was postponed to a later date, leaving questions in many people’s minds as to when everything would be resolved.

In an interview, Thursday, Bwalya, who is also part of the alliance, said Tonse could not wait for the PF to fix its problems, stressing that Zambians needed leadership with or without the PF.

“I think the problems we’ve had in Tonse have not been unknown to you in the media. Part of the biggest problem we’ve had was that our member, the Patriotic Front, always believed that Tonse was PF and PF was Tonse. That must get out of the head of people and we must begin to tell the Zambians that PF is not Tonse and Tonse is not PF. PF is a political party with its problems. Tonse is a coalition of political parties, and within those political parties, we shall choose a special purpose vehicle. We, as Zambia Must Prosper, have already had [a] convention and we are offering our party as a special purpose vehicle for Tonse, for the youths. Now when it comes to PF specifically, I do not see PF having a convention from where I’m sitting because legally, they’ve been squeezed. This injunction that Robert Chabinga has put on PF right now is not going to be discharged anytime soon,” he said.

“And even if it is discharged, the main matter may not be resolved anytime soon. Where I’m sitting, from my simple and little experience legally, the courts are going on Christmas vacation next month. So, any judge adjourning a matter now is likely to be [resumed] around May, June [or] July for any court case to be heard because in between, dates are already taken with other cases. So, when is PF going to have its cases resolved? Remember PF has got eight to nine cases pending in court, so when are they going to resolve those cases? Now from a strategic perspective politically, we cannot be waiting for PF to resolve their problems for us in Tonse to move, that’s not the way politics move. The Zambian people are waiting for leadership, we are going to give them leadership with or without PF, so PF must choose to join us and start moving with us whilst they resolve their problems”.

He added that the PF’s internal problems were of its own making.

“We are not trying to kill PF, it is not us who have taken the problems into PF. The Patriotic Front created their problems by allowing those conventions with Miles Sampa and then the confusion with Robert Chabinga, that’s their problem. So, we must educate the Zambians to say the problems are in PF, those are not Tonse problems. I am glad to report to you that the late president Edgar Lungu came to that realisation and told some of us that ‘I’m not going to be on the ballot, I don’t believe PF is going to be on the ballot. Let’s find a special purpose vehicle.’ This is the problem which the current PF leadership has failed to see all this time. Now with Chabinga playing his ‘imingalato’ with his judiciary, where are they going to be? And what are they going to be doing because the PF members want somewhere to go and rest, they want somewhere to go and campaign from, and we are offering Zambia Must Prosper as a vehicle,” he noted.

“Why don’t they want to accept that? You ask the PF that, why don’t they want to accept that? Because if it’s a personal matter then it’s them who are being greedy, proud, arrogant and stubborn. They don’t want to face reality. Now we are going to tell the Zambians, it is the PF leadership which is causing confusion because the members want somewhere to go. The members want to get rid of the UPND. How do they get rid of the UPND without a political party? So, on our part, we have offered. You are out in the rains, you are getting cold and someone says there is shelter here, you say I don’t want a shelter, are you being logical? So, PF just has to realise that right now there is nothing they can do, they’ve been squeezed and when you’ve been knocked out politically, that’s why alliances are made, it’s because people see interest in the matter”.

Bwalya argued that the goal was to remove UPND from power, but PF’s leadership was ignoring his offer of help.

“The interest is to get UPND out of power, how are you going to do it if your political party is not functioning? You seek help. Wherever they are sitting, are they honestly telling me that they are more PF than I am, those people? They expelled me from PF, correct, I’m not bitter with them, I want to help them, they are not seeing my help. How can you be at the sea drowning and someone throws you a rope to hang on to and then you say no, I can swim by myself? So, go and ask the PF that there is this lifeline that has been offered to you, why are you not accepting it? They should tell us because for me it is the individual players within the leadership of the Patriotic Front that is not being helpful to the members. They should forget about PF now and concentrate on the adversary who is UPND, focus their guns there,” said Bwalya.

“But what do we have? We have Makebi [Zulu] roaming around, we have [Brian] Mundubile roaming around, Given Lubinda roaming around. All these resources which they are wasting, they could use in mobilising and getting rid of the UPND, and then they can say can we get back our party, then they can get it back. Right now, they won’t get it”.

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