🇿🇲 WEEKEND DIGEST | Loadshedding as Another Candidate in 2026 Race
Zambia’s energy crisis has shifted from an inconvenience to a decisive political variable. Nowhere is the frustration louder than in Lusaka and the Copperbelt, the two cosmopolitan blocs that decide who occupies State House next year. Three hours of daily power has become routine. Small businesses are drowning. Urban voters are agitated. And political actors are shaping narratives with precision.
When Brian Mundubile stepped onto the PF Secretariat platform this week and declared that the UPND “has failed at everything,” his crowd roared the loudest when he mentioned loadshedding. It was the sharpest applause line of his speech because the pain is real, and the party knows it. But the punchline came later, and unexpectedly, from inside PF itself.
Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, another PF president aspirant, broke ranks last night. In an unusually candid moment, he told Emmanuel Mwamba that the PF government cannot escape blame for the current energy crisis. His argument was simple. Zambia’s population grew rapidly. Industrial demand expanded.
PF built legacy projects, but not nearly enough to match future needs. It was an admission the PF base did not want to hear, but it was true.
This distinction matters because the public square is now full of lies. PF influencers claim the entire crisis began in 2022. UPND influencers insist everything wrong was inherited. Both positions distort the truth. The drought exposed fundamental weaknesses that were years in the making, including PF’s failure to diversify power generation when Kariba first started showing stress.
At the same time, the UPND’s heavy leaning on solar has not provided immediate relief. New solar projects are being commissioned, but grid-scale impact will take years, not months.
Our social media sentiment monitoring tools show that loadshedding now ranks as the most emotionally charged issue among urban voters. Higher than food prices. Higher than fuel. Higher than unemployment. In Lusaka’s estates and Copperbelt’s mining corridors, the anger is bipartisan.
Some UPND supporters feel betrayed. PF supporters feel vindicated. Non-aligned voters feel abandoned. These two provinces are the largest voting blocs in the country, and every political strategist knows that losing them means losing the election.
This is why both parties are panicking. PF is weaponising hardship to rebuild relevance. The governing party is struggling to control the narrative because solar announcements cannot compete with the lived reality of darkness. And the online battlefield is unforgiving.
Urban sentiment is drifting away faster than official communication can catch it.
The truth is uncomfortable. Zambia’s energy crisis is not a one-year failure. It is a decade-long accumulation of poor planning, regional drought, infrastructure gaps, and political short-termism.
PF must carry its share of blame. UPND must carry the responsibility of fixing what it inherited. And voters, particularly in Lusaka and the Copperbelt, will judge both without mercy.
The 2026 election will not be decided by rallies, slogans or tribal messaging alone. It will also be decided by electricity. Every hour without power is turning an undecided voter into a determined one. The next election will be decided in the dark.
📩 We invite readers to share their thoughts with us at editor.peoplesbrief@gmail.com
© The People’s Brief | Ollus R. Ndomu | 15/11/25
Hahaha.
This is so true.
HAKAINDE MUST GO!
REJECT TRIBALISM, CORRUPTION AND OPPRESSION.
VOTE FOR CHANGE IN 2026.
I think we should take the words of Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, load-shedding itself is not a problem, it’s an effect of the past mistakes or negligence of adequate investment in the Energy Sector. It is sad that some Zambians especially from the opposition remain economic dunderheads despite the level of their level of education. Load shedding can not be blamed on someone because some of the causes are beyond human control. If we talk of the Zambian situation, there are three main causes;
1. Drought- just when we were recovering from Covid Pandemic, the country have had the severest drought in living memory and there was nothing HH or anyone could do. So due to its severity, one season failed to bring the water levels back to the required level.
2. The previous governments had not invested enough in the energy sector and this is the time when we are feeling the effect. We know that UNIP had tried but looking at the number of years they were in power, they should have done more.
3. Despite the severe drought, our economy has been growing at a faster rate earning itself a name of being one of the fastest growing eco mines in Africa. And economically, that kind of development automatically means a sudden high demand for power, electricity or energy. It’s therefore illogical for anyone to think that we still need the same number of Mega Wats we needed before the drought whether we are exporting power or not. That’s why genuine Economists worth the name are not talking or complaining about load shedding because they know and understand the situation. In Zambia, the rapid economic development is not a secret, it’s an open programme that we are all seeing. We have Mines being revived and new ones being opened such as KCM, Mopani, Ming’omba, Kalengwa, Kalengwa, Kalumbila Nickel, Luanshya Shaft 28, Kansanshi Expansion etc. We have industries like Capital Fertilizer, Chibombo Economic Zone and many others. All these projects or industries need power before we have even recovered from the severe drought. So to talk about load shedding or to complain about load shedding this time is just another way of confirming that HH is working, ala umulumendo alebomba. If we were at 3,500 MW before the drought, this time we are already at 4,500 plus MW. So economic boom is forcing the government to invest more in the Energy Sector, Maamba is expanding, several Solar projects are completed and some are going on. God willing if this 2025/26 rainy season will be good, we hope to completely recover in terms of water levels at Kariba and other water bodies where power is being generated. I am sure by the time we come to election time next year, load shedding will be an issue of the past, we may not even be talking about it. That being the case, those opposition leaders who are banking on load shedding as a campaign strategy should think of other strategies otherwise they will have nothing to say next year. Moreover even if another person came as president, I don’t think he/she can have new and better approach to the Energy crisis than those HH is already using.
You are just being myopic and naive sir. What do you think the cooling tower at Zesco represents??? Aliko Dangote told your arrogant President that you have large coal deposits to exploit yet you give them to foreigners in exchange for slave jobs. Contrary to his boasts about achievements that no one but himself and Charles Milupi see, Dangote says you cannot have economic development without adequate power.
Sell finished products from your own resources as a nation not foreign capital. You are buying poverty!!!!
Balibapwisha hands down by the richest African.
Do we will vote him ooouuutttt!!!!!
Of the two Bloggers above: one comes from an empty Skull, the other from a Skull full of grey matter. The difference can’t be any more stark, like Day and Night.
Sorry bo Sitali Mr. Crocodile. Arrogance and tribalism will never rule again….Kwapwa!!! Your people whom we trusted and ushered into power have brought division and hatred in this country.
We are taking over again and this time no more dribbling….you won’t use puppets from northern and eastern Zambia to steal votes again the way we were used in 2021.