Mundubile Breaks Cover in Kasama as Tonse Alliance Tests Its Northern Pulse

 EXCLUSIVE | Mundubile Breaks Cover in Kasama as Tonse Alliance Tests Its Northern Pulse

Kasama stirred this afternoon, not as a routine stop on the campaign calendar, but as a political signal. Brian Mundubile, freshly bruised by disciplinary action from the Patriotic Front faction led by Given Lubinda, stepped onto the northern circuit for the first time since his suspension. The message was unmissable. The opposition  ground is shifting, and Mundubile is moving with it.

He arrived in Kasama to drum up support for Peter Yuda, the Tonse Alliance-backed mayoral candidate running on the Forum for Democracy and Development ticket, now serving as the alliance’s special purpose vehicle. The reception was politically loaded. Supporters lined the route wearing Edgar Lungu-branded T-shirts alongside FDD chitenge materials, a visual merging of grief, memory, and recalibrated opposition politics.

This is not just a local government mobilisation. It is Mundubile’s re-entry into public view under new conditions. PF, once the anchor of Tonse, has been formally ejected from the alliance’s files. Yet Lungu’s image remains central, his name invoked as moral capital rather than organisational authority. Tonse is attempting a delicate balance: moving beyond PF’s legal paralysis while retaining the emotional loyalty of Lungu’s base.

Mundubile’s choice of Kasama is strategic. Northern Province has long responded to populist politics, a terrain where PF once dominated and where the United Party for National Development has historically struggled. Mundubile’s ethnic and cultural roots in the region give him natural access, but the crowd’s composition hinted at something broader. This was not a PF rally. It was a Tonse moment, stitched together with familiar symbols but pointing toward a new alignment.

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On the ground, tension briefly flared. Police attempted to redirect supporters away from Kasama’s congested central business district, citing public order concerns. The crowd resisted, insisting on accompanying Mundubile through town. After negotiations, police allowed the procession to proceed.

The episode underscored a recurring theme of the campaign season: energy at the grassroots colliding with state-managed order, then finding an uneasy accommodation.

In a statement issued from Kasama, Mundubile framed the visit as mobilisation rather than defiance. “We are on the ground in Kasama mobilising massive support for FDD/Tonse Alliance Mayoral Candidate Peter Yuda,” he said, adding that voters were “tired” and “ready for change.”

The language echoed a wider opposition narrative, but the subtext was personal. This is a candidate testing his standing outside PF structures, measuring whether popularity on the ground can outpace institutional exclusion.

Tonse Alliance figures have been careful with their words. Dan Pule, himself a contender for the Tonse presidency, publicly distanced the alliance from PF’s internal battles while confirming Mundubile’s place in the wider opposition field.

The alliance is signalling openness without formal declarations, allowing momentum to build while internal decisions remain pending.

What is becoming clearer is the architecture of zee the moment. Mundubile is no longer campaigning within PF. He is campaigning around it. Tonse, for its part, is experimenting with a politics that keeps Lungu’s memory at the centre while covertly rearranging the machinery behind it.

Kasama offers a preview of a new strategy in action: grief as glue, FDD as vehicle, and a suspended PF heavyweight testing whether the crowd will follow him into a new chapter.

The northern circuit has often been decisive when opposition coalitions fracture and reform. Mundubile’s appearance does not settle the Tonse succession question, nor does it close PF’s internal wounds. But it did something more immediate. It showed that the campaign has moved from boardrooms and courtrooms back to the road, to the crowd, and to places where symbols still matter as much as structures.

As the January 29 Kasama mayoral by-election approaches, the rally may be remembered less for its outcome than for what it revealed. The opposition is reorganising in real time. And Brian Mundubile, once firmly inside PF’s hierarchy, is now testing whether Tonse Alliance can carry both the memory of Edgar Lungu and the ambition of those who want to succeed him.

: Supplied

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