MUNDUBILE’S EXIT: POLITICAL GAMESMANSHIP
Political Commentary | 9 January 2026
By Brian Matambo
Brian Mundubile’s withdrawal from the Patriotic Front conclave has been presented as an act of principle. In truth, it reads more like a calculated attempt to hold the process hostage.
Zambia’s politics has suffered enough from leaders who confuse personal ambition with party survival. At this delicate moment in PF’s history, what is required is maturity, courage, and openness. What Mundubile has offered instead is strategic sulking disguised as constitutional loyalty.
His statement is carefully written to offend no one while unsettling everyone. He praises the elders yet undermines their process. He condemns misconduct yet refuses to name those responsible. He claims commitment to unity while walking away from the very platform designed to restore it. This is not leadership. It is political hedging.
If Mundubile truly believes the conclave has been corrupted, then honesty demands that he says by whom and how. Zambians are tired of leaders who speak in shadows. Vague references to “some underhand methods” only protect wrongdoing and weaken accountability. Silence in the face of alleged injustice is not dignity. It is complicity.
More troubling is the political intention behind the withdrawal. Mundubile knows that a conclave without him appears incomplete. He knows his absence creates uncertainty. He knows others will now be forced to negotiate around him. That is not sacrifice. That is leverage.
In Zambia, we must stop celebrating this behaviour as clever politics. It is precisely this style of leadership that has kept political parties in permanent conflict and citizens in permanent disappointment. Mature leaders do not walk away to be begged back. They stay, confront, argue, persuade, and build.
Mundubile wants to be seen as a constitutionalist, yet he destabilises the very process meant to enforce constitutional order. He wants to be seen as a unifier, yet he weakens unity at its most fragile moment. He wants to be seen as principled, yet his actions serve his positioning more than the party’s healing.
PF does not need hostages. It needs adults.
If Mundubile believes he is wronged, he must fight his case openly within the process. If he believes the conclave is compromised, he must expose the compromise with evidence. If he believes he is essential to PF’s future, he must prove it by leadership, not by absence.
Zambia is watching. PF members are watching. And history will not be impressed by political cleverness dressed as restraint.
This is a moment for Brian Mundubile to rise above tactics and step into responsibility. Not as a contender protecting his relevance, but as a leader protecting his party.
Until he does so, his withdrawal will not be remembered as principled. It will be remembered as political hostage-taking at a time when PF could least afford it.
Now at this again such characters as Isindingol or what will point a finger at UPND to have caused confusion in PF
I read a post from someone, most likely a senior citizen who said that in 80 years on earth, he has never seen such confusion in Opposition Political Party Politics.
Indeed one fails to understand what type of
People Zambia is dealing with.. People who can’t agree on anything.
Your friend is in full gear stalking 1 million Tribal Vote from his area.. beating Tribal Drums. This surely should make opposition Political Parties think as to the motivation behind this Party.. But day in day out, it’s just confusion.
Opposition Political Party leaders who couldn’t even get numbers registered when they knew the sham ECZ was doing! Busy wanting to be Presidents.
No wonder Hakainde is boasting on how easy it is for him to manipulate these people… ironically saying this at that Choma Rally in the presence of manipulated PF MPs , and they were even cheering , enjoying how they are being. manipulated!
And it’s not only Hakainde manipulating these people… Even Sean Tembo, and KBF have had their time in confusing these people..And now there’s Apostle Dan Pule, trying his bit, in the midst of the Chawama bye Election..
Bwafya.
Ba Nkuku, for how long are you going to blame HH for the confusion in PF? The first step in resolving the issues in PF is for the party and you ba Nkuku to take full responsibility.
PF is inherently an organisation steeped in chaos. Ba PF minwe ya bubenshi (PF are like termites). Anything they touch crumbles. They left our country in a mess. Even their former leader still remains unburied. They went into UKWA and it crumbled. They migrated to Tonse, it also crumbled. PF leave chaos in their wake. Very destructive indeed.
It is by God’s grace that we survived their ruinous reign.
I said it at first JMC that some people who reason very low will quickly blame UPND and HH. This is the story this human nicknamed chicken is trying to show to the world through his minute thinking that HH is to blame. You are right JMC from the start this party PF carried a bunch of confused people. For Mundubile to site (sp) some of the grave mistakes happening in PF and walk away tells much than what we heard and see. In PF there is no law, in PF there is order, in PF there is no peace, in PF there is no leader, in PF there is no anything good to sum it up and here now this Nkuku is trying to bring in his ungraded opinion.
I said it at first JMC that some people who reason very low will quickly blame UPND and HH. This is the story with this human nicknamed chicken is trying to show to the world through his minute thinking that HH is to blame. You are right JMC from the start this party PF carried a bunch of confused people. For Mundubile to site (sp) some of the grave mistakes happening in PF and walk away tells much more than what we heard and see. In PF there is no law, in PF there is no order, in PF there is no peace, in PF there is no leader, in PF there is no anything good to sum it up and here now this Nkuku is trying to bring in his ungraded opinion.