PF Convention On The Edge As Court Battles, Factional Warfare & Emergency Filings Collide

⬆️ BUILD-UP | PF Convention On The Edge As Court Battles, Factional Warfare & Emergency Filings Collide

The Patriotic Front enters its most decisive week in years with the fate of its long-awaited convention now hanging in uncertainty. What should have been a straightforward march toward next week’s elective conference has collapsed into a maze of injunctions, counter-filings, emergency certificates and open warfare among senior party figures. The latest twist arrived on Monday, when PF Deputy Secretary General Brenda Nyirenda filed an urgent application in the Kabwe High Court seeking to discharge the very injunction that halted the convention last week.

Nyirenda’s affidavit argues that Justice H. Limbani’s ex parte order of 12 November was granted without full disclosure of the ongoing PF leadership cases already before the High Court in Lusaka.

She accuses Morgan Ng’ona, who sued as Secretary General, of forum shopping and withholding critical information. In her words, “the Plaintiff did not do a full and frank discourse of material facts,” adding that the injunction has not been served on her and that it is unfair to freeze PF operations while leadership cases remain active in other courts.

The filed document, marked “Urgent,” is now in the hands of the Kabwe High Court, which must determine whether to lift or uphold the injunction. Legal experts believe the judge will face a difficult decision, as two different courts are now seized with overlapping PF leadership matters.

Nyirenda warns that if the injunction is not discharged, “great prejudice will be occasioned to the general party,” implying that internal processes could collapse under the weight of prolonged paralysis.

This legal scramble exposes deeper divisions that the PF has failed to contain since its 2021 electoral defeat. Acting President Given Lubinda declared last week that the convention would proceed next week regardless of Robert Chabinga’s injunction. That public defiance set the stage for this week’s filings and escalated tensions within the leadership.

Lubinda maintains that the injunction is defective and engineered by Chabinga to derail the party’s transition. His own allies insist that the convention must go ahead because delaying it worsens instability.

The Chabinga camp has a different view. Last week Robert Chabinga warned PF Members of Parliament that they must cooperate with him or “cry next year” because his group holds the power to issue adoption certificates. That threat shifted the political temperature overnight, because the ability to issue adoption papers is the party’s most valuable instrument in an election cycle. It also exposed how fragile PF’s centre of authority has become, with two camps now claiming legitimacy.

The confusion has roots in 2023. PF insiders say Miles Sampa’s attempt to reposition himself using court processes, combined with Edgar Lungu’s refusal to allow a smooth succession after defeat, opened space for factions to grow unchecked. Instead of confronting these tensions early, the party allowed parallel authority structures to emerge.

Those structures are now clashing in courtrooms, press briefings and internal meetings as the convention approaches.

The Lubinda faction has been trying to project strength, including making new appointments to the Central Committee. But former Secretary General Davies Mwila rejected those appointments yesterday, calling them unconstitutional and warning that acting leadership cannot impose decisions on the eve of a General Conference.

Mwila, who belongs to the Mundubile base, accused Lubinda of abusing his transitional authority to tilt the field ahead of the convention.

The Mundubile base believes Lubinda is manoeuvring to influence delegate numbers and control key committees. They also argue that the appointments of Dr Chitalu Chilufya and Chanda Katotombwe show an attempt to consolidate internal support. In their words, “it is abuse of the acting position.”

This bitterness fuels the perception that the PF is heading toward a convention without an agreed framework of trust.

On the external front, the UPND has benefited from PF’s fragmentation. PF figures quietly acknowledge that the ruling party has exploited internal disunity to weaken the opposition’s cohesion.

A senior PF source said this week, “what we did to MMD after 2011 is being done to us.” The irony is not lost on PF veterans who once destabilised MMD using factional engineering and court filings. Many now admit that PF failed to protect itself immediately after losing power.

What makes the current moment critical is the growing rumour that some presidential aspirants are preparing to register their own parties if they lose at the convention. That possibility raises the stakes for next week, because PF is already suffering from shallow loyalty and transactional politics.

Delegates and structures are shifting in real time, with many waiting for the most favourable camp to emerge before declaring allegiance.

With Nyirenda’s urgent application now before Justice Limbani, everything is suspended again. The PF base insists the convention is happening. The leadership insists it must happen. The courts hold the key.

Until a ruling is delivered, the PF remains in a holding pattern, uncertain of who leads it, who has authority to convene meetings, and who will sign adoption certificates for 2026.

© The People’s Brief | Political Desk