🇿🇲 BRIEFING | PF Draws the Line, Expels Mundubile Camp After Tonse Showdown
The Patriotic Front has formally severed ties with Brian Mundubile and a cluster of senior figures who participated in what the party describes as an “illegal Tonse Alliance conference,” escalating the opposition rupture into open political combat.
Meeting on Saturday, January 31, the PF Central Committee resolved that Mundubile and others had, by their “actions and conduct,” relinquished their membership of the party. The resolution names a long list of casualties, including former ministers, MPs, and party officials, signalling that this was not a symbolic reprimand but a decisive purge.
Those expelled include Brian Mundubile, Stephen Kampyongo, Mutotwe Kafwaya, Lukas Simumba, Francis Kapyanga, Japhen Mwakalombe, Davis Chisopa, Melisiana Chibwe, Emmanuel Tembo, Lazarous Chungu, and several party officials and organisers.
The message from the Lubinda-led camp is unambiguous: crossing into the Mundubile-led Tonse structure is treated as political defection, not dissent.
PF National Chairperson Jean Kapata sharpened the language further, rejecting the legitimacy of any entity styling itself as the “ECL/PF Movement.”
“There is only one PF which President Lungu left. The so-called ECL/PF Movement does not exist,” Kapata said, urging those invoking Edgar Lungu’s name to “respect President Lungu even in death” and to stop what she termed masquerading.
Kapata reaffirmed that the late president left Given Lubinda as Acting President of the PF and Chairperson of the Tonse Alliance, and that this chain of command remains intact until altered by a properly constituted PF General Conference. In her framing, PF remains the anchor party of Tonse, and any parallel centre of authority is illegitimate by default.
The expulsions come as PF prepares for an elective general conference scheduled for February, with party officials insisting preparations are at an advanced stage despite ongoing court injunctions and parallel political manoeuvres.
Elections Chairperson Dr Frank N’gambi reiterated that PF structures remain focused on the conference, even as the party bleeds senior figures to the Mundubile camp.
The tone of the resolutions reflects a party in bunker mode. This is no longer an internal disagreement managed through quiet negotiation. It is a declaration of political war over legitimacy, symbols, and the right to inherit Edgar Lungu’s political legacy.
PF’s leadership is betting that discipline and clarity will stabilise its base. The Mundubile camp is betting that momentum, MPs, and an alliance vehicle will outweigh formal party lines.
What is clear is that the opposition battlefield has shifted from rhetoric to hard lines. PF has fired its shot. The next phase will test whether expulsion restores authority or accelerates fragmentation as Zambia edges closer to the 2026 elections.
© The People’s Brief | Goran Handya