Dr. Lawrence Mwelwa writes ✍️
Ambassador, I appreciate the sobriety of your concerns, but postponing the General Conference is the most dangerous mistake the Patriotic Front can make at this delicate moment. In politics, timing is not a detail — it is the battlefield itself. A party that loses time eventually loses purpose.
Every seasoned political scientist knows that internal elections delayed in moments of crisis rarely return. They become permanently deferred, constantly rescheduled, and ultimately replaced by prolonged factionalism. PF has already lived through years of uncertainty. Extending that uncertainty will not stabilise the party; it will bury it.
A party cannot hold the nation in suspense forever. Zambians are waiting for clarity, direction, and leadership. Every week of delay deepens public doubt. Every shift of the date signals indecision. The country cannot rely on an opposition that cannot organise itself.
Postponement may buy temporary peace, but it destroys long-term credibility. Parties collapse not because of one wrong leader, but because they fear to choose any leader at all. PF must choose — even if the choice comes with discomfort. As the elders say, a journey delayed does not shorten the distance.
We would rather lose the war than lose time. Wars can be fought again; time never returns. Leadership contests are not perfected by postponement — they are perfected by courage. PF must show courage now. The conference is not the problem; delaying it is.
If these elections are postponed, they risk never being held. New excuses will arise. New disputes will emerge. New factions will form. The party will drift into paralysis, and paralysis is the slowest form of death. The only medicine for uncertainty is decisiveness.
Hon. Lubinda, Hon. Mpankanta, and all contenders must recognise that leadership is not chosen in ideal moments; it is chosen in difficult ones. The ship cannot be steadied by staying at the harbour. It must sail — even in rough water — because motion itself creates direction.
Let the General Conference proceed. Let the delegates decide. Let the party breathe again. A party that delays choosing its leader becomes a party that has already chosen defeat. PF must not hesitate now. It must move, decide, and restore its place in the national imagination.
Lawless instigating chap. You can’t do things at the back of breaking the law, desperate. Negotiate with Hon Chabinga. President Lungu, Sampa messed up big time handling the pf thing
Is this not the same linguist that testified as am expert witness in the Nakachinda case?
How objective was this tesimony as the expert seems to be a PF party official?
Ba Mwelwa this a court directed decision. And PF faction has no choice in this matter. Ba Lubinda benu bale bepa. Lubinda said this conference would go on. In defiance of a court order?
These are the kind of leaders you have. People who undermine public institutions. Lawless leaders..stop sugar coating facts
The fact is PF are too insensitive or hiding something: The sensitive question: IS LUNGU DEAD or HIDING from prosecution?
Makebi Zulu knows and is sitting on very sensitive issue that all Zambians want to know. If it is burial of the 6th President is shelved.
In this case, PF Party Convention is not the way to go until Lungu’s body is put to rest THEN A SUCCESSOR IS CHOSEN through Convention. I think that is the normal.