UPND PANICKING, THEY THOUGHT THERE WAS NO OPPOSITION – TONSE ALLIANCE PRESIDENT MUNDUBILE.
Monday, 16 March 2026 (News Diggers)
TONSE Alliance president Brian Mundubile says government is “panicking” by calling for his arrest because they have realised that they have competition in the opposition.
Recently, Chief Government Spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa wondered why investigative agencies were not pursuing Mundubile after allegations of theft from Chishimba Kambwili.
Speaking on BM8 Unfiltered, Friday, Mundubile said Mweetwa’s remarks were reckless, adding that he had no right to instruct the police to arrest citizens.
He added that Mweetwa as a Minister should understand how contracts are executed.
“It was a very, very reckless statement coming from a minister whom I would have expected to know better. First of all, it’s not his duty to instruct the police to arrest citizens.
If at all Cornelius Mweetwa, whoever he was referring to, had any evidence against honourable Brian Mundubile, he should have tendered that evidence to the Law Enforcement Agencies so that Law Enforcement Agencies could act.
Some of those claims have been meant to distract our trajectory, they’ve realised that Tonse Alliance, the BM8 project, big brother, is out there to get the vote, is out there to form the next government. So, the first thing they do in trying to distract this particular trajectory and the Tonse Alliance is to throw in statements like ‘no, he was given money but he did not do the work’, there’s no such a thing,” Mundubile noted.
“Not very long ago, Cornelius Mweetwa and President Hakainde Hichilema believed there was no opposition and they were basking in their joy that it would be a one-man race. We told them and we reminded them, we said to them that the real competition here, the real opposition are the Zambian people.
The Zambian people are the opposition, the Zambian people are the ones who are going through all these challenges, so it’s the Zambian people that will make the final decision. Now, they’ve suddenly realised that they actually have competition because in an environment where there’s no competition, why is there so much panic? There’s so much panic that Cornelius Mweetwa, whom I would expect to understand basic contracts and how contracts are executed, he now wants to go and say Brian Mundubile should be arrested, for what?”
Mundubile insisted that it was not possible for him to have been paid for work that was not properly executed.
“There’s been this issue, people playing around [saying], no, he was given contracts, he received advance payment. I must make it categorically clear, government contracts, at least in the government that I served, were properly structured and properly implemented. If our company was given a road contract, it was a road contract out of an open tender, a competitive tender, a tender of several companies, both local and international.
When the company was finally awarded that contract, a consultant was appointed to supervise the implementation of that contract. The supervision of that contract meant that the consultant was responsible for the quality, payments and all the supervision surrounding that particular contract. You have three parties; government is a client, their duty is to pay, they appoint a consultant who also signs a contract with government. The duty of the consultant is to make sure that government only pays for certified works, quality works. The contractor’s role is to implement and execute works,” said Mundubile.
“I want Cornelius Mweetwa, who may have some very average understanding about contracts to understand this. So, if there’s poor quality on a particular contract, it’s the responsibility of the consultant, who is equally paid by government, to correct that particular quality. In short, a poorly executed contract is a responsibility of the consultant, he assumes full responsibility if he certifies poorly executed work. This consultant lives on site, he’s called a resident engineer, he wakes up in the morning to inspect the gravel, cement, stone, inspects everything that is going to be used on that particular contract, that’s what they are paid for. So, if something goes wrong, the first point of call is actually the consultant. So, it’s therefore shocking for someone to come up and say honourable [Brian] Mundubile’s company was tendering fake invoices, there’s no such a thing. The way these contracts are executed, on a daily basis, the contractor is supervised and reports are written every day”.
Meanwhile, Mundubile condemned Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha’s remarks that if re-elected, UPND may undertake a complete repeal of the Constitution in 2027, arguing that the Constitution cannot be changed like bed sheets.