WHY BRIAN MUNDUBILE MAY BE THE PF’S BIGGEST GAMBLE
The escalating internal battles in the Patriotic Front (PF) have laid bare a party drifting further into disorganisation, contradiction, and self-sabotage. At the centre of this storm stands Brian Mundubile, a candidate whose ambitions for the PF presidency increasingly reflect the dysfunction and desperation consuming the former ruling party.
While PF presidential aspirants criss-cross the country projecting confidence, the reality is that Mundubile may not even make it onto the ballot. His political future is overshadowed by an active warn-and-caution statement recorded by the Zambia Police Service involving alleged participation in the circulation of vulgar and defamatory content on the notorious “Munyaule” Facebook page. According to investigative sources, evidence tied to this case has long been secured, and the question is no longer if action will be taken, but when.
Page administrator Chanoda Ngwira has already been charged, awaiting his day in court. But PF insiders have always whispered that Ngwira was not acting alone, and that the offensive posts, targeting multiple individuals, including former president Edgar Lungu upon his return to politics, were part of a coordinated effort involving individuals close to Mundubile.
This legal baggage not only cripples Mundubile’s credibility but also reveals a wider pattern of PF leadership crisis: a political organisation now sustained more by infighting, fear, and hidden deals than by coherent vision or accountability.
Sources within the PF say Mundubile, fully aware of the legal trap tightening around him, has grown increasingly desperate. According to these insiders, he has become vulnerable to external political manipulation, engaging in quiet arrangements with UPND officials in an attempt to secure protection and maintain influence. Information that he has accepted financial support channeled through UPND National Youth Chairperson Gilbert Liswaniso to destabilize PF structures, including mobilizing district chairpersons on the Copperbelt and Luapula, point to a party fractured to its core.
The plot is simple but explosive: undermine PF from within, push for an elective conference, and if the manoeuvre fails, herd structures into a different political party to act as a temporary vessel. Such a scheme exposes a PF that is no longer fighting the ruling party but tearing itself apart from the inside.
It also offers insight into why former President Edgar Lungu never fully trusted Mundubile to lead the PF. What is emerging now, information of double-dealing, internal sabotage, and an opportunistic willingness to sell the party’s remaining influence for personal survival, is consistent with the long-standing fears within PF ranks about the integrity of some of its senior figures.
The crisis surrounding Mundubile is only one symptom of a broader PF meltdown. From unresolved leadership disputes to endless factionalism, the party has degenerated into a political shell whose main energies are spent on internal warfare rather than presenting coherent alternatives to the Zambian people.
If the PF ultimately fails to produce a Presidential candidate for 2026, it will not be because of external pressure but because the party’s internal weaknesses, exemplified by the Mundubile saga, have finally caught up with it.
By Thomas Chewe
Ilelanga News. December 05, 2025.