In this opinion piece, I focus on two sets of supporters of Hichilema and the UPND, namely “praise singers” and “Zambezi region nationalists” or, simply put, “supremacists”. By Zambezi region, I am referring to parts of Central and the three provinces that share the Zambezi River: Northwestern, Southern and Western.
Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s death should have been the end of political conflict. It should have brought the matter to a silence. It should have closed a chapter. But instead, it has opened a whole new world of conflict. As some ably put it, to the UPND government, Edgar Lungu was easier to fight in life than in death.
By Brian Matambo | Good Friday, April 3, 2026 The Patriotic Front Electoral Commission has declared that Makebi Zulu was validly elected as President of the party, effectively closing the dispute that followed the March 21 General Conference. This confirmation was delivered by PF Chairperson for Elections and Member of the Central Committee, Dr. Frank...
Makebi Zulu used his first interview not to boast about victory, but to define what it should mean for the Patriotic Front and for the country. He described his election as a journey of healing, a phrase that captured both the condition of the party and the task now before him.
Kudos to Makebi, a true people’s person, and a leader whose heart is as strong as his vision. In a political landscape often defined by bitterness, retaliation, and endless cycles of settling scores, Makebi Zulu stands out as a rare kind of leader, one with a genuinely big heart and an unwavering commitment to unity....
Makebi enters this conversation with something different: a serious legal mind, legislative experience, and actual executive exposure from inside government. In politics, the music can fool people. But when the music stops, the file remains. And Makebi Zulu’s file is stronger than many of the men who came before him at the point they first stepped into office, particularly Hakainde Hichilema.
The endgame is not to win a convention hall. The endgame is to win the country. That means the PF must stop behaving like a club choosing a chairman and start behaving like a machine preparing to sell a presidential brand to millions of Zambians.
What Zulu was arguing, essentially, is that Zambia is not simply dealing with policy disagreements between competing parties. His argument is that the country’s governing system has drifted outside our constitutional boundaries, and that what is needed is not cosmetic adjustment but structural recalibration.
Perhaps the most emotional moment of the interview came when Dr Kasase-Botha spoke about the unresolved burial of former President Edgar Chagwa Lungu. Nearly nine months after his death, the matter remains unsettled. For her, the issue is no longer about legal positions or political arguments. It is about something more fundamental.
By Brian Matambo | Sandton, South Africa 2 March, 2026 Emmanuel Mwamba Verified (EMV) is no longer just another online programme fighting for relevance in a crowded digital arena. It is being recognised, within Zambia and beyond our borders, as a serious source of news and rigorous analysis. We are seeing interest not only from...