Category: Politics

Makebi Zulu said President Hichilema behaves as though restraining cadres is an optional moral gesture, when in fact the law already forbids violence without exception.

Honourable Makebi Zulu used a wide-ranging appearance on Showster’s House Podcast in Lusaka today, 20 November 2026, to accuse President Hakainde Hichilema’s administration of turning state power into a weapon against opponents

The incident carried echoes of the Mapatizya formula, the infamous violent tactic associated with the UPND during the 2006 election cycle, raising fresh concerns as Zambia edges toward the decisive 2026 general elections.

Hon Makebi Zulu is not rising by accident. His momentum is not manufactured. It is a natural response from a nation that can recognise strength, sincerity, and destiny when it appears. Inside and outside the Patriotic Front, people are uneasy about him because they know he carries something rare in our politics.

Two defence witnesses took the stand today in the case involving Patriotic Front Secretary General Raphael Nakachinda, offering detailed linguistic and cultural testimony aimed at dismantling the claim that the word “ubututu” was used as a tribal insult.

Lawfare is the political misuse of legal institutions to intimidate, weaken, or silence critics. Instead of openly attacking opponents, a government deploys the police, investigative wings, regulators, and the courts to create fear.

Nakacinda reaffirmed that tribalism is wrong no matter where it comes from. He said his obligation as Secretary General of the main opposition party is to provide checks and balances to the government, and that his comment was part of that responsibility. It was political criticism directed at a President, not an ethnic community.

To suggest that mentioning “Bweengwa” or “Tonga” in a statement automatically implies hatred is a distortion of both language and logic. Zambia’s founding ethos, “One Zambia, One Nation,” was never meant to silence identity but to celebrate diversity in unity.