The 2026 wind of change
By Osward Bwali
1991, 2011, 2021. These are years when Zambians decided en masse to remove an incumbent president. 27, 20, 10. These are the years each regime served before being removed from power. 2026 and 5 years. The pattern 27,20,10,5 makes sense. Despite fervent denials and “no opposition” claims by the UPND, the wind of change has blown much earlier. Why are ruling parties enjoying decreasing years in power?
This can be explained by three main factors. Increasing literacy levels, media technological advances, and social media peer-to-peer communication. To put it easily, information is power. TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram are formidable instruments and a real nightmare to any ruling party. They give the opposition an unfair advantage.
Hakainde Hichilema spends sleepless nights reading our WhatsApp messages, by his own creepy confession of invasion of our privacy. According to social media, he wears dubious gloves, is rumoured to have impregnated Chipo Mwanawasa, superstitiously carries his chair around, commissions toilets. Thabo Kawana splashes a showroom car on his wife weeks after getting a job, rumours of ministers falling over each for ‘PF’ slay queens, Stanley Kakubo’s calendar, CDF wastage on shoddy roads and bridges, Chiwempala stoning, Tukuta’s icunsu. All this information reaches remote parts of the country at lightning speed, thanks to social media.
ZNBC is where some UPND cadres gather to feel good and calm their fears after a whole day dosage of tormenting VAR fact-checking by Danson Lungu. Spinning attempts by Oliver Shalala, Thabo Kawana, Mark Simuuwe, Clayson Hamasaka, or Hakainde are brutally diffused by their own words Facebook kept. When they think they have scored a Panenka penalty, referee Danson chalks it off for an illegal feint. And one thing about lying is that, lie a few times, and nobody believes anything you say afterwards. Social media has exposed Hakainde’s chronic Pinocchio Syndrome.
The anti-UPND wind of change has many indicators. Music is one of them. Remember how Dandy’s Don’t Kubeba dwarfed any MMD songs. But by 2021 he had lost his artistic oomph. It was the little-known ‘Luapula boys’ Knack Unity who had the campaign song mojo. Everything the household name musicians tried for PF fell flat. Alebwelelapo by Yo Maps, Mampi, and Marky 2 flopped as a mobilising song despite the good beats. Sounds familiar?
Fast-forward 2026, the UPND are desperately trying to ride on the big names like Jordan Katembula. Yo Maps and his wife had the rare privilege of being hosted by Mutale Nalumango at Government House. How low can the UPND go? Yo Maps sung for PF and PF lost badly. Yo Maps and his wife publicly showered insults on a woman, Lillian Mutambo. In a desperate effort to land household name musicians, Nalumango and the UPND have thrown all morals out of the window. They even hired a Tanzanian artist, but his song flopped.
But here is a peculiar truth about campaign songs. They do not make a political party popular per se. A political song by a popular musician for an unpopular political party merely makes the singer unpopular. Yo Maps’ song for PF simply sharpened the resentment towards the PF. His Aleteka for the UPND has only resulted in loss of popularity for him and mockery for the UPND. It is dry and disrespectful.
Songs go with the wind of change. The BM8 na MZ Pe Lampi song detonated on the political scene sending shockwaves across the country. In sheer panic, the UPND using their ethnic civil servants, Thabo Kawana and Webster Malido, banned the song from playing on radio. An exercise in futility. People care less about the artist behind it than who the song is promoting.
Jito Kaumba, a civil servant who appears more of a self-destructive strategist from the UPND secretariat is frantically approaching every musician he can think of to try and slow the wind of change. One moment Y Celeb is insulting Edgar Lungu and his family that the family should cook Lungu’s corpse with groundnuts powder. The next moment Jito is making a big fool of himself with the said Y Celeb endorsing Hichilema.
In the final analysis, it’s not the musician and not so much the song. It is who they sing for and what they sing about. Songs for Hichilema are repetition of his lies and narcissism. The same musicians are now seen crossing to sing for Mundubile and they are having an impact. Or to put it differently, Mundubile is having an impact on them.
But many PF leaders have defected to the UPND, right? So, what wind of change? The likes of Miles Sampa, Robert Chabinga, Given Lubinda (according to social media rumours), and Charity Banda. They join the likes of Felix Mutati and Nervers Mumba. But when one looks closely, these have a common denominator. They are individual political survivalists without principles or followers. They are political leeches without clout of their own.
When such characters leave a party, the party they leave gains value and the one they join loses value. Nervers, for example, is one of the biggest political flops of all time. Whatever he touches collapses. Miles can take a leaf from his friend Iris Kaingu who has shown more integrity. The spirit of confusion hoovers over his head like a curse from some unresolved abomination. All he has to offer is “PF was my uncle’s party.”
The UPND loudly and proudly embracing political desperados exposes one thing. Desperation. And nothing reveals the desperation more than listening to Hakainde speak. Every time Hakainde opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it. Can you imagine someone claiming strength because the PF is in alliance with them and yet their recurring campaign message is against the PF? Indeed, those whom God wants to destroy, He makes them mad first.
Finally, the wind of change has hit Southern Province. It has taken a very long time, but it was bound to happen. You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time. Five years of Hichilema and seven years of Edgar Lungu and Lungu probably built more schools and had more developmental initiatives in the province.
The people of Southern Province have realised their self-acclaimed messiah is just one selfish punka more interested in fattening his cattle and offshore accounts while feeding his people empty promises and degrading them with food-for-work. He has stripped them of their dignity while controlling them with an iron fist. But you can’t herd people like cattle to the abattoir. Something has snapped.
For twenty solid years, Hakainde has weaponised the people of Southern Province, selling them a poisoned narrative of being hated since the Nkumbula days. They have started to realise they have been used for his personal agenda. While demanding total loyalty, he gives little to nothing in return. Many celebrated when an injustice befell someone from another tribe.
However, Hakainde’s heavy-handed, unfair, and desperate actions towards James Ndambo and now Gary Nkombo has made many question Hakainde’s real intentions. It’s taken a while, but he has shown the Southerners that for him a good Toka, Leya, Tonga, Lenje, Ila is one who exhibits unquestioning sycophancy. There is just nobody Hakainde will not throw under the bus who he deems a threat. This is a textbook Jin Jones. A psychological test would put them right next to each other. The American cult leader would not let his followers leave when cracks begun appearing in his charisma and authority. He chose, instead, to force them to die with him in a mass murder-suicide that claimed over nine hundred lives.
The writing is on the wall for Hakainde. His political obituary is already written and just awaiting 13 August. And he will not be missed. He is by far the most divisive president, fulfilling with unwavering fidelity Kenneth Kaunda’s fearful prophesy. The Southern Province that he has held for a political ransom like a hostage with a Stockholm Syndrome is on the verge of freedom. Together, with the other tribes, they shall forge ahead for a better Zambia. https://zambianwhistleblower.com/
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