By Magret Mwanza
Africa-Press – Zambia. When you throw away your ideology, your convictions, your principles, and everything you stood for—just to sit at the table with men you once called criminals—you are not forging alliances, you are committing ideological suicide.
What Fred M’membe has done by dragging the Socialist Party into bed with Edgar Lungu and the kleptocratic Patriotic Front a.k.a *TONSE* is not only a betrayal of his comrades and socialist followers, it is a tragic, shameless exposition of personal bitterness and naked desperation.
This is not strategy. This is not patriotism. This is the highest order of political prostitution—a man so consumed by hate for President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND that he will sell the soul of a revolution just to “get even.”
*From Vanguard to Vultures*
Fred M’membe was once seen as the intellectual spine of Zambia’s opposition media. Through The Post, he portrayed himself as a fearless voice of the downtrodden.
But time has a funny way of revealing a man’s true nature. Today, he stands arm-in-arm with the same PF clique that persecuted journalists, plundered national resources, turned the police into a private militia, and left Zambia’s economy in shambles.
So, what happened to the so-called comrade who preached workers’ rights and wealth redistribution?
What happened to the man who vowed to tear down capitalism and replace it with socialism? Simple. That man never existed.
What we had all along was a chameleon – a political shape-shifter whose only consistent ideology is resentment for HH.
*Bitter Obsession with UPND*
Fred M’membe’s hatred for the UPND did not start yesterday. During his reign at The Post, he referred to UPND as a Bantustan party—a tribalistic insult meant to delegitimize the party and its leadership.
And now that UPND is in power, delivering economic reforms, dismantling corruption networks, and restoring rule of law, M’membe finds himself increasingly irrelevant.
Rather than reflect on how to build a credible socialist movement with genuine grassroots appeal, he has chosen the shortcut: join forces with the same people who destroyed Zambia between 2015 and 2021, hoping to ride their stolen networks back into power.
*Socialist Party or Hypocrite Party?*
Let’s be brutally honest—what Fred M’membe has done is not uniting the opposition, it is dissolving the Socialist Party into irrelevance.
You cannot claim to stand for the working class and then partner with Edgar Lungu, whose government oversaw massive job losses, unpaid civil servants, collapsed SMEs, and elite looting.
You cannot advocate for anti-imperialism while standing beside PF elites who sold Zambia’s future to Chinese mining corporations and foreign bondholders.
This so-called alliance is not a united front; it is a political costume party where everyone wears borrowed ideologies and speaks in forked tongues. *And when the music stops, the betrayal will be impossible to hide.*
*Leadership Struggles Await*
It doesn’t take a prophet to see where this is headed. Fred M’membe will not play second fiddle. Edgar Lungu will eventually step aside because of his illness.
The alliance will crack under the weight of egos, mistrust, and ideological confusion. And in the meantime, their base will erode—PF supporters will never trust M’membe, and genuine socialists will never stomach Lungu or his cronies.
What they’re banking on is the collective amnesia of the Zambian people. But Zambians are watching. Zambians remember.
*UPND Should Not Panic—They Should Organize*
Yes, this unholy alliance will make noise. Yes, they will scream louder, spread propaganda, and try to discredit every UPND achievement.
But a political alliance built on mutual hatred rather than shared vision cannot endure. President Hichilema and the UPND must not be distracted—they must double down on reforms, youth empowerment, rural development, and transparency. Delivering to the people will be the best antidote to this circus alliance.
The 2026 election must not be about the noise of opportunists. It must be about the future of Zambia. Voters must ask: *who has a plan?* Who has consistency? Who has delivered?
Because clearly, Fred M’membe no longer has ideology, and Edgar Lungu never had integrity. Together, they form a hollow alliance of expired relevance.
*Final Thought*
The Socialist Party has now proven it was never about socialism. It was about Fred M’membe. And now, M’membe is about revenge, bitterness, and power for power’s sake.
Zambia deserves better than ideological orphans begging for relevance through political collusion.
In the end, this is not the resurrection of the opposition—it is the last funeral rites of political authenticity in the Socialist Party.
For More News And Analysis About Zambia Follow Africa-Press
