{"id":82632,"date":"2026-04-26T20:15:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T20:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd"},"modified":"2026-04-26T20:19:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T20:19:56","slug":"pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd","title":{"rendered":"PF MP Masautso Tembo Defects to UPND"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>Masautso \u201cKazungula\u201d Tembo, Sinda Patriotic Front MP and one of the top loyalists of former president Edgar Lungu when he was alive has crossed over to UPND ahead of dissolution of Parliament next month.<\/p>\n<p>Tembo is regarded as one of the most influential politicians in Eastern Province.<\/p>\n<p>Tembo defected to the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) during a public meeting addressed by Eastern Province UPND Chairperson Peter Phiri at Chisichi Village yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>Tembo said his decision was motivated by the developmental policies initiated by President Hakainde Hichilema\u2019s administration, noting that Sinda, like many other areas, has recorded massive development over the past four years.<\/p>\n<p>Other defectors include Nyamasonkho Ward Councillor Abel Zulu and Constituency chairperson Simon Mwale.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Zambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. Masautso \u201cKazungula\u201d Tembo, Sinda Patriotic Front MP and one of the top loyalists of former president Edgar Lungu when he was alive has crossed over to UPND ahead of dissolution of Parliament next month. Tembo is regarded as one of the most influential politicians in Eastern Province. Tembo defected to the ruling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":82631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-82632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>PF MP Masautso Tembo Defects to UPND - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Masautso \u201cKazungula\u201d Tembo, Sinda Patriotic Front MP and one of the top loyalists of former president Edgar Lungu when h ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PF MP Masautso Tembo Defects to UPND\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Masautso \u201cKazungula\u201d Tembo, Sinda Patriotic Front MP and one of the top loyalists of former president Edgar Lungu when h ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-26T20:15:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-26T20:19:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777234755.080477.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"397\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"PF MP Masautso Tembo Defects to UPND\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-26T20:15:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-26T20:19:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd\"},\"wordCount\":139,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777234755.080477.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/pf-mp-masautso-tembo-defects-to-upnd\",\"name\":\"PF MP Masautso Tembo Defects to UPND - 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