By the EditorZambia
“Only in Africa will thieves be regrouping to loot again, and the youths whose future is being stolen will be celebrating it.” — Wole Soyinka
As Zambia marches toward the 2026 general elections, the country faces a dangerous political déjà vu. 
The Patriotic Front (PF), the same party that drove the nation to the brink through unrestrained corruption, brutality, and chaos—is regrouping and rebranding itself as a saviour movement.
It is a cynical theatre of hypocrisy. The same architects of Zambia’s economic collapse, who presided over one of the most violent and corrupt eras in our post-independence history, are now marketing themselves as the solution to the very problems they created.
A Party Built on Violence and Fear
From the day Michael Chilufya Sata took power in 2011, the PF politics was anchored in intimidation, patronage, and populist deceit.
What started as a pro-poor movement quickly degenerated into a cult of cadres, a violent machinery that held the nation hostage.
Bus stations, markets, and public spaces were seized by machete-wielding thugs who operated as state-sanctioned enforcers.
Citizens were beaten, traders were extorted, and political opponents were assaulted with impunity.
Law enforcement officers stood by, powerless—or complicit.
Even within its own ranks, the PF’s culture of violence metastasized.
Intra-party fights turned bloody as factions battled for proximity to the feeding trough of State resources.
Violence under the PF was not incidental. It was institutionalised politics.
Fear Became Governance.
When Edgar Lungu succeeded Sata, he did not dismantle this system. He perfected it. Under Lungu’s rule, Zambia became a State run by cadres, not by law.
The police took instructions from the party.
Journalists were harassed, activists jailed, and opposition voices silenced. The very foundations of democracy trembled under the weight of arrogance and corruption.
The Empire of Corruption
Every regime has its scandals, but thebPF elevated corruption to a governing principle.
Under its watch, Zambia’s debt ballooned to unsustainable levels, fuelled by reckless borrowing and inflated infrastructure projects that served as conduits for kickbacks.
Procurement was no longer about national interest, it became a marketplace for political loyalty.
Public contracts were inflated tenfold, roads that should have cost US $1 million per kilometre were billed at US $3 million, and ghost projects mushroomed everywhere.
While citizens languished in poverty, a small political elite built mansions, imported luxury cars, and stashed illicit wealth abroad.
Anti-corruption institutions were weakened or manipulated.
Investigations were weaponised against opponents but buried when they reached State House corridors.
Zambia’s international reputation plummeted, and the local currency, the Kwacha tumbled alongside it.
Civil servants went unpaid, hospitals lacked basic drugs, and schools crumbled, while PF officials flaunted obscene wealth on social media.
PF’s Return: The Great Deception
Now, with elections looming, the same clique has emerged from the shadows, rebranding under new slogans and youthful faces. But let’s be clear: there is nothing new about this PF.
Their regrouping is not a rebirth, it is a resurrection of rot.
Their leaders are not reformers. They are recyclers of failure.
Wole Soyinka’s timeless words echo with painful accuracy: “Only in Africa will thieves be regrouping to loot again, and the youths whose future is being stolen will be celebrating it.”
Zambians must refuse to be accomplices in their own destruction.
The PF’s playbook is as predictable as it is dangerous.
Across Africa, discredited ruling parties often return by deploying deceitful tactics designed to manipulate emotions and obscure memory.
Their Strategies Are Textbook –
Illicit Campaign Financing:
The PF campaigns are lubricated by dirty money from criminal networks, corrupt business allies, and foreign interests seeking to buy influence.
These financiers expect repayment through inflated contracts, tax exemptions, and policy favours should the PF returns to power.
Digital Deception:
The PF’s propaganda machinery now thrives online. Social media platforms are flooded with fake accounts spreading disinformation, nostalgia, and divisive rhetoric.
They prey on public frustration, rewriting history to portray their disastrous tenure as “better days.”
Ethnic Manipulation:
The PF continues to exploit regional loyalties, concentrating leadership from Northern, Luapula, Muchinga, Eastern, and the urban Copperbelt regions. This dangerous ethnic arithmetic divides the nation, replacing merit and policy with tribe and geography.
Populist Lies:
The PF will promise everything – cheap mealie meal, lower taxes, jobs, empowerment, etc. But Zambians must remember that these were the same promises made and betrayed.
The PF’s “development” was debt-driven, unsustainable, and riddled with corruption.
The Price of Political Amnesia
The greatest tragedy is not the PF’s ambition. It is Zambians’s forgetfulness. A nation that fails to learn from its past is condemned to relive it. The PF’s tenure was a masterclass in how power without accountability destroys nations.
The economy collapsed under the PF’s reckless spending. The rule of law was reduced to a joke. State institutions—from the judiciary to the police, were captured.
And yet, some among us, especially the youth, flirt with the illusion of the PF’s “glory days.”
But what glory lies in a party that bankrupted the nation, terrorised citizens, and silenced dissent?
What progress lies in a system that enriched the few and impoverished the many?
A Warning to the Youth
To the youth of Zambia who make up the majority of the electorate is that this moment demands reflection, not nostalgia. You are the generation that inherited a mountain of debt, unemployment, and hopelessness created by the PF’s greed.
Do not allow yourselves to be manipulated by flashy slogans, fake generosity, or ethnic rhetoric. You deserve better than a recycled cartel of looters masquerading as patriots.
The Role of Citizens and Civil Society
It is not enough to condemn the PF’s past; citizens must actively defend their democracy.
The civil society organisations, the media, and the church have a moral duty to remind the nation of what PF truly stood for: corruption, violence, and impunity.
This election must not be about personalities. It must be about principles.
Zambia cannot afford to hand back power to those who used it to enrich themselves while the people starved.
Never Again
History has given Zambia a rare second chance under the able leadership of President Hakainde Hichilema and the United Party for National Development (UPND).
The PF years were a lesson written in blood and poverty. To repeat that mistake would not be misfortune, it would be collective madness.
Zambia’s democracy was nearly destroyed once. Zambians cannot let those who broke it return pretending to redeem it.
The PF’s regrouping is not a political event. It is a moral test for the nation.
Will Zambians move forward with accountability, integrity, and unity—or will they open the door to the same architects of ruin who once desecrated the country’s institutions?
Let all Zambians say it clearly, loudly, and without apology:
Never again to corruption.
Never again to violence.
Never again to PF.
