By EditorZambia
Socialist Party (SP) leader Fred M’membe has recently attempted to rebrand himself as Zambia’s political redeemer — a bold visionary ready to usher in a socialist renaissance.
But beneath the fiery speeches and ideological grandstanding using his wife’s newspaper: The Mast” lies a record that raises serious questions about whether he is the leader he claims to be. 
For years, M’membe held himself up as a champion of rights and freedoms through his stewardship of The Post newspaper.
Yet those who worked closest with him tell a different story.
Former editors — including respected names like Masautso Phiri, the late Edem Djokotoe, and Arthur Simuchoba — repeatedly clashed with him over heavy-handed editorial control.
Many walked away, citing an environment where dissent was unwelcome and where one man’s word often prevailed over professional judgement.
He extended this to his party clashing publicly with Father Frank Bwalwa who left him after complaining of M’membe’s dictatorial tendencies.
If leadership is tested by how one treats those under their authority, then M’membe’s record is far from reassuring.
M’membe now presents socialism as Zambia’s cure-all, despite the reality that the ideology has collapsed or been abandoned in nearly every country that tried it.
Socialist promises of State control, economic centralisation, and “equal distribution” have historically delivered shortages, stagnation, repression, and the suffocation of private enterprise.
Zambia has been down that road before — nationalised industries, inefficient parastatals, and decades of economic decline.
Why rewind to an ideology the world has largely moved past?
M’membe’s political messaging also attempts to court every constituency at once, often in ways that raise questions about sincerity.
Positioning himself as simultaneously belonging to several key ethnic groups like Bemba and Lozi may be framed as unity politics, but it also risks appearing like strategic identity-shifting designed to secure votes rather than build genuine national cohesion.
Zambia deserves leadership rooted in principle, not political theatre.
Moreover, M’membe has been on record being a champion of LGBT, something that singles him out as the enemy of Zambia’s declaration as a Christian nation.
His right to his views is unquestionable — but a leader seeking national office must be clear about how those views reconcile with the country’s declared values and how they would influence governance.
At the end of the day, Fred M’membe’s rhetoric is loud, but his political offering remains thin.
Zambia needs pragmatic, forward-looking solutions, not recycled ideologies, not personality-driven crusades, and not romanticised promises of a socialist utopia that has failed everywhere else it has been tried.
