Monday was a day of reckoning in two of the sedition cases working through the Lusaka Magistrates' Court, one at the end of the prosecution's evidence and one at the point where a surety is made to answer for the accused.
Nakacinda: a prima facie case
Raphael Nakacinda, secretary-general of a faction of the Patriotic Front, must now defend himself against a charge of seditious practices, Magistrate Mwandu Nakazwe ruled on Monday 2 November, Zambia Monitor and News Diggers reported. The charge concerns remarks he is alleged to have made on Millennium Radio on 21 August 2024, that the government was committing genocide against its own citizens by importing maize and mealie-meal contaminated with aflatoxins. The magistrate found that the prosecution had established a prima facie case.
His lawyer, Maluza Chongola, told the court that Nakacinda will give sworn evidence and call ten witnesses. The court adjourned to 22 December for the defence to begin and directed that it conclude by February 2027. A finding of a case to answer is not a finding of guilt: it means the evidence, untested by the defence, is enough to require one. Zambia Monitor's report attributes the detail of the ruling to ZNBC.
Fube: a bond or six months
Across the same building, the long search for Binwell Mpundu reached his sureties. The former Nkana MP faces one count of seditious practices over a Facebook post of 30 December 2024 in which he allegedly urged the public and politicians to acquire firearms for self-defence, the Zambian Observer reported. He failed to appear in October, when Magistrate Webster Milumbe issued a bench warrant against him for the second time; the first, in July, was revoked after the court accepted his explanation, News Diggers reported. The court summoned his two sureties, the former Chilubi MP Mulenga Fube and the former Kamfinsa MP Christopher Kang'ombe, to produce him or account for his whereabouts.
Fube could not. He was brought from police custody, where he had been held since the previous Saturday over what the Zambian Observer describes as an undisclosed offence, and told the court that he did not know where Mpundu was, that Mpundu had not disclosed his exact location in their last conversation, and that he needed time to raise money. Milumbe ordered him to pay a K100,000 bond or serve six months in prison, and said he may pay the bond once he raises it. Kang'ombe, who had sent word through Mpundu's lawyer Leon Lemba that he was unwell, has until 23 November to explain Mpundu's whereabouts.
Mpundu himself has not been reported as found or arrested. The bench warrant stands, and the sedition charge against him is untried; nothing in the reporting read today suggests any finding against him on it.
Sources: Zambia Monitor, “PF Secretary-General, Nakacinda, has case to answer —Court” (3 Nov 2026); News Diggers, “Court puts Nakacinda on defence in genocide remarks case” (3 Nov 2026); Zambian Observer, “Court Finds RAPHAEL NAKACINDA with Case to Answer” (2 Nov 2026); Zambian Observer, “FUBE Faces Six Months in Jail Over MPUNDU's Absence” (3 Nov 2026); News Diggers, “Binwell's surety is in police custody, court hears” (3 Nov 2026); Zambian Observer, “Court Orders FUBE to Explain BINWELL MPUNDU's Whereabouts” (3 Nov 2026).