PROPAGANDA PLOT PLUMMETS
….as Emmanuel Mwamba and Banda trade bitter insults in a dramatic phone leak after a failed fast-food stunt blows up in their faces
By DAVID KANDUZA
A DRAMATIC and explosive leaked telephone conversation between Emmanuel Mwamba and Emmanuel JJ Banda has blown the lid off a botched political propaganda stunt, exposing deep fractures and fierce finger-pointing between themselves.
The audio, which began circulating wildly on social media platforms on Thursday evening, captures a raw, unedited and highly venomous shouting match between the two figures.
The fallout stems from a widely ridiculed stunt in which Mr Banda falsely claimed to have bought out food for patrons at all Hungry Lion outlets across the country—a narrative that collapsed within hours under public scrutiny.
The leaked audio begins with a remarkably tense exchange, with Mr Mwamba taking a patronising, stern tone against Mr Banda, accusing him of lacking tactical sophistication in the art of political deception.
“Ba JJ Banda, please next time let’s find a better thing to lie to the people about than the Hungry Lion incident,” Mr Mwamba can be heard saying, his voice laced with patronising frustration.
“It has seriously exposed us as fake and as people planning to mislead the Zambian people
Mr Mwamba did not hold back his political critique, bluntly telling the lawmaker that he was an “amateur at propaganda,” noting that the sheer absurdity of claiming to pay for an entire national fast-food franchise made the lie incredibly easy for the public and journalists to debunk.
The insult did not sit well with the fiery Mr Banda, who instantly exploded into a rage, turning the tables on Mr Mwamba and dragging fellow activist Charles Kakula into the mud.
“Iweee chi Emmanuel Mwamba, you are the one who misled me!” Mr Banda fired back, using the highly charged and disrespectful Bemba prefix ‘chi’ to register his anger.
“I consulted you before everything, but you and Charles Kakula pushed me to do it the fastest way.”
The heated back-and-forth had sent shockwaves through political circles, effectively pulling back the curtain on how certain high-profile public stunts were manufactured, coordinated and executed behind the scenes to manipulate public perception.
The controversy traces back to earlier on Thursday, October 8, 2026, when social media was flooded with claims that Mr Banda had generously funded a nationwide feast at Hungry Lion.
However, eagle-eyed citizens and digital investigators quickly pointed out inconsistencies, forcing the architecture of the stunt to cave in.
With both political figures exiled now, caught in the crosshairs of their own leaked tape, political analysts suggest this ‘War from the hideouts’ will severely dent the credibility of their future public pronouncements.
For now, the public is left watching a bitter civil war play out in the open, proving that in the high-stakes game of political optics, the cleanest hits sometimes come from inside your own safe house.