OPPOSITION POLITICS IS NOT JUST A SACRIFICE, IT’S A RISK: WHY UPND NEEDS TO EMPOWER ITS ARTISTS
23/10/2025
Music is a business and it is for that reason that many artists will tell you that they will sing for any politician or party that pays them well.
But what do you call people that identify an opposition party and sing for it for free FOR MANY YEARS until they help it get into office? Those are not just businessmen, they are loyalists and heroes to your cause and should be treated as such.
Ba UPND, do you remember Mpande, Cav Man, the Orga Family, Ocean Kaniini, Lloyd Chileshe, Kadas
Munjile band, etc, who brought you beautiful songs like Alikwisa Driver, Moses wa nomba, HH, etc? Where are these people and what have you done for them? For Lloyd Chileshe who is a person with a disability you haven’t even bought for him proper walking aids
Music is a business so when your party wins you should win with it, no two ways about it. These artists sacrificed their careers to sing for UPND when it was not fashionable to do so.
I liked the way the PF looked after their PF aligned artists and I can say, factly, that a good number of them are set for life. They have proper homes and other properties which will make them live comfortably no matter who’s in power. But the UPND aligned artists are still renting, others still walking. No singing contracts or anything to show for their loyalty. That’s pure greed because the UPND is failing to share their success at a party level when they shared their struggles with these artists. And if the UPND will be a one term government, then what did they risk their lives for all those years?
In politics, loyalty is everything. Empower your people because soon you will need them and they won’t be there. You will pay bigger artists to sing for you but the public will be disgusted by these disloyal artists who just move where there is money and so will not listen to them. We have already heard one flop which sounds like the person was being forced to sing it. Where is Mpande, where is Cav man, where is the Orga Family? Ever loyal to you, but imwe disloyal to them and others.
It’s not too late, empower your artists. And do it privately if you have to so that when it really matters they will also support you again. Improve the arts industry in general- but that’s a story for another day. Otherwise as things stand, the UPND aligned artists are worse off now than they were in the opposition. So why did they risk their careers and even lives to just sing for such an ungrateful and uncaring party like their own? Music is a business, but in politics LOYALTY IS EVERYTHING.
By Saboi Imboela
President- NDC
You have points Saboi on this one, I hope they have been paid before, because you maybe talking about people who were paid but failed to manage the finances for growth or even improve their talent to attract contracts.
UPND pls find space for these direct loyalist and improve their circumstances.
Valid reasons
Well thought article, thumbs up