PROJECT 2026 OR PROJECT COPYCAT? THE FACTS DON’T SUPPORT AMB EMMANUEL MWAMBA’S CLAIM- George Mtonga
By George Mtonga
Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba’s claim that the UPND Manifesto copied his “Project 2026” falls apart the moment one examines the public record.
The assertion assumes that the ideas of expanding electricity generation, increasing maize production, growing copper output and promoting value addition first appeared in his broadcasts in 2025. They did not.
In fact, these targets had already been publicly articulated by President Hakainde Hichilema, government ministries and official government strategies long before Mr. Mwamba launched Project 2026.
Let us look at the evidence.
Copper: Hichilema Announced It In 2022
On 1 November 2022, President Hakainde Hichilema publicly announced Zambia’s target of increasing copper production from approximately 800,000 tonnes to 3 million tonnes within ten years.
This was not a slogan. It became official government policy and was later incorporated into the National Three Million Metric Tonnes Copper
Production Strategy.
By August 2024, the Ministry of Mines had already published the National Three Million Metric Tonnes Copper Production Strategy, outlining how Zambia would reach the target through exploration, investment attraction, processing, and expansion of existing mines.
That was months before Project 2026 existed.
If anyone copied anyone, it certainly was not UPND copying a project that had not yet been launched.
Maize: Government Was Talking About 10 Million Tonnes In 2024
On 20 March 2024, President Hichilema challenged farmers to achieve Zambia’s target of producing 10 million metric tonnes of maize.
Again, this was more than a year before Mr. Mwamba unveiled Project 2026.
The target was repeated throughout 2024 and 2025 as part of government’s agricultural transformation agenda.
Today Zambia is projected to harvest nearly 5 million tonnes of maize, the highest harvest in its history, placing the country almost halfway toward that national target.
The evidence shows that government was not reacting to Project 2026.
Project 2026 was reacting to a national conversation that was already underway.
Power Generation: The Link Between Copper And Electricity Was Established Years Earlier
When President Hichilema announced the 3 million tonne copper target in 2022, he simultaneously emphasized the need for major energy expansion to support mining growth.
Mining and energy conferences throughout 2022, 2023 and 2024 consistently linked the 3 million tonne copper vision to large-scale power generation expansion.
By early 2025, government was openly discussing the 10,000 MW objective as part of Zambia’s industrialisation and mining agenda.
This was not an opposition innovation.
It was the logical continuation of a strategy government had been pursuing for years.
Mineral Processing Is Not A New Idea
The claim that processing copper, gold and cobalt was somehow invented by Project 2026 is perhaps the weakest argument of all.
Successive governments, including UPND, PF and even MMD administrations, have spoken about value addition.
The difference is that the Hichilema administration has spent the last four years attracting capital back into the mining sector through the recapitalisation of Mopani, the return of KCM to production and the attraction of billions of dollars in mining investment.
Talking about processing is easy.
Creating the conditions for processing is the difficult part.
The Real Question
Nobody owns economic development ideas.
Nobody owns the concept of producing more maize.
Nobody owns the concept of increasing electricity generation.
Nobody owns the concept of adding value to minerals.
The real question is simple:
Who first turned these aspirations into official government policy?
The answer is clear.
The 3 million tonne copper target was publicly announced in 2022.
The 10 million tonne maize target was publicly articulated in 2024.
The energy expansion strategy emerged from the same industrialisation agenda years before Project 2026.
The documentary evidence shows that these targets existed before Emmanuel Mwamba’s broadcasts.
Project 2026 did not inspire government policy.
It largely repackaged ambitions that were already part of Zambia’s national development agenda.
History matters.
Dates matter.
Facts matter.
And the dates simply do not support the claim that UPND copied Project 2026. :::
Key dates before Project 2026 (May 2025):
1 Nov 2022: President Hichilema publicly announces the target of increasing copper production to 3 million tonnes within 10 years. Source: ZCCM Investments Holdings Plc
20 Mar 2024: President Hichilema challenges farmers to achieve 10 million metric tonnes of maize. Source: daily-mail.co.zm
30 Aug 2024: Government publishes the National Three Million Metric Tonnes Copper Production Strategy. Source: mmmd.gov.zm
13 Dec 2024: Government publicly reiterates the 10 million tonne maize target. Source:Diamond Media
22 Jan 2025: Ministry of Mines statements continue referencing the 3 million tonne copper target by 2031. Source: mmmd.gov.zm
Those dates all precede Project 2026 and provide a strong factual basis to challenge the claim that these goals originated with Emmanuel Mwamba because they did not. In any case, its good to see the ambassador is finally aligned with the UPND vision. We welcome this development.