🇿🇲 BRIEFING | Hichilema Heads to North-Western as Campaign Momentum Builds
Fresh from a week that saw packed crowds in Central Province, a manifesto launch at Mulungushi International Conference Centre and a growing coalition of political allies rallying behind his re-election bid, President Hakainde Hichilema today turns his attention to North-Western Province, one of the country’s most strategically important political and economic regions.
The President is expected in Solwezi for a one-day working visit that will begin with worship at Solwezi Airport Seventh Day Adventist Church before a series of engagements with UPND structures as the ruling party steadily shifts from governing mode into full campaign mobilisation.
Few provinces better symbolise the economic story Hichilema hopes to tell voters. North-Western Province sits at the heart of Zambia’s mining expansion agenda, home to some of the country’s largest copper investments and a region increasingly central to the government’s ambitions of raising annual copper production towards three million tonnes.
The visit also comes as political activity across the country begins to gather pace. After months of criticism from opponents who claimed the President was reluctant to enter the campaign arena, recent scenes from Kabwe, Mulungushi University and Lusaka have painted a different picture — one of a ruling party seeking to convert economic recovery into political momentum.
North-Western Province Permanent Secretary Colonel Grandson Katambi confirmed the visit, while UPND Provincial Chairperson Adam Sapezo described the President’s arrival as timely as the party intensifies mobilisation efforts ahead of the August 13 general election.
For Hichilema, Solwezi is more than another campaign stop. It is another opportunity to carry a message increasingly at the centre of his re-election pitch: that Zambia has emerged from crisis, regained its footing and is now preparing for a new phase of growth.
Whether voters embrace that argument will shape the weeks ahead, but today the campaign road leads west — and the President will be there.
© The People’s Brief | Tracey Shumba