ABOUT THE CURRENT SITUATION: TRUE ECONOMIC REVIVAL OR A MERE ATTEMPT TO HOODWINK VOTERS?
By Sean Tembo – PeP President
1. In the past 4 and half years, the Zambian people have endured, among other tribulations, persistent loadsheding, regionally biased appointments to public offices and high exchange rates.
2. As opposition leaders, when we raised the above issues and proposed some solutions, the Government in general and President Hakainde Hichilema in particular, dismissed our concerns, and referred to us as noisy and jealous of the current Government.
3. It was a well established fact that loadsheding was caused by Government’s decision to export our electricity to neighbouring countries such as Namibia, but President Hakainde Hichilema personally argued that we needed to export electricity to earn dollars. That was despite the structural harm that loadsheding has caused to our economy since 2021.
4. It was also a well established fact that the reason the Kwacha was losing value against major currencies, is because President Hakainde Hichilema and his Government gave tax holidays to the mines, which reduced the amount of forex that the country earned, while the demand for forex remained the same in terms of having to import fuel and related products. The argument put forward by President Hakainde Hichilema and his Minister of Finance, in 2022 when they introduced the tax holidays, was that it will attract more investment in the mining sector, and that copper production will increase from about 900,000 metric tonnes at the time, to over 3 million metric tonnes in 3 years time. Fast forward 3 years later, copper production for 2025 was around 860,000 metric tonnes. Not only short of the production target that we were promised, as a justification for the tax holidays, but actually a drop from the production levels before the tax holidays were introduced.
5. It was also a well established fact that public offices were dominated, and still are dominated by President Hakainde Hichilema’s kith and kin, not by accident, but because the President did not attach priority in embracing all the ten provinces of Zambia, despite having been overwhelmingly voted into office, by all the ten provinces in 2021. The President’s argument has been that, for as long as his tribes-mates qualify for the public offices, then why shouldn’t they be employed? But what about people from other regions that also qualify?
6. However, now that we are in 2026, and the country is going to elections on 13th August, we have seen some changes. All of a sudden, Government appears to have significantly reduced electricity exports, with the end result that the country is now enjoying a more stable supply. The current situation in fact renders credence to what we have always argued; that when you cut electricity exports, the local generation capacity is more than adequate to meet the demand. Except for times when we have a drought. Therefore, the terrible loadsheding that the country has been subjected to in the past few years, has not been due to circumstances beyond our control, but rather, because of a conscious choice made by President Hakainde Hichilema and his Government to deny the people of Zambia electricity. To export our electricity.
7. Again, now that we are in 2026 and it is an election year, we are witnessing a strange phenomenon whereby some of the President’s tribes-mates that occupied public offices, are being fired, and individuals from other provinces are being appointed to act in these positions. Again, these actions by Government, albeit small and insignificant, render credence to what we have always argued; that public offices should reflect the face of the entire nation, and should not only be a preserve of the President’s tribes-mates. That the phrase “One Zambia One Nation” should be practiced and not just preached.
8. Again, now that we are in 2026, and it’s an election year, we have seen that the Kwacha is appreciating significantly. This is largely due to three factors, the first of which is significant and the other two are minor. The first is that the $3.2 billion tax holidays given to the mines by President Hakainde Hichilema and his Government in October 2022, expired in October 2025. The Government is mute on whether these tax holidays will be renewed or not, especially given the fact that their primary purpose, to increase copper production to 3 million metric tonnes in 3 years, has not been achieved.
9. The other two minor factors that have contributed to the appreciation of the Kwacha is compelling the mines to remit the gross proceeds of their mineral exports back to the country, and curtailing dollarisation of the economy through the central bank enforcing a rule that all local payments must be made in Kwacha. Suffice to mention that these two policy changes are akin to the provisions of Statutory Instrument number 55 of 2012 and 35 of 2013, to which Mr Hakainde Hichilema, then an opposition leader, was vehemently opposed to, and which the then PF Government was forced to withdraw after a strong backlash from Mr Hakainde Hichilema’s accomplices in the mining sector. Again, the President has not told us whether he has had a change of heart in his policy position, or whether these two policies are merely a temporal measure until the August general elections? The above notwithstanding, the current appreciation of the Kwacha renders credence to our pepertual argument that, with proper policing of the mining sector, the value of the Kwacha, and by extension, the stability of our economy, can be sustained. But can President Hakainde Hichilema be trusted with properly policing the mining sector, after the August general elections?
10. The million-dollar question that the Zambian people are now confronted with is whether the positive changes that we are currently witnessing from the UPND Government, in terms of loadsheding, appetite for tribalism and appreciation of the Kwacha, constitute a sustainable turnaround in their approach to the governance of the nation, or they are temporal and merely designed to hoodwink the electorate, ahead of the 13th August general election? Instead of answering this question on behalf of others, I will allow each individual reader to answer it for themselves. But as you answer the above question, I wish to remind you that Zambia is our only home. Therefore, we need to do everything in our power to make it a better place for ourselves and our children. The Future is in our hands. The Future is SET ✌
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SET 09.02.2026