SPOTLIGHT | ADC Shapa Wakung’uma: Promoted After Holding Line When Chingola Collapsed
The Chingola incident has triggered the biggest behind-the-scenes shake-up in Zambia’s presidential security since 2015. While the public debate focused on political actors, those within security circles have been dissecting one thing: how the protective ring around President Hakainde Hichilema fractured, and how one man, Shapa Wakung’uma, stepped up when it mattered most.
In the avalanche of stone-throwing, crowd surges, and total perimeter breakdown, the President’s ADC was visibly operating at the correct protection tempo as footages show. Those trained in close-protection work immediately recognised his alertness, his stance, and his body positioning. While others looked disoriented even distracted, Shapa was scanning, screening, and blocking at the same time. That is what saved the situation from spiralling into a lethal breach.
His promotion to Commissioner of Police – Special Duties is not political theatre. It is a technical correction. The State is signalling that presidential protection will now be run by officers who understand high-risk crowd behaviour, tactical evacuation, and perimeter management in volatile zones. Chingola exposed the consequences of over-confidence, complacency, and poor ground intelligence. Shapa embodied the opposite.
His résumé explains why.
Before becoming ADC, Shapa served as:
– National Sports Coordinator (Zambia Police)
– Officer Commanding, Sesheke District
– UNMIL Police Trainer & Advisor in Liberia
– Drill & Weapons Instructor, Lilayi
– OIC Sports Department
– FAZ Disciplinary Committee member
– Zambia Judo Association President
– Commonwealth Judo Committee member
His international medals, from Canada to Northern Ireland and Mauritius, speak to discipline, precision, and controlled aggression, the exact attributes needed in protective detail. His 4th Dan black belt, combined with a Master’s Degree in Defence and Security (UNZA) and a Law Degree, makes him one of the few Zambian officers blending academic, martial, and field-command experience.
Many PF cadres remember Sesheke: when violence erupted in 2019, Shapa was the officer who restored control in minutes. Those who tried him learned the limits of human speed.
But Chingola was a different test. It was not simply a crowd that turned rowdy. It was a mix of infiltrated elements, emotional market sympathisers, miners who feel politically orphaned, and opportunists who exploited the President’s proximity. In those conditions, reaction time is measured in milliseconds. Any lapse becomes catastrophic.
Security experts flagged four failures in Chingola:
1. Poor advance reconnaissance. The route and holding area were not adequately assessed for infiltration points.
2. Weak perimeter discipline. The buffer zone collapsed instantly because it was manned by officers unfamiliar with crowd-surge patterns.
3. Inadequate flank protection. Stones came from predictable angles, but screens were late.
4. Complacency in the inner ring. One officer went viral for picking his nose while the President was under threat, a symbol of what went wrong.
Shapa was the outlier. His situational awareness was at 100 percent. He anticipated movement, redirected the President fast, and executed what professionals call “controlled lateral extraction,” moving the principal out without triggering further panic.
It is no surprise that within hours of national outrage, the intelligence community and the police command began making quiet adjustments. Promotions, redeployments, disciplinary assessments, and audits of the Presidential Security Unit (PSU) followed.
Many changes are taking place including Police Spokesperson, Rae Hamoonga, moving to Western Province as Commissioner. Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister, Jack Mwiimbu has camped in Chingola, overseeing operations personally.
Over 27 suspects have been picked up, including one linked to the ruling party, confirming that investigations are not political but operational.
Shapa’s elevation is therefore more than a reward. It is a message:
“Presidential protection is now a serious, elite discipline. Only professionals will remain.”
In the coming weeks, expect more reforms in:
– crowd-screening protocols
– intelligence-fusion systems
– advance-team deployments
– rapid-extraction drills
– joint operations between police, intelligence, and military units
Chingola was a warning shot. Zambia cannot afford another.
For now, one thing is clear: when everyone froze, Shapa Wakung’uma did not. And that is why he now holds a rank that reflects the weight of what he carried in those critical seconds.
© The People’s Brief | Ollus R. Ndomu
Congratulations Commissioner WS…
In a high profile incident like this one, the temptation to arrest even the innocent is high. Those responsible can fall victim to the pressure to produce results. For the sake of the incumbent President and future presidents and indeed the nation at large, I hope the investigators will do a thorough job and not play to the gallery.
The Jerabos have directly challenged the law enforcement agencies and the response will determine future interactions between the two. The brazen attack on the presidency shows how much contempt the Jerabos have for the police. Could it be that some of the police officers are on the Jerabos’ payroll?
The lawlessness of the Jerabos must be firmly stumped out or the nation will wake up one day to find they are in full charge of the country.
@JMC
The so called Jerabos are just young boys, scrounging a living in the disused Pits , dumps , left behind by ZCCM Ltd. They are not an Organized Force which can give a government sleepless nights…and that some “Militia” can travel from Bweengwa, Lusaka, or Solwezi to wage “war” against these 19 – 20 year old boys. The majority are just kids.
It’s buffling that the President can even think these boys can storm polling stations next year. That’s far fetched and laughable.
These boys belong to the pits. They get the Slag or Waste material which contains some percentage of copper and sell to the Chinese, at very low prices, just to sustain themselves. But Young as they are , they are not dumb.
The issue is the displacement of these young boys by politically connected people who are appropriating these dump sites, give it a name, and it becomes a formal mine..under guard by the Security. And the boys are thrown in the cold.
The government has strangely allowed the export of semi Processed Copper ore ( Soil) and highly connected people have entered these business and are getting dump sites everywhere on the Copperbelt.
In Mufulira, Mopani Copper Mines, the Slag dumps have been given to a business Associate of the MAN. This is in the public domain.
It’s therefore not surprising as to where the the decision to allow the export of soil without any value addition came from.
It was the same with the Black Mountain in Kitwe. That mountain had been around for years sustaining wusakile and Chamboli Youths.
Enter the UPND, the black mountain was completely finished in less than a year.
Those young boys are not dumb, and have a story to tell..I don’t think Prison should be for them. Let them tell their story, and ways to help them can be found.
Just some Counseling, or may be send them to the Zambia National Service , and give them another source of living.
Thank you.
It doesn’t matter whether they are Jerabos or otherwise, their behaviour is criminal and should face severe punishment. Their reasons for criminal behaviour has no justification and as there proceeded to cause arson and loot gives their intentions and that of their sponsors. There aim was to show that they are above the law, untouchable and that only then can decide and get what they want at any cost. The behaviour of most opposition leaders insulting the president and declaring freedom of speech, and noticing other political opposition leaders joining in the act and claiming political persecution and the long period it has taken for most of these cases to be concluded emboldened them and decide to go big, believing they could get away with murder at any cost. Now is the time to put processes in place to have all the cases delayed to be fast tracked and have them concluded and ensure those that are deliberately committing crimes and claim persecution or freedom of speech face very stiff jail sentences including heavy personal financial penalties and burned for life from getting involved in politics in order ethics integrity and clean up our politics.
Thank you James. Very intelligent write up
@One Hundred Thousand Kwacha NKUKU Man, come on, you’re better than this. You can’t condone lawlessness just because it is done by children, as you’re calling them or because they are hungry. Age or hunger does not give anyone the right to break the law, so the culprits must face the law to its fullest so that others can learn a lesson from it.
Ba Nkuku, do you know what goes on at these mine dumps? Please don’t romanticise them as young boys scrapping for a living. They are hardened characters who, if left to their own devices, can cause serious damage to the national fabric.
A living has to be earned within the confines of the law. The law is meant to maintain social order and justice. I have had the chance to talk to some people who had close encounters with these Jerabos. You would be shocked by what they used to do especially under the MMD and Mr. Lungu’s PF. When Mr. Sata was voted in as President, they scampered and kept a low profile only to emerge with a vengeance under Mr. Lungu.
At a mine hospital, I once witnessed mine police officers who were seeing a colleague who had been beaten by Jerabos for refusing them access to a mine dump. The officer was followed to his home and given such a severe beating he had to be flown to South Africa for specialist treatment. These Jerabos are not nursery school kids, they can be lethal.
HOW DID THE BODY GUARD FROM BEIJIN PEFORM?????