HH IS UNPATRIOTIC, CORRUPT, A LIAR, AND TRIBALIST…Zambia deserves better leadership – Sishuwa

HH IS UNPATRIOTIC, CORRUPT, A LIAR, AND TRIBALIST

…Zambia deserves better leadership – Sishuwa

By Mast Reporters

Behind President Hakainde Hichilema’s desperation to change the constitution before the 2026 general election is his desire to remove the constitutional requirement that a winning presidential candidate must receive more than fifty percent of the valid votes cast, observed Sishuwa Sishuwa yesterday.

And Dr Sishuwa, a Senior Lecturer in History at Stellenbosch University, said Zambia deserves better leadership, further explaining why he believes President Hichilema is ‘unpatriotic, corrupt, a liar, and a tribalist”.

In an exclusive and wide ranging interview, the South Africa-based academic disagreed with the President’s statement that Zambians have agreed to change the constitution before the 2026 election.

“Where did Zambians agree? When? And which Zambians are these? Can he name them? Hichilema is lying that Zambians have agreed to change the constitution. The Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops have publicly stated in their pastoral letters that they do not support any plans to change the constitution before the 2026 election because it is too late to build the required consensus. Opposition parties rejected the proposed amendments as far as back as 2023 for the same reasons. There are many other interest groups and individuals who have expressed similar sentiments, that any changes to the constitution, if at all they are necessary, must only take place after the 2026 election to avoid the politicisation of the process. So why is Hichilema lying in our collective name?”, he asked.

The historian argued that Hichilema is desperate to change the constitution because he wants to remove the 50% + 1 vote provision.

“The real reason behind Hichilema’s desperation to change the constitution before the 2026 general election is his desire to remove the constitutional requirement that a winning presidential candidate must receive more than fifty percent of the valid votes cast during the election. Hichilema knows that his popularity has sunk to such levels that he won’t be able to obtain over fifty percent of the valid votes cast next year. To enhance his chances of winning, the President wants to revert to the First Past the Post system where a president is elected through a simple majority. But Hichilema knows that Zambians will not support this change, so the ruse he is using to sway people towards supporting his desperate desire to change the constitution is the claim that we need these constitutional changes before the next general election to provide for delimitation, proportional representation, and remove lacunae that can delay general elections for as long as 8 to 9 years”.

“The truth is that Hichilema wants to change the constitution to remove the 50% +1 vote clause because he is scared that he won’t be able to win re-election if the provision remains in the current constitution. He knows he cannot be re-elected on merit. Even the fact that he is running two political parties, the UPND and the PF, is not enough to give him peace. Even the fact that he has orchestrated the exclusion of his main rival, former president Edgar Lungu, from the 2026 election is not enough to give him peace. Even the fact that he already has Mwangala Zaloumis, and other UPND supporters at the increasingly partisan Electoral Commission of Zambia is not enough to give him peace. Even the fact that he controls the judiciary, which would make any attempt to go to court over this issue and other political matters entirely pointless, is not enough to give him peace. Hichilema is not taking chances. He is now going for the overkill: changing the constitution in order to make his re-election easier. That is why the president and the UPND have been forcing these parliamentary by-elections we have witnessed over the last three years to raise the numbers required in the National Assembly to be able to effect any constitutional changes. Hichilema has been very methodical in implementing his diabolical plan to retain power by any means necessary to the point that he has, over the last three years, neglected governing and addressing the foremost challenges the country faces. The 50%+ 1 clause will just be the first casualty. Hichilema has put in motion a lot of other schemes to engineer his re-election. He might remove term limits or increase the term of office for the president, or both. What gives him confidence to declare  that he will change the constitution is that he appears to have finally raised the numbers in the National Assembly required to change the constitution. Unless he is stopped, I fear that Hichilema might succeed in his tracks not only because he is obsessed to secure re-election in order to avoid possible prosecution for corruption and criminal misuse of power but also because he has displayed an extraordinary lack of moral restraint”.

Dr Sishuwa added that the solution to stopping Hichilema is not legal but political.

“If Hichilema succeeds in changing the constitution, he will likely be a life president. That is the danger. The man has shown little regard for legal constraints. In fact, he has destroyed all institutions, which are only functioning as shells of themselves. We must do whatever we can to peacefully stop Hichilema in his tracks. In my view, the solution is political, not legal, and it would require the mobilisation of the efforts of divergent groups such as civil society, MPs, opposition parties, traditional leaders, businesspersons, diplomats and donors, and even the security services to peacefully stop the man from tinkering with the constitution. To this effect, I support the position taken by Catholic Bishops and the opposition that any changes to the constitution must wait until after the 2026 election. As both interest groups have rightly noted, there must be consensus, and to gauge the consensus of millions of Zambians is something that requires a lot of thought. Hichilema had three years in which to build the required consensus, away from the proximity of any general election. It is too late now to embark on such an important national exercise. A constitution is a social contract between the governed and the governors and should never be changed to suit the partisan interests of an individual. I appeal to more Zambians to stand up and reject Hichilema’s attempt to bulldoze his way over this subject in our name and to manipulate the constitution”, he added.

He argued that President Hichilema only has himself to blame for his increasing desperation ahead of the 2026 general election.

“Unless he removes the requirement that the winning presidential candidate should secure over 50% of the total votes cast, I simply do not see Hichilema winning a second term in 2026. Hichilema probably knows this, which might explain why he is increasingly using repression to contain dissent, inducing traditional leaders and weaker opposition parties to endorse him, and destroying the more serious political opposition, instead of delivering on his election campaign promises. Having spent fifteen years in opposition, it is understandable that Hichilema does not want to leave power after only five years in office. However, he only has himself to blame for the growing public discontent against his leadership. He has antagonised the multi-ethnic coalition that brought him to power, concentrated on fighting his predecessor rather than governing, prioritised the arrest of political opponents and critics rather than the deplorable economic conditions in which majority Zambians continue to live, paid more attention to the interests of foreign actors especially mining companies rather than domestic concerns, nurtured high-level corruption in government, destroyed any remaining semblance of autonomy in formal institutions by packing them with loyalists, and embraced and refined the authoritarian tendencies of his predecessors. All things considered, Hichilema is a failed political experiment. I say this because when it comes to the bigger national issues, such as safeguarding our cherished democracy, getting the best out of Zambia’s mineral wealth, respecting the constitution and the rule of law, fighting corruption beyond rhetoric, genuine promotion of national unity and equitable distribution of appointments to public service positions, sorting out the cost-of-living crisis and the deplorable conditions of life for most Zambians, Hichilema has, so far, lamentably failed”, Dr Sishuwa said.

“Sometimes I ask myself: what has happened to the Hichilema we had in opposition? The Hichilema in opposition could actively listen and learn. He promised people what they wanted, identified with the people and their needs, and played the part of the ordinary citizen who can represent all citizens . He appeared as a decent political leader who was outraged by anti-democratic or repressive legislation, abuse, injustice, lies, corruption, and ethnic-regional divisions, and a steady pair of hands who could help restore Zambia’s democratic tradition and resuscitate the faltering economy. In power or since his ascent to the position of President, Hichilema has so easily found comfort in the company of all the vices he denounced in opposition that one may think his conscience has been stolen. What would Hichilema’s former self think of him now?”, Dr Sishuwa asked.

The academic accused President Hichilema of being detached from reality and abandoning many of the positions that made him appealing to voters.

“Lacking intellectual curiosity, the Hichilema in power is dripping with arrogance and talks even where he should listen. He is extremely detached from reality, has U-turned on many of the positions that made him attractive to most Zambians when he was in opposition, and has systematically moved to alienate the various constituencies in the broader sense that voted for him. Much of his behaviour seems to be geared, if any sense can be attributed to it, towards deliberately shedding the support that brought him into office, and certainly not mobilising support from anywhere. Indeed, he seems to enjoy de-mobilising his earlier support. Since he was elected, he shows very little sign of feeling any need for popular support. On the contrary, he goes out of his way to spit in the faces of his former supporters. Perhaps he is supremely confident of using the Electoral Commission of Zambia, the police, and the judiciary, formal institutions that he has loaded with his supporters, to steal the election using a ballot printing company based in the United Arab Emirates. Perhaps he aims to declare an interminable state of emergency. Maybe he aims to change the constitution and alter presidential term limits so that he can never be removed from office”.

Dr Sishuwa said he misses the Hichilema that Zambians knew when he was in opposition.

“In 2006, President Levy Mwanawasa said this about Hichilema: ‘His understanding of politics is that it doesn’t matter; you can cheat, provided you get your goals. The problem [with] Mr Hichilema is…that he wants to cheat, to mislead, to show that he is what he is not’. When I read what Levy said about the man, I ask myself this question: Was Hichilema a fraud who fooled many into believing that he was a bankable candidate only to show his true colours after assuming State power? Or perhaps he was, all along, just an incompetent political leader whose many weaknesses we overlooked in our quest to get rid of Lungu and a compulsive liar who made various promises which he had no intention of implementing and, in many cases, had the definite intention of doing exactly the opposite? Was his strategy to propose popular policies in order to get elected, and then to drop them after his election? Whatever the case, I miss the Hichilema we had before 2021. The one we have now is a completely different Hichilema I increasingly no longer recognise. What has really happened to the Hichilema we had in opposition?”, Dr Sishuwa asked.

He argued that Zambia deserves better leadership, explaining how President Hichilema has shown that he is ‘unpatriotic, corrupt, a liar, and a tribalist”.

“Zambia deserves better leadership than the one shown by President Hichilema so far. And by better leadership, I mean the kind of leadership that unites, is genuinely patriotic, fights corruption especially of its inner circle, and possesses the most essential ethical values – courage, compassion and love for fellow human beings, moral force of character, integrity, genuine humility, honesty, a predilection for consultation, consensus-building, communication, co-operation, active listening, and the selfless pursuit of the public good, and not the selfish striving for personal gain. It is hardly possible to look at Hichilema’s cabinet today without being struck by the calamity of the absence of this kind of leadership. Hichilema has repeatedly shown that he is unpatriotic, corrupt, a liar, and a tribalist. I am not saying this without reason or cause. Let me explain why. He is unpatriotic because he and his friends in Cabinet have given, almost for free, Zambia’s mineral wealth to foreigners. No patriot would give huge tax incentives to foreign multinational companies and remove taxes on precious minerals while taxing the poor Zambian to the cemetery. No patriot would preside over the Mopani and Konkola mining deals as he had done, which deals are so dreadful and anti-Zambia that any citizen who signs such terrible shareholder agreements must ordinarily be charged with SABOTAGE or TREASON. If the Mopani deal is simply illegal, the contents of the Agreement with Vedanta constitute the ultimate betrayal of public trust and the interests of the State”, he said.

“He is arguably corrupt because only a crook would refuse to publish his assets and liabilities in the name of transparency. What assets and liabilities does Hichilema have and why won’t he tell Zambians? Asset declarations are not for ECZ’s drawers; they are meant to aid voters make an informed decision and demand accountability from their leaders. When I approached ECZ, they refused to give me a copy of the asset declaration records of all presidential candidates in 2021. What is the point of asset declarations if they are hidden from Zambians and stacked away in the drawers of the ECZ?”

Dr Sishuwa said President Hichilema lacks the political will to fight corruption as shown by his failure to lead by example.

“I sometimes hear his supporters saying ‘there is no law that requires the President of Zambia to publish their assets and liabilities’. But the fight against corruption is a moral issue and it is therefore important for Hichilema to lead by example. How can he prove that he detests corruption and demand transparency from his ministers and other government officials when he is not telling Zambians how much he is worth and his liabilities?”, he asked.

“In any case, if Hichilema truly has the political will to fight corruption, and after three years in office, what exactly has stopped his administration from passing a law that would make assets declaration and publication both for his office and other senior government officials, an annual requirement? He is a liar because he said he will reduce the cost of living, the cost of fertiliser, the price of mealie meal, the price of fuel, and promised that the Kwacha would appreciate by 14:00 after he is sworn in at 10:00hrs. He also said he would not incur additional debt. None of these promises have materialised. In fact, the prices of everything he pledged to reduce have increased while the Kwacha has depreciated even further to levels that have never been recorded since independence in 1964. He has also needlessly acquired more debt in three years, betraying his promise to generate resources locally such as from our mineral wealth. He is a regional-tribalist because he has surrounded himself and packed the key positions in the civil service, security services, judiciary, executive, parastatal companies, foreign service, higher education, commissions, and other public bodies with people from the region where President Hichilema and I hail from to the marginalisation or neglect of Zambians from Bemba-speaking and Eastern provinces.

In sum, this abbreviated account explains why I believe that Zambia deserves better leadership since President Hichilema has repeatedly demonstrated that he is unpatriotic, arguably corrupt, a liar, and a tribalist. It is now clear that the Hichilema we were sold in opposition was a fraud. After losing the election five times, Hichilema, ahead of the 2021 election, seems to have deliberately repackaged himself into somebody Zambians would be able to accept. But that Hichilema was not authentic. What we are seeing now is the real Hichilema. The traits I have highlighted which define him such as lack of patriotism, loyalty to corruption, lying, and a predilection to regional tribalism, are not characteristics that emerge in one’s old age. They have probably always been there, and are just coming to the fore now that he has a bigger platform to expose himself…. I think that becoming a decent person with a character that is predisposed towards strong ethical values is not something that is achieved in adulthood; it is a deliberate act that the individual has to nurse or nurture throughout their upbringing especially in the formative years of their existence.  I hear people sometimes comparing Hichilema to Levy Mwanawasa. That is an insult to the memory of Levy. Hichilema is nearly everything opposite of what Levy was”, Dr Sishuwa said.