HICHILEMA HAS LOST FOCUS-AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL
Hichilema accused of ‘losing focus’
President Hakainde Hichilema gave a
long and emotional press conference
on 25 April further cataloguing his
persecution by the previous government
– which many critics believe irrelevant
to the current political situation –
while making vague promises about his
government’s programme.
Almost everyone agrees that
Hichilema inherited a disastrous
economy nearly bankrupted by
corruption and political patronage.
But even friends of the government
complain he is spending too much
time on distracting battles over the
previous government’s treatment of
him. For them it diverts attention from
his programme, especially attempts to
counter the conduct of appointees of
his predecessor President Edgar Lungu,
such as Director of Public Prosecutions
Lilian Siyuni Shawa, and the liquidator
of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), lawyer
Milingo Lungu (see Box).
Hichilema’s team sees this campaign
as crucial to honouring its election
pledge to root out corruption. But his
concentration on President Lungu’s past
sins has been so great it risks, as the local
newspaper News Diggers put it, ‘making
criminals looks like they are victims of
persecution’.
Hichilema and his team are too
immersed in micro-management of the
state apparatus and are failing to lead on
the big picture of government as the end
nears of the honeymoon he has enjoyed
with the electorate after winning a
landslide in August’s election, insiders
say (AC Vol 63 No 1).
Instead of eliciting sympathy for his
personal battle with endemic corruption
and sabotage, not forgetting the 127
days he spent in detention on Lungu’s
whim, Hichilema should be facing the
rising cost of living and concerns over
restructuring the debt and corruption.
Commentariat and public alike are
impatient at his failure to provide
a clearer direction after promising
massive job creation, lower cost of
living and free education in the election
campaign (AC Vol 62 No 20).
Hichilema spoke, seemingly off-
the-cuff, for two hours at the press
conference – which started one hour late
– confirming a long-noted tendency not
to prioritise key issues, ranging instead
across many topics, and promising
great things under each heading.
The speeches, like this one, often end with
listeners still wondering what issues top
his agenda (AC Vol 62 No 23).
This, the first press conference
since last September, bore only limited
resemblance to the pre-briefing
summary issued to media, which listed
key topics such as the economy, mining,
health, education, agriculture, and
corruption.
Even supporters showed their
disappointment at the performance.
Activist Laura Miti, a Hichilema
appointee to Zambia’s Human Rights
Commission, tweeted ‘Could you
apologise for keeping the nation
waiting?’, and academic and activist
Sishuwa Sishuwa, a vehement opponent
of Lungu, also tweeted on the extreme
length of the event: ‘The only positive
thing about it is that it has ended!’
Many are now tired of the
President’s assertions that the kind of
freedom media and citizens have now
would not have been possible under
his predecessor.
Some commentators even detect a note of resentment of the public and press for not thanking him enough for not resorting to repression, and for honouring the rule of law.
Thendertones of aggression in the speech
were very unsettling,’ said one local
analyst. ‘Trying to say that they could
have used power to be thugs and we
should be grateful they didn’t is an
extraordinary narrative,’ he added.
Supporters of the government
say Hichilema is only suffering from
presentation problems. The climate
has changed, they insist. Civil servants
are more professional, party activists
are less prominent, and even the traffic
police have stopped extorting drivers at
roadblocks. People, they say, are happier,
and relieved to be free of the oppressive
atmosphere under Lungu.
