🇿🇲 VIEWPOINT | Hichilema’s Global Standing Keeps Rising as Domestic Politics Remains Polarised
President Hakainde Hichilema’s inclusion in The Telegraph’s list of World Leaders of 2025 has landed in a politically charged environment at home. Supporters see validation. Critics see exaggeration. But beyond partisan noise, the recognition speaks to a specific reality: Zambia’s fiscal and economic story over the past four years is being read very differently outside its borders than it is inside domestic political debates.
The Telegraph’s assessment is anchored in context. Zambia entered the pandemic era as the first African country to default on sovereign debt in November 2020. Public finances were distressed, investor confidence was broken, and relations with creditors were strained.
This baseline matters because international evaluations measure trajectory, not perfection. From that low point, Zambia has restructured the debt which sharply reduces repayment pressure and restores credibility with lenders. Foreign reserves are at record high.
The publication highlights fiscal discipline as the core of this turnaround. Under Hichilema, government spending has been brought under tighter control, arrears have been addressed more transparently, and engagement with the IMF and creditors has been consistent rather than confrontational. These are signals global markets track closely. They explain why Zambia is now projected to grow at 5.8 percent in 2025 and 6.4 percent in 2026, even after the economic shock of El Niño-induced drought that cut hydropower generation and agricultural output.
Mining is central to that outlook. The Telegraph points to revived investor confidence and anticipated record production. This confidence did not emerge from slogans. It followed policy shifts that clarified tax regimes, restored dialogue with mining firms, and reduced the uncertainty that had stalled investment decisions in previous years. In global financial centres, predictability often matters more than rhetoric.
International credibility has also been shaped by diplomacy. Hichilema has positioned Zambia as a pragmatic actor capable of balancing Eastern and Western partnerships without ideological rigidity. In a fragmented global order, the ability to navigate competing interests enhances a leader’s standing. It is one reason Zambia now features regularly in global economic conversations rather than as a cautionary tale.
Domestic critics often counter by pointing to cost-of-living pressures, load shedding, and uneven service delivery. Those concerns are real and politically potent. But they coexist with fiscal outcomes that have expanded government’s room to act.
More than 60,000 civil servants have been recruited during this term, a scale of public employment Zambia had not seen in years. Education has absorbed significant investment, from free primary, basic and secondary education to expanded teacher recruitment and tertiary education spending. These moves are only possible in a fiscal environment that is no longer in constant crisis mode.
This is where the gap between domestic perception and international evaluation widens. At home, politics is judged daily through prices, power supply, and personal hardship. Globally, leadership is assessed through macroeconomic stability, debt sustainability, institutional reform, and investor confidence. A leader can score unevenly on one scale while advancing on the other.
The Telegraph’s recognition does not claim Hichilema has solved every governance challenge. It does not suggest universal prosperity or political harmony. It acknowledges competence in managing a collapsed fiscal space and restoring credibility after default. In global terms, this is not a small achievement.
For Zambia’s opposition, the implication is uncomfortable. International respect limits the effectiveness of narratives that portray the country as collapsing or isolated. For government supporters, the lesson is equally sobering. Global praise does not automatically translate into domestic satisfaction. Elections are not won in London or New York, but in Lusaka, Chawama, Chipata, and Mansa.
Hichilema’s global reception rests on numbers, policy choices, and fiscal outcomes. His domestic challenge remains converting macro stability into everyday relief. Both truths can exist at the same time. This balance, more than applause or outrage, is what defines Zambia’s political moment.
© The People’s Brief | Ollus R. Ndomu
International Capital and Business has a way of Pampering those serving it’s Interests, to perpetuate the Thievery and siphoning of resources from that country. The Media is a handy tool to achieve this…And when one looks at a Newspaper like the Telegraph UK, do not end at headlines. Critically think and go deeper than the headlines. Know who owns the Newspaper. And when looking at the Telegraph, the Dhubai Billionaires come to the fore. Then the Jigsaw starts falling into place.
What you see is not what you get Zambia!
We live in a Maze, where reality is often an illusion.
There are International Con Men out there under the guise of Newspapers…to parade a narrative, promote certain people, so as to protect their pockets, the so called Investments, especially when approaching Elections. The last thing they want is to have their puppet who gives them Tax Holidays , referred to as good investment climate, removed from power.
On that list of GREAT Leaders from the Telegraph is a Terrorist Jihadist President of Syria, who a few years ago was beheading People..Why is this Murderer on that List? The people behind the Telegraph, and International Con Businesses, see in this scum an opportunity for influence in the middle east.
Kuku Mbedu Wazabanga, Mobutu Sese Seko, the Zaire Thief, was a feature on these Newspapers. The Greatest Leader of Africa.
Not too long ago we had Robert Chabinga, the Illegitimate and Disgraced so called PF President, a Product of Misrule of Law, and abuse of State Institutions,on the floor of the House of Lords in UK. How did this scum and Scam find himself on the List of Great Leaders of the World, and on the floor of the house of Lords… It was through the same Con Lobbyists, the Mingalatoons, who want to obliterate the Patriotic Front, so that they continue with their unfettered ‘ Thievery ‘ , parasiting on our Resources.
We know these things..
Some people, the usual Praise Zealots, will be jumping on their Heads about the Great Leader…The Best in the World.
But there’s a thin line between Best, Worst and Waste. The words Rhyme and sound the same, especially in the Maze we live in.
What the Telegraph , a UK Newspaper, sees as Best, may well be the Worst…or the Waste.
You think you can fool a Corleone?
No ways ba Mingalatoon!
Jealous is a cancer….for the jealous people keep on dreaming until you faint of anger.
“A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house” is a biblical saying from Jesus (Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4) that means people often reject or fail to recognize the wisdom, talents, or divine message of a prophet or gifted individual when they are most familiar with them, as familiarity breeds contempt, leading to unbelief and limited impact locally, even if they’re revered elsewhere.
You are wasting your time quoting biblical verses. Freemasonry do not follow the bible.
REJECT TRIBALISM, CORRUPTION AND OPPRESSION.
VOTE FOR CHANGE IN 2026.
This scripture suits you very well. Revelation 12:10 – Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
This government has stabilized myriad things, look at Chawama, heart of Ssta/Lungu pf pangas, but now feels like there is no political campaign. What is more important than peace
I donot need The Telegraph or any foreign or international organisation to tell me that HH has been a breath of air after the putrid odour that was PF rule (no offense meant).
I go to bed every night knowing what I will be doing tomorrow (God permitting). I know I won’t wake up to find cadres demarcating my farm. Things are predictable whereas under PF there was so much chaos and randomness. PF failed to provide portable water and then slapped us with borehole tax when we took the initiative to solve that problem. Just imagine! What cheek!
If HH plays his cards well, he stands an excellent chance of going down in history as the best president of Zambia. He must never take a grab for a third term as is common among our African leaders.
KK would have claimed that slot had he retired from politics in 1974, which was arguably the peak of his presidency. But he messed up by overstaying and turning into a dictator. However, maybe his dictatorship was necessary to execute the liberation struggle which would have been very difficult to do under a multiparty system.
Mr. F J T Chiluba had a golden chance to claim the best president slot but he squandered it during his second term. Him and his Finance Minister, Mr. Ronald Penza, laid a solid foundation for the devastated economy to begin to recover by taking some very painful measures and I credit him with the recovery of the economy after the depression of the UNIP era. Mr. Mwanawasa and Mr. Magande just rode on the momentum created by Mr. Chiluba and Penza. For me, FTJ and RP were the true heroes of our economic recovery.
Then came the notorious PF who took the country back to the UNIP days and laid to waste our economy. HH and Mr. Musokotwane are, once again, the true heroes of our economic recovery. They have made the same hard decisions though not to the same extent as FTJ Chiluba and Ronald Penza. The fruits of their unrelenting commitment will begin to show after HH leaves office in 2031.
Personally, I appreciate what HH has done for the country so far. It is a sterling performance given the state of the country after the PF mayhem. Iam at peace knowing the country is in safe hands.