The Africa Confidential reports that 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 liquidatorof 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 an 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.