SADC Slams Tanzania’s ‘Sham Election’ as Hichilema Courts Controversy
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has dropped a political bombshell calling Tanzania’s 2025 general election a “sham” but what’s grabbing even more attention is President Hakainde Hichilema’s decision to attend the inauguration of Samia Suluhu Hassan, the very leader at the center of that controversy.
According to SADC’s preliminary observation report, the Tanzanian polls were anything but democratic marred by intimidation, abductions, arrests of opposition figures like Tundu Lissu, and an internet shutdown that silenced both voters and monitors. The mission, led by former Malawian Speaker Richard Msowoya, concluded that Tanzanians were simply “not able to freely express their will.”
Yet, as the dust of repression settled in Dar es Salaam, there was President Hichilema smiling and shaking hands at an inauguration that the regional bloc itself had described as a mockery of democracy.
For many Zambians, this move hits differently. The same man who boycotted Zimbabwe’s 2023 inauguration, citing electoral irregularities, is now cheering on a regime accused of killing protesters and jailing opposition leaders. Talk about selective morality.
Political parties back home are not letting it slide. Andyford Banda of the People’s Alliance for Change (PAC) called Hichilema’s presence in Tanzania “shameful and deeply concerning.” He said Zambia once the moral compass of Southern Africa is now “sending the wrong signal by legitimizing a stolen election.”
Citizens First leader Harry Kalaba was even sharper. “President Hichilema cannot continue to preach democracy on international platforms while practising selective morality at home,” he said. “He refused to attend Mnangagwa’s inauguration but runs to bless Suluhu’s, what changed? Is democracy now judged by friendship?”
The irony writes itself. This is the same president who rose to power on the promise of reform to repeal repressive laws like the Cyber Security Act and fix the dreaded Public Order Act. Instead, opposition figures today face arrests under those very same laws.
Political commentator Dr. Sishuwa Sishuwa didn’t mince words either. Writing on his social media, he said, “It makes perfect sense that Hichilema, who stayed away from Malawi’s democratic transition after the leader he supported lost, is going to attend the inauguration of Madam Dictator. Birds of the same feather flock together.”
Indeed, for many observers, Zambia’s leader seems to be walking a tightrope between diplomacy and duplicity. In 2008, the late President Levy Mwanawasa stood tall and condemned Zimbabwe’s election violence, even when others chose silence. Today, Zambia’s voice for democracy sounds more like a whisper or worse, an endorsement of tyranny.
As the 2026 general elections loom, critics warn that what happened in Tanzania should be a cautionary tale not a networking opportunity.
©️ KUMWESU | November 3, 2025